Big Anxiety Research Centre

Transforming mental health through cultural innovation.

Personalise

The Big Anxiety Research Centre [BARC] is a unique transdisciplinary enterprise, dedicated to transforming thinking and practice in mental health through creative collaboration and cultural innovation.

We research lived experience through a distinctive combination of trauma-informed, psychosocial research and creative practice, developing the rich communications and engagement practices we need to understand, connect with and support everyday experiences of mental health, trauma and suicidality.

Our mission is to attune to lived experience, to promote innovative creative experimentation and wide community engagement, and to collectively generate the tools, programs and creative media we need to support mental and emotional health throughout our communities.

BARC has evolved from the former National Institute for Experimental Arts [NIEA] and builds on the success of and the growing research base in arts and health at 91ɫ��Ƭ Arts, Design & Architecture.

Participatory Research & Engagement

The Big Anxiety is one of the world’s largest mental health arts festivals with an ongoing engagement program. Its mission is to reposition mental health as a collective, cultural responsibility, rather than simply a medical issue. Founded in 2017, The Big Anxiety has been held in Sydney (2017 and 2019), Queensland (2022) and Melbourne (2022).

The felt Experience & Empathy Lab (fEEL) was established with funding from the ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship awarded to Scientia Professor Jill Bennett. The lab brings together specialists in immersive media, participatory design, trauma studies and psychology to advance new methods in the study of embodied subjective experience.

Photo of Lily Hibberd (artist/curator) showing Mamu (2010) by Curtis Taylor commissioned for Spaced 2: Future Recall, Perth International Festival of the Arts, Museum of Western Australia

emLAB

BARC incorporates emLAB: the ethnographic media LAB, which brings together a community of researchers and practitioners working at the intersections of media, technology, ethnography and art.

91ɫ��Ƭ researchers develop AI companions for student wellbeing

The prototype digital companions are designed to support student mental health and reduce the risk of loneliness.

Apr 16, 2026

Latest

Is it really possible to address loneliness through AI?

Loneliness has been described as a modern-day epidemic in Australia. AI characters Richard, Viv and Sophie hope to be one part of the solution.

Nov 26, 2024

Latest

Virtual reality project healing Indigenous trauma receives $2.8m MRFF grant

The funding will further the development of innovative virtual reality tools to enable regional and remote communities to address trauma.

Oct 11, 2024

Latest

Featured Media

Skilled AI Companions

91ɫ��Ƭ researchers are developing a bilingual AI companion to support Chinese and Mandarin-speaking international students as they navigate language barriers, loneliness and the challenges of studying far from home. By speaking both English and Mandarin, the prototype is being tested as a way to offer supportive conversations that help students process difficult thoughts and feelings, and connect with useful resources in their everyday lives.

Skilled Companions 2025

Skilled Companions is our start-up company developing screen-based companions that combine conversation and psychosocial support. Informed by lived experience, designed with communities, and driven by custom-AI. Skilled Companions fills the gap in quality support for loneliness, dementia, and mental health. Each companion is crafted using lived experience data and grounded in psychological expertise—providing trusted, relatable support that complements the work of human carers and clinicians.

Creating Impact by designing immersive experiences

Professor Jill Bennett and her team co-design immersive art projects with individuals and communities with lived experience of trauma across regional, rural and remote Australia. Founder of the Big Anxiety Research Centre, Jill shares insights into the kinds of impact immersive art can have, and on the ways we think about mental health services, pointing to new ways of supporting people from the perspective of lived experience.

Find out more