Care and Repair: Rethinking Contemporary Curation for Conditions of Crisis. This project aims to address the significant challenge of how to curate contemporary art under conditions of crisis, made acute by the pandemic. It expects to generate new knowledge in the growth areas of contemporary art and curatorial practice, which will be translatable to creative industries seeking solutions to similar challenges. Anticipated outcomes include new models for sustainable, future-oriented creative prac ....Care and Repair: Rethinking Contemporary Curation for Conditions of Crisis. This project aims to address the significant challenge of how to curate contemporary art under conditions of crisis, made acute by the pandemic. It expects to generate new knowledge in the growth areas of contemporary art and curatorial practice, which will be translatable to creative industries seeking solutions to similar challenges. Anticipated outcomes include new models for sustainable, future-oriented creative practice; a stronger international profile for Australian artists and curators; and the establishment of a regional network of artists and curators between Australia and Southeast Asia. This should significantly aid our understanding of how to meet current and future challenges to producers and audiences of contemporary art.Read moreRead less
Exploring Botanic Gardens Herbarium's value, via Environmental Aesthetics. . The project aims to aesthetically redefine engagement with the plant collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium (RBG) Sydney and to communicate its artistic, cultural and heritage value to the public through a Public Program of creative arts case studies. It's expected that new insights will arise from an environmental art methodology utilising the digitisation of the Herbarium specimens, so that audiences can intera ....Exploring Botanic Gardens Herbarium's value, via Environmental Aesthetics. . The project aims to aesthetically redefine engagement with the plant collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium (RBG) Sydney and to communicate its artistic, cultural and heritage value to the public through a Public Program of creative arts case studies. It's expected that new insights will arise from an environmental art methodology utilising the digitisation of the Herbarium specimens, so that audiences can interactively experience the plant archive through narratives that activate plants as underpinning ecosystems. Benefits to partners RBG, Bundanon Trust and Open Humanities Press will include the digital expansion of audience engagement with the Herbarium at RBG and Mt Annan and communication of collection’s significance.Read moreRead less
Envisaging Citizenship: Australian Histories and Global Connections. This project aims to investigate the ways that visual images have defined, contested and advanced ideas of Australian citizenship and rights from European settlement to the present. Responding to the lack of a shared mainstream understanding of Australian citizenship, it looks beyond legal definitions to explore cultural and especially visual views of citizenship over time. Through collaboration with museum, media and education ....Envisaging Citizenship: Australian Histories and Global Connections. This project aims to investigate the ways that visual images have defined, contested and advanced ideas of Australian citizenship and rights from European settlement to the present. Responding to the lack of a shared mainstream understanding of Australian citizenship, it looks beyond legal definitions to explore cultural and especially visual views of citizenship over time. Through collaboration with museum, media and education sectors, it will provide a forward-looking and accessible public history, and utilise the potential of images to broaden contemporary debates about citizenship. Expected outcomes include a better public understanding of the pathways to citizenship, and enhanced engagement with Australian values and identity.Read moreRead less
Extinction Imaginaries: Mapping Affective Visual Cultures in Australasia. This project aims to provide NGOs with new strategies for raising awareness of environmental change by investigating what animal extinction means to Australians. Australasia has the highest global extinction rates, yet despite the wide circulation of visual images of extinction little is known about how they affect people. The project expects to address this critical gap by bringing innovative methodologies to the analysis ....Extinction Imaginaries: Mapping Affective Visual Cultures in Australasia. This project aims to provide NGOs with new strategies for raising awareness of environmental change by investigating what animal extinction means to Australians. Australasia has the highest global extinction rates, yet despite the wide circulation of visual images of extinction little is known about how they affect people. The project expects to address this critical gap by bringing innovative methodologies to the analysis of public responses to images of extinction and how they affect social imaginaries. Expected outcomes include research translations with environmental NGOs which should provide significant benefits by addressing public concern for the deteriorating ecosystems that future generations will inherit.
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“The Complete Craze”: Women’s Photography and Colonial Modernity in the Asia-Pacific, 1860-1930. To date there has been no sustained research into the photography produced by women in the Asia-Pacific region in the late colonial era even though much of it was aesthetically sophisticated and innovative. Combining historical research with postcolonial and gender theory, this project critically examines a large body of images by women photographers working across the region. It identifies the facto ....“The Complete Craze”: Women’s Photography and Colonial Modernity in the Asia-Pacific, 1860-1930. To date there has been no sustained research into the photography produced by women in the Asia-Pacific region in the late colonial era even though much of it was aesthetically sophisticated and innovative. Combining historical research with postcolonial and gender theory, this project critically examines a large body of images by women photographers working across the region. It identifies the factors enabling these women to be examined as a group, investigates their subject matter, techniques and styles, and establishes what was exciting and new, as well as conventional, about their methods. It also shows how their artworks both reflected and contributed to the region’s burgeoning modernity. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101322
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,526.00
Summary
Capturing foundational Australian photography in a globalising world. This project will combine archival research on the foundational years of Australian photography, 1839-54, with new methods of multimedia database design to network early photographs: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and calotypes, with dispersed manuscripts, journalism and legal proceedings that document their creation. These images are prized by Australian collecting institutions but their significance to our cultural heritage rema ....Capturing foundational Australian photography in a globalising world. This project will combine archival research on the foundational years of Australian photography, 1839-54, with new methods of multimedia database design to network early photographs: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and calotypes, with dispersed manuscripts, journalism and legal proceedings that document their creation. These images are prized by Australian collecting institutions but their significance to our cultural heritage remains unrecognised. This project will analyse how colonial Australian photographers’ distance from Europe prompted them to innovate with processes, materials and apparatuses. It will excavate this neglected dimension of colonial modernity, assessing its resonance for media heritage, culture, and law.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100578
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$413,745.00
Summary
Art and cultural diplomacy. This project aims to investigate questions about cross-cultural communication through the circulation of art objects across the globe. Focusing on early modern diplomatic gifts that are now housed in museums around the world, this project examines the preservation and display of material culture in contemporary museology. Expected outcomes of this project include a better understanding of the role of art in cultural diplomacy, new digital methods for the analysis of c ....Art and cultural diplomacy. This project aims to investigate questions about cross-cultural communication through the circulation of art objects across the globe. Focusing on early modern diplomatic gifts that are now housed in museums around the world, this project examines the preservation and display of material culture in contemporary museology. Expected outcomes of this project include a better understanding of the role of art in cultural diplomacy, new digital methods for the analysis of cultural networks, and advanced theories for understanding cultural identity in an increasingly connected world.Read moreRead less
Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans ....Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans to understand how diverse audiences affectively experienced these powerful forms of early media, and to develop ways for today’s Australians to re-experience their magic, invigorating and expanding our cultural heritage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101072
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$454,705.00
Summary
Investigating the agency of Aboriginal Frontier War memorials. This project aims to unite conflicting versions of Australian history by investigating the impact and effectiveness of Australian Aboriginal Frontier War memorials. It will expand our understanding of the shared sacrifices by First Nation and settler Australians during the frontier war and demonstrate the reconciliatory potential of memorialising art informed by Indigenous oral history and creative arts research and practice. The soc ....Investigating the agency of Aboriginal Frontier War memorials. This project aims to unite conflicting versions of Australian history by investigating the impact and effectiveness of Australian Aboriginal Frontier War memorials. It will expand our understanding of the shared sacrifices by First Nation and settler Australians during the frontier war and demonstrate the reconciliatory potential of memorialising art informed by Indigenous oral history and creative arts research and practice. The social and cultural benefits include developing a new understanding of the historical construction of Australian national identity and the potential of Indigenous art to transform the function of Australian military monuments as well as a permanent archive of short documentary films and publication.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100912
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$459,468.00
Summary
Co-creating Cultures of Inclusion: Redefining Access to Cultural Heritage . This project aims to respond to an identified injustice, as access to cultural heritage is still very limited for people with disability. Cultural tourism has one of the largest draws globally, but most cultural institutions are still not understanding equitable access to encourage inclusive cultural tourism and widen participation. As a world-first study this project will create an innovative co-design model of practice ....Co-creating Cultures of Inclusion: Redefining Access to Cultural Heritage . This project aims to respond to an identified injustice, as access to cultural heritage is still very limited for people with disability. Cultural tourism has one of the largest draws globally, but most cultural institutions are still not understanding equitable access to encourage inclusive cultural tourism and widen participation. As a world-first study this project will create an innovative co-design model of practice, through an ecological framework and inclusive multi-sensorial explorations that can be translated and adopted by national, state, university, and regional museums and galleries across Australia and globally. This timely project will benefit all Australians by co-designing greater access to our cultural heritage for all. Read moreRead less