ACUADS CONFERENCE 2015: ART AND DESIGN EDUCATION IN THE GLOBAL 24/7
24-25 September 2015
School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia
ISBN: 978-0-9942868-1-9
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS: INTRODUCTION
Professor Simon Biggs
School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia
The annual 2015 ACUADS conference was hosted by the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia and Adelaide College of the Arts (TAFE SA). Keynotes were given by Brian Parkes (CEO, Jam Factory) and Nick Mitzevich (Art Gallery of South Australia) and the final session plenary was Chaired by Tamara Winikoff (NAVA). Conference paper panels were complemented with a series of participatory and collaborative roundtable workshops and an exhibition of artworks by HDR candidates at the University of South Australia.
The peer reviewed (double blind) papers published here address the demands and opportunities for art and design education within a globalised and hyper-networked 24/7 culture. In this context papers and presentations were invited that address how institutional and government policies, which require ever greater productivity across a wider range of domains, are affecting art and design pedagogy and research. The papers in these proceedings concern how art and design schools adapt to these policy changes and develop the necessary rigour, flexibility, reach and evidence to continue to facilitate quality academic, cultural and social outcomes.
The papers engage a number of sub-themes:
• Creative collaboration across and between disciplines, institutions and frameworks;
• How creative arts outputs represent a contribution to knowledge and society;
• Design futures: new directions for design thinking and critical practice;
• Creative arts research and scholarship within research and non-research environments.
A number of papers address collaborative modalities in pedagogical practice and research, within and beyond the institution, and how this can aid in the development of rigorous approaches to interdisciplinary working. Other papers consider the role of documentation in both formative and summative assessment and the potential of new technologies in this domain. The social role of art practice, in reference to indigenous and other communities, is also explored and, within that context, a number engage issues concerning the environment. The question of what knowledge might be in the creative arts, its relation to the creative process and its outcomes, is examined in a number of papers, ensuring that this remains a key question for debate and evidencing the continued tension between professional practice and academia.
The papers address topics relevant in a wide array of disciplines, not just in visual arts and design but also to craft practice, architecture, media practice and theory and other topics in the arts, humanities and social sciences, providing a sense of the broad range of scholarship that informs research and pedagogy in Australian art and design education.
Postgraduate students here present papers that engage their own research, covering a wide range of topics reflecting the diverse nature of higher degree research activity in Australian art and design education. Whilst this is often research led by practice-based concerns there are also a number of other themes emergent in this range of papers, including the relationship between the creative arts and popular culture, the status of original works (including architectural works) to their documentation, indigenous arts, collaboration and crowd-sourcing and creative arts pedagogy.
ROUNDTABLES
The Public Art School (Now) Roundtable, convened by Dr Ruth Fazakerley (University of South Australia) and Ms Fiona Hillary (RMIT University), canvassed the question, What’s happening now in higher education institutions to prepare students to work in and with public, community and social contexts? Four leading educators from art and design schools around Australia were invited to respond to this question and reflect on the contributed examples of national and international contemporary art projects, student activity and curriculum collated into the Public Art School (Now) Discussion Paper.
View the Discussion paper.
Documentation of the Roundtable is available on Vimeo:
Introduction and Discussant 1 – Professor David Cross, Professor of Visual Art School of Communication & Creative Arts, Deakin University
Discussant 2 – Dr Maggie McCormick, Program Manager, Master of Arts (Art in Public Space) School of Art, RMIT University
Discussant 3 – Dr Nien Schwarz, Senior Lecturer School of Communication and Arts, Edith Cowan University
Discussant 4 – Professor Marie Sierra, Deputy Dean & Head of School Art and Design, UNSW
PAPERS
All the papers published here were subject to a process of double-blind peer review at both abstract (acceptance) and final paper stage (publication). Abstracts were revised and resubmitted following an initial stage of peer review. Final papers were reviewed by their authors subsequent to a further final stage of peer review. The papers were then subject to minor editing to ensure they are as free of errors as possible and that they consistently comply with the conference style guide.
POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS
Congratulations to Eileen Larsen (James Cook University), Kimberley Pace (Edith Cowan University) and Sera Waters (University of South Australia) who were named the 2015 ACUADS Postgraduate Scholars. They received $500 towards registration, travel and accommodation costs.
ACUADS ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Chair and Conference Proceedings Editor:
Prof Simon Biggs (Convenor, Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
Organizing Committee:
Gregory Ackland (Adelaide College of the Arts – TAFE SA)
Jackie Knowles (School Manager, Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
Myra Thiessen (Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
Dr Andrew Welch (Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
Dr Jennifer Williams (Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
ACUADS Coordinator:
Deanna Hall (Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA)
Event Photographer:
Mike Moore