Phenomenological works of art that evoke
the essence of our lived experience.

The Phenomenological Art Collective is an arts-based research lab at the University of West Georgia which utilizes phenomenological research methods to produce evocative artwork that illuminates people’s lived experiences of various psychological and sociocultural phenomena. Members of this collective experiment with innovative ways to disseminate phenomenological research to the public through the media arts, such as: filmmaking, the visual arts, music, poetry, and dance.

Phenomenology is a philosophy and research method that produces knowledge about psychology by collecting people’s detailed, intimate descriptions of lived experience. Phenomenology asks the question, “What are the essential meanings of a particular human phenomenon, as described by people’s visceral, concrete lived experiences of it?” For example: what are the deeper meanings of flow state, living in a time of coronavirus, or battling the inner critic? Then, we collect and interpret people’s stories of these experiences to unearth key thematic insights about the phenomenon under inquiry. The end goal is to disseminate these meaningful phenomenological insights in artistic ways to create profound emotional resonance among the public, for the purposes of psycho-education, social advocacy, and community healing.

The steps to perform this arts-based phenomenological method are available in the methods section of this website. The method is inspired by the direction of several researchers, theorists, and psychologists who are listed here. An interview with the APA about this research approach can be viewed here.

Check out our latest film about the lived experience of peace, created by UWG Psychology undergraduate students,

“Peace Offering” is a cinematic guided meditation that serves as a therapeutic intervention to induce a state of peace in viewers who are experiencing distress or trauma, based on rigorous psychological research. The film is an end-result of a phenomenological research study about the lived experience of finding peace, by psychology students at the University of West Georgia. Research findings suggest that finding peace entails: (1) anchoring the body to the present moment. (2) choosing self-generosity; (3) letting go and releasing (4) settling into mental stillness (5) connecting to the larger collective and (6) cultivating faith/trust in the process. Through a cinematic multisensory experience, this phenomenological short film guides viewers to experience the above qualities so that a state of peace is induced by the end of the cinematic experience. We hope this film helps to self-soothe in times of distress. please share with those you think can benefit from this therapeutic intervention.

The Phenomenological Art Collective is based in the Psychology Program at the University of West Georgia. It is founded by Dr. Nisha Gupta, assistant professor of psychology. Gupta currently teaches this method to UWG students in courses and as an advisor to their arts-based research dissertation and theses projects, and also pursues her own arts-based research projects for social advocacy purposes. For questions, comments, or collaborations reach out to Dr. Nisha Gupta at ngupta@westga.edu or view more of her work at nishagupta.org