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Dr Gail Kenning

Dr Gail Kenning
Phone
02 8936 0598

Dr Gail Kenning is a researcher and artist working with socially engaged practices, participatory engagement and co-design approaches to understand and support psychosocial wellbeing. With a focus on older people, intergenerational practice and mental health she works with the Art Gallery of New South Wales co-developing the Art and Dementia program and PAUSE a program for carers in Palliative Care. Kenning is currently using EmbodiMap – a VR psychosocial engagement tool – working with War Memorial Hospital and developing VR nature and wellbeing experiences for communities in the Woollahra Municipal Council area. Kenning has developed co-design and psychosocial practices for people with dementia including for advanced stages (as acknowledged by Alzheimer’s Society UK) that involve participatory workshops, storytelling, and creative making. arts-based discussion and use of Visual Matrix (Kenning, 2022, Froggett, Manley, & Roy, 2015). She engages in a range of qualitative and psychosocial methods and phenomenological/deep listening analysis approaches and has advised on how qualitative data can inform the development of clinical trials involving social and creative engagements (Kenning, G., Ee, N., Xu, Y., Luu, B. L., Ward, S. A., Goldwater, M. B., . . . Peters, R. (2021). Intergenerational Practice in the Community—What Does the Community Think? Social Sciences, 10(10). doi:10.3390/socsci10100374). Gail was part of the development team on the award winning The Visit—a immersive exploration of the lived experience of dementia— and published in Dementia  and The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis onits use of verbatim approaches to understand lived experience and it how it cultivates empathy (Kenning, Bennett, & Kuchelmeister, 2022; Papadopoulos et al., 2021). She is secretary of the Arts Health Network NSW and ACT (AHNNA) and has affiliations with NeuRA UNSW, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Eindhoven University and University of Technology Sydney.


Research activities

2021          

             Lead CI A co-design approach to addressing fear of falling and related activity avoidance in older adults funded ADA, UNSW (Gail Kenning, Volker Kuchelmeister, Prof, Kim Delbare - Advisor Scientia Professor J Bennett) partnering with War Memorial Hospital; 

Lead CI working with fEEL team DTV (Dementai TV) – developing screen-based digital human companions. partnering with New Horizons ;  

 Lead CI A co-design approach to addressing fear of falling and related activity avoidance in older adults funded Ageing Futures Institute, UNSW (Gail Kenning, Volker Kuchelmeister, Prof, Kim Delbare - Advisor Scientia Professor J Bennett) partnering with War Memorial Hospital; ;working with War Memorial Hospital

2020   

Co- CI   Co-CI Immersive media explorations of the felt experience of emotions in the body. fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab), University of New South Wales (as part of Scientia Professor Jill Bennett ARC Laureate); 

Co- CI Intergenerational Integrate Project. Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), University of New South Wales (as part of Dr Ruth Peters, Ageing Futures Institute Awards)

2019   

Chief Investigator (CI), It feels like home, Woollahra Municipal Council – Community engagement with mature citizens to understand their concerns and anxieties in relation to ageing;

CI Extending the visual matrix: Using inclusive psychosocial engagement and qualitative data generation and evaluation to understand optimal ageing (Gail Kenning, Fiona White, Natasha Ginnivan, et al.), Ageing Futures Institute, UNSW; 

Co-CI, Empathetic Care Spaces: Retrofitting Care Environments to Promote Social Connection, Meaningful Engagement, and Support Wellbeing for People Living with Dementia with Associate Professor Nimish Biloria, UTS ( funded by Leigh Place, Sydney);

CI, Creativity in aged care, connection, engagement and environment, Leigh Place, Sydney;

CI, PAUSE: Engaging with Art and Creating a Time and Space for Self-care, Palliative Care NSW;

Co-CI Phenomenological and Embodied Experience Associated with Ageing in Older Adults, fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab), University of New South Wales; Co-CI Course of Empathy, Empathy App, fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab), University of New South Wales

2018   

CI, Soundplay for Wellbeing, University of Technology Sydney; 

CI, Arts Access Program for Liveable Communities in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW;

2017   

Co-CI, ABC analysis of diversity in content, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC);

2016   

Co-CI, (International) LAUGH: Ludic Artefacts Using Haptics and Gesture –  £500,000 funded Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project with Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales;

            CI, Making It Together, design research on creativity and craft for ageing and dementia in suburban and regional Australia;

CI, Evaluation of Art Gallery NSW Art Access Program;

Co-CI, Care through co-design, Centre for Contemporary Design Practices, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building (DAB), UTS in partnership with Lutheran Services;

Research Associate, Evaluation of the Stoner Sloth Cannabis Awareness Social Media Campaign, Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW Government;

2015   

CI,        Person-Centred Activities Coffs Harbour (PACH) research of creativity and craft for ageing and dementia;

2014   

CI,        Hand i Pockets, design research exploring maker practices in participatory design for people living with dementia;
Research team member, Sensory E-Textiles, collaborative design research project with Prof Cathy Treadaway, Cardiff Metropolitan University;
Research team member, Dementia aprons, collaborative design research project with Prof Cathy Treadaway, Cardiff Metropolitan University;
Research assistant (RA), Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) Study of public relations – international industry sponsored report;
RA, Which Media Set the News Agenda: Mass Media or/and Social Media? Industry report for Isentia;

2013   

CI,       Crafting Wellbeing investigating craft activities and digital media technologies for health and wellbeing, focussing on ageing and dementia;

Selected Publications

Conference Abstracts

Kuchelmeister V; Bennett J; Ginnivan N; Kenning G; Papadopoulos C; Dean R; Neidorf M, 2020, 'The Visit (Abstract IEEE VR 2020)', in IEEE VR 2020, Atlanta, presented at 27th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, Atlanta, 22 March 2020 - 26 March 2020, http://ieeevr.org/2020/
Kuchelmeister V; Bennett J; Kenning G; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M, 2020, 'The Visit VR. An immersive experience to counteract stigma about dementia.', in Frameless Symposium, Rochester, NY, presented at Frameless Symposium, Rochester, NY, 19 November 2020 - 20 November 2020, https://scholarworks.rit.edu/frameless/
Kuchelmeister V; Bennett J; Kenning G; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M; Papadopouos C, 2020, 'The Visit VR. Understanding the experience of living with dementia', in IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Virtual;, presented at IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Virtual;, 09 November 2020 - 13 November 2020
Kuchelmeister V; Bennett J; Kenning G; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M, 2020, 'EmbodiMap VR. Extending body-mapping into the third dimension.', in IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Virtual, presented at IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Virtual, 09 November 2020 - 13 November 2020, http://ismar20.org/demonstrations/
Visser M; Kenning G; Parker D, 2019, 'Dementia, social interaction and communication: informing protocols for practice', in 2019 AAG Conference Oral Presentations – Abstracts, Australian Association of gerontology, Sydney, presented at Australian Association of Gerontology, Sydney, 05 November 2019 - 08 November 2019, https://www.aag.asn.au/documents/item/3391

Reports

Kenning G; White F, 2020, These Walls Could Talk: Visual matrix to extend engagement for older people, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Kenning G, 2020, WEVE It feels like home: Understanding the needs of older people, University New South Wales, Sydney

Conference Papers

Ilsar A; Kenning G, 2020, 'Inclusive improvisation through sound and movement mapping: from DMI to ADMI', in The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ACM, presented at ASSETS '20: The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3416988
Kenning G; Bennett J; White F, 2020, 'Age discourse and the transformative potential of arts engagement', Online, presented at Australian Association of Gerontology 53rd Conference, Online, 10 November 2020 - 20 November 2020
Kenning G; Bennett J, 2020, 'The Visit: using arts-based immersive approaches to explore the lived experiences of dementia', Online, presented at Australian Association of Gerontology 53rd Conference, Online, 10 November 2020 - 20 November 2020
Houben M; Brankaert R; Bakker S; Kenning G; Bongers I; Eggen B, 2020, 'The Role of Everyday Sounds in Advanced Dementia Care', in CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing MachineryNew YorkNY United States, Hawaii (online), presented at CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hawaii (online), 27 April 2020 - 01 May 2020, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376577
Brankaert R; Kenning G; Welsh D; Foley S; Hodge J; Unbehaun D, 2019, 'Intersections in HCI, design and dementia: Inclusivity in participatory approaches', in DIS 2019 Companion - Companion Publication of the 2019 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, pp. 357 - 360, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3301019.3319997
Houben M; Brankaert R; Bakker S; Kenning G; Bongers I; Eggen B, 2019, 'Foregrounding everyday sounds in dementia', in DIS 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, pp. 71 - 83, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3322287

Conference Presentations

Kenning G, 2020, 'Together Art and Dementia: Connecting with and through Art', presented at Demedarts Symposium, Austria - Virtual, 19 November 2020 - 19 November 2020
Kenning G; Bennett J, 2020, 'The Visit', presented at Engaging Dementia 12th International Dementia Conference, Dublin, Ireland/Virtual, 02 November 2020 - 03 November 2020

Creative Works (non-textual)

Kenning G; Colemen W; Bennett J, 2019, WEVE (Woollahra Emotion Visualisation Experience), WEVE: It feels like home, Woollahra Library at Double Bay, Watsons Bay Library, Paddington Library, 05 November 2019 - 08 November 2019, medium: Synchronous multi media screen installation
Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V; Dean R; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M; Kenning G; Papadopoulos C; Pledger D; Mitchell H; Kew E, 2019, The Visit (VR), The Empathy Clinic, AGNSW, UNSW Galleries, DAX centre, Melbourne, Western Sydney University, IEEE VR conference Atlanta., 27 September 2019 - 09 November 2019, medium: VR, at: https://www.thebiganxiety.org/events/feel/
Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V; Ginnivan N; Kenning G; Neidorf M; Dean R; Papadopoulos C, 2019, The Visit, The Big Anxiety - festival of people + arts + science, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, NSW, 27 September 2019 - 09 November 2019, medium: Immersive Visualisation, Virtual Reality, at: https://www.thebiganxiety.org/events/feel/
Bennett J; Ginnivan N; Kuchelmeister V; McKinnon A; Neidorf M; Kenning G; Papadopoulos C; Dean R, 2019, A Course of Empathy (Empathy App), The Empathy Clinic, Online and UNSW Galleries, 27 September 2019 - , medium: Website, at: https://courseofempathy.org/

Journal articles

Treadaway C; Fennell J; Taylor A; Kenning G, 2019, 'Designing for playfulness through compassion: design for advanced dementia', Design for Health, vol. 3, pp. 27 - 47, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24735132.2019.1593295
Bennett J; Froggett L; Kenning G; Muller L, 2019, 'Memory Loss and Scenic Experience: An Arts Based Investigation', FQS Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, vol. 20, http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.1.3126