ANAT

“Just as ‘man’ and ‘woman’ don’t reflect the full diversity of human experience, neither can 1’s and 0’s, or digital samplings of the ecological richness of the biological (analog) world.

To act with justice and care towards humans, and more than humans, it’s critical to eschew the binaries that foreground contemporary computing/thinking/creation and allow our ideas/machines/artworks, through their design, to do likewise”.
James Bridle, 2022

2024 ANAT Synapse resident Keith Armstrong, quotes artist, writer and technologist, James Bridle in a recent creative research journal entry.

READ the journal using the LINK in our BIO

Keith’s multi-layered project, Forest Art Intelligence (FAI) has a large multidisciplinary team:
Dr. David Tucker and Dr. Gabrielle Lebbinck (working with Marcus Yates), Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF)
Dr. Eleanor Velasquez, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) – Australia’s Land Ecosystem Observatory

Image: Grass seed closeup (Image Keith Armstrong)

"In my day job, which is a night job, I’m astrophysicist at Mt Stromlo Observatory, which is part of the Australian National University. I am also at the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU."
ANAT Board Member, Dr Brad Tucker

Brad shares some details about his 'night job' and his motivations in working with ANAT.

I’m super excited to be working with and supporting ANAT, to help scientists and artists work together, and find new and unique ways to incorporate technology into their work.

Experiencing the world and Universe around us is inspiring, personal, beautiful, and part of the human condition - and the work of ANAT accelerates that!"

Brad received Bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Philosophy, and Theology from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in Astrophysics and Cosmology from Mt. Stromlo Observatory at ANU.

He leads programs using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and TESS to understand why and how stars explode. He’s also building a network of ultraviolet telescopes in the upper atmosphere and conducting a search for Planet 9.

Images 1. areapsim = The red, blue, and green dots are on objects that has moved across the sky over 2 weeks, taken in different images. Finding the color differences allows people to find objects, like a potential Planet 9, faster. Credit: Brad Tucker, Lance Luvual, Chris Wolf (ANU) 2. Dr Brad Tucker.

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A CALL OUT From our friends at Illuminate Adelaide & Adelaide Film Festival .. Expand Lab participants work together in groups to develop new project ideas to present on the final day of the lab. Shortlisted projects will be selected for further development and $5,000 cash support, and will present their projects to a selection panel in February 2025.
Deadline: 8 September

AFF Expand Lab AFF Expand Lab is a collaborative development initiative where visual artists, video artists, filmmakers, writers, and XR and VR creatives come together to learn from each other, work with renowned mentors, and develop bold new moving image projects for Australian audiences and beyond.

POSITION OPEN :: Producer, Tarnanthi Festival Art Gallery of South Australia
Under the limited direction of the Director and Assistant Director, Artistic Programs, the Producer supports the artistic vision and initiatives of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) through high level business delivery of significant projects and events.
Deadline: 28 August at 11pm.

Search Jobs I WORK FOR SA is the official careers website for South Australian Government jobs, featuring diverse career opportunities across the public sector.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS OPEN :: 2025 ANAT Synapse Residency

When art collides with science and technology, magic happens. We're delighted to be calling for applications to the 2025 ANAT Synapse residency program and welcomes submissions from Australian artists who work in any genre with conceptual aims that intersect and deeply engage with science and/or technology.

KEY DATES:
Deadline for applications: 3pm (ACDT), Wed 6 November 2024
Notification of outcome: December 2024
Residency period: Between February and October 2025

ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the South Australian government through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia

2023 ANAT Synapse Residency :: Call for Applications We're calling for applications from artists & scientists for our prestigious Synapse Residency program, which since 2004 has enabled research collaborations between more than 100 artists & scientists.

"I’ve found that once I find like-minded people I trust and who I can depend on, it is a pleasure to continue working and discovering with them across projects.

I am currently an investigator within the Australian Cobotics Centre which looks towards collaborative robots for solutions in manufacturing. This really does push me outside my comfort zone, though the range of backgrounds of the other investigators is extremely wide coming from robotics, AI, design, social sciences, education, the arts and more. "
ANAT alumna John McCormick talks about his biggest influences, as an interdisciplinary artist

John is the star of our August Q&A feature, celebrating 20 years of ANAT Synapse, where we ask an ANAT Synapse alumnus about their place within the art + science + technology network.

READ the feature using the LINK IN OUR BIO.

John McCormick is a technology based artist with a major interest in movement. John has collaborated on works worldwide, including at ISEA, ZERO1SJ, SIGGRAPH, Melbourne Festival, Siggraph Asia, Ars Electronica Futurelab, Tokyo International Forum and ArtScience Museum Singapore.

Images: John McCormick. Photo by Marty Passingham. Investigations into human robot performance and interaction in social and cultural contexts. Photo by Jagan Charjee Pyaraka.

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SAVE THE DATE :: Experimental and Emerging Arts Gathering as part of
From our friends at Vitalstatistix... Adhocracy 2024, 5 – 8 September
Adhocracy takes place at Waterside Workers Hall, Port Adelaide, Yartapuulti

Vitalstatistix – Adhocracy EEA Gathering | Vitalstatistix Incorporated

"There was a palpable energy in the air, one could kind of smell the energies from the trillions of electron volts of energy in the particles which speed around this ring millions of times a second…"
ANAT Synapse Fellow Dr Chris Henschke

"A decade later I am set to return to CERN, to conceptually and materially re-explore this hidden universe buried beneath the pastoral landscape around Geneva."

READ Chris' creative research journal using the LINK in our BIO

The ANAT Synapse Fellowship is supported by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and the ART@CMS program at CERN.

Image credit: Chris Henschke, Arcing tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, 2013
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LAUNCHING 📣 Locale :: ANAT creative in residence

We're delighted to introduce the inaugural Locale ANAT program, with the first hot desk / creative in residence, beginning in June with a sponsored position for SA based artist Constantine (Kosta) Stefanou.

Constantine Stefanou is a Greek-Australian, Adelaide based multidisciplinary sound artist, musician, arts organiser, and emerging scientist. Stefanou is director of the local arts initiative MUD Improvisation and Extended domains which exists to aid in cultural and ecological restoration through empowering individuals, groups and communities to engage in experimental modes of creative practice and research.

Kosta says "MUD is a place for finished and unfinished works, where publishing can be privileged as a process as much as a finality." This focus on process and experimentation is a guiding key principle for ANAT.

READ more using the link in our BIO

Image: Constantine Stefanou, photograph Andrew Kaineder. MUD presents 2nd birthday party, April 16 2023, Documentation, The Queens Theatre Adelaide, photograph Constantine Stefanou.

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APPLICATIONS are now open for the award-winning Adelaide Film Festival Expand Lab.

AFF Expand Lab 2024 will bring together Australian visual artists, filmmakers, writers, and other creatives working with screen, performance, media arts and XR to learn from renowned mentors to develop new project ideas. The lab will be held at Lot Fourteen and run alongside the Adelaide Film Festival closing weekend and encore screenings from November 1 – 8 2024.

South Australian and national mid-career and established practitioners with at least five years of professional creative experience are invited to apply. Participants work together in groups to develop new project ideas with one project awarded the Expand $100,000 Moving Image Commission.

Deadline: midnight on Sunday 8 September.

AFF Expand Lab 2024 - Adelaide Film Festival AFF Expand Lab 2024 is a collaborative development initiative where filmmakers, artists and screen-based practitioners come together to create bold new moving image works.

OPENS TODAY :: ANAT alumnus Catherine Truman's
The (re)Arrangements

Recontextualising six works from Catherine's exhibition, The Arrangements: Assembling Nature, held at the historic house museum Carrick Hill during the 2023 Adelaide Festival.

until 6 September
Catherine will be in conversation with writer and curator Anne Brennan at 2.30pm, on Saturday 3 August. All welcome, bookings not required.

Catherine Truman is an Adelaide-based artist working across the disciplines of art and science, and a co-founder of Gray St Workshop. Her practice incorporates the making of objects, digital imagery, film and installation works with a focus upon the parallels between artistic process and scientific method.

Image: Catherine Truman, ‘Flood’, 2022, fallen eucalypt branches, thermoplastic, photo luminescent powder, glass frog, vintage wooden tray, 900 x 1340 x 900mm. Photo by Grant Hancock.

"We asked what type of music moves us and found a rhythm in Drum and Base inspired sounds. We considered the shape of KAB101’s designs and improvised with the visual provocation. We Danced."
Dr Sarah Neville, ANAT Bespoke :: Agiles

Agiles is an artistic research project investigating virtual reality and augmented reality applications for mobility, balance, creativity and connecting with the joy of dancing.

READ Sarah's creative research journal using the link in our BIO

Dr Sarah Neville (SA) + Eva Sifis (SA) & Associate Professor Belinda Lange (SA) Flinders University – Assemblage Centre For Creative Arts

Agiles is supported by Arts SA ANAT and the Flinders University Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts.

Image: Eva – The Void, photograph KAB101

Flinders University Creative Australia Arts South Australia

Murri woman and ANAT alumni Chantel (Shonny) Bates', work Echoes featured at , during the Sunshine Coast Field Trip. She described the screening as a "pinch me moment".

ANAT is proud to have supported Chantel's artistic practice over the last two years and we're very excited to be partnering with UniSC for our triennial event next year.

ANAT SPECTRA :: Reciprocity
2-4 October, 2025
University of the Sunshine Coast

Image: Screening Chantel Bates, Echoes, UniSC Campus. Image courtesy the artist.
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SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE :: Master of Applied Cybernetics

The ANU Master of Applied Cybernetics, is the first program of its kind in the world. Join a new generation of practitioners who will shape a future that we want through technology that is safe, sustainable and responsible.

Study full-time for 1 year in-person in the heart of Canberra.
Entry is by competitive application only.

DETAILS https://study.cybernetics.anu.edu.au/

BONE DRIFT

In collaboration with ISEA2024 ANAT alumnus Dr Helen Pynor (Artist) and Lizzie Crouch (Creative Producer) BONE DRIFT is a project exploring the fluid identities of temporary and/or hidden disabilities, mobility disabilities, the materiality of actual bone, and its use in bone china making.

During a series of workshops, Helen and Lizzie guided participants through a series of making processes and open discussions, leading to the creation of wax and bone china objects, now exhibited in the Gallery space.

At artisan Machinery Street Gallery until 25 August

Workshop Participants: Rebeca Lisette Crespin, Donalee Moriarty, Hannah Foley, Galit Ariel, Lauren Spriggs, Lindsay Kelley

Images: Bone Drift, exhibition-in-development, Machinery Street Gallery, Artisan (Meanjin Brisbane), 2024.Helen Pynor (Artist), Lizzie Crouch (Creative Producer) in collaboration with Artisan and ISEA2024

Creative Australia Arts South Australia

ANNOUNCING 📣 ANAT Bespoke :: Agile Mobilities

An artistic research project in partnership with Flinders University, investigating Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications for mobility, balance, creativity and connecting with the joy of dancing.

Dr Sarah Neville (SA) + Eva Sifis (SA) & Associate Professor Belinda Lange (SA) Flinders University – Assemblage Centre For Creative Arts

READ more here, https://www.anat.org.au/program/agile-mobilities-anat-bespoke/

Sarah Neville is an Adjunct Research Fellow at University of South Australia Creative/ IVE. She was awarded an Arts SA Established Artist Fellowship in 2021 to create virtual reality dance work. Sarah was awarded a dual award PhD from both Deakin University and Coventry University in dance digitisation in 2022.

ANAT delivers Bespoke projects with science, technology and research partners from the academic and private sector. As the name suggests, no two ANAT Bespoke projects are the same. Every iteration is customised to the project’s unique characteristics and is jointly supported by ANAT and the collaborator.

Images: Sarah Neville and Alex DeGaris, Evocations. Photograph Juha Vanhakartano. Sarah Neville, photo courtesy of the artist.

Creative Australia Arts South Australia

"I have chosen to dive into what is most immediate and personal to me. Namely with the medicine plants my Grandmother knew intimately, distilled, used and passed down to her children and grandchildren. She inherited a treasure trove of medicine plant praxis from the multiple generations of grandmothers before her."

Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello 2024 ANAT Synapse resident

READ Jennifer's Creative Research Journal,
https://kemarre2024.blog.anat.org.au/

In her explorative project "The Stories Beneath My Ancestors’ Footprints" with collaborator Prof Simon Haberle, The School of Culture, History and Languages, ANU, Jennifer aims to discover the paleoecological substrata of her Aboriginal and Chinese ancestors’ lands.

Image: Utnerrenge/Emu Bush (Eremophila alternifolia) at Hookeys Waterhole, Nappamurra River system near Oodnadatta Far north South Australia. Photo by Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello, November 2022.

Creative Australia Arts South Australia

Art Throb's David Jobling speaks with our CEO, Melissa DeLaney, about how ANAT creates opportunities for artists to experiment with science and technology.

Radio Adelaide's Art Throb lovingly presses your ear to the pulse of the Arts in South Australia and beyond.

LISTEN HERE
https://radioadelaide.org.au/2024/07/12/future-now/

Creative Australia Arts South Australia

"Artists in this area are groundbreakers – changing social thinking, inventing materials and methods, creating movements, feeding discrete artforms and social futures. We spend more time acquiring skills and knowledge, developing relationships, and prototyping work – cycles that require high amounts of financial and resource investment with little to no return. This is the area most in need of long-term investment and would be one of the best case studies for a universal basic income."

ANAT alumna Cat Jones describes the challenges interdisciplinary artists face.

Cat is the star of our July Q&A feature, celebrating 20 years of ANAT Synapse, where we ask an ANAT Synapse alumnus about their place within the art + science + technology network.

READ the feature here, https://www.anat.org.au/qa-july-2024/

Cat Jones is an artist, writer, and researcher thinking across social, biological and metaphysical realms. She collaborates with neuroscientists, biologists, entomologists, and gastronomists to create immersive experiences and socially engaged artworks that subvert history, language, science and the senses.

Image: 1. Cat Jones. 2. Anatomy’s Confection, participant sculpture, detail view, Proximity Festival, Fremantle Art Centre. Image © 2014 Cat Jones. 3. Century’s Breath, box edition. Image © 2016 Cat Jones.

Creative Australia Arts South Australia

ANAT is delighted to welcome three new ANAT Board members:
r e a, Christopher D. Schaffer and Brad Tucker.

ANAT is delighted to introduce r e a, an Indigenous Australian artist and cultural educator renowned for her work on Indigenous identity and post-colonial themes; Christopher D. Schaffer, a lawyer specialising in civil and commercial law with interests in strategic advice and Artificial Intelligence and Brad Tucker, an Astrophysicist and Cosmologist recognised for his research on stellar explosions and Planet 9, as well as his public science outreach efforts.

READ more details using the LINK in our BIO

ANAT Board: Chair, Michael Nelson, Brad Darkson, ANAT CEO Melissa DeLaney, Melita Grant, r e a, Christopher D. Schaffer, Brad Tucker, Michele Saint-Yves and Ana Tiquia.

Images: 1. r e a, photograph Josef Ruckli. 2. Christopher D Schaffer. 3. Brad Tucker

Dr Brad Tucker Creative Australia Arts South Australia

ANAT SPECTRA 2025 :: Reciprocity
2-4 October, UniSC WE are pleased to 🔥 ANNOUNCE this work and more will be grounded by a 4 year service delivery partnership from 2025-2028 with Creative Australia.

ANAT acknowledges the vital support of Arts South Australia and Creative Australia in underpinning ANAT’s 2025-2028 strategic vision and ability to grow relationships with industry, academia, the community and government to create unique opportunities for artists.

The Beeyali project began with Lyndon Davis's idea to visualise wildlife calls using cymatics—the science of visualising sound or acoustic energy.

Lyndon's collaborative research with Leah Barclay and Tricia King has integrated Indigenous knowledge, creative practice, and new technology. Together, they have developed a significant body of creative work, exploring innovative methods to reveal the ecological interconnections in our environment.

We're looking forward to presenting ANAT SPECTRA :: Reciprocity in partnership with UniSC, on Kabi Kabi Country, in the heart of the Sunshine Coast Biosphere Reserve.

Image: Beeyali, 2021, Lyndon Davis, Leah Barclay, Tricia King. Beeyali is a Kabi Kabi word meaning “to call”.

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Are you interested in joining the next cohort of ANU School of Cybernetics Masters program. Scholarships are available.

Join a new generation of practitioners who will shape a future that we want through technology that is safe, sustainable and responsible.

Entry to the ANU Master of Applied Cybernetics is by competitive application only, and the number of students is limited to under 20.

Apply for our 2025 cohort.
Visit: cybernetics.anu.edu.au/education/masters/

The ANU Library ANAT Engineering, Computing & Cybernetics at ANU Engineering, Computing & Cybernetics at ANU Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering

respect relationships reciprocity responsibility

At the heart of Postcommodity's (Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist) ISEA2024 presentation, were the 4 r's proposed by Indigenous trailblazer Verna Kirkness and her writing partner Ray Barnhardt.

For Team ANAT, capturing a moment in the zeitgeist has always reinforced the validity and strength of the concept or idea. On the final day of ISEA2024 we were delighted to announce ANAT SPECTRA 2025
Reciprocity :: 2-4 October
In partnership with The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), hosted on Kabi Kabi Country

This incarnation of ISEA... Everywhen, explored the concept that past, present, and future coexist in any given place. Unlike the Western view of time as linear, First Nations Australians perceive all time periods as existing simultaneously in the constant presence of place.

We congratulate ISEA2024's Program Committee: Leah King-Smith Steph Hutchison Lincoln Morgan Strong Vanessa Van Ooyen Angela Goddard Andrew Brown Michelle Brown


Image credits: 1. 3. Professor Angie Abdilla, Indigenous Protocols for Artificial Intelligence (IP//AI)​ Workshop #3. 2. Ross Manning, Matter & Matrix. 3. Lyndon Davis, Leah Barclay, Tricia King, Beeyali. 4. Postcommodity. 5. Jonathan Roberts, Jenn Brazier, Melissa DeLaney and Aushaf Widisto. 6. Grayson Cooke and Melissa DeLaney. 7. Urban Art Projects Brisbane

Shoes off. Close your eyes. Breathe.
Four seconds in, six seconds out.

Three powerful keynotes set the scene for ISEA2024 Everywhen, beginning with these transformative words from Prof Angie Abdilla.

Team ANAT was delighted to partner with and serve on the steering committee for ISEA2024 Everywhen. We were excited to be on Country in Meanjin, personally experiencing the twenty-ninth International Symposium on Electronic Art.


ISEA2024, Everywhen took us into forests, oceans, and labs to explore the instruments and methodologies guiding our alumni's research. We were invited backstage to understand the storytelling tools of these artists, technologists and researchers.

In addition to hosting two events and a workshop, we had the pleasure of reconnecting with many ANAT alumni, experiencing their presented artworks and academic papers. A highlight was our visit to ANAT Synapse resident Keith Armstrong's long-term art+science project, Forest Art Intelligence (FAI).

Image credits: 1. rea, Native 2. Professor Angie Abdilla. 3. Prof Gavin Sade & Wesley Enoch AM. 4. ISEA2024 Everywhen 5. FAI site visit Melissa DeLaney, Jenn Brazier, Aushaf Widisto, Keith Armstrong, Angie Abdilla and Dr. David Tucker. 6. Angie Abdilla, Meditation on Country.

Creative Australia Arts South Australia ANU School of Cybernetics QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Keith Armstrong
Griffith University Art Museum