Natalie Woolf

Two recently funded Research Projects focusing on the potential of animated and still-
image design to ease anxiety and reducing stress in children’s healthcare waiting spaces
have reached critical milestones this year:
• Our FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) ILiND Seed Funding Pilot project
AH_WHILE WE WAIT, developed in partnership with the Hospital Instituto
Português de Oncologia, has completed production and is pending installation.
Collaboration with our Psychology Research Department enabled several stages of
impact testing on various audiences and provided valuable insights for the
development of the next phases
• My role as Lead Researcher for the Portuguese team and Designer/Art director for
the Project ‘Healing Nature’ funded by the EUROPEAN EDUCATION AND CULTURE
EXECUTIVE AGENCY (EACEA) Project number: 101173267– CREA-CULT-2024-COOP-1
has occupied my research time this year. Managing academic administration,
navigating Ethics Committees procedures, presenting a research paper, and
coordinating and contributing to the creative and still-image and animation
components have provided significant professional and creative growth. The first
phase - static mural installation -is scheduled for 15th December 2025 at the
National Children’s Hospital de Dona Estefânia
For the relaunch of the Design Course (DELLI) at Universidade Lusófona, in 2018, I was
invited to curtate the drawing elements across the BA. Currently with two colleagues we
refine and evolve the core drawing syllabus, aligning it with our collective research
activities as part of ongoing pedagogical and research development. We curated and
presented an exhibition of some of selected outcomes during the XI Congresso Matéria-
Prima, held a Universidade Lusófona from 25 - 27 Oct. 2024.
I serve on the Organizing Committee of the annual conference Ecstatic Truth (Expanded
Documentary Animation Practices), held alternately in Lusófona (Lisbon), VSKK (Prague),
and UCL (Farnham). This year, in Prague, I also lead a workshop of the Making Sense Mini
Festival with Tangible Territories in conjunction with the symposium. In development is
Ecstatic Truth X: Animating Hope, an anniversary event at University of Applied Arts Vienna,
Austria in collaboration with Holger Lang/UNDER_the_RADAR interdisciplinary film/media
festival, scheduled for April 2026