Students and lecturers from ULusófona led a workshop at Hospital Dona Estefânia

On 5 June, the “Healing Nature” project, funded by the EU (project number 101173267 crea-cult-2024-coop), held the “Living Murals” workshop in partnership with Hospital Dona Estefânia.

The workshops were led by ULusófona lecturers Hugo Barata, João Cabral and Natalie Woolf, with assistance from students Paulo Diogo Simão from the Master’s in Animation Arts and Jéssica Fraude from the Master’s in Communication Design.

The workshops were designed to demonstrate to healthcare professionals, children and parents how to interact with the new animated elements of the murals installed by the project in December.

To view the animations, the murals use augmented reality technology via the Artivive platform, displaying animations created by the participating institutions and allowing the murals to “come to life” without the need for a separate application. The workshops involved 53 participants and concluded with a shadow theatre session using figures created by the children and their caregivers.

The Healing Nature project in Portugal is led by Natalie Woolf (CICANT), in collaboration with Pedro Serrazina, and psychology partners Ana Beato, Ana Loureiro and Isabel Santos from HEI-Lab.

The project has now entered its final phase, bringing together an innovative combination of art, animation and augmented reality in hospital spaces across Portugal, Croatia and Bulgaria, with project partners including the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) and New Bulgarian University.

Find out more about the project here