Theme 1: Pedagogies of the Arts
Teaching and learning through and about the arts
Living Tensions:
- Ways of Seeing, Learning, And Knowing – Whose Perspective?
- Research Framing – Self-Inquiry or Collectible Inquiry
- Marking Boundaries – Student, Researcher and Teacher
- Maker and Critic – Teaching and Learning Arts Practices
- Crossing Disciplinary Borders – From Cultural Theory to Anthropology, Ethnography, Sociology and Beyond
- Passive Learners to Active Participants
- Online Cultures, Social Networks and eLearning
- Sense-Making – Connecting the Arts to Everyday Life
Theme 2: Arts Histories and Theories
Interrogating arts histories, theories, paradigms and frameworks for critical analysis
Living Tensions
- Defining Aesthetics – From Inside or Outside
- Inertia and Stasis – The Power of Continuity and Change
- Art History – Purpose and Pedagogy
- The Avant-Garde – The Creative, The Innovative, The New
- Arts Objects – Aura and Artifact
- Categorizing Genres – Naming and Classifying Art Forms
- Mimesis – Perspectives on the ‘Real’ and ‘Representation’
- Voice – Negotiating Authenticity and Authority
Theme 3: New Media, Technology, and the Arts
Making sense of emerging technologies, their practices, and agents
Living Tensions
- Aesthetics of the Digital – Media and Mediation
- Speculative Imaginaries – The ‘Virtual’ and the ‘Real’
- Future Bodies – Techno-Organic, Hybrid and Synthetic Subjects
- Creative Industries – From Information to Data Societies
- Technological Mediums – Where is the Artist?
- Artificial Intelligence – The Craft of Data
- Tactical Media, Activism, and Hacktivism – (Re)Considering Agency
Theme 4: The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
Addressing social, political, and community agendas in the arts
Living Tensions
- Scales of Identity Making – Personal, Local, Regional, National, Global
- Art of the Event – Exhibitions, Festivals, Biennales
- Framing Boxes – Museums and galleries as Social Institutions
- Abilities and Disabilities – Access, Inclusion, Participation
- High and Low – Popular Culture and the Media
- Business of Art – The Pressure of Art Markets
- Whose Art? – Public Arts, Collective Memory, Cultural Heritage
- Ethical Considerations – Human Rights, Social Justice, and the Arts
- Inclusive Communities – Race, Identity, Gender