DEMEDARTS.Dementia.Empathy.Education.Arts. – Artistic Research on Patterns of Perception and Action
in the Context of an Aging Society
Ruth Mateus-Berr & Pia Scharler (eds.)
There
are currently more than fifty-five million people living with dementia worldwide, and nearly ten million new cases are added
each year. At the same time, not only is there a demographic increase in elderly people, ageism – a significant factor in
society’s attitude to dementia – is also on the rise. Unfortunately, there are no medical treatments yet to cure or contain
dementia. Artistic research, however, offers a means of creating a sense of well-being for those affected; it also provides
education for caregivers and mindfulness for the society.
DEMEDARTS is an arts-based research project, located
at the Center for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and funded by
the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within the PEEK program (Programm zur Erweiterung und Erschließung der Künste); Grant-DOI:
10.55776/AR609. The project ran from February 2020 to January 2024.
With contributions by Ruth
Mateus-Berr, Michaela Schober, Constantin Gröbner, Pavel Naydenov, Nargol Gharahshir, Lara Girotto, Suza Muszler, Jasmin Schaitl,
Luna Almousli, Katharina Ruf, Dietmar Flosdorf, Agnes Haider, Alexandra Rusz, Christina Carli, Lisa Kielmeier, Pia Scharler
Ruth Mateus-Berr and Pia Scharler, Center for Didactics of
Art and Interdisciplinary Education, University of Applied Arts Vienna
