Panel statement

Reconsidering Australian Media Art Histories in an International Context (RAMAH) is an ARC Linkage project undertaken by researchers at the National Institute of Experimental Arts, in partnership with a host of national and international partners, that researches the contribution of Australians to the development of media arts as a contemporary art practice, while at the same time examining the important artistic and technical contributions that have shaped media arts in the global arena. The project aims to propose new frameworks, refute inaccurate ‘facts,’ question or expand upon theories, and point out unseen associations and critical connections. The potential for online access to collections of media art in all its manifest forms has been the subject of detailed media art history research. RAMAH aims to provide for a deeper knowledge of the histories of media art history in the international context by making accessible documentation and a range of other materials via an evolving online archive. The process of archiving as a practice itself is crucial, and invites questions: What is the relationship between history and the archive? What is the history and what is the archive? Does there need to be history first before there can be an archive – or When does the archive itself become history? To date RAMAH has brought together key academics and practitioners at a series of roundtable discussion events in Liverpool in 2011 and Melbourne in 2012 in order to explore and expand upon these concerns. Noting that international publications and online archives dedicated to the study of media art are often dominated by white European and North American exemplars, at ISEA2013 RAMAH partners the Latin American Forum to further the discussion by drawing attention to the multiple trajectories that have sprouted from outside of the usual centres and dominant paradigms.

Re:imag(in)ing Indigenous Media Art Histories engages both Australia and Colombian practitioners to focus on histories of Indigenous Australian artists working with new media, and in particular the inroads and dialogues they have established in international networks. More broadly, the session will address issues of identity, representation and visuality in the so-called ‘Global South’.  blogs.unsw.edu.au/amaha

• Tim Maybury is a Sydney-based researcher and Juris Doctor candidate at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Art Theory (Hons) from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW (AU) in 2008, Tim has been active as a musician, broadcaster, art writer and curator in both Sydney and New York. He is currently focused on merging his background in arts with his passions for social justice and human rights. He works as a researcher on the ARC Linkage Reconsidering Australian Media Art Histories in an International Context project at the National Institute for Experimental Arts at COFA and as a paralegal for Native Title Services NSW (NTSCORP), and serves as Vice President of Amnesty International Australia’s NSW Branch.