Research Projects

Difficult Conversations (2022-2023)

Chief Investigators: Dr Ursula Frederick, Professor Tracy Ireland and Dr Ben Ennis-Butler
Funding: British Council
Partners: British Council and Ulster University
Website: https://adifficultconversation.com/

Dairy Road: Terrestrial Urbanism - Creative Work (2022)

Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Cathy Hope
Partners: Molonglo Group

Intergenerational Play Space Design (2022)

Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Cathy Hope
Partners: Ginninderry/Riverview Development, Redbox Design

Surface Urban Art Festival (4–6 March 2022)

Chief Investigators: Associate Professor Cathy Hope
Partners: Transport Canberra and City Services

Regeneration (2020–2022)

Mind the Gap: Aligning legislation, values and risk management for the preservation of utilitarian heritage

Creative Recovery and Resilience Forum (2022)

Creative Recovery and Resilience Residences (2022)

Heritage of the Air: How aviation transformed Australia (2018–2022)

Intergenerational Pen Pal Service (2021-2022)

The Intergenerational Pen Pal Pilot Project was a creative cross-disciplinary project that addressed the critical issues of social isolation and mental health for older Canberrans during and after COVID lockdown by developing sustainable and meaningful relationships, and helping young people improve their literacy skills through letter writing with pen pals from Ainslie Primary School. The pilot project included 20 older Canberrans connected with 20 children and their families in Years 1/ 2.

UC Investigators: Dr Cathy Hope and Dr Fanke Peng
Funding and Partners: Office of Seniors and Veterans, Northside Community Service, Ainslie Primary School, Council on the Ageing

ACT Play Space Strategy (2021)

Dr Cathy Hope partnered with Transport Canberra and City Services to co-author the ACT Play Space Strategy, drawing on her significant engagement with the ACT community to identify aspirations for play spaces in the ACT.

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding and Partners: Transport Canberra and City Services

ACT Coat of Arms Project (2021)

Sustainable Shine Dome (2019-2020)

UC Investigators: Professor Michael Jasper and Professor Tracy Ireland
Funder: National Heritage Grants, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Partners: The Australian Academy of Science, GML Heritage, GHD Group

Five Whole of Suburb Play Reviews – Strategic Community Engagement Consultancy (2020)

A Report was commissioned by Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS) to outline the community engagement strategies undertaken by four design consultant teams between February and July 2019 for the Better Suburbs five whole of suburb play reviews.

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding: Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS), ACT Government

Social Art Park Belconnen (2020)

Investigators: Dr Cathy Hope and Dr Sylvia Alston
Funding: Belconnen Community Services and Wellspring Environmental Arts & Design

This report was commissioned by Belconnen Community Services (BCS) and Wellspring Environmental Arts and Design to provide an evaluation of the impact of the Social Art Park as part of ArtsACT’s community outreach funding initiative. The ‘Social Art Park project built on BCS’s history of community engagement in the arts for personal change and is part of the organisation’s long-term strategy to empower individuals as community members through expression and participation. The project involved local residents, external partners and the wider community to demonstrate the transformative power of arts engagement

Social Art Park Evaluation Report (PDF 3.6MB)

Haig Park Experiments (2019)

UC Investigators: Dr Cathy Hope (Lead), Associate Professor Bethaney Turner, Dr Kate Holland, Dr Denise Thwaites, Professor Jen Webb and Professor Michael Jasper
Funding: Canberra Renewal Authority, ACT Government
Partners: Tait Network, Ainslie & Gorman Arts Centres, Dionysus Movement

Home Economix: A Lab for Decentralising Public and Community Art Through Domestic Spaces

Utilitarian Filmmaking in Australia 1945–1980 (2016–2020)

Chief Investigators: Professor Ross Gibson (Lead CI); Associate Professor Michael Broderick; Associate Professor Deane Williams; Professor Joseph Masco 
Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2016–2020

Economythologies – MoneyLab#X (2020–2021)

Chief Investigator: Dr Denise Thwaites
Funder: Western Sydney University
Website: https://economythologies.network/

Dickson Living Rooms (2020)

Chief Investigators: Dr Ben Ennis Butler and Mr Max Maxwell
Funder: City Renewal Authority (CRA) Dickson Grant, ACT Govt

https://canberradesignlab.com/Dickson-Living-Rooms
https://dicksonlivingrooms.com

The Silver Sprayers (2019)

Streetwise was a project that sought to provide older Canberrans with the opportunity to learn street art skills from younger artists, and deliver works that transformed the public realm. Twenty people participated in this project and formed the ‘Silver Sprayers’, delivering works in Woden, Haig Park and Narrabundah Playing Fields.

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding: Transport Canberra and City Services funded and delivered the project in partnership with Dr Cathy Hope.

See them in action at Woden Bus Interchange and read about the project.

Canberra Nature Play Space Study (2018)

The Canberra Nature Play Space Study was commissioned by Transport Canberra and City Services, ACT Government, to better inform the planning and design of two nature play sites – Glebe Park, Canberra and Eddison Park, Woden – as identified by the Better Suburbs Play Space Forum.

This Study involved the collection and analysis of user attitudinal and usage data from four nature play spaces in Canberra within the context of the literature on nature play. These four nature play spaces are:

• Finn Street Park, O’Connor
• Telopea Park Nature Play, Barton
• Giralang Nature Playground, Giralang
• Nature Playground, Tuggeranong Town Park

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding: Transport Canberra and City Services, ACT Government

Canberra Destination Play Space Study (2018)

The Canberra Destination Playground Study is a comprehensive audit of 8 destination play  spaces in the ACT and a city-wide survey that captures community aspirations for ACT play  spaces. The Study informed ACT Government’s Better Suburbs Play Space initiative and
underpins the ACT Play Space Strategy.  The Report was commissioned by the City Renewal Authority.

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding: City Renewal Authority, ACT Government
Report: PLAY: Canberra Destination Playgrounds Study (PDF 6.3MB)

City to the Lake Urban Activation Study (2017)

This study, commissioned by the City Renewal Authority, seeks to contribute to the development of a vital public realm in Canberra through international exemplars of playful urban activation. It highlights examples of urban play that can contribute to the realization of the five place principles of the (2015) ACT Government Strategic Urban Design Framework – connected; vibrant; responsive; diverse; green.

UC Investigator: Dr Cathy Hope
Funding: ACT Government
Report: Canberra Urban Activation Study (PDF 15.7MB)

Projects in Applied Narrative and Simulation

Investigators: Centenary Professor Ross Gibson and Dr Teresa Crea
Partners: Industry collaborators have included the Royal Adelaide Hospital, CAE (Canadian Aviation Electronics); Calvary Hospital (ACT) Department of Defence - Australian Army; the Asia-Pacific Simulation Alliance; and Simulation Australasia

Evaluation of 'Easy P' Volunteer Driving Program

Chief Investigator: Dr Bethaney Turner
Funder: Belconnen Community Services

Story Ground: using oral and written story practices to engage Indigenous community members with university study

Investigators: Dr Jen Crawford, Dr Paul Collis and Dr Jordan Williams
Funding: Indigenous Languages and Arts Program, Commonwealth Department of Communications and the Arts, 2017–2019

So what do you do?: Tracking creative graduate outcomes in Australia and the UK's Creative and Cultural Industries

Investigators: Professor Jen Webb; Associate Professor Scott Brook (Lead CI, RMIT); Associate Professor Jonathan Corcoran; Dr Roberta Comunian; Professor Alessandra Faggian; Professor Philip Lewis
Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2016–2019

Working the field: Creative graduates in Australia and China

Investigators: Professor Jen Webb & Associate Professor Scott Brook, University of Canberra, Professor Justin O'Connor, Monash University (Lead CI) and Professor Shilian Shan, Shanghai Jiaotong University
Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP150101477) 2015–2017

Promoting Unity and Harmony Among the South Sudanese Australians

Investigators: Dr Nawal El-Gack, Dr Judy Hemming and Gabriel Yak
Funding: Department of Social Services

Connecting the Nation: Australia's aviation heritage

Investigators: Assoc Prof Tracy Ireland with Assoc Prof Mitchell Whitelaw, Dr Alison Wain and Prof Paul Ashton (UTS)
Funding: Consultancy for Airservices Australia
Website: http://connectingthenation.net.au/

Understanding creative excellence: A case study in poetry

Creativity is the engine of a healthy and successful society. In order to learn how best to encourage and generate creativity, there needs to be a greater understanding of how successful creative professionals operate. This project focuses on poets as a case study that will inform the development of ways to enhance creativity in other professional groups.
Investigators: Prof Jen Webb and Assoc Prof Paul Magee, UC; Prof Kevin Brophy, University of Melbourne; Prof Michael Biggs, University of Hertfordshire.
Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2013–2016.

Interactive visualisation for text mining and analysis

Investigator: Assoc Professor Mitchell Whitelaw
Funding: Research contract under the UC-NICTA umbrella agreement, 2012-2015.

Re-casting terra nullius blindness: Empowering Indigenous protocols and knowledge in built environment education

Investigators: Assoc Professor David Jones and Assoc Professor Richard Tucker, Deakin University; Professor Darryl Low Choy, Griffith; Dr Scott Heyes, UC; Assoc Professor Grant Revell, UWA.
Funding: OLT Grant 2012-2014 (led by Deakin University)

Discover the Queenslander

The Queenslander was the weekly summary and literary edition of the Brisbane Courier (now The Courier-Mail) and was published from 1866–1939. This showcase features nearly 1000 coloured covers and illustrated pages from The Queenslander newspaper which can be explored by year, topic and colour.
Funding: Digital collections research project, State Library of Queensland, 2014.
Investigator: Assoc Prof Mitchell Whitelaw
Website: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/showcase/discover-the-queenslander#/mosaic

Australian Prints and Printmaking visualisation project

Funding: Contracted research for the National Gallery of Australia (FAD Micro Linkage project), 2013.
Investigators: Assoc Professor Mitchell Whitelaw and Ben Ennis Butler
Website: http://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/explore

Mapping country, culture, and stories around the mount and surrounds

A seed project for the development of an Aboriginal living cultural centre in the lower south east, Mt Gambier City Council, 2013.
Investigator: Dr Scott Heyes

Boardercross binding research project for SOCHI Winter Olympic Games

Collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sports, 2013.
Investigator: Dr Carlos Montana Hoyos (with the UC Industrial Design Team)

Skeleton sport equipment research project for SOCHI Winter Olympic Games

Collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sports, 2013.
Investigator: Dr Carlos Montana Hoyos (with the UC Industrial Design Team).