Contemporary Australian Photography 1980 to the present. Contemporary Australian art photography has burgeoned over the last 25 years but there is no dedicated book length study in the field. This project will fill this gap by putting Australian photography on an international scholarly agenda, which will generate more scholarship on Australian work. It will have enormous national and community benefit for Australian artists, curators and dealers and the general public who are keenly interested ....Contemporary Australian Photography 1980 to the present. Contemporary Australian art photography has burgeoned over the last 25 years but there is no dedicated book length study in the field. This project will fill this gap by putting Australian photography on an international scholarly agenda, which will generate more scholarship on Australian work. It will have enormous national and community benefit for Australian artists, curators and dealers and the general public who are keenly interested in photography. Read moreRead less
Experiencing space: sensory encounters from Baroque Rome to neo-baroque Las Vegas. This project focuses on the historical baroque and the neo-baroque and the relationship between them. The aim of the project is to apply a new methodology to the study of baroque and neo-baroque cultures, one grounded in sensory and spatial approaches. The primary case studies will be the cities of Rome and Las Vegas, two cities that are paradigmatic of the baroque and the neo-baroque. Whereas for theorists such a ....Experiencing space: sensory encounters from Baroque Rome to neo-baroque Las Vegas. This project focuses on the historical baroque and the neo-baroque and the relationship between them. The aim of the project is to apply a new methodology to the study of baroque and neo-baroque cultures, one grounded in sensory and spatial approaches. The primary case studies will be the cities of Rome and Las Vegas, two cities that are paradigmatic of the baroque and the neo-baroque. Whereas for theorists such as Jean Baudrillard argue that Las Vegas embodies the postmodern world in excess, this project will instead argue that it is emblematic of the return of a baroque aesthetics that has been nurtured by consumer culture, multi-media conglomeration and digital technology.Read moreRead less
Transforming city spaces: street art, urban cultures, transnational networks. The appearance of urban spaces has a dramatic impact upon the lives of the citizens who live in them. In comparing a range of local and international cities, this project investigates ways in which street art, a new cultural practice, has been transforming experiences of cities, cultural practices and communities.
Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis o ....Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis of the role of the avatar, in consultation with industry, this project offers a unique opportunity to develop a wider perspective that will contribute to an understanding of the uses and policies for the digital economy.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
What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within intern ....What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within international trends, to inform Australian designers, policymakers, art patrons and public space managers about recent innovations in technology, craft, creativity and critique, so they can create and choose public artworks and memorials which engage with the potentials of contemporary arts practice, the complexities of contemporary culture, and the diversity of social behaviour in public spaces.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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Urban images and the appearance of city spaces. This project will constitute the first study of street art as a new genre of cultural practice in city spaces. Street art is becoming an increasingly important issue for social policy and for youth culture. With many advocating a punitive approach to street art, the stakes for young people are high, risking criminalization in carrying out their art practices. The project will examine the emergence of street art and has significant strategic value i ....Urban images and the appearance of city spaces. This project will constitute the first study of street art as a new genre of cultural practice in city spaces. Street art is becoming an increasingly important issue for social policy and for youth culture. With many advocating a punitive approach to street art, the stakes for young people are high, risking criminalization in carrying out their art practices. The project will examine the emergence of street art and has significant strategic value in its capacity to inform balanced policy development and to improve understanding of the effects of and motivations behind street art.Read moreRead less
“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