Professor Jill Bennett

Scientia Professor Jill Bennett
Phone
+61 2 9385 0691

Jill Bennett is Scientia Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. She is Founding Director of the National Institute for Experimental Arts and of The Big Anxiety Festival; and is part of the leadership team of the Ageing Futures Institute.

In 2017, she founded The Big Anxiety – festival of people + art + science, a research-driven, mental health festival, which won ‘Best New Event’ at the Australian Event Awards in its inaugural year, 2017 https://www.thebiganxiety.org/. In 2019 she co-curated (with Bec Dean) The Empathy Clinic as part of The Big Anxiety.

Jill’s ARC Laureate fellowship (which commenced in 2018) supports the transdisciplinary Felt Experience & Empathy Lab [fEEL] at UNSW. fEEL brings together psychologists and creative practitioners, specialising in mental health engagement, and in the use of experiential media such as virtual reality to communicate embodied experience. fEEL’s innovative approach to subjective experience and knowledge exchange utilises immersive media/Virtual Reality to create perception simulation, facilitating ‘seeing through the eyes of another’. Outputs include the IEEE Award winning The Visit, an interactive avatar made with women with dementia.

https://vimeo.com/showcase/6799615. Collaborations include  work with NPY Women’s Council/Uti Kulintjaku https://www.thebiganxiety.org/events/uti-kulintjaku-initiative/.

Jill’s books include Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma and Contemporary Art, Stanford UP, 2005 and Practical Aesthetics: Events, Affect & Art After 9/11, 2011. She has recently co-edited Thinking in the World: A Reader (2020) and is series editor (with Mary Zournazi) of the Thinking in the World series (Bloomsbury).

Recent articles describing the strategies of The Big Anxiety within a psychosocial framework include Bennett, J., Froggett, L. and Muller, L. (2019) Psychosocial aesthetics and the art of lived experience, Journal of Psychosocial Studies, 12(1-2): 185–2010.

Videos

The Empathy Clinic https://www.thebiganxiety.org/events/the-empathy-clinic/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaElU2GrHI&feature=youtu.be

Big Anxiety highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiQMVd2XVO0&t=52s

New body mapping tool: https://vimeo.com/390897803

Selected Publications

Journal articles

Papadopoulos C; Kenning G; Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M, 2022, 'A visit with Viv: Empathising with a digital human character embodying the lived experiences of dementia', Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice
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

Book Chapters

Kenning G; Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V, 2022, 'The Visit: A collaborative confabulation', in Bennett J (ed.), The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis, Bloomsbury Academic, London & New York, pp. 80 - 89, https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/big-anxiety-9781350297791/
Kenning G; Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M, 2021, 'An immersive art-based approach to engaging with the embodied, sensory and affective experience of living with dementia', in Dementia Lab 2021: Supporting ability through design, Springer, Switzerland

Conference Papers

Kenning G; Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M, 2021, 'An immersive art-based approach to engaging with the embodied, sensory and affective experience of living with dementia', in Dementia Lab 2021, Vancouver/online, presented at Dementia Lab 2021: Supporting ability, Vancouver/online, 18 January 2021 - 28 January 2021
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

Conference Presentations

Kenning G; Bennett J, 2021, 'The transformative potential of arts–based methodologies: The Visit', presented at Hope and Empathy in Uncertain Times Symposium, Virtual, 28 October 2021 - 29 October 2021, https://bit.ly/2ZwUZr2
Kenning G; Bennett J, 2020, 'The Visit', presented at Engaging Dementia 12th International Dementia Conference, Dublin, Ireland/Virtual, 02 November 2020 - 03 November 2020

Conference Abstracts

Kuchelmeister V; Bennett J; Kenning G; Ginnivan N; Neidorf M; Papadopoulos C, 2021, 'The Visit', in 14th International Conference on Interactive Storytelling, Tallinn, presented at 14th International Conference on Interactive Storytelling, Tallinn, 07 December 2021 - 10 December 2021, https://icids2021.ardin.online/art-exhibition
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/
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, https://aag.eventsair.com/2020-aag-conference/

Conference Posters

Kenning G; Bennett J; Kuchelmeister V, 2021, 'Collaborative approaches in the development of digital companions to support people living with dementia', Virtual, presented at Australian Dementia Forum 2021, Virtual, 31 May 2021 - 01 June 2021

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; 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/