NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER ISSUE SSUE SSUE TWO WO WO | NOVEMBER OVEMBER OVEMBER 2011 2011 2011 Faculty of Creative Arts | Newsletter - November 2011 FCA Visual Arts was one of only six Australian institutions that received the ERA 2010 rating of 4 (above world standard) for research quality. In this issue In this issue In this issue Events Events Events FCA Upcoming Events FCA Upcoming Events FCA Upcoming Events Staff & Students Staff & Students Staff & Students FCA News / Updates FCA News / Updates FCA News / Updates This is the quarterly newsletter of the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong Faculty of Creative Arts Building 25, Northfields Ave, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 E: [email protected]W: http://www.uow.edu.au/crearts/ T: +61 2 4221 3996 F: +61 2 4221 3301 Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome to the second of the FCA newsletters for 2011 and as you can see from the articles within it, we’ve been a very busy faculty this semester. It’s striking just how much has happened with and for our students and staff and this speaks eloquently for the vibrancy and creativity of the faculty. It also says a lot about just how much peo- ple have done over the past 18 weeks or so, especially in their engagements with students and the wider commu- nity. The faculty rightly deserves its reputation as a hothouse of exciting and innovative teaching and creative production and our students continue to gain a great deal from working in such an environment. The faculty also offers a friendly and collegial space with staff and students working on projects together, our corridors, spaces, classrooms and gallery reflecting this with exhibitions, launches, performances and productions. We hosted some interesting visitors from Australia and around the world who brought new ideas into the area. These included Professor Peggy Phelan, Patricia Foster from Iowa, photographer William Yang, editor and writer Jeff Sparrow and crime writer and raconteur, Shane Ma- loney, who is also completing a doctorate in the faculty. 2012 promises a range of visitors and fellows including poet in residence, Kate Middleton and later in the year, Professor Brian Castro as well as an array of visiting fel- lows in Theatre, Visual Arts and Design. In addition to open nights which introduced potential new students to the faculty, we’ve seen world class perform- ances from Sound and Performance students, book and Tide launches from creative writers, dedications to lost promise in the Ben Frater memorial, paintings and digital work and journalism and radio. One of the great joys of working in such a place is the enthusiasm for and delight in creative practice, and we see and hear this in spades whenever we walk around the building – be it someone playing the piano or singing, reciting their lines or hanging their work in the cloisters, all the things that make us happy to be involved in teaching here. During Spring semester we also welcomed a number of new staff - Professor Ian McLean, Kathryn Hamilton, Marketing & Communications and Jarene Colless, Admin Officer. In 2012 we bid welcome to Dr Su Ballard and Timothy Daly with further appointments pending in Graphic Design and Performance. We’ve bid farewell to some staff as well and wish Dr Catherine Fargher, Ali Mohammad Hesamfar, Laura Potter, Jason Challinor, Brooke House and all the best in their careers and future endeavours. A well earned break is coming up so it’s with this in mind, on behalf of the executive thank you for all your hard work, dedication and professionalism in your contribution you the faculty and UOW. Enjoy the festive season with those you hold dear, get lots of rest and also have lots of fun. Best regards Professor Cathy Cole Deputy Dean
Welcome to the second of the FCA newsletters for 2011 and as you can see from the articles within it, we’ve been a very busy faculty this semester. It’s striking just how much has happened with and for our students and staff and this speaks eloquently for the vibrancy and creativity of the faculty. It also says a lot about just how much peo-ple have done over the past 18 weeks or so, especially in their engagements with students and the wider commu-nity. The faculty rightly deserves its reputation as a hothouse of exciting and innovative teaching and creative production and our students continue to gain a great deal from working in such an environment. The faculty also offers a friendly and collegial space with staff and students working on projects together, our corridors, spaces, classrooms and gallery reflecting this with exhibitions, launches, performances and productions. We hosted some interesting visitors from Australia and around the world who brought new ideas into the area. These included Professor Peggy Phelan, Patricia Foster from Iowa, photographer William Yang, editor and writer Jeff Sparrow and crime writer and raconteur, Shane Ma-loney, who is also completing a doctorate in the faculty. 2012 promises a range of visitors and fellows including poet in residence, Kate Middleton and later in the year, Professor Brian Castro as well as an array of visiting fel-lows in Theatre, Visual Arts and Design. In addition to open nights which introduced potential new students to the faculty, we’ve seen world class perform-ances from Sound and Performance students, book and Tide launches from creative writers, dedications to lost promise in the Ben Frater memorial, paintings and digital work and journalism and radio. One of the great joys of working in such a place is the enthusiasm for and delight in creative practice, and we see and hear this in spades whenever we walk around the building – be it someone playing the piano or singing, reciting their lines or hanging their work in the cloisters, all the things that make us happy to be involved in teaching here. During Spring semester we also welcomed a number of new staff - Professor Ian McLean, Kathryn Hamilton, Marketing & Communications and Jarene Colless, Admin Officer. In 2012 we bid welcome to Dr Su Ballard and Timothy Daly with further appointments pending in Graphic Design and Performance.
We’ve bid farewell to some staff as well and wish Dr Catherine Fargher, Ali Mohammad Hesamfar, Laura Potter, Jason Challinor, Brooke House and all the best in their careers and future endeavours. A well earned break is coming up so it’s with this in mind, on behalf of the executive thank you for all your hard work, dedication and professionalism in your contribution you the faculty and UOW. Enjoy the festive season with those you hold dear, get lots of rest and also have lots of fun. Best regards Professor Cathy Cole Deputy Dean
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EventsEventsEvents
FCA hosts world leading Performance and Visual Arts scholar Professor Peggy Phelan
One of the world‟s leading performance and visual arts scholars, Professor Peggy Phelan, visited Wollongong from 2-4 August as a guest of UOW‟s Faculty of Creative Arts. Phelan, who is the Ann O’Maples Day Chair in the Arts at Stanford University, presented a public lecture on Wednesday 3 August on American artist Eva Hesse. The lecture, titled Eva Hesse: Material and Future Histories, examined the slow ephemerality of minimalist sculptor Hesse's late works. Working with perishable material, Hesse's ambivalence about their eventual deterioration illuminates central issues in contemporary performance, photography, and theory. Moreover, since much of her art was a response to the history of the catastrophe of the Holocaust, the question of disappearance was both a vivid personal drama for Hesse and her family and an important conceptual horizon for 'art after Auschwitz' more generally. Phelan‟s visit also included the presentation of a seminar on 2 August titled Queer Autobiography: Practices, Theories, Enactments. Phelan‟s seminar explored the narratalogical and psychoanalytical issues raised by the deaths of two influential queer theorists, Eve Sedgwick and Lynda Hart. Professor Phelan‟s visit concluded with a Senior Artists Research Forum Masterclass for Doctorates in Creative Arts on the 4 August. Phelan provided feedback on research being undertaken by the participants in this accelerated creative doctoral program. The Senior Artists Research Forum is under the leadership of FCA‟s Professor Diana Wood Conroy.
Phelan‟s most recent visit to UOW is her second. In 2004 Phelan memorably lectured on Photography and 9/11 in 2004 as part of The Biennale of Sydney. This remarkable scholar, whose books including Unmarked: the Politics of Performance and Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories has influenced more than a generation of stu-dents and scholars in the performing and visual arts, is „struck‟ by UOW‟s commitment to the creative arts.
The Noise String Quartet comes to FCA
FCA sound students were treated to workshops and performances by the innovative The Noise String Quartet. This Sydney based ensemble of classically-trained musicians have gained a reputation as adventurous and experimental performers. Unlike most traditional string quartets, their members are composers as well as performers, and their music features improvisation as well as electro-acoustic and theatrical elements. In a recent performance titled Biodiversity, the event took place in the Australian Museum amidst displays of native animals, insects and whales, and featured a series of directed improvisations inspired by "the teeming life in our fragile biosphere". The Noise String Quartet worked with FCA sound students and performed pieces selected from recent work-shops, as well as a special presentation of a new work in development by internationally renowned composer, Georges Lentz www.georgeslentz.com/
Independent Publishing House ‘Grand
Parade Poets’ National Launch
Independent publishing house Grand Parade Poets was launched in Melbourne on 14 August. The brain child of FCA‟s Alan Warne, Grand Parade Poets first printed pub-lications include the collection of poems 6am in the Uni-verse by the late Benjamin Frater.
On the 21 September Benjamin Frater‟s 6am in the Universe was launched at FCA. A memorial plaque and Himalayan Cedar was dedicated to the poet and former FCA student. The memorial event included a poetry reading from special guest Australian poet, Jaya Savige.
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Resident Artist Laura Brown ‘Listening to the City’ FCA Artist in Residence, Lauren Brown, held two on-campus listening projects as part of her residency titled Listening to the City. Brown‟s 30-minute sound work captures the public soundscape of the university campus. Perhaps you have heard the zen koan 'if a tree falls in a forest, and there is no-one there to hear it, does it make a sound?' Brown‟s work addresses this philosophical question and presents the „unheard‟ sounds of the campus environment. Brown saw her work as an opportunity to understand „site - especially the site of research, learning, study - through its sound and the role of sound in public as political‟. Participants were asked to list the sounds heard in the recording - creating a text version of the soundscape. Participants were provided with a notebook, but encour-aged to transcribe their 'lists' to make them available for others. Documentation of the work including images will be available for students to use in future works. For more information http://listeningtothecity.blogspot.com
FCA’S Terumi Narushima and Kraig Grady Perform at the Sydney Opera House FCA‟s Terumi Narushima and Kraig Grady performed with Sydney-based Ensemble Offspring in a groundbreak-ing performance in ode to the pioneering musical spirit of American maverick Harry Partch at the Sydney Opera House in September. The ensemble, which has almost 15 years experience, has a reputation for original program-ming, quality performances and successful audience engagement with a commitment to a living classical music tradition combining classics of the 20th century with the music of tomorrow from Australia and abroad.
Partch‟s musical mastery in microtonal scales and instru-ment building has inspired a growing generation of musicians and instrument builders around the world.
Wollongong musician and FCA academic Kraig Grady has a direct lineage to Harry Partch and was commissioned by Ensemble Offspring to design new musical instruments for this project, the visually striking and sonically beautiful Centaur Vibraphone for the performance. Californian-cum-Wollongong musician, Grady also comes on board as a composer along with UOW academic and musician Terumi Narushima, EO Co-Artistic Director, Damien Ricketson, Blake Art prize finalist Amanda Cole. Partch’s Bastard’s was enjoyed from the comfort of cushions in the stunning Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House.
FCA Postgraduate Week: 5 September - 9 September FCA‟s annual Postgraduate Week kicked off on Monday 5 September. The theme for the five day program was Practice Led Research and included nationally and inter-nationally renowned guest artists discussing their practice. Photographer and performer, William Yang, presented the opening keynote address Life Becoming Art. Yang‟s presentation was followed by John Gillies who discussed the history of video art in Australia. Doctoral candidate Deborah Pollard explored her recent bi-cultural project, 'Within and Without' created in collaboration with a team of Philippino artists.
FCA MCA-R candidate, Karen Therese presented on her recent residency at PS122 in New York where she worked on performance and „live art festivals‟ as well as present-ing examples of her own creative development. The program also included an artist panel discussion including Lucas Ihlein, Diego Bonetto, Sarah Rodigari and Nick Keys. The artist panel addressed the relation-ship between art and social practice, focusing on a number of their recent and current projects. Guest speaker Rachael Swain discussed the intercultural multimedia performance work undertaken by Marrugeku. Marrugeku’s performance work has seen the company presenting work at festivals nationally and internationally. FCA‟S Dr Mary Finsterer also discussed film and music composition.
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The Postgraduate week program presented a panel discussion addressing participatory art-making, presenta-tions by creative practitioners including novelists and poets and a range of presentations by HDR students across art forms. The program proved to be a great opportunity to engage with new ideas and projects and discuss research led contemporary practice.
FCA Spanish Connections Dr Merlinda Bobis presented her paper Transnational Story-making and “dreaming latitude” via webcast to the Spanish institution Campus do Mar. Merlinda is currently researching the „transnational imaginary‟ and strategies for „localising the global‟ in cultural production. The web-cast can be accessed at http://tv.campusdomar.es
FCA ‘Nude Auction’ 2011 The annual Nude Auction was held in September in the Faculty of Creative Arts. The annual fundraising event is organised by the student-run Graduate Show Committee. The event is a highlight in the UOW calendar and raises funds for the end of year Graduate Show. The exhibition of donated works showcases FCA staff and student work in a range of media including painting, photography and digital media on the subject of „the nude‟. Renowned for the high standard of work submitted, the Nude Auction has become a popular UOW event and a very successful graduation show fundraising program, raising over $3000
this year.
Experience Creative Arts!
On the 27 September FCA opened its doors for a night of creativity at the Experience Creative Arts! event. Designed for those interested in studying creative arts, Experience Creative Arts! included workshops, perform-ances, guided tours and exhibitions of students and academic staff artworks. The festival style event allowed visitors to have a hands-on exploration of the programs for Creative Writing, Graphic Design, Visual Arts, Media Arts/Digital Media, Journalism and Performance/Theatre. Experience Creative Arts! was a great opportunity for FCA to promote the faculty with over 300 visitors. It also provided the opportunity for future students to speak with academic staff and current students about study options and life at UOW.
Theatre Studies Book Launch Dr Margaret Hamilton launched her publication – Transfigured Stages: Major Practitioners and Theatre Aesthetics in Australia at FCA on Monday 5 September. The publication explores the excitement surrounding the
Experience Creative Arts! event 27 September 2011. Photogra-
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key period in the emergence of postdramatic theatre in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. Transfigured Stages: Major Practitioners and Theatre Aesthetics in Australia is the first work to discuss by The Sydney Front (1986 – 1993) and Open City (1987 – ), and engages contempo-rary cultural and aesthetic theory to analyse performances by these artists, as well as theatre productions by Jenny Kemp and others. These performance practitioners are considered as part of an international paradigm attesting to forms of theatre that no longer operate according to the established principles of drama. This book also highlights the complexity of Indigenous theatre through its analysis of the Mudrooroo-Müller project staged in 1996.
FCA Performance students at PACT As part of the Sydney Fringe Festival, recent FCA Performance graduates (2007 - 2010) presented new work at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, Sydney. PACT feeds the ecology of artistic practice in Australia by providing a centre for emerging artists to create, produce and present inter-disciplinary and experimental contempo-rary performance and form professional networks and exchange skills. Their mission is to support and produce for emerging artists who create performing arts works that push past the boundaries of traditional, mainstream and single artform practices. The participating FCA graduates both wrote and per-formed shows as part of a curated program for the Sydney Fringe Festival at PACT Centre for Emerging
Artists. For more information and the full program visit PACT‟s website www.pact.net.au
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas Performance group Appelspiel were invited to perform at this year‟s Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House in September. The group of FCA Perform-ance graduates were invited to perform alongside events with high profile guests including Julian Assange, Jonathan Safran, Foer and Slavoj Zizek. The group share an interest in „dodgy (yet hilarious) aes-thetic ideals and the intellectual rigor of prog-rock concept albums‟. Polemic, prolific and at least a little dangerous, they have most recently featured at the Tiny Stadiums Festival and Underbelly Arts 2011. For more information visit www.sydneyoperahouse.com/festivalofdangerousideas/default.aspx
Opera Performance: The Dark, the light Dr Lotte Latukefu (mezzo soprano) performed with Cathy Aggett (Soprano), Kevin Hanrahan (tenor) and Diana Blom (piano) in The Dark, the light which featured contemporary Australian and American art songs. Held at the University of Western Sydney and the Wollongong Conservatorium, the events included songs spanning nearly 150 years (1856-2004), with most of the unpub-lished Sculthorpe songs being performed for the first time in almost 60 years.
Radio Journalism Students Second year FCA Radio Journalism students broadcasted six 'live' half hour radio shows from the radio/TV studios . The shows were a mix of interviews, pre-recorded stories, vox pops and live music, with a few music students contributing to the shows. Speakers were set-up outside the studio to encourage audience participating in the „live action‟. The shows are being podcasted on 'the current' journalism school site at www.thecurrentmagazine.com/uow-audio/uow-student-radio-show/
The Power of Voice On 2 November Dr Siobhan McHugh discussed her work The Power of Voice at the Five Islands Brewery. Siobhan‟s work explores the rapidly evolving media land-scape and the enduring power of „hearing others recount simple moments and significant turning-points in their „ordinary‟ lives. Collectively, such stories can provide insight into our shared history and humanity and deepen our sense of community and connection‟. For more information visit: www.uow.edu.au/research/unibrewery
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FCA Hosts Leading Australian Writers FCA was host to a number of leading Australian writers in 2011 who provided students and staff with the opportunity to explore diverse writing practices and a range of inspira-tional ideas. Writers in the 2011 program included; Shane Maloney, Patricia Foster, Gail Jones and Jeff Sparrow.
The FCA Creative Writing program will continue to host eight exciting writers in 2012.
FCA TIDE Anthology Launch On 28 October FCA Creative Writing students launched the eighth edition of TIDE, a writing anthology, to a crowd of over eighty people in the FCA foyer. The students created the publication as part of the subject WRIT316 „Advanced Editing‟, and were responsible for soliciting all of the work, laying it out, fundraising costs, and preparing for the launch. TIDE features poetry, prose and scripts by professional writers, FCA alumni and current FCA students. “It gives students a chance to work as real editors for something that has a lifespan beyond the subject. Lecturer and tutor, Selena Hanet-Hutchins, and the students have done a great job. I‟m really proud of this latest edition,” subject coordinator Dr Shady Cosgrove said.
FCA Upcoming EventsFCA Upcoming EventsFCA Upcoming Events 22 - 25 November - Masters of Creative Arts Graphic Design 2011 Exhibition at the Digital Media Centre, Mike Codd Building, Innovation Campus
28 November - FCA Performance Graduate Showcase at Belvoir Street Theatre Downstairs (25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills) at 3pm
23 November - 8 December - CATCH: No Two Alike in the Faculty of Creative Arts, Building 25, weekdays from 9am-5pm. This is a Graphic Design, Media Arts and Visual Arts exhibition.
Staff & studentsStaff & studentsStaff & students
Student News Chris Anderson, FCA Honours Student in Media Arts/Graphic Design, had a bumper month in August! Chris was featured in the SRD Change (sustainable design) exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. As well as an exhibiting artist, Chris was also a member of the exhibition organising committee, and was responsible for the design the graphic layout for exhibition. For more information visit www.srdchange.org/about/about.html Chris has also been featured in the media for his Honours project 1000 broken surfboard graveyard. For more infor-mation visit Chris‟ project blog at http://1000surfboardgraveyard.blogspot.com/ Chris has also recently been awarded a $1000 grant from the Sydney chapter of the "Awesome Foundation". This grant will provide seed-funding for his biodegradable surf-board project 1000 broken surfboard graveyard. Chris has also been the recipient of the $1000 Pitching Excellence Award in the UOW Trailblazer Innovation Competition for his work 'Sustainable Shredding: A Biodegradable Surfboard Foam'.
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Congratulations to Master of Journalism graduate, Rowan Dalgleish, whose new documentary, Waves of Change - The Fragile Shore of Tuvalu, aired on Radio National's Encounter series. For more information visit www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/ Recent FCA graduates Lily Calderbank, Chris Dunstan, Jennifer Medway, Kirby Medway, Kevin Ng, and current BCA Honours students Mara Lazzarotto Davis, and Douglas Niebling toured the country in September and October with their eponymously named Building 25 Collective. The group performed for the Under the Radar Festival in Brisbane, and at the Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle. For more information visit http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW111269.html On Wednesday 5 October Wollongong Police launched a safety campaign on the UOW Wollongong Campus. The poster campaign was developed and designed by FCA 3rd year Design students and aimed to develop UOW domestic and international students engagement with local Wollongong Police. The campaign titled "Call me" is a significant crime prevention strategy in the ongoing working relationship with the Wollongong Command that will flow into 2012.
On Wednesday 19 October, FCA graduate Dara Gill had his work included as part of the event 2020. The event which is 20 exhibitions held across 20 consecutive nights, was being held at Annex Space in Redfern. The exhibition was organised by the Jon Frum Art Foundation. For more information visit www.2020art2011.com/p/calander.html
FCA Staff Achievements
Jo Law has been awarded an Australia Council's Visual Arts Board $20,000 New Work (Established Artist) Grant for her project The Illustrated Almanac. For more information visit the project at http:/almanac.photonicsmedia.net/ Stephen Tanner and Marcus O'Donnell, working with Kerry Green from UniSA, were awarded an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Grant for $120,000. The project is titled Graduate qualities and journalism curricu-lum renewal: balancing tertiary expectations and industry needs in a changing environment. Dr Lucas Ihlein launched his project Green Bans Art Walk in Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross on 6 August. The work is an exploration via perambulation of the history of inner Sydney's urban fabric from the point of view of the 1970‟s Green Bans movement. The Green Bans Art Walk project was a collaboration between Big Fag Press and The Cross Arts Projects and presented by Performance Space. For more information visit Further www.performancespace.com.au/2011/green-bans/ Congratulations go to Dr Catherine Fargher who has achieved critical success with her project, Dr Egg and the Man with No Ear. Catherine was awarded with the 44th Annual AWGIE Award for „Outstanding Performance Writing in Children‟s Theatre‟, as well as receiving a $15,000 grant from the Australia Council‟s Literature Board. Congratulations also goes to AWGIE Award winners, FCA guest lecturers Katherine Thompson and Vanessa Bates. Katherine was awarded for her work King Tide in the Radio: Adaption category and Vanessa for her work East West 101 - Season 3: The Hero’s Journey‟ in the „Television: Mini Series Original‟ category. For more information about the 44th AWGIE Awards and nominations please visit http://email.pollen.com.au/t/r-816607E60B50F769 Tom Williams is co-editing an exciting new online contemporary photography magazine Time Machine with photographer and curator Lee Grant. The new online publication was launched on 30 August. For more information please visit http://timemachinemag.com
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Congratulations to FCA Journalism Lecturer Shawn Burns and FCA Graphic Design Lecturer Jo Stirling who were awarded with a Community Engagement Grant for their project entitled Shoalhaven Media Makers (SMM). The project aims to present a series of eight multi-media and social impact workshops, designed to equip young people in the Shoalhaven with skills and knowledge to produce mission-driven media. For more information visit www.uow.edu.au/crearts/news/UOW110032.html On the 15 September FCA Visual Arts Lecturer Jacky Redgate was awarded one of Australia‟s most prestigious photography prizes, the $25,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, at Monash Gallery of Art for her photograph Light throw (mirrors) #4 2011, from her series Light throw (mirrors). The photograph is a large still life arrangement created by throwing light from silver, bronze and grey mirrors on to brightly coloured modular plastic food containers from the 1960s and 1970s – labelled “a cosmos or cosmology of objects” by Ms Redgate. For more information visit http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW110493.html FCA Journalism Lecturer Dr Siobhan McHugh will be the first writer to feature in a new app Varuna. The Writers'
House in Katoomba has been awarded funding by the Australia Council for the Arts to produce a Varuna Writer-a-Day app which will include 365 recorded readings, including a reading from Siobhan‟s book Minefields and Miniskirts. The readings are available via the international iTunes store. For further information and to hear the reading, see the following webpage http://varunathewritershouse.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/writer-a-day-siobhan-mchugh-reading-from-minefields-and-miniskirts/#more-482 Siobhan also gave a reading at the launch of the new online book club, Bookish Book Club, at the Wollongong City Gallery on Friday 26 August, where her book Minefields and Miniskirts was featured as Book of the Month. For further information, see www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1943822311614.2096875.1124172233 Further congratulations also go to Siobhan and Dr Jacqueline Baker (Law) on their success in receiving a $10,000 grant in the recent URC funding round for their research project, 'Voicing scholarship: An aural study of police shootings in Indonesia'.
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For more information on the 2012 URC Small Grant funding please visit https://intranet.uow.edu.au/raid/rso/grantoutcomes/UOW110976.html Congratulations to Dr David Blackall on the selection of his documentary film Lost Innocents of Kashmir for the Raindance Film Festival. David‟s film made its world premiere on Monday 3 October in London. Lost Innocents of Kashmir has also been selected for the upcoming Montreal International Documentary Festival. For more information on Lost Innocents of Kashmir and David‟s selection visit www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?id=550,7808,0,0,1,0. The Illawarra Mercury also featured an article on David and the Lost Innocents of Kashmir on Monday 4 October. Congratulations to Dr Catherine McKinnon, Theatre Fellow and casual lecturer in stage craft and acting in the Performance and Theatre Program. An established writer, Catherine, who has directed and help develop many new Australian plays, has been awarded $50,000 to develop a trilogy of plays in the „Writing for Performance‟ category of the Australia Council‟s Literature Board.
FCA Summer Session Enrolments for summer sessions in Creative Arts opened in September and will continue until December. A range of courses will encourage students to immerse themselves in the world of theatre, visual arts and creative writing and advance their understanding of creative practice in our contemporary world. More information can be found at www.uow.edu.au/crearts/UOW110184.html
UOW Early Entry This year UOW received nearly 3000 applications for Early Entry, with more than 500 applications received by Creative Arts. The outcomes of applications were re-leased from 4th October, with all applicants receiving no-tice of their outcome by 14th October.
ITS UPDATE Academics and staff are reminded that approved requests for new or upgraded software installations for Autumn Session 2012 have a deadline of the end of November 2011. The deadline for the 2nd session in 2012 is April. Requests should be entered on the official ITS Software Request Forms are available from FCA Central. Recent negotiations with ITS have also resulted in standard pricing for student printing in our premium print facilities, i.e. printing will cost the same in labs as in the general access Library printers.
FCA OH&S New first aid officers have been appointed in FCA. Jarene Colless is the primary First Aid Officer for the faculty, with Aaron Hull also listed as a Faculty First Aid Officer.
Worlds 2011 Professor Catherine Cole was invited to Worlds 2011 in Norwich in June. Worlds is an annual gathering of writers and is run jointly by the University of East Anglia and the Writers Centre Norwich. What makes this event different from other writers‟ festivals is that it focuses each year on a particular theme. In 2009 and 2010 the gathering ex-plored notions of translation, transmission and the various ways that writers around the world came into contact with new work and how that „transformed‟ their own writing in some way. The theme for this year was Influence. Another unique feature of the gathering is the way in which writers engage in dialogue about their ideas. Each morning a salon is held in the Council Chamber at UEA and all the writers – usually around 30 people - meet to spend a morning in intense dialogue about writers and writing. This salon is at the heart of World‟s approaches and „is intended to be a stimulating, challenging and inclusive debate‟.
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Afternoons are spent in community-based activities at the university and in and around Norwich. The gathering at-tracts the interest of people from all around the region who come to the events at the Norwich library, Norwich Playhouse theatre or at various campus venues. As well as these readings Worlds hosts a number of other events. This year it was the launch of Granta 115 – the F word, a special Granta edition about feminism, launched at the gathering by AS Byatt and Urvashi Butalia. Norwich has applied to be a UNESCO City of Literature and a meeting was held for representatives from the other Cities of Literature including Iowa, Dublin, Edinburgh and Melbourne. Dublin City of Literature hosted readings by Joseph O‟Connor and John Boyne. And as a City of Refuge, Norwich celebrated Refugee Week with readings by Hisham Matar (USA/Libya), Philo Ikonya (Norway/Kenya) and Tahmima Anam (England/Bangladesh) , all of them writers who have experienced persecution because of their work. The gathering invited a diverse range of writers from around the world – some of them new and emerging writers, others Nobel prize winners. This year the festival featured:
The writer /translators Alfred Birnbaum who has worked with and translated the works of Haruki Murakami and Maureen Freely who translated the work of Orhan Pamuk.
The poets included Pulitzer prize winning poet C.K. Williams and emerging Australian poet Claire Potter as well as Gwyneth Lewis, Wales‟s first National Poet and the Russian new wave poets Dimitry Kuzmin and Linor Goralik.
Novelists included Alex Preston (USA), Shyam Selvadurai (Sri Lanka), Luke Williams (UK), Gail Jones (Australia), Evie Wyld (UK), Cab Tran (USA), Jon McGregor (UK), Hisham Matar (USA), Andrei Kurkov(Russia), Manu Joseph(India).
Also attending were representatives from Britain‟s and international arts organizations, literary agencies, publish-ing houses, university writing programs and translation centres. Worlds is a special event where friendship are forged and partnerships established, but most importantly it provides a very unique space in which writers can discuss and reflect on their own and other writers‟ work and writing practice from a global perspective all infused with the generous spirit of creative curiosity.
