This unit of study examines the discourse of memory through the practice of contemporary art and theory. From this perspective, it considers the relationship between memory, the politics of identity, and history through a critical exploration of different forms of remembrance, such as: storytelling and autobiography; collective memory; forgetting and the erasure of time; and trauma and embodiment.

Animation as a form spans the visual arts and the entertainment industry. This unit explores theories and histories of animation that address these diverse contexts. One strand focuses on the relationship between art movements and animation practices from the early 20th century on, and the legacy of this in contemporary experimental and independent animation. A second strand focuses on animation as popular culture, including the important role of animation in the development of cinematic SFX, including CGI. The unit explores the various textual strategies used in animation, such as abstraction, self-referentiality and intertextuality, as well as analyzing the critical impulse in animation given its traditionally 'low' cultural status

Our current era of biennales and international galleries compels a wider analysis and a rethinking of basic forms and definitions of contemporary art. This unit of study focuses on how the worldwide production and dissemination of contemporary art interacts with ideas about nationalism, ethnic identity, and cosmopolitanism, and seeks to test the limits of the conceptualization of the global in art.

Feminism scrutinizes the building blocks of culture and identity, seeking to explain how power relations - including those that naturalise gender inequality - are embedded in knowledges and practices. Feminism is thus a powerful tool for understanding our image culture and the way visual images narrativise power relations. Pioneering this critique nearly fifty years ago, feminist artists helped to forge the transition from modernist to postmodernist cultural strategies. They prioritised subject-matter, skills and design principles that had been neglected in late modernism. They criticised the idea of art as separate from society and beyond politics and power, and communicated with broader audiences through video, performance, mixed media, installation, posters and photography. They re-routed both women's traditional arts and the conventional high art media of painting and sculpture. Today these experiments remain a central platform of contemporary art, including forms of visual arts interventions in participatory and networked democracy known as 'social practice'. Many of the conceptual, material and practical dimensions of contemporary art have been derived from feminist practice, albeit in unacknowledged form. This unit considers the many ways feminist critiques inform contemporary art, contextualizing current practices in the histories of feminist art and theory

This unit of study seeks to equip visual arts students with some of the key competencies necessary to make the successful transition from art school to professional practice. The unit comprises primarily of talks by a wide spectrum of art industry professionals on issues including: the art market; the gallery circuit; artist-run spaces; entrepreneurship opportunities; public commissions. Seminars will also address issues such as: proposal-writing; funding opportunities; and up-skilling through postgraduate qualifications.

This unit of study recognizes the impact of Indigenous Australian arts on Australian contemporary art practice. It considers the development of contemporary Indigenous art, and discusses the crucial issues of appropriation, ownership, and institutional protocols, as well as contemporaneity. You will be encouraged to broaden your understanding of the complexities associated with contemporary art practices in Australia, and to actively engage in dialogues between Indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners.

How do artists engage with the ebb and flow of daily life and the material conditions of the street, the city, and the home? This unit of study focuses on artists who heighten our awareness of everyday by using ready-mades and found objects, by exploring the exotic in the banal, and by creating domestic worlds and the urban-scapes of gritty realism and great imagination.

Street art has emerged as a significant cultural phenomenon in the post-globalised world of the 21st century, particularly in the major metropoles of wealthy as well as developing nations. This unit of study contextualises street art theoretically by reference to the politics of urban space, new practices and understandings of collective action, and aesthetics, and considers the institutional location of street art versus contemporary art and graffiti. The unit also contextualises street practices art historically by reference to Surrealism, conceptualism, Fluxus, Situationism, and text-based art. It covers a wide range of practices internationally, with particular emphasis on Latin America, Australia and Europe.

Performance Art had two births, the first during World War I with Dada, the second in the protest era of the 1960s. In both instances it was a revolt against the commodification of art and the monied classes. While it grew out of vaudeville, performance art is characterized by a strong sense of antagonism and ennui. It developed in the late 1960s into a genre of its own, although it has never been entirely discrete. The political neoconservatism at the turn of the millennium reignited interest in performance art, which was made even more popular with the accessibility of moving-image, photographic and image-sharing technologies that can render unique acts accessible to wide audiences. As opposed to other forms of theatre, performance art objectifies the object and suggests its limits, be they physical or psychological. More than a historical survey, this unit of study explores the rudiments of performance, its attributes and rules that can either be adhered to or broken. Key to the unit are the insights of Judith Butler's theory of gender as performance, which offer valuable perspectives on the way in which people perform roles in society, from the dandy to the contemporary art school bohemian.

How to transform the (passive) viewer of art into (active) participant has been a central drive of much 20th century art, which more recently has seen contemporary art claim its role as the creation of new forms of social relations. This unit of study places this drive in historical and theoretical contexts, considering the work of modernist and contemporary artists, and the relationship between art and new forms of political organisation in the age of social media.

Pop caused visible cracks in the traditional division between high and low culture, but with the advent of accessible digital moving-image media, this distinction has been all but shattered. The omnipresence of mass media has meant that for those in the developed world (and elsewhere), taste, style, desire and therefore fashion are at the epicentre of our lives. Taking a broad transdisciplinary perspective that ranges from jewellery to fashion photography to film, this unit of study examines the rich crossover between art and fashion that has been active since the emergence of couture in the mid nineteenth century. The relationship between art and fashion developed in the 1960s with audacious body styling that borrowed from science fiction movies as much as art itself: for example, it was Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian Dress that took the modernist master into the mainstream. These cross-pollinations climax with contemporary designers such as Margiella and McQueen - whose body-as-sculpture attitude is distantly echoed in the tendency of museum architecture also to be like gigantic sculptures - and pop icons such as Lady Gaga.

This unit of study is open only to Distinction average students in their graduating semester. Students undertake an independent research project in the context of peer and academic support offered through regular seminar sessions.

The long decade of the American 1960s profoundly affected how we think about art. Beginning with the legacy of Abstract Expressionism in the late 50s, the course studies the interplay between high art, popular art and the culture industry. Pop Art, Minimalism and Performance formed against a background of political protest and the rise of rock music. From high formalist criticism to the aesthetics of psychedelia, the unit will examine the interactions of youth culture and the mass media.

In Asia there has developed both the nationalist art of a series of modernising states and a counter-establishment art which has frequently been formally modern. Students will learn how to analyse art works and institutions in terms of critical notions of modernity which arise in these Asian contexts but which do not require projection from outside. Focus will chiefly be on China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India since the 1850s. Other examples will be drawn from Japan, Thailand and Indonesia.

In this unit of study we examine Orientalist art and the culture of travel from a post-colonial perspective. As well as the work of major artists (Delacroix, Gerome and J.F.Lewis), we will place particular emphasis upon photography, as well as international exhibitions, travel literature and film. Diverse European constructions of the exotic Orient will be examined including the distinctive contribution of women Orientalists. In this unit, the European canon of Orientalism is resituated through the introduction of counter-narratives and alternative images made by indigenous artists and patrons.

This unit of study introduces you to the conceptual frameworks and technologies that shape the making of screen-based media and contemporary art practices. Through a series of lectures, seminars, tutorials and screenings you will explore the evolution of experimental film, video art and independent filmmaking from the 1960s to the present. You will engage in the production of a self-directed digital film that may be realized in any style or genre. The unit is supported by a technical program that provides you with the applied skills and competencies needed for the use of studio facilities and equipment.

Drawing is re-emerging as an important field of artistic activity and research. In this unit of study, you will explore drawing as a primary research activity. Working with drawing as a research instrument and creative discipline will enable critical engagement with traditional practices and contemporary trends. You will participate in peer-evaluation and undertake theoretical research in addition to studio based activities and production.

This unit of study approaches sound in the broadest sense as it crosses barriers through physical and cultural space, and exists as a force in the world. In this unit, you will undertake a studio-based approach to the production of sound art works, including sound objects, instruments, sonic sculpture, sound installation, performance and new ways of working with sound. The unit begins with the physicality of sound and music physics. You will listen to sonic phenomena, materials, forms and existing sound works. This unit will be conducted in an open studio framework including a variety of workshops, sound studios and digital labs.

This unit of study introduces the principles of black and white photography via the 35mm camera and the darkroom. You explore alternative documentary photography strategies by challenging the role of the camera to simply observe and capture. You experiment with the genres of reportage, street photography and conventional documentary practices, and are encouraged to take an interventionist approach to the urban environment. You are introduced to the 35 mm manual SLR camera, black and white film processing, dark room printing, film exposure and photographic print enlargement.

This unit of study explores how photography can interact with the world beyond a two-dimensional image, and how the relationship between objects and photography can stretch the function of the image. You consider what a photograph may be materially when it extends into a three-dimensional object form, and how the image might be situated to encompass a sculptural and interactive dimension. You develop image-based practices that combine digital photography, analogue photography, projection, print, objects and installation to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to photographic practice.

This unit of study explores the intersection between contemporary visual art practice and contemporary music and sound. Is it possible to make innovative connections between sound and image that embrace experimental music, sound arts and screen based experimental work, without reverting to the moribund conventions of commercial music video? In an age where everything seems to have already been done, are there new formations of art and music to be discovered, even by people who have no traditional skills in these areas? This unit operates within an open studio framework that encompasses all skill levels from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced. You will make creative and practical responses based on your interest in art and sound through guided and self-directed individual and collaborative projects.

This unit of study provides a studio-based approach to designing and making art works for specific locations or in response to specific guidelines. Stepping outside of the gallery opens up possibilities for exploring some of the broader issues of art and everyday life. In this unit, you will consider the key issues and methodologies relevant for site specific, interventionist or tactically oriented art works, and develop a sound understanding of the proposals required in the competitive field of public art. The unit focuses on the development of your ideas with a view to encouraging inventive approaches to proposals and includes strategies for realising virtual and physical outcomes. The unit combines studio work, short presentations by the lecturer, student presentations and group discussion/critiques, and is conducted in the sculpture studio, the digital labs and various other locations.

From Piet Mondrian to Albert Oehlen, artists have been influenced by music. This has had both direct and sublimated effects on the development of the techniques and styles of painting. From seriality to polyrhythms, synchronicity between painting and music has been a constant for a century now. Abstraction has especially taken its cue from the autonomy of music to create a painting that is free from a direct representational quality and instead focuses on an engagement with its own reality through colour, materials and action. This unit of study investigates the dovetailing of painting and music, from modernism to contemporary art, and examines the current trends of painting, relating these processes to those of contemporary music. You will research and investigate the influences of music on painting, and create a work that has music as its core value.

This unit of study introduces you to the fundamental concepts and skills associated with 2D animation production. The unit provides both a conceptual and technical framework for you to explore the possibilities of animation in relation to your existing practice or as a completely new endeavour. Working in the digital domain, you will explore a range of approaches including frame-by-frame animation and stop motion animation. The technical component of this course provides you with the necessary skills to realise a self-directed project while encouraging exploration and experimentation. Class discussions, seminars and individual tutorials support screenings of historical and contemporary animated works to allow you to situate your own projects within a contemporary context.

This unit of study provides a studio-based approach to the production of creative work in ceramics. You will be introduced to concepts, methodologies and technologies integral to contemporary ceramics. You will also be introduced to historical and contemporary frameworks that underpin the processes and paradigms of ceramics today and provide the foundations of a 3D vocabulary. Thematic approaches accompany technical introductions to handbuilding, wheelwork, surface treatments and kiln firing to encourage exploration with ceramics methodologies. The unit develops and enhances critical skills through group and individual tutorials and critiques. This unit is suitable for those who have no or limited experience with the ceramic material and its technologies.

This unit of study examines the glass vessel in everyday life and its application as a conceptual agent in contemporary art. By nature, the glassblowing process creates a vessel or container from a mass of molten glass. Through research projects you will investigate the psychology of the glass vessel through its function and physical properties. You will develop fundamental hand skills and glassblowing techniques through structured weekly workshops, and combine practical skills with contextual knowledge in the development of conceptually themed projects. You may work exclusively with glass or in conjunction with other media and processes.

This unit of study focuses on the optical and abstract potential of cast glass. Through self-led research you will identify relevant artists using the optic and spatial properties of glass. Through structured weekly workshops, you will learn to cast glass in detailed plaster-silica moulds that they have fabricated. You will learn the pragmatics of spatial zones and light manipulation in solid glass, and be introduced to glass chemistry and to the knowledge required for the creation of your own kiln firing schedules. You will respond to themed projects focusing on optical and abstract glass in your own work. You may work exclusively with glass or in conjunction with other media and processes.

Artworks made for public spaces have been an integral part of modern art. This unit of study looks at the role print has played in this history, briefly surveying Situationist graphics and psychedelic and punk posters before moving on to explore the potential contemporary print as a medium for urban intervention. Focusing on poster design and screen printing, the unit introduces you to techniques associated with the US band poster revival and other recent manifestations of print based public art such as stenciling and wheat pasting. The hands-on production of screen printed posters will be linked to an introduction to the digital publishing skills needed for commercial poster production.

This unit of study explores the boundary between artwork, publication and portfolio. The unit acquaints you with the basics of InDesign, a software program that has become industry standard for designing digital and paper publications. Focusing on experimental magazines and other small scale artist's publications the unit explores the visual language of contemporary publishing from an artist's perspective. You learn about the complex interplay of text, image and sequence involved in producing multipage documents/artworks through the practical experience of creating your own InDesign publication.

This unit of study introduces you to screen printing and its broad application across media. The unit explores the technical basics of this process through various projects. It provides for the development and enhancement of critical skills through group and individual tutorials and critiques and the acquisition of technical knowledge required to independently access and use the Printmedia studio facilities.

From the symbolically charged through to the functionally utilized, the hammer formed metallic object builds upon the dynamic landscape of the body. In this unit of study you investigate the potential for an object to expand the metaphysical self. The malleable and ductile qualities of metal will be examined as a creative catalyst enabling material characteristics to form a transformative element of a work that is made for the body by the body. You will explore silversmithing processes, in alignment with your individual research interests, as a technical and conceptual starting point to negotiate ideas of metamorphosis and growth. The appropriate forming processes, including sinking, raising, hot forging and planishing, will be introduced alongside an examination of the historic foundations and key principles of contemporary metalsmithing, as a means to generate your own individual project.

This unit of study provides a studio-based approach to the production of creative contemporary jewellery work that engages with the space and physical dimensions of the body. Fundamental to this approach is an investigation of the role of the worn or carried object in social communication. The unit provides for the development and enhancement of critical skills through group and individual tutorials and critiques and the acquisition of technical skills appropriate to the assigned projects.

Critical Bodies explores and extends visual art practice - including painting, sculpture, photography, performance and moving image - that places the body at the centre of investigation.
From drawing space to virtual space, the body has been a vehicle for experimentation into all realms of human experience, including emotion, violent action, religious expression, political engagement, gender questions, and medical intervention. This unit of study provides you with a rich source of potential approaches in your investigation of the body within your practice with a focus on an open studio interdisciplinary approach that can investigate hybrid forms. You will work on self-directed projects developed through lectures, tutorials, group critique and excursions.

This unit of study examines how artists are inspired by elements in nature to develop more sustainable approaches to their practice. Biomimicry looks to nature's innovative and efficient solutions to solve human problems. By exploring materials and processes relevant to your own practice, you will develop artworks using new understandings of sustainable art practice using principles of biomimicry and sustainability. These include formal concepts of lightness derived from Haiku poetry, a type of creative minimalist realism that strives to use the least amount of materials and energy to communicate ideas. Through active engagement in studio and research classes, field trips and online discussion, you will develop a series of individual studio projects, combining your current skills with experiments in new materials and processes, towards the realisation of a final work.

This unit of study focuses on key aspects of curating and exhibiting in relation to contemporary art theories and practices. You will examine the curatorial function in a variety of contemporary exhibition models and contexts, including state and commercial galleries, residency centres, contemporary art spaces and ARIs (artist run spaces), and landmark shows. You will develop an understanding of curating from the perspectives of contemporary artistic practice, including your own practice and research. The unit provides you with the skills and knowledge that will enable you to comprehensively evaluate the curatorial strategies and objectives of contemporary art projects, as well as the structures of contemporary art spaces and institutions.

Text now is found in a multiplicity of art forms. This open studio interdisciplinary unit investigates text and language in art, from street art to high culture, via self-directed projects that are unbounded by medium and yet use writing as the genesis or as primary material for the production of a work of art. Final works could range from a screenplay or work of fiction, to a body of paintings or sculptures, to artists' books, zines, net art and editions, from video, to sound, and performance art. You will work by way of a self-directed project and on one short in class project. This unit of study is taught by way of tutorials, group critique, workshops, lectures and guest lectures.

This unit of study is for all students interested in digital and other screen-based contemporary art, including photomedia and time based forms. With digital manipulation pervasive in the contemporary sphere, this unit acknowledges that all contemporary artists at some stage will utilise digital software in the production of their work. The unit straddles both the conceptual and technical aspects of digital art from pre-production and visualization experiments, to open source software, through to familiarization with foundational software within the post-production pipeline with an emphasis on new image research. You will be empowered to produce finished works through a combination of guided projects and self-directed proposals that are experimental in form and outcome.

This unit of study is for students interested in all digital aspects of art-making regardless of medium. The unit will encompass both the conceptual and the technical aspects of digital art in many of its forms, from pre-production to post-production, with an emphasis on creating virtual objects and conceptually derived forms of digital art, from net art to 3D printing and rapid prototyping. You will learn how to produce finished works through a combination of guided projects and self-directed proposals.

In this unit of study you consider a range of ideas - from negative form through to anti-monuments - that challenge preconceptions of what sculpture can be. Negative Sculpture suggests anti-form, the abject, temporal and ephemeral approaches. Negative Sculpture also implies the process of mould making and casting. You will be introduced to working in the sculpture studio, and in particular will gain practical experience in plaster and wax and discover key contemporary artists who re-interpret the casting process in innovative ways. The unit combines studio work, short presentations by the lecturer, student presentations and group discussion/critiques. In consultation with the lecturer, you will develop a studio work proposal and create a finished work that responds to the notion of 'negative sculpture.'

'Flung Ink' is a traditional form of Chinese painting. The goal of this practice is the unity of mind, body and field embodied in gestural mark. Flung ink is regarded as a form of calligraphy and its influence still persists in recent and contemporary art practices including the Japanese Gutai movement. You will explore the relationship between action, energy, mark and residue through the use of both traditional and non-traditional painting materials. Meditation as a method of investigating states of non-duality will be key to the structure of the course.

This unit of study provides you with a conceptual and technical introduction to the possibilities of digital video composition. The contemporary visual environment is largely defined by the fracturing of the singular filmic screen that is enabled by digital post-production techniques. In this unit you will develop a self-directed video art project that engages and explores this visual environment through the use of video compositing software. Screenings of historical and contemporary video and digital art works will inform the development of student projects and associated research. Class discussions, seminars and individual tutorials will allow you to critically situate your own projects within the context of contemporary practice.

In this unit of study you explore notions of trace, impression, wound, scar, identification, memory and memento through material layering and surface specificity, and the construction of meaning associated with surface qualities such as depth, absorption and incorporation. You will be introduced to a range of ceramic surfaces including ceramic pencil, paint and crayon, glaze, screenprint and decal production, as well as found and mixed media surfaces. Initial instruction and experimentation will culminate in the completion of a student-generated project. This unit would be of particular interest if you want to develop or broaden your investigation into the two dimensional surface.

This unit of study enhances and broadens your research skills if you already have a sound foundation in the realisation of a three-dimensional form and would like to advance this through the ceramics medium. You will be guided in the articulation of an individual proposal for an extended body of work linking idea and manifestation and ultimately, the production of those works. You will learn to contextualize your art practice within the contemporary ceramics field, research specialist forms, surfaces and their histories and consider the formal, social and professional spaces your work may engage and inhabit including exhibition site and text.

This unit of study examines conceptual and practical applications of up-cycled and found glass through contemporary art and design. The unit develops your understanding of the ubiquity of glass and its reuse in various guises through small research projects and student presentations. Using found and recycled glass, students will explore a variety of processes, including: diamond cutting, polishing, lathe-working, engraving and joining. You will select from a range of sustainably themed projects that combine critical and practical skills to develop and realise creative works. You may work exclusively with glass or in conjunction with other media and processes.

This unit of study explores the use of glass as a conceptual and practical skin in contemporary art and everyday life. The primary focus of the unit is the manipulation of the glass skin and its conceptual properties to build metaphor specific to the intent of your artistic practice. Short research projects decode the metaphysics of glass and its use as a social and commercial material. You gain skills in kiln fusing, slumping of sheet glass, as well as knowledge in the chemistry of glass and proficiency in the creation firing schedules. You may work exclusively with glass or in conjunction with other media and processes.

In this unit of study you consider the scientific, cultural and artistic impact of Venetian glassblowing from the Renaissance to present day through research projects. Structured weekly workshops traverse contemporary use of a range of Venetian glassblowing techniques and methods. You will apply learned theoretical knowledge and developed practical skills to a self-directed work that reinterprets the Venetian glassmaking tradition. You may work exclusively with glass or in conjunction with other media and processes.

This unit of study introduces and enhances skills in etching. You will follow a project-based curriculum in a broad range of technically based workshops intrinsic to the medium of etching. You will be encouraged to engage in a sustained self-directed project addressing concepts and methodologies central to your creative ideas. This project will be supported by more specialised workshops that expand on conventional etched plate techniques. You will learn innovative methods that enable digital processes to be integrated with traditional print media and offer a greater flexibility in output and presentation. The unit promotes investigation and exploration across media to develop your creative practice.

Fusion refers to the merging or melting of different materials into one. Working across jewellery and ceramics, in this unit of study you consider this concept also in relationship to the construction of an object from multiple parts. In this sense the artist becomes alchemist, scientist, or musician, mixing, constructing and blending to create a new object. By experimenting with processes of moulding, you explore notions of multiplicity, the original, the copy and the archetype. This unit addresses the development of conceptual, formal and aesthetic approaches in making.

This unit of study provides you with direct experience of working closely with nationally and internationally acclaimed professional artists in the context of key art events including the Sydney Biennale and ISEA , as well as in leading museums and contemporary art spaces and significant artists' studios.
You will have access to discussions and interactions between artists and national and international curators, as well participate in the exhibition production process, including production management, technical and preparatory methodologies, publicity and promotion. In addition, you can choose to undertake an internship with the organisation itself, to develop your understanding of the expectations and responsibilities of professional practice, including insights into: the creation and presentation of contemporary art, marketing and promotion, curatorial decision making, administration, funding structures, audience development, publication, and working relationships with artist, writers and conference speakers.

This unit of study will give an introduction to how film studies has analysed the meaning of a film in relation to how the film incorporates or addresses the spectator (what is known as theories of spectatorship). Commencing with debates around classical Hollywood cinema and the functioning of the point of view shot, the unit will examine how theories of spectatorship have understood the significance of different genres.

Nations are like movies: they are the result of complex imaginings. To what extent have nations been imagined through movies, and have movies been affected by national imaginings? This unit of study takes Hollywood as a starting point to examine the evolving relation of national cinemas and film genres. A national case study - for instance, Australian cinema - will be studied to identify and analyse some of the complexities of the relation of film genres and national audiences.

How do form and style structure our experience of film? This unit provides a critical introduction to elements of film making and viewing, moving through an exploration of formal components of film to consider film aesthetics in relation to the history of film scholarship. We will consider films in a variety of cultural and historical contexts, from early cinema to youtube, and introduce a series of "case studies" to explore historical, cultural and material contexts of film production and consumption.

This unit explores the relationship between cinema and sexuality in classic films through detailed, historicised readings. Questions to be investigated include the erotics of cinematic genre and form; the sexual politics of representation and spectatorship; stardom, scandal and cult appreciation; cinema and sexuality as technologies of modernity; cinema, sexuality and pedagogy.

The twentieth century was known as the cinematic century. How best should we understand film today? Once confined to the physical space of the movie theatre, the cinematic image is now mobile, part of our everyday mediascapes. This unit considers the broad history of film from the perspective of the contemporary moment, while also providing the conceptual tools for analyzing the future of film in a media-convergent world.

This unit of study examines the intersection of film, digital cinema and new media aesthetic systems. The analysis includes a reading of the evolution of the cinematic image, the digital image as special effect, the development of low budget and high budget digital aesthetics and industry, and the convergence of cinema and other digital platforms. The course proposes a number of hypotheses about the current and future status of cinema as an aesthetic, industrial and cultural phenomenon.