Called The Edge of the Present this VR experience starts with a sparsely furnished room that opens onto a series of beautiful vistas when you open windows and a door in the room. You effectively transform this very bare environment into a very positive setting.
The installation drew large queues at The Big Anxiety festival in 2019, a UNSW initiative in association with the Black Dog Institute,
A Suicide Prevention Research Fund grant will see the installation exhibited later this year as part of The Big Anxiety festival in Brisbane.
There is longer-term potential for the installation to be adapted for suicide prevention in care settings such as clinics, providing a positive and beneficial experience for those in crisis.
This would be a world-first for psychiatric emergency if the experience can be proven to cultivate neural pathways for positive thinking.
Madeline Cunningham