Psychosocial aesthetics and the art of lived experience

Bennett, J, Froggett, Lynn orcid iconORCID: 0000-0001-8406-6231 and Muller, L (2019) Psychosocial aesthetics and the art of lived experience. Journal of Psychosocial Studies, 12 (1-2). pp. 185-201.

[thumbnail of Author Accepted Manuscript]
Preview
PDF (Author Accepted Manuscript) - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

624kB

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1332/147867319X15608718111023

Abstract

This paper identifies the distinctive nature of arts-based psychosocial enquiry and practice in a public mental health context, focusing on two projects delivered as part of The Big Anxiety festival (Sydney, 2017): Awkward Conversations, in which one-to-one conversations about anxiety and mental health were offered in experimental aesthetic formats; and Parragirls Past, Present, a reparative project, culminating in an immersive film production that explores the enduring effects of institutional abuse and trauma and the ways in which traumatic experiences can be re-figured to transform their emotional resonance and meaning. Bringing an arts-based enquiry into lived experience into dialogue with psychosocial theory, it examines the transformative potential of aesthetic transactions and facilitating environments, specifically with regard to understanding the imbrication of lived experience and social settings.


Repository Staff Only: item control page