Professor Sean Redmond (Deakin University) is undertaking a creative research project that explores how people experience loneliness, using the notion of the loneliness room as the central way to express it.
For the purpose of this project the loneliness room is defined as a real or imagined space where we feel lonely or go to find loneliness. We may also prefer to call this quality or state one of aloneness where it is solitude and isolation we seek.
Each of us will have our very own version of the loneliness room: it could be the hills we walk on, a morning swim at the beach or the local swimming pool, listening to a certain sad song in our bedroom, the morning commute, writing in our diary, or the park we go to sit in at lunchtime. Rooms are, of course, the spaces we are now asked to spend most of our time in.
The project explores not just the isolation of loneliness but the social, creative and experiential possibilities of loneliness in all walks of life: this is loneliness as a natural part of the human condition.
Professor Redmond is asking those interested in taking part to respond to the idea of the loneliness room through sharing their creative responses and/or completing a short questionnaire.
The creative response is meant to capture your loneliness room and can be:
Photograph(s) (with/without captions)
Short video(s)
Drawing(s)
Painting(s)
Diary
Social media posts
Hand-written letter(s) (which could be posted to me)
Songs, composition, audio
Recorded performance
These creative responses will then be housed in a loneliness room website, where participants can also directly post their own representations of the loneliness room. These responses can either be ‘signed’ or anonymous.
If you are interested in taking part please:
Forward Professor Redmond your creative interpretation of the loneliness room using any media you feel comfortable with. You can also supply an accessible link to this work for this purpose.
- Complete the online questionnaire, available here: https://researchsurveys.deakin.edu.au/…/…/SV_eet1GBIsIn3etiR
Visit: https://www.facebook.com/The-Loneliness-Room-103293261203851/
A plain language statement and consent and withdrawal form can be found here:https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:46ecdcca-15a2-4a35-bf86-e9d6dc9fa666
To submit work, for further information or if you have any questions please contact Sean Redmond at: s.redmond@deakin.edu.au
