Dr Tricia King is a researcher in creative arts health projects for wellbeing focusing on creative engagement with older adults through photographic and creative practices.
Utilising lens-based techniques such as photo voice, photo-elicitation, documentary and collaborative photography, Tricia develops collaborative participant driven projects anchored in ethically focused research methods and underpinned by friendship and reciprocity. Her work predominantly focuses on older people living in aged care and people living with dementia to explore their lived experience, enhance well-being and help develop programs to assist with greater socialisation and communication. Her current work involves interdisciplinary collaborations with health professionals to develop methods of creative projects to increase creativity, movement, socialisation and wellbeing and explorations of photographic practices with people living with dementia.
Tricia’s creative practice explores interdisciplinary place-based projects which investigate how remote embodied experiences of natural environments can facilitate ecological empathy, cultural knowledge, and connection to place.
She is currently leads the Australian Association of Gerontology’s Student and Early Career Researcher Communications Working Group, is a co-chair of UniSCs Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTRO) Committee, and is a member of the Queensland Arts Health Network, Australian Association of Gerontology Queensland Board, and the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Research Communications Working Party.
Professional memberships
- Queensland Arts Health Network
- Australian Association of Gerontology
- Australian Association of Gerontology Student and Early Career Research Group – Communications Intern
- International Society for Visual Sociology
Awards and Fellowships
- 2019 – State Library of Queensland Placemaking Fellowship
- 2016-2018 - Australian Postgraduate Award
Professional Social Media
Potential research projects for HDR and Honours students include:
- Arts for health
- Creative Ageing
- Creative Arts
- Contemporary photographic practice
- Creativity Ageing and dementia
Research grants
Project Name |
Investigators |
Funding Body |
Year |
Picture Yourself: Co-creating authentic images of ageing |
Dr Tricia King, Dr Zalia Powell, Dr Leah Barclay, Megan Williams |
Creative Australia LAUNCH |
2024-2025 |
Creativity and Movement in Ageing Communities – Pilot 1 (Aged Care) |
Dr Tricia King, Dr Dan Wadsworth, Dr Leah Barclay |
School of Business and Creative Industries Research Potential Funding, University of the Sunshine Coast |
2022-2023 |
Creativity and Movement in Ageing Communities – Pilot 2 (Ageing in Community) |
Dr Tricia King, Dr Dan Wadsworth, Dr Leah Barclay |
University of the Sunshine Coast LAUNCH |
2022-2023 |
The Beeyali Project – Visualising Acoustic Ecology with Cymatics on Kabi Kabi Country |
Dr Leah Barclay, Dr Tricia King, Mr Lyndon Davis |
Australia Council for the Arts |
2022-2023 |
In Residence: Interdisciplinary practice and creative exchange in Regional Queensland |
Dr Leah Barclay, Dr Tricia King, Ms Megan Williams, Dr Andy Ward, Dr Hannah Banks, Dr Briony Luttrell |
Arts Queensland |
2022-2023 |
State Library of Queensland Memory Award – SLQ Fellowship |
Dr Tricia King |
State Library of Queensland |
2019 |
Research areas
- Arts health
- arts-engaged practice in gerontology studies
- ageing and dementia
- photographic methods in research
- visual sociology
- contemporary photographic practice
Teaching areas
- Photographic Practice
- Creative Engagement
- Sensing Environments
Program coordinator
Key recent research publications
- King, Tricia (2022) Remembering and forgetting: using photographs as social artefacts in an aged care setting, Visual Studies, 37:1-2, 128-139
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1472586X.2021.1963828
- Barclay, King, T., & Davis, L. (2022). Cymatic patterns of the Black Cockatoo: Visualising the calls of wildlife in Australia. Eva London. 38–45. https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2022.9
- King, T, Miller, E. Where were you during the Queen’s visit? Using photographs to facilitate collective storytelling, resident identity and positive care relationships in aged care. Australian Journal on Ageing. 2021; 40: e269– e272.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajag.12979
- King, Tricia (2021) Listening with images: Photographs and their relationship to identity in the lives of older people in aged care. PhD by Publication, Queensland University of Technology. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212114/
- King, Tricia, Miller, Evonne, & Donoghue, Geraldine (2019) Spaces, sauce and schedules: A photographic journey of aged care. Social Alternatives, 38(1), pp. 35-44.
Tricia King's special areas of knowledge include visual methodologies, contemporary photographic practices, arts-engaged health and wellbeing, social photographic practices.
In the news
Creative ambitions: Healthy ageing project could start a movement
22 Sep 2023A very simple creative project at the University of the Sunshine Coast has hit on a winning formula for improving the lives of older Australians