Panel Statement

Keywords: Curating, touring exhibitions, experimental art, audience development, media art, art & technology, interactive art, co-creation

Abstract

This panel will discuss a framework that brings together experimental artists with new audiences through a combination of curatorial strategies that revolve around passive, reactive, and interactive forms of engagement between artworks and publics. By first presenting the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of this approach, the panel will discuss its practical applications in the context of work undertaken by Australian media arts organisation, Experimenta. Through a thirty years history developing and presenting experimental art, and fifteen years touring media art exhibitions around Australia, Experimenta has fostered artistic processes and participatory formats that blur the boundaries between artists and the audience and bring experimentation and the unexpected to traditionally fixed gallery environments. The panel will address the logistical challenges of commissioning and touring complex, technologically driven artworks, and will reflect on galleries and audiences’ reception of such artworks. In particular, the panel speakers will focus on a curatorial approach of cocreation, whereby audiences are required in the realisation of an artwork, and on collaborative methodologies with galleries to expand logistical and critical capacities in presenting media art.

• Jonathan Parsons has over twenty-five years of experience working as an Artistic Director, curator and creative producer in Australia and internationally. He is currently Artistic Director of media arts organisation Experimenta, and the Creative Director of Robotronica, a biennial festival of robotics and interactive design at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He has artistically led and collaborated on a broad range of cultural programs and events across all art forms including for ISEA2013, Byron Bay Writers Festival, Powerhouse Museum, State Library of Queensland, Riverfestival, London International Festival of Theatre, Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and Pacific Wave Festival.
• Lubi Thomas is an experienced curator working in the field of digital/new media arts and associate practice areas. Currently, Lubi is an independent curator and artist; codirector of Ars Electronica Australia; Experimenta’s Curator @ Large; and curatorial advisor to the Digital Placemaking Institute. In the past decade, she has developed and delivered an extensive range of exhibitions, projects, festivals, events, residencies and mentoring programs, as well as, public and education focused programming. Site-responsiveness is a key element in her practice, working closely with artists, creative technologist, and their collaborators to produce works and cultural experiences for a variety of audiences. Lubi’s master’s Curating in Uncharted Territories proposes a methodology for cultural programming development and sustainability for sites engaged in the display of, and engagement with, experimental creative practice.
• Susan Kukucka is an arts manager with a background in producing public programs, and in research and policy development. Before becoming Experimenta’s General Manager, she produced State Library of Queensland’s (Australia) public engagement programs for many years, developing hundreds of events, performances, festivals, exhibitions and numerous collections-based exhibitions and programs. Throughout Susan’s career there has been a strong thread of digital media and technology-driven arts practice, from producing video games exhibitions to increasing audience access through online and digital technologies. Susan has served on committees and boards with Youth Arts Queensland, Arc Biennial: Visual Art, Craft & Design, and 2High Festival, and has held arts research and sessional teaching positions at Griffith University & Queensland University of Technology; worked in cultural and creative industries policy at Brisbane City Council; and was the recipient of an Asialink residency in China.
• Nicky Pastore is a creative producer, and has worked with numerous Melbourne, Australia, based organisations including Experimenta, Footscray Community Arts Centre, 100 Story Building, Arts Access Victoria, and film studio Oh Yeah Wow as well as event-based projects at local councils such as Brimbank Council, City of Port Phillip Council and Yarra City Council. Across all aspects of her work, Nicky fosters a strong connection for artist-engaged practice and strives to create inclusive pathways for artistic development. Through her role as Festival Director of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival (2014-2018), she has been responsible for managing the delivery and programming of a highly successful public art event and implementing key strategies to ensure the growth of the video-arts industry.

Full text (PDF) p. 703-704