Adapt NSW Forum 2024
“Deep understanding and bold impact”
UnitePlayPerform, founded by Melissa Gilbert, was invited by long-time collaborator and Creative Director Kate Hurst (Purpose Conference) to contribute to the Adapt NSW Forum 2024, presenting Space for Possibility as an immersive Installation and audio video work, Playshops and Talk Space. Conceived as a contemplative zone within the high-intensity program, the project provided delegates with a dedicated space for restoration and reflection, bridging art and science to address eco-anxiety and activate resilience.
Adapt NSW is an initiative of the NSW Government that provides trusted, localised information to empower communities, businesses, households, and government to adapt to climate change. Through resources, research, and events like the annual Forum, Adapt NSW supports action toward a more resilient, low-emissions future.
The 2024 Forum, marking its tenth year, was the largest yet, selling out with over 500 attendees, 100+ presenters, and 36 sessions across two days at UNSW’s Roundhouse on the lands of the Bidjigal Peoples. Guided by the theme “Deep Understanding, Bold Action”, the Forum brought together climate specialists, community leaders, and creatives to spark transformative conversations and catalyse practical change.
UPP Universe Adaptive Hybrid Habitats
Values Driven End-To-End Delivery
We delivered this project through our structured framework that aligns UPP’s values with each phase of end-to-end project delivery. Each stage is embedded with the application of UPP Methodology, our values, principles, pillars, practices, and prompts to ensure strategic, regenerative, and relational impact.
We Served
Context & Alignment
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The artwork combined soft sculptures, inflatable forms, and soundscore to create a liminal environment. Audio-visual textures drew from nature recordings and speculative design, while the spatial arrangement encouraged decompression, movement, and reflection. Liminal Landscapes positioned embodied practice as integral to adaptation—transforming eco-anxiety into resilience and inviting participants to imagine regenerative futures.
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Delivered in partnership with AdaptNSW and the NSW Government, the work aligned with the Forum’s theme “Deep Understanding, Bold Action.” Collaboration extended to Purpose Conference, Forum organisers, and multidisciplinary speakers. The project responded to the call for diverse engagement strategies that centre human wellbeing alongside adaptation policy, planning, and scientific knowledge.
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Liminal Landscapes crystallised the shared mission between AdaptNSW and UnitePlayPerform: to support collective resilience by integrating knowledge with lived, sensory experience. The project aligned with AdaptNSW’s purpose of empowering action through localised tools and narratives, demonstrating how art can hold emotional dimensions of climate adaptation and foster courage in uncertain times.
We Delivered
Creation & Process
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Across two Forum days at UNSW Roundhouse, Liminal Landscapes operated as an open, immersive installation. Participants entered a sensory environment of sculptural forms, sound, and light designed for decompression between sessions. The work offered personal space for reflection, while simultaneously modelling how embodied art interventions can complement climate forums, extending engagement beyond intellectual dialogue.
Due to the incredible response from delegates suggesting its vital role in the Forum, additional UPP Playshops were designed within the space. These sessions created deeper opportunities to process eco-anxiety, where eco-grief could be seen, valued, and integrated in real time. By layering guided practice into the experiential room, the installation became both a restorative refuge and an active site of collective resilience-building.
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The six-phase methodology structured the program:
DISARM — Creating softness and safety.
DISRUPT — Introducing unfamiliar sensory textures.
UNITE — Fostering connection with place and self.
PLAY — Encouraging movement and curiosity.
PERFORM — Activating personal agency.
TRANSFORM — Transform – Guiding participants toward empowerment and readiness for climate action.
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The UnitePlayPerform methodology operated as the program’s structural spine, shaping Liminal Landscapes as a restorative and participatory journey across the six pillars of space, sense, movement, form, language, and energy.
Applied to Delegates — Framed as a self-guided process, the installation invited participants to decompress, rest, and notice shifts in state while engaging with sound, light, and soft sculptural environments.
Applied to Community — Responsive Playshops were added in real time, offering collective rituals where eco-grief could be acknowledged, voiced, and integrated, reinforcing resilience through shared presence.
Applied to Performance — Melissa Gilbert held live facilitation within the installation, where the six-phase arc became a temporal score, guiding delegates from overwhelm to empowerment through embodied practice.
The methodology was supported by a system of guardrails — including colour theory, archetypes, nervous system regulation, pedagogical play, and embodied listening — ensuring the work remained adaptive, sensory, and regenerative throughout the Forum.
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Fabrication combined soft textile sculptures, inflatable forms, audio field recordings, and AI-generated visuals into a multi-layered sensory environment. Iterative rehearsals refined the flow of sound, light, and form to support participant regulation and reflection.
Spatial Design — Sculptural and inflatable forms were arranged to create thresholds of entry, decompression zones, and open pathways for movement.
Sensory Design — Audio textures and projected visuals were blended to evoke both natural landscapes and speculative futures, symbolising resilience and adaptation.
Participatory Design — Playshops and guided practices were embedded into the room, ensuring participants could process eco-grief collectively while also engaging in individual reflection.
Audio-Visual Journey — The original sound-score and visual work by Melissa Gilbert, with collaboration in audio production by Daniel Bourne and visual production by Timothy Seller, guided participants through their chakras, realigning energy and deprogramming old stories held in the body.
The design emphasised impermanence and transformation, with each sensory layer reinforcing the theme of cultural adaptation. By holding grief and possibility together, the work modelled how art can create a regenerative container within a climate adaptation forum.
We Activated
Impact & Legacy
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Immersive multi sensory installation at Adapt NSW Forum 2024
Guest Speaker UPP Founder, Artist and Educator Melissa Gilbert Hosted by Kate Hurst, presented by Purpose Conference. Sharing the methodology and how it transforms through space sense movement form language and energy. Speaking about the importance of providing soft spaces to heal and integrate.
500+ Forum attendees engaged through self-guided participation
Additional Playshops created in response to demand, offering real-time integration of eco-grief and resilience practices
Demonstrated cross-sector collaboration between art, government, and climate adaptation fields
Contributed to wider program of 36 sessions, 100+ speakers, and immersive workshops
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As a long-time collaborator and curator at the Purpose Conference, I have witnessed first-hand the extraordinary impact that Melissa has had on our events and the broader community. Her visionary leadership as the founder of UnitePlayPerform and The Nest Creative Space has consistently inspired and empowered diverse communities, particularly First Nations peoples, and continues to drive important conversations around social change and sustainability.
Melissa’s work in 2024, including her commission for the Adapt NSW Government Forum, stands as a testament to her ability to engage with critical social and environmental issues. Her new artwork on eco-grief was both thought-provoking and moving, addressing the emotional toll of climate change. In addition, Melissa was a featured guest speaker and designed an immersive program for social impact and climate leaders, further showcasing her ability to translate complex issues into powerful artistic expressions.
As a wellbeing partner for the Purpose Conference in 2023, Melissa delivered the Unity Web, a profound First Nations interactive artwork that invited deep reflection on cultural healing and social unity. She also curated and hosted a First Nations panel, alongside providing a full calendar of immersive participatory art, performance works, and workshops. Her work enriched our program, amplifying the voices of marginalised communities and promoting a collaborative environment that encourages dialogue and shared creative experiences.
In 2022, Melissa’s involvement in the Purpose Conference was equally significant. Through her immersive participatory art and performance works, she explored themes of connection, sustainability, and leadership. These contributions helped us create a space that not only celebrated creativity but also supported the growth and empowerment of individuals and communities.
Melissa (UnitePlayPerform) continues to ensure positive change for the communities she serves.
Sincerely,
Kate Hurst
Curator & Creative Director, Purpose Conference
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500+ Forum attendees accessed the installation
2 days of activation at UNSW Roundhouse
Continuous engagement across program intervals
Reach amplified through Forum resources, documentation, and media coverage
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Participants described Liminal Landscapes as “restorative,” “powerful,” and “a necessary pause.” Delegates reported reduced stress and renewed focus for dialogue, while the Playshops were valued for acknowledging eco-grief openly. Organisers identified the project as a model for integrating wellbeing into adaptation programming, deepening connections between climate knowledge, emotional health, and creative resilience.
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Liminal Landscapes affirmed the role of art in climate adaptation forums, demonstrating how sensory, embodied practice can catalyse courage and resilience. The addition of Playshops showed how artistic interventions can evolve responsively, holding space for grief while activating new possibilities. The project seeded pathways for future collaborations between UnitePlayPerform, government, and cultural institutions.
Exhibition
“Space for Possibility”
Climate change is not an abstract, distant threat, it is being felt directly in our homes, workplaces, and local environments. This reality has amplified experiences of “Solastalgia” (Glenn Albrecht) anxiety, stress, grief, emotional pain and dislocation, challenging community resilience and wellbeing.
Adapt NSW sought not only to present scientific data and adaptation strategies but also to create spaces for emotional processing, reflection, and connection. The Forum needed creative approaches that could meet participants on both intellectual and emotional levels, supporting collective courage and imagination in the face of uncertainty.
The Liminal Landscapes Playkit Series was activated as an immersive, multi-sensory artwork titled Space for Possibility. Conceived as a sanctuary within the program, it invited participants to decompress, reflect, and reimagine. Through a designed environment and somatic regulation practices, the space offered restoration with the use of Theta chimes, Biofield tuning forks, crystal pyramid sound tools, colour therapy, and chakra-aligned sound frequencies, all guiding the body toward resilience in the context of climate change.
Participants reclined on soft sculptures, moved with inflatable orbs, and were enveloped by an 8-minute original soundscape layered with field recordings collected by Melissa Gilbert from the Blue Mountains, ceremonial instruments, and vocal textures. AI-generated visuals merging field the video recording morphed and glitched between natural and futuristic forms, symbolising adaptation and transformation.
By merging Biophilic design with speculative aesthetics, Liminal Landscapes created a dreamlike environment where eco-anxiety, grief, and resilience could be acknowledged, held, and reconfigured into new possibilities.
Program
Liminal Landscapes Program
At the AdaptNSW Forum 2024, UnitePlayPerform presented Liminal Landscapes, a multi sensory immersive program of audio, visual, sculpture, and participatory Playshops. Inflatable artworks spilled into the main stage plenary as Melissa Gilbert delivered a talk hosted by Kate Hurst, framing UPP’s methodology. The work transformed eco-grief into resilience, action, and regenerative possibility.
Speaker
As part of Liminal Landscapes, Melissa Gilbert joined the Adapt NSW Forum program in a Q&A session hosted by Kate Hurst, Creative Director of Purpose Conference. Framing the role of art in climate adaptation, the conversation explored eco-anxiety, resilience, and the transformative power of immersive environments. Drawing on her UnitePlayPerform methodology, Melissa highlighted how ancient knowledge systems and speculative design can guide communities from grief to empowerment. The session underscored the importance of cultural storytelling, First Nations perspectives, and embodied practice in building collective capacity for climate action, positioning art not only as reflection but as catalyst for regenerative change.
Process
Behind the Scenes
Liminal Landscapes was developed through an ecological methodology of listening and layering. Audio-Visual field recordings were collected across the Blue Mountains - textures, wind, waterways, shifting atmospheres each fragment acting as a trace of place. These recordings were interwoven with ceremonial instruments and vocal textures, generating a sonic ecology that held both presence and loss. The compositional process emphasised accumulation and resonance: fragments of landscape stitched into a soundscape, textured video layers then extended through AI-generated visual morphologies that flickered between natural and speculative futures. The work’s development became a practice of attunement, translating lived environments into multi-sensory textures that reconfigured eco-anxiety as collective resilience.
Media
Partners
