21 – 23 MARCH 2024

9.00am – 5.00pmAEDT

UNSW KENSINGTON

Register Now

A 3-day International Forum by the Big Anxiety Research Centre, March 21 -23, 2024, UNSW, Kensington + on campus festival, 13-23 March.

View the program here

Conceived in the revolutionary tradition of prefigurative practice – or building tomorrow today1 – Big Trauma/Big Change brings together inspiring leaders and collaborators who are reimagining approaches to mental health and social support, creating radical change from the ground-up, in ways that genuinely, deeply and effectively address trauma and everyday suffering.

Rather than focusing on existing systems, Big Trauma/Big Change is a forum for visionary, decolonising thinking and creative experimentation. It asks how we might address trauma, suicide and emotional distress as cultural issues, rather than medical ones – and how we can use our creative capacities to generate innovative practice and enact change today.

With an emphasis on experience and engagement, Big Trauma/Big Change focuses on putting theory into practice. Our international and local keynotes speak from their experience of enacting change in regional, remote and metropolitan communities, and of creating the tools to promote social justice and transformation, along with practical steps to transforming trauma.

As well as presenting bold new theoretical frameworks, and awe-inspiring experiential and immersive media, the forum aims to share transferable methods for designing and enacting change, drawing from many disciplines/perspectives, including (but not limited to!) art and design, Indigenous knowledge, trauma theory, psychosocial practice, social work, psychoanalysis, activism and lived experience.

Ticket prices include:

  • 3-day pass to the forum
  • Access to all talks, workshops, panel discussions, screenings, seminars and creative presentations
  • Opportunity to present a paper (day 1) and to submit for publication in one of two special issues (subject to peer review; see below)
  • Catering: morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and refreshments every day
  • Access to immersive environments and the Big Anxiety Research Centre’s full suite of VR/mixed reality programs and AI companions – including a chance to chat to professionals about the potential for immersive media development/applications in the field
  • Membership of our network with opportunities for feedback, codesign and collaboration

Discounted tickets available for full-time students/low income attendees: 3-day pass, $70+booking fee: 1-day pass, $45. Email j.tyler@unsw.edu.au for promotion code applied at checkout.

Single day passes available but limited.