Hosted this discussion reimagining our relationship to sustainability and place through the lens of art, technology and architecture.
The conversation placed emphasis on the relationship between human beings, non-human intelligence, natural habitats, and the built environment.
Speakers: Artist Jon McCormack, landscape architect Jock Gilbert and Boonwurrung Elder Aunty Caroline Briggs
Presented at The Library at the Dock, as part of the Now or Never festival, Melbourne 2023
Hosted this discussion exploring the relationship between language and code.
Referencing ancient and speculative imaginaries, the conversation examined how the nuances of cultural expression, empathy and bias are conveyed through diverse vocabularies and sentient technologies.
Speakers: Artists Gerogie Pinn, Michaela Gleave, and Boonwurrung Elder Aunty Caroline Briggs
Presented at The Library at the Dock, as part of the Now or Never festival, Melbourne 2023
Hosted this discussion exploring the possibilities of art in outer space.
Reflecting on the social, cultural, and ethical implications of future, off-planet settlements, the conversation contemplated how we can combine artistic, scientific and civic methodologies to reimagine art and its institutions within an infinitely expanding universe.
Speakers: Artist Michaela Gleave, researcher and author Dr. Annalea Beattie
Presented at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, as part of Experimenta Social, Melbourne 2023
Chaired a panel discussion with choreographer Atlanta Eke, architect Tim Birnie and composer Daniel Jenatsch exploring the interdisciplinary process involved in the creation of their public art and performance commission Sacred Heart Real Tennis Court. The conversation provided insight into their collaborative methods; the themes and aesthetic choices informing the music and choreography, as well as the conceptual and practical considerations involved in designing a large-scale, architectural installation in an outdoor heritage environment.
Presented in conjunction with the public art exhibition Interspecies and Other Others, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne 2022
Hosted a discussion with artists Abdul Abdullah and David Charles Collins addressing the collaborative process involved in the creation of their commissioned photographic series The Interloper; how it investigated themes of nurture and nature, perception, discrimination and division; how the site-specific context informed the composition and display of the work; as well as the ethical and practical implications involved in working with animals.
Presented in conjunction with the public art exhibition Interspecies and Other Others, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne 2022
Hosted a conversation with artist Tony Albert discussing his photographic series No Place, touching on his use of humor and hero iconography within this work and more broadly, his relationship to Country and his approach to working with remote communities.
We also discussed how the site-specific display and scale of the installation, as presented at the Convent, brought fresh perspectives to the fore of the work.
Presented in conjunction with the public art exhibition Interspecies and Other Others, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne 2022
Chaired this panel discussion with Reko Rennie, Almagul Menlibayeva and Noor Afshan Mirza.
Discussing magic realism and symbolism, patriarchal power structures and decolonisation, the conversation provided an insight into the methods and concepts employed by the artists, while teasing out thematic correlations emerging between their work, as presented in the exhibition Untimely Geographies.
Presented at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), as part of Channels Festival: International Biennial of Video Art, Melbourne, 27 August 2019
Presented a lecture by writer, editor and art director Din Heagney.
Taking the audience on a roller coaster ride through Orwellian Predictions, Fake News, Deepfakes, The Uncanny Valley and Digital Resurrection, Heagney’s lecture elucidated philosophical concepts that may assist us to creatively navigate a post-truth world.
Presented at ACMI X in partnership with WRITING & CONCEPTS and University of Melbourne, as part of Channels Festival: International Biennial of Video Art, Melbourne, 12 September 2019
Hosted a conversation with artist Lyndal Jones discussing the different conceptual and aesthetic frameworks involved in the use of video in performance, video as performance and video documentation. Jones also addressed the limited visibility of women within art historical discourse and how the labor of women is depicted and valued within art and society more broadly.
Excerpts from Fair Weather, 1978, The Prediction Pieces 1, 1981 and Deep Water / Aqua Profunda, 2001 were screened as reference points for the discussion.
Presented at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), as part of Channels Festival: International Biennial of Video Art, Melbourne, 7 September 2019
With reference to an adjunct screening of video art from the late 60s through to the early 80s, the panelists discussed their current artistic practice alongside notions of positionality, agency and endurance to unpack and decode the evolving nature of embodiment and representation.
Speakers: Jill Orr, Archie Barry and Camila Galaz. Chaired by Matthew Perkins. Programmed and introduced by Kelli Alred.
Presented at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), as part of Channels Festival: International Biennial of Video Art, Melbourne, 7 September 2019
Delivered a presentation and participated in a discussion with New York-based gallerist Kelani Nichole and Australian artist Xanthe Dobbie.
Presenting examples of art that invite audiences to interact, or that otherwise reach beyond the white cube gallery context, the event shed light on the performative and distributed nature of contemporary, media-based forms.
The discussion also addressed the challenges and opportunities involved in the acquisition of digital art, as well as strategies for evading obsolescence.
Presented at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), as part of the MEL & NYC Festival, Melbourne, 27 July 2018
A panel discussion exploring the nature of spatiotemporal art presented in conjunction with a set of material and performative interventions.
Through an examination of the artistic and curatorial methodologies employed within the exhibition Temporal Proximities, the event shed light on notions of agency, displacement and time.
Participating artists included Bridie Lunney, Helen Grogan, Jill Orr, Clare Rae and Katie Lee. The discussion was facilitated by curator Kelli Alred and theorist Anne Marsh.
The Meadow Common, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, Faculty of VCA and MCM, Melbourne 2018
A post-show talk discussing The Exhibition of a Film and other projects by French curator Mathieu Copeland, broaching topics such as Copeland’s creative use of publishing and time-based forms; his interest in notions of absence; as well as his collaborative work with dramaturg Tim Etchells and composer Susan Stenger.
Presented in association with Melbourne International Arts Festival at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne 2017
In response to the demands of contemporary time-based, performative and process-oriented art practices, this practice-based research sort to develop an in-depth insight into ways that curating can shape the passage of time, and to speculate discursively on how a dramaturgical approach might assist in negotiating relationships within a group exhibition of spatiotemporal art.
Toward the completion of a PhD in art and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of VCA and MCM, with support from an Australian Post-graduate Award Scholarship 2015 – 2018
Delivered a paper applying French philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanlyasis as a tool for analysing performative exhibitions.
Using the Sydney presentation of Marina Abramovic: In Residence commissioned by Kaldor Public Art Projects as a case study, this paper examined how multiple performances overlapped. It addressed the audience experience, and how specific environmental factors arising in context of the unique harbour-side venue, worked to frame the exhibition.
Part of the international symposium, Out of Time: Temporal Slippage in Performance and the Visual Arts, University of Manchester 2016
A research consortium working toward the development of accessioning procedures, conservation strategies and best practice models for the acquisition of time-based art.
My contribution included a comparative analysis; case studies; a model for documenting and describing art that has interactive and networked components; as well as artwork categories and medium lines for use in museum database systems and wall texts.
Partners: Tate, MoMA, SFMoMA The Getty Institute, Stanford University and New York University, with support from The New Art Trust
Research outputs were presented at an industry forum at SFMoMA, San Francisco 2011
Led a two-year research network, bringing together international curators, artists, conservators, art historians, cultural theorists, archivists and audio-visual installers, to identify and analyse the practical, methodological and philosophical challenges involved in the museological display and acquisition of time-based art.
Partners: Tate, MoMA, SFMoMA, LABoral Centro de Arte, Arts Council England, London’s Science Museum and the British Library.
Hosted by Tate Modern and Queen Mary University, with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, London 2009 – 2011
Delivered a lecture on the institutional challenges involved in presenting social, participatory and process-based practices within the museums and galleries sector.
The presentation also addressed how digital technology and novel legal frameworks are being applied to enhance the visibility and longevity of these artforms.
Presented as part of the Abandon All Normal Devices Festival, produced by the Foundation for Art and Technology (FACT) and John Moores University, Liverpool 2009
Presented a lecture and participated in a panel discussion at this symposium discussing the role of museums in the digital age.
The event addressed how collections are developing in the context of extended global narratives; the building of infrastructure for new modes of learning and engagement; the philosophical and practical challenges of collecting new digital forms; and how the relationship between audiences, objects and museums are changing in context of a networked society.
Speakers: Sheena Wagstaff, Anna Cutler, Victoria Walsh, Jane Burton, James Davies, Kelli Alred and Jennifer Mundy. Chaired by Nigel Llewellyn
Tate Modern, London 2009
Presented a lecture, film screening and workshop as part of this research network led by Maria Chatzichristodoulou.
The research was focused on how live art and media-based forms facilitate intimate encounters. Through the lens of a feminist, post-human framework, the program explored notions of aura and presence, as well as the relationship between embodied desire, data constructs and digital fantasy.
Presented at Trinity Laban and Goldsmiths College, University of London, with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, London 2007
Presented a lecture on the histories of intermedia art, drawing on the legacies of Dada, Fluxus, post-war conceptualism, early feminist practice, avant-garde music, experimental film, video art and post-modern dance.
The aim was to enrich an art historical framework for discussing contemporary art practices involving performative, participatory and social methodologies — which are also often collaborative and interdisciplinary, as well as artworks involving interactive or networked components.
Presented at the Fast Forward on Media Art international museology forum, Pallazzo delle Arti, Naples 2007
Presented a lecture and co-produced this international symposium, which brought together artists, curators, theorists and researchers to explore the implications of real-time interaction and audience participation on performance and media art practice. Since the later half of the twentieth century, network theories have impacted our thinking about social and cultural issues and this event sort to elucidate artistic strategies and new artforms that engage with those ideas.
Speakers: Mark Amerika, Alexander R Galloway, Andrea Zapp, Kate Rich, Paul Sermon and Kelli Alred. Chaired by Kate Southworth.
Produced in collaboration with Falmouth University, Tate Modern Auditorium, London 2007
Curated and co-produced a series of blindfolded discussions on sound art.
This program involved a series panel discussions with participants who had been blindfolded. Each session started with the playback of a sound-based work retrieved from Tate’s archive, after which members of the panel deliberated on the formal and conceptual qualities of the work, without any preliminary knowledge of its author or context.
Speakers: Robin McGinley, Xper.Xr, Bob and Roberta Smith, Kersten Glandien, Salome Voegelin and Sebastian Craig. Chaired by Knut Aufermann.
Broadcast live on Resonance FM from the Tate Modern Auditorium, London 2007
Convened this discussion bringing together international theorists, curators and architects to debate the future of the artefact and the institutions that steward their exhibition, collection and preservation.
Speakers: Hani Rashid, Vince Dziekan, Jasia Reichardt, Ken Friedman and Rodrigo Alonso. Chaired by Celine Condorelli.
Tate Modern, London 2006
Co-investigator and project manager for a two-year research project involving museum and academic partners, including art history and computer science researchers collaborating on the development of a structured vocabulary to describe the content of Tate’s audio-visual archive, as well as the design of an online interface and ‘intelligent’ search engine capable of the semi-automatic tagging and retrieval of video content.
Outputs included a comparative analysis of online video archives, four detailed user profiles, a draft ontological framework and a search engine prototype.
A Tate and Goldsmiths College, University of London partnership, with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, London 2005 – 2006
Co-produced this conference bringing together international curators, artists, theorists and software programmers to examine the role of the curator in dynamic network systems. Participants discussed the cultural implications of immaterial labor, collaborative methodologies, open frameworks and self-organisation paradigms.
Speakers: Tiziana Terranova, Marina Vishmidt, Grzesiek Sedek, Geoff Cox, Christiane Paul, Eva Grubinger, Jacob Lillemose, Josephine Berry Slater, Piotr Krajewski, Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin. Chaired by Joasia Krysa
Produced in collaboration with the University of Plymouth, Tate Modern Auditorium, London 2005
Convened this discussion with international curators and cultural theorists examining how we engage with immaterial cultures and the artefacts they produce.
In a landscape of self-organising systems, automation and artificial intelligence, panelists were asked to re-imagine the role of curators, artists and audiences, while exploring the impact of networked, location aware and ID specific tools within a broader cultural and sociopolitical context.
Speakers: Christiane Paul, Beryl Graham, Patrick Lichty, Trebor Scholz and Charlie Gere. Chaired by Sarah Cook.
Tate Modern, London 2005
Presented a paper and chaired this panel discussion with international artists, theorists and sociologists reviewing copyright legislation, in light of different cultural relationships to notions of property, collaboration and circulation. Taking into consideration the value of oral histories and notions of collective ownership, participants reflected on case studies that elucidated indigenous knowledge protocols and contemporary art practices, which are innately shared, distributed, time-based and nomadic.
Speakers: Raqs Media Collective, Florian Schneider, Jane Anderson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Florian Cramer and Yuwei Lin.
Produced in collaboration with Chelsea College of the Arts, Tate Britain Auditorium, London 2005
Convened this discussion on new modes of music distribution, inviting participants to respond to the following question:
As we shift from electromagnetic tape to digital codecs as a low cost method of underground and independent distribution and exchange, what implications evolve regarding the form, practice and politics of sound?
Speakers: John Oswald, Douglas Kahn and Kennith Goldsmith. Chaired by Lina Dzuverovic.
Tate Modern, London 2004
Worked in residence at the Montevideo Art Lab in Amsterdam, Manchester University and the Digital Worlds Institute in Florida to research how cultural institutions and artists might use network technology for collaboration, creative development and co-presenting.
Outputs included a three-site performance, poster session, public lectures and a workshop on scripting performance across multiple time zones.
Presentations were delivered at the Netherlands Media Arts Institute, Steim Centre for Electronic Music, Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam Maastricht University, the University of Manchester, Sydney University, Florida University and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) 2002 – 2003