Australian media arts : in this place

Abstract

Australian Media Arts: in this place examines themes of relationships to place, and loss of place within an Australian context. A series of academic accounts of national media arts practice, trace the evolution of the field and explore a particular period, the technologies that emerged, artists who explored these technologies and their works that articulate this exploration. What is common in these recent accounts of media art histories is a tracing of the relationship between the artists and the technologies that afforded their explorations within a national framework. What I aim to do is something different; I intend to locate a small subset of Australian media art works that talk about key issues pertinent to Australian cultural identity, namely colonisation, the displacement of the First Australians and the ongoing effects of loss of place also experienced in a broader sense through migration. The dissertation examines three collaborative works by artists, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Ian de Gruchy, Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley, and Lynette Wallworth that explore aspects of Australia’s colonial, Indigenous and migrant histories. The aim of my studio work and its account in the exegesis has been to examine how issues of place and loss of place can be addressed through my visual and media arts practice. My work has formed around the interrelationship of terms such as location/dislocation, memory/site, identity/loss of identity and what is visible/invisible. I have explored the intersections of personal and cultural histories, a sense of home and belonging as an individual and with particular Australian communities through media arts installation, site specific performance, video and photographic works.