EXPLORERS in Sydney, Australia
The Big Anxiety, based in Sydney Australia, brings together artists, scientists and communities to question and re-imagine the state of mental health in the 21st century.
A radically new kind of international arts festival, in which every project is an open conversation, designed to promote curiosity, awareness and action, The Big Anxiety presents over 60 events across Greater Sydney, tackling the major anxieties of our times, as well as the stresses and strains of everyday life.
The Big Anxiety is an initiative of UNSW Sydney in association with the Black Dog Institute and over 25 partners in the cultural, education and health sectors.
Preevious projects
28 - 7 October 2019
In 2019 Project Art Works went to Sydney to take part in the Art Is For Everyone programme at Museum of Contemporary Art. As well as workshops, we hosted a seminar and screened Illuminating the Wilderness.
Starting with a series of huge blank paper banners, Project Art Works facilitated an installation that will came to life with drawings and paintings made by participants over two days during the MCA’s Art is for Everyone weekend.
Art is for Everyone was a free 2-day celebration of access and inclusion, and was presented in partnership with the The Big Anxiety, Australia’s largest mental health event.
The Art, People, Care seminar was an opportunity for Project Art Works to share the transformative thinking behind the EXPLORERS project and the exhibition; and host a Long Table of rotating speakers. Guests included neurodiverse artists and leading disability and arts advocates.
THE STORY SO FAR...
Big Anxiety Festival of Arts Science and People 16 – 30 September 2017
Kate Adams, Tim Corrigan and Patricia Finnegan travelled to Sydney to take part in the Big Anxiety Festival, connect with individuals and organisations from the social care sector and research for an exhibition and potential collaborations as part of Big Anxiety 2019.
As part of the festival Kate Adams’ artwork The Not Knowing of Another was installed in the AD Space, University of New South Wales, Paddington Campus. The three-screen video installation tracks a familiar walk taken by her son Paul from multiple angles to imagine what it’s like to explore the world through a state of profound cognitive difference.
Diversity of Perception Seminar, 22 September
On 22 September they hosted a seminar entitled Diversity of Perception: A Seminar on Radical Inclusiveness for neurotypical and neurodiverse artists and makers, curators, cultural engagement professionals, care agencies, cultural, health and social care policy makers. Through presentations and provocations they discussed the question: We are a neurologically diverse society; we perceive and experience the world differently. How can art help us understand diversity of perception?
While in Sydney they met a number of different individuals and organisations from across the region who are interested in working in partnership with Explorers in 2019 including NSW Council for Intellectual Disability, Participate Australia, Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association and Down Syndrome NSW. They also made contact with and visited the curators at Carriageworks and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the Access Programs Producer at Art Gallery NSW and the Director of Studio A as potential partners and/or venues for a new commission.
Blue Mountains Field Trip, 23 - 27 September
While in Australia, the Project Art Works team undertook a visit to the Blue Mountains National Park, wild camping with kangaroos to take film and sound recordings for Illuminating the Wilderness, a new commission central to the work of Explorers.
The National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA) is Australia's leading institute for experimental collaboration in art, science and emerging technologies. Through arts-led thinking we generate new insights into globally important issues resulting in real-world outcomes.NIEA encompasses a range of transdisciplinary labs and creative research programs. These are united by a focus on the practical and conceptual value of aesthetic inquiry. Our research offers the sciences and humanities new perspectives on human interaction and experience. Through innovative experimental methodologies we investigate the corporeal and social dimensions of interaction in relation to a range of technologies, environments and wider settings.
