A First Mental Health Awareness Experiment with Feels surREAL
For World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2025, I wanted to take Feels surREAL beyond the images themselves and see how it might start a conversation about mental health in everyday spaces.
I created a small set of awareness materials inspired by the project, including printed pieces and online flipbooks in both Greek and English. The printed materials offered a way for someone to encounter the work unexpectedly, while a QR code gave them the option to explore more of it online, in their own time.
I shared the materials with people in my neighbourhood, as well as friends and acquaintances. It was a modest first experiment. I wanted to see how the images and words worked outside an exhibition or an online post, and what I could learn about presenting them more clearly and accessibly.
Feels surREAL grew from my interest in giving visual form to experiences that can be difficult to describe. For this first outreach effort, I wanted the materials to offer a moment of recognition or reflection without assuming that everyone’s experience of mental health is the same.
Making the work in two languages, across print and digital formats, helped me think more carefully about how someone might discover it and choose to spend time with it. I’m taking what I learned from this small beginning into the next stage: a more organised initiative with a clearer way to invite participation and reach more people.
For now, I’m glad I put the first version into the world. Sometimes you need to share an idea on a small scale before you can understand what it needs to become.
— Eleanna Tavlikou | Ennoia