Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Visualising Anthropocene Extinctions: Mapping Affect In The Works Of Naeemah Naeemaei, Linda Williams

Animal Studies Journal

While many writers have advocated the importance of narrative as a means of engaging with the problem of extinction, this paper considers what the qualities of visual aesthetics bring to this field. In addressing this question, the discussion turns to the problem of the ethical limits of art raised by Adorno and takes a theoretical turn away from posthumanism to consider how visual responses can redirect attention back to human agency. The focus of visual analysis is on five paintings by the contemporary Iranian artist Naeemeh Naeemaei. Neither exclusively Western nor overtly internationalist in their approach, these artworks refer to …

Nature In The Dark - Public Space For More-Than-Human Encounters, Jan Brueggemeier

Animal Studies Journal

Drawing on the continuing work of the Nature in the Dark (NITD) project, an art collaboration and publicity campaign between the Centre for Creative Arts (La Trobe University) and the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA), this paper aims to explore some of the disciplinary crossovers between art, science and philosophy as encountered by this project and to think about their implications for an environmental ethics more generally. Showcasing animal life from Victoria, Australia, the NITD video series I and II invited international artists to create video works inspired by ecological habitat surveys from the Victorian National Parks land and water. …

Remembering The Huia: Extinction And Nostalgia In A Bird World, Cameron Boyle

Animal Studies Journal

This paper examines the role of nostalgia in practices of remembering the Huia, an extinct bird endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. It suggests that nostalgia for the Huia specifically, and New Zealand's indigenous birds more generally, has occurred as both restorative nostalgia and reflective nostalgia. It argues that the former problematically looks to recreate a past world in which birds flourished. In contrast, the paintings of Bill Hammond and the sound art of Sally Ann McIntyre are drawn on to explore the potential of reflective nostalgia for remembering the Huia, and New Zealand's extinct indigenous birds more generally, in a …

Confrontational Continuum: Modernism And The Psychedelic Art Of Martin Sharp, Michael K. Organ

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

The Australian artist Martin Sharp (1942-2013) produced a series of psychedelic artworks in London between 1966-8, the most famous of which were the Disraeli Gears record cover for rock group Cream and the Bob Dylan Blowin’ in the Mind poster. Sharp’s work exemplifies the connection between early twentieth century Modernist art movements, Pop art and acid-induced psychedelia of the 1960s. In addition, the poster Max Ernst: The Birdman from 1967, represents a homage to Dada and Surrealism, with special reference to anarchy, desire, and freedom of expression. In the spirit of Dada, the poster is meaningfully confrontational, exposing the darker …

Bloodlines – Mammalian Motherhood, Biotechnologies And Other Entanglements, Lynn Mowson

Animal Studies Journal

This paper outlines my current sculptural research project bloodlines focusing on the ways in which dairy cows are entangled with multiple biotechnologies and the wider environment. bloodlines brings extant works such as fleshlumps, boobscape and slink, together with new works, to represent the dairy industry, the environmental impacts of animal agriculture and the biotech innovations of in-vitro meat and bio-fabricated leather. These works are linked together by a web of interconnected fluids: excreta, milk and blood. In this new work, I hope to make the links between the dairy industry and these extended concerns both visceral and visible.

All Night Silence: Live Experimental Sound In New Zealand Public Art Galleries, Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Since the late 19th century there have been issues with the presentation and reception of sound and music in New Zealand public art galleries. During the first New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in 1889-1890 there were numerous musical events designed to prove New Zealand's position culturally and socially on the world stage. Audience members would spend the day traipsing around the enormous pavilions of the exhibition pausing to engage in a performance before blundering out to the next event. This mobile audience knew something about the relationship between music and art. Art was silent, static and contained within the …

Media Art: Mediality And Art Generally, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The wide ranging, trans-disciplinary interest in technological media suggests the possibility of a new discipline concerned with the history, implications and practice of mediation. Within this context, the field of media art gains a new sense of coherence and identity. Given the lingering tension between media art and mainstream contemporary art, this may lead the latter to assert its disciplinary autonomy. This paper argues against such a move. Media art is better positioned as an integral strand within contemporary art and, more particularly, as a key space of creative enquiry and practice within a generally conceived contemporary art education.

The Art And Craft Of Radio Documentary: Some Australian Accents., Siobhan A. Mchugh

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Art, Craft And The Audience Management Report, Jennie A. Lawson

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Media Art: Mediality And Art Generallly, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The wide ranging, trans-disciplinary interest in technological media suggests the possibility of a new discipline concerned with the history, implications and practice of mediation. Within this context, the field of media art gains a new sense of coherence and identity. Given the lingering tension between media art and mainstream contemporary art, this may lead the latter to assert its disciplinary autonomy. This paper argues against such a move. Media art is better positioned as an integral strand within contemporary art and, more particularly, as a key space of creative enquiry and practice within a generally conceived contemporary art education.Keywords: media …

Public Art As Public Conversations, Lucas M. Ihlein

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This chapter considers the notion that conversations held in public space can be considered a form of public art. Specific reference is made to Ihlein's project "Bilateral Kellerberrin" (2005) and SquatSpace's "Redfern Waterloo Tour of Beauty" (2005-9).

Instrumental Relations: Software As Art, Art As Software, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Software art is characterised by a close concern with the culture of software and the medium of programming. This inevitably demands an engagement with the terrain of the instrumental; software is a sphere of tool-making and programming is governed by conceptions of functional (and generic) utility. Yet where does this leave art? If, in Kantian terms, art is defined by its uselessness (by its lack of any externally grounded necessity) and if, in classical critical theoretical terms, this alienation from function opens up a space of critique, then how can art explore and participate within the instrumental without abandoning its …

Instrumental Relations: Software As Art, Art As Software, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Software art is characterised by a close concern with the culture of software and the medium of programming. This inevitably demands an engagement with the terrain of the instrumental; software is a sphere of tool-making and programming is governed by conceptions of functional (and generic) utility. Yet where does this leave art? If, in Kantian terms, art is defined by its uselessness (by its lack of any externally grounded necessity) and if, in classical critical theoretical terms, this alienation from function opens up a space of critique, then how can art explore and participate within the instrumental without abandoning its …

Embedded Ecologies: Teaching Digital Theory In Art And Design, Su Ballard, C Mccaw

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

We are both researchers in a traditional sense and also design and art practitioners. We work in an environment where our students make things as well as study theory. Our hypotheses surround our experiences, both as academic 'makers' and through our observations in the classroom. Our position is, that if practice and theory are integrated and embedded within art and design educational experience, meaning is brought to theory and thoughtful positioning to practice. There is a wide range of literature on the theory/practice relationship within art school environments. We draw on this material but in many ways diverge from it …

Heritage And Regional Development: An Indigenous Perspective, Robbie Collins, K. Mcmahon-Coleman

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Heritage is important to regional development in terms of promoting a sense of place and a sense of identity for those in the region. Heritage is often expressed through culture and the arts as a means of manifesting a community’s sense of what the community or region is about. For Indigenous communities this is particularly relevant given the lack of social capital as a result of colonialism and displacement. In these communities the value of the Indigenous way of viewing things and sense of place has been subjugated by hegemonic norms. There is a need for Indigenous peoples to find …

The Art Of Emptiness: Buddhist Nature In Picture Books Of Miyazawa Kenji's Donguri To Yamaneko (Wildcat And The Acorns), Helen Kilpatrick

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933), the author of Donguri to Yamaneko [3], is recognised as one of "the most imaginative spinner[s] of children's stories, of twentieth-century Japan" (Satô xvii). Moreover, Kenji, as he is commonly known, is probably Japan's most renowned Buddhist writer and his work is now taught in schools and universities. [4]He was writing at a time when Japan was undergoing rapid modernisation and much of his work, including Donguri, was created as a protest against the spiritual desolation associated with rampant industrialisation, commodification and consumerism. Donguri should be considered in this context as the story ultimately foregrounds a communion …

The Necessity Of (Un) Australian Art History: Writing For The New World, Ian A. Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Australian artworld has never looked better. There are more art journals, exhibition spaces and art graduates than ever. Even globalisation has been a boon to local artists, especially indigenous ones. But there is a catch. There may be plenty of interesting artists from Australia but few aspire to make Australian art. If Rex Butler is right, the desire now is for 'unAustralian' art.

The Art Of Others: Nolde, Preston & Views Of Indigenous Art, Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The emergence of Australian Aboriginal art in post-colonial Australia reflects a history of cultural separation between European and Aboriginal art. Up to late 20th Century—Aboriginal culture was 'invisible' within the wider 'nation-building' identity. The definition, role and status of Aboriginal art has changed dramatically in Australia over the past thirty years, but in Europe no similar shift into a postcolonial ideology is evident.

A Speculative Venture: Contemporary Art, History And Hill End, Amanda Lawson

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Writing in his diary on 2 January 1949, Australian artist, Donald Friend (1915- 1989), describes the events of the night before: Last night there was an impromptu dance - I should say a drunken Breughel peasant romp - at the hall to celebrate the New Year. It was improvised suddenly on the spot by those who had not been invited, and were furious at being left out, to a dance in Sofala, to which the lucky ones went in a bus. Later they went round the village gate-stealing .. .. (Friend 633) Friend writes from Hill End, an old gold-mining …

Kuninjku Modernism: New Perspectives On Western Arnhem Land Art, Ian Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Many of Australia's most interesting artists are not based in the few large metropolitan centres in which other countries focus their cultural effort. The wellspring of the Indigenous art movement is the numerous small communities and outstations in remote Australia. Further, the tiny fraction of Australians who live in these settlements outperform other Australian artists, no matter what measure is used. In this respect Australia lives up to its Antipodean legend; here everything is back to front: the centre is the periphery and the periphery the centre. However there is another way of looking at it. Australia might be a …

D>Art05 Distributed Art And Mobile Journeys, Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

There is time for the work to be examined, experimented with, and opened up to a visiting public. This kind of exhibition model has for a long time been problematic for works that do not exist within a defined 3D space, or a comfortably measured duration. D>Art05 and Mobile Journeys address the temporal and spatial restrictions of the exhibition model by making the work available for download both during and post-exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition could bring their mobiles and download any of the fourteen works in Mobile Journeys, in effect, mobilising the work.

Dlux Media Arts - D>Art05: Distributed Art And Mobile Journeys, Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Exhibitions are often about product rather than process. Like a trade show demo, the curated exhibition is the opportunity for artists to showcase their research, innovation, and general creative endeavour alongside that of their peers. There is time for the work to be examined, experimented with, and opened up to a visiting public. This kind of exhibition model has for a long time been problematic for works that do not exist within a defined 3D space, or a comfortably measured duration. D>Art05 and Mobile Journeys address the temporal and spatial restrictions of the exhibition model by making the work …

The Limits Of Art History: Towards An Ecological History Of Landscape Art, A. Gaynor, Ian A. Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

An ecological art history primarily concerns the relationship between the aesthetic and representational functions of landscape art, the environment it depicts and the ecology of this environment. Such investigation should enable us to determine whether particular aesthetic sensibilities or styles are more or less conducive to providing accurate ecological (Le. scientific) information, and what the limits of this information might be. An ecological art history would therefore, of necessity, engage with the science of ecology. Hence it requires an alliance with environmental and ecological historians as well as appropriate scientists. There are few examples of scholars drawing connections between the …

Aureliae: 800 Works From The Otago Polytechnic School Of Art, Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Mapping a collection

A collection is never fixed, and any identifiable collection is greater than the sum of its parts. As Susan Stewart comments: "while we can 'see' the entire collection, we cannot possibly 'see' each of its elements." (On Longing: Narratives of the Miniat ure, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 1984, p.152). The Otago Polytechnic School of Art collection database lists 836 items, but this is not a complete record. There are other works that have perhaps fallen t hrough crilcks, while some works listed in the database may even dispute …

White Aborigines: Identity Politics In Australia Art, Ian A. Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This book discusses how the relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal 'Australia' were imagined in Australian painting over the previous two hundred years. My aim is to do more than trace a particular theme in the history of Australian painting; it is to tell a story of the invention of an Australian subjectivity.