Creatives, Communities & Economies

The Creatives, Communities & Economies Project Report is here!

Led by the research of School of Art Academics including Associate Dean and Senior Lecturer Dr. Alison Bennett, Senior Lecturer Dr. Marnie Badham, Associate Professor Grace McQuilten, and Lecturer Dr. Alan Hill, we identified that the role of the artist and photographer has become hybridised, digitised, and increasingly responsive to activating public space, documenting our times, and innovating for the future of work.

We wanted to explore how creative practitioners respond to the ongoing challenges facing the arts, and explore new, radical strategies to solve them through economic, social, and cultural change.

We transformed our Brunswick Lab into an experimental artist-researcher residence, where we held workshops using creative practice methods to understand the role creatives play in supporting innovation and social cohesion within the local community.

We found that artists and designers are creating opportunities and holding space for complex discussions surrounding place, identity, and social values – and addressing issues of social inequity through visual representation.

The creative economy is vibrant in Merri-bek, and we identified opportunities to rethink ways of working with community, support small businesses through co-working spaces, develop a social enterprise ‘hub’, and partner with local government and higher-education providers to promote cultures of democracy through community-oriented collaborations.

Together, we’re tackling real-world, urban challenges and seeking innovations that improve liveability, connection, and community resilience; and ultimately evolve spaces into places.

This report will be shared with our local government and industry partners. Please feel free to send this on to anyone or any organisation that might be intrigued!

Explore more in our full report available at the ‘Download Report’ button above.

The Working Photographer Pilot Study

In an era when everyone produces photographs, what economic opportunities exist for professional working photographers? The Working Photographer, led by Dr Alison Bennett, utilised semi-structured interviews to investigate current and emerging business models that describe the working life of a selection of client-centered photographers based in Merri-bek.

Meet the Researcher: Michelle Williams

Meet Michelle Williams, one of our Researchers working on The Working Photographer project.

Michelle is an award-winning Melbourne-based freelance photographer specialising in architecture, interior and lifestyle imagery. With over 15 years of experience, she delivers clients with powerful imagery, including her commercial work featured in notable international and local publications, and her artwork showcased in solo and group exhibition

Michelle also holds a Masters Of Art (Photography) from RMIT University and is also a sessional lecturer in the Bachelor of Photography at RMIT University, Melbourne. Her research topic investigated how to Activate intergenerational memory and feminine cultural identity through photographic re-enactment, mixed media and 3D printing technology.

What drew you to this project (The Working Photographer)?

As I was constructing lectures for the ‘Working Photographer’ module in the Bachelor of Photography course at RMIT, I found there was an immense void in research that surveys the commercial photography market in Australia. This has become especially pertinent in the wake of Australia’s dearth of industry body since the AIPP’s collapse in 2020. I proposed a PhD topic to the Associate Dean of Photography and my Masters Supervisor, Dr Alison Bennett that would comprise of case studies, interviews, surveys that would craft a thorough examination of the up-to-date commercial photography business in Australia. I perceived the research to not just shape how we teach our students for the future of industry, but also operate as a critical guide to help photographers make sense of what it stands for to be a working photographer in the 21st century.

Any surprising things that you’ve learned through the project so far? And how do you see it progressing?

Through the conversations with working photographers in the Merri-bek area, we learned how photographers were adapting their businesses to suit the post-digital environment that we currently find ourselves in. Each photographer had an interesting, unique experience of working within the industry. However, all agreed that the landscape of commercial photography has changed with the evolution of technology. Three individuals exemplified an interesting case of their integration of art-direction of CGI image generation into their business models. Their clients require them to utilise their knowledge of photographic camera angle, spatial awareness and lighting to work together with CGI experts to control camera angle, light and vegetation placement in CGI constructed graphics to generate the most lifelike and photo-like outcome possible.

Another interesting area that emerged through the conversations was the rise of working photographers using film and, in-turn the demand for analogue film services. The digital revolution caused the shutdown of film factories, yet ironically it has opened up a new way to utilise film to push back against the hyper-digitalised images of our current times.

Keeping the pilot project focused on the Merri-bek area revealed that through dialogue we can gain a deep understanding of a creative community. We’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg, but have already gained a great deal of insight. I am certain that upon broadening the research, there will be considerable worth for the photographic industry and education.

Figure 1 & 2. Photography by Michelle Williams

Any reflections on your method of Semi-structured Interviews?

The method of semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions encouraged two way engaging conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The method I found provided freedom that enabled the interviewee to stray from the prepared questions, often resulting in the disclosure of otherwise concealed information. Every meeting engendered fresh concepts and interrogations that could be brought in the subsequent interview.

Thanks, Michelle! We look forward to seeing the findings from this research take form.

Common Knowledge with Neon Parc

Common Knowledge is a project that examines artists’ and creative workers’ collective, participatory, and community-based activities to make visible (and audible) the forms of social, cultural, and economic value they create.

Led by one of our artist-researchers-in-residence Channon Goodwin, an artist, arts worker and RMIT PhD candidate based in Naarm/Melbourne, Common Knowledge maps creative practice throughout the Merri-bek City Council area through audio recordings.

Channon Goodwin interviewed Made’ Spencer-Castle, the Associate Director at Neon Parc, about the unique business model of the gallery, and how it has helped supporting local artists in a close-knit and personal way. The nature of the business has allowed them to not only supporting artists financially, but also assisting in careers development, increasing their exposure and facilitating their projects, while building and sustaining meaningful relationships.

Neon Parc is a commercial art gallery that showcases both new and established contemporary Australasian artists. They host solo and group exhibitions that provide local artists with the opportunity to exhibit their work alongside artists from other regions. In October 2015, they opened a new gallery in Brunswick, which enables artists to showcase their work on a larger scale, alongside the existing Melbourne gallery.

Listen to the audio recording below to hear more about their story.

Exterior photograph, Neon Parc Gallery in Brunswick. Image by Channon Goodwin

Find out more about Neon Parc on their website.
/https://neonparc.com.au/

Common Knowledge with Haydens Gallery

Common Knowledge is a project that examines artists’ and creative workers’ collective, participatory, and community-based activities to make visible (and audible) the forms of social, cultural, and economic value they create.

Led by one of our artist-researchers-in-residence Channon Goodwin, an artist, arts worker and RMIT PhD candidate based in Naarm/Melbourne, Common Knowledge maps creative practice throughout the Merri-bek City Council area through audio recordings.

Channon had a conversation with Hayden Stuart, the owner of Hayden’s Gallery, about the process of building the gallery independently in an industrial area of Eastern Brunswick. They discussed how he brought life to the space with a passion for connecting and supporting the local artist community. The interview also touched on the challenges faced by commercial galleries and offered suggestions for how local government can support this type of business.

Haydens is a commercial art gallery situated in Brunswick East, Melbourne. Since their inception in 2018, they have been dedicated to supporting a new generation of artists by facilitating both private and institutional acquisitions. By providing opportunities to invest in experimental, critical, and socially engaged art practices, they have helped shape the landscape of contemporary art in Australia. Their exhibition program creates a compelling dialogue between local and international artists, contextualising early career artists alongside those who are already established.

Listen to the audio recording below to hear more about their story.

Hayden Stuart, gallery owner and Emma Nixon, Haydens gallery assistant

Hayden Stuart, gallery owner, and Emma Nixon, gallery assistant of Haydens Gallery. Photography by Elke Meitzel.

Find out more about Haydens Gallery on their website.
https://haydens.gallery/

Common Knowledge with The Wandering Room

Common Knowledge is a project that examines artists’ and creative workers’ collective, participatory, and community-based activities to make visible (and audible) the forms of social, cultural, and economic value they create.

Led by one of our artist-researchers-in-residence Channon Goodwin, an artist, arts worker and RMIT PhD candidate based in Naarm/Melbourne, Common Knowledge maps creative practice throughout the Merri-bek City Council area through audio recordings.

Channon spoke with the current Directors of The Wandering Room, David Creed and Angela Rossitto, about the artist-run initiative, which has been operating since 2007, with members collaborating as artists and curating exhibitions in temporary spaces. They are currently situated on the corner of Victoria and Elizabeth Streets in our local neighbourhood of Brunswick.

Listen to the audio recording below to hear more about their story.

The Wandering Room. Image by Channon Goodwin.

Find out more about The Wandering Room on their website.
https://www.thewanderingroom.org/

Common Knowledge with Pink Ember Studio

Common Knowledge is a project that examines artists’ and creative workers’ collective, participatory, and community-based activities to make visible (and audible) the forms of social, cultural, and economic value they create.

Led by one of our artist-researchers-in-residence Channon Goodwin, an artist, arts worker and RMIT PhD candidate based in Naarm/Melbourne, Common Knowledge maps creative practice throughout the Merri-bek City Council area through audio recordings.

Channon sat down with Pink Ember Studio’s Aaron Billings for a conversation about the queer-run co-operative and the concept of “the commons”, which refers to a wide range of resources, systems and situations such as civic infrastructure, cultural works, and models of resource sharing.

Pink Ember Studio creates spaces for artists to make work and be part of a community. They are a not-for-profit, encompassing workshops and classes to share skills in our community, a multimedia gallery space, and light-filled open plan studio spaces. They opened their doors in December 2018, and are striving towards making an exciting space in Coburg that supports artists and provides access to affordable art and learning opportunities.

Aaron Billings at Pink Ember Studio. Image by Channon Goodwin.

Find out more about Pink Ember Studio on their website.
https://www.pinkemberstudio.com/

Meet the Artist-Researcher: Channon Goodwin

Meet Channon Goodwin, our artist-researcher-in-residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick during December and January.

Channon is an artist and arts worker based in Naarm/Melbourne and a PhD candidate in the School of Art at RMIT University. Channon’s work engages with collective, collaborative, and artist-run practice and forms of artist-led organisation building.

How do you describe your creative practice?

My practice involves a variety of artist-run organisation-making activities. I spend much of my time outside of the studio, founding and administration small-scale organisations and navigating the bureaucratic realities of establishing and managing these “micro-commons”. More broadly, I am passionate about forms of collective, collaborative, and artist-run practice in the visual arts. I am the current Director of Composite Moving Image Agency & Media Bank, and Convener of All Conference, an organising network comprised of 17 artist-led, experimental and cross-disciplinary arts organisations from around Australia. I also work with a variety of organisations around Naarm as a videographer under the name Fellow Worker.

Figure 1. Permanent Recession: a Handbook on Art, Labour and Circumstance.
Figure 2. Composite Moving Image.

What has been the focus of your previous work?

Previously, I was Director of Bus Projects, one of Narrm/Melbourne’s longest-running Artist-Run Initiatives, prior to this I worked at Metro Arts, QAGOMA and Boxcopy in Meanjin/Brisbane. In 2019, I was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts International Residency at ACME in London, where I examined the lineages of artists’ video and filmmaking cooperatives. I also edited Permanent Recession: a Handbook on Art, Labour and Circumstance (2019), published through Onomatopee Projects. This book is an enquiry into the capitals and currencies of experimental, radical and artist-run initiatives in Australia and the labour conditions of working artists.

Figure 1. Listening Station. Image: RMIT PlaceLab
Figure 2. Listening Station. Image: Michelle Williams

Can you tell us more about your new project, Common Knowledge?

For the RMIT PlaceLab residency, I created Common Knowledge, a project that examines artists’ and creative workers collective, participatory, and community-based activities to make visible (and audible) the forms of social, cultural, and economic value they create. I used audio field recording and oral history methods to map creative practice throughout the Merri-bek Council area.

Our neighbourhoods represent complex creative ecologies with distinct character, values and economies. Communities consist of dynamic clusters of cultural groups, distinct architectural legacies, and contemporary waves of development and gentrification. Through undertaking a series of interviews with artists and arts organisations throughout the Merri-bek, with companion field recordings of the environment in which each subject is located, I sought to locate bespoke knowledge and represent a community’s tangible and intangible, creative and civic assets. I used the concept of “the commons” to frame these conversations, a concept that refers to a wide range of resources, systems and situations such as civic infrastructure and cultural works as well as various models of resource-sharing.

The resulting recordings that make up Common Knowledge project will begin to remap the creative arts ecology in Merri-bek by forming a mappable index of the commoning practices (the activation of common resources through community action and governance) of community members. In fact, community groups and artists regularly engage, knowingly or not, in the commoning practices when organising as creative collectives, co-producing group exhibitions, building shared workshop spaces, and establishing galleries, journals, or political action groups, with an aim to combat isolation, decrease competition or foster economic empowerment.

The goal of Common Knowledge is to create a new “knowledge commons” in the form of a series of interviews and field recordings which has resulted in a listening station at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick and, in time, a map that acts as an accessible aggregation tool, linking together the stories, creative practices, small-businesses, collectivist initiatives of community members diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

Thanks, Channon! We look forward to seeing the outcomes of your research take form.

Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek

The exhibition Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek weaves together creative responses by RMIT students, produced during a two-week intensive studio at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick in December 2022. Led by Dr Alan Hill, one of the academics for the Creatives, Communities and Economies project, the studio brought together undergraduate students from photography, art, fashion and sound design. Additional studio guidance was given by Jody Haines, a previous artist-researcher-in-residence at PlaceLab, and Shehab Uddin, a visiting photographer and academic from Bangladesh, currently living in Queensland.

The intensive studio with the provocation of “doing visual politics” encouraged a process of collective learning and unlearning to deepen an understanding of place. Through conversation, time by the Merri Creek, archival research, walking, listening, cycling and creating, students sought to position and reposition themselves with different knowledges of place. In doing so, they asked questions about what it means to live and work on unceded lands.

Congratulations to all students involved in the studio – Deb Higgins, Eamon Magree, Evelyn Challinor, Jess Tyrrell, Pug, Renatta Premolo, Sophie Spence and Zachariah Micallef – on your thoughtful and creative efforts.

A collage of a poem and photos of the merri creek.

Archived collages. By Pug.

“I began this project wanting to document the pollution that filled the Merri Creek – more noticeable now that the flood waters had receded. But the creek was more than the rubbish that floated in its currents. Shifting from documentary to a slightly abstract style felt more appropriate, as it represented a change in our thoughts, feelings, and what direction we would go with this project. Going from clear, but misplaced intent, to questioning our aims, this murky period of questioning was vital to the project, as it led us to a moment of reflection and subsequent clarity.” – Jess Tyrrell

Blurry photo of a bird at the merri creek.

What is our place in all of this? By Jess Tyrrell.

An excerpt of Merri Reflections by Deb Higgins.

Black birds singing to the wind, to each other,
somehow harmonising with the sore throat warble of
the honey eater.

A straw necked ibis circling in the wintry summer
winds, looking intently at a murder of crows searching
for clues in the prickles of newly mown grass.

Old knees clicking, whispered conversation on the
path, a cyclist roaring past the distinct rhythms of
pounding feet, and the hum of telephone repeaters
becoming new perch holds for birds.

A newborn’s family, wearing masks, enjoying the lines
and light of late afternoon shadows, gesturing to the
acrobatics of a light place overhead.

A gate closing, the soft step of the a greyhound walking in
the fresh scent of rain and rustling grass.

Dandelions, Lomatia, Casurina, silken waterfalls of
wattle blossoms, with the half dead stump of a weeping
willow providing safe haven for a bee.

The sound of water, the smell of water, the feel of
water: its constant headlong rush searching for new
destinations.

Water by Deb Higgins.

“As an outsider, the process of collecting and arranging materials gave me a sense of understanding of the community, the creek and every living thing that was crawling and flying around me. While making these sculptures, the choice to use these materials was not only inspired by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, but also by a desire to draw connections between celebration, care and nature.The noise of the river, the smell of the wet grass and balance of every little thing made me feel that I was in the concrete jungle anymore, and it was beautiful.” – Renatta Premolo

A poem printed in black and white on old paper.

Footsteps taken/ Archival collage by Sophie Spence.

The intensive student studio was concurrently run with studios in Bangladesh and Nepal, allowing students the opportunity to virtually share perspectives across different cultures places. This greatly enriched considerations of place in relation to creative practice, so many thanks to the DFAT New Colombo Plan, the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute and photo.circle in Nepal.

Closer to home, special thanks to Uncle Bill Nicholson, Julia, Freya and Maya for their time and generosity in conversation with the studio. Thank you also to Dr Marnie Badham and PhD researchers from the School of Art – Varuni Kanagasundaram and Channon Goodwin – for joining the studio to discuss their methods and creative practice.

Writing on the whiteboard inside PlaceLab.

In conversation and residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek will be on view at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick until the 13th January 2023. If you’re in the neighbourhood, please drop by and have a look! Otherwise, you can take a virtual walk-through in the video below.

Congratulations to all involved on a fantastic studio and exhibition!

A walk-through of Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

Threshold Crossings by Varuni Kanagasundaram

As part of her artist-researcher-residency at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick, Varuni Kanagasundaram visited Shrivings Day Centre for a community art workshop.

Four people in conversation at a workshop table.

The workshop in progress at Shrivings Day Centre, Brunswick.

The workshop was based on Varuni’s creative practice and current PhD research. She uses locally sourced clay, transformed into paint, to draw onto bark. This evokes the ritual and cultural practices of women from South Asia, who decorate the thresholds of their home each day. Traditionally, the threshold drawings signify events happening in the household that day.

Drawing on bark using locally sourced-clay

During the workshop, Varuni invited people to respond to how they felt about Shrivings as a place and how they were feeling that day. This prompt encouraged many responses about connections to each other, as well as thinking about the importance of home.

A group of people outside in the garden by the art work.

An artistic arrangement of painted bark under a tree.

Varuni placing the bark in an arrangement outside under a tree.

Installing the bark drawings outside in the community garden.

Thank you!

Thank you to the Shrivings Day Centre for the opportunity to be part of your community program and to the residents for their enthusiastic and creative participation.

And thank you, Varuni for the leading workshop! We loved learning about your cultural practices and how these can be translated into a creative practice in which we can all participate.

A Workshop with Creative Social Enterprises in Merri-bek

On Thursday 1st December, we hosted a workshop for local Creative Social Enterprises from around Merri-bek to come together and discuss their experiences. The two-hour workshop was facilitated by one of the academic leads for Creatives, Communities and Economies, Grace McQuilten.

Grace is an art historian, curator and artist, and has pioneered work in the field of art-based social enterprise in Australia, working extensively with migrants and refugees. She is the founding CEO and a current Board Director of the The Social Studio, so the discussion was in very capable hands!

A pictogram covering key topics of discussion during the workshop

Creative Social Enterprise workshop at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

The workshop considered questions like:

What were the main challenges of COVID-19, and have you recovered from these challenges?
What do you see as key problems in the sector? What do you wish you could say to funders, government, and customers but can’t say?
What are your approaches to marketing? What are the challenges/barriers and opportunities for marketing your enterprise?
What would make a real difference to your work? What changes or new initiatives would you like to see?

We learnt about the challenges of the pandemic, the importance of marketing and the key opportunities to sustain and encourage local creative social enterprises. Watch the time-lapse of the graphic recording below to see a summary.

A time-lapse of the graphic recording by Zahra Zainal.

Supporting local Creative Social Enterprises

You can find social enterprises in your area by searching the directories on Social Traders or SenVic.

We’ve made a list of the local creative social enterprises in our neighbourhood – please support them where you can:

Clothing the Gaps, 744 Sydney Rd, Brunswick; Victorian Aboriginal led and controlled, and majority Aboriginal owned fashion social enterprise.
Second Stitch, 377 Sydney Rd, Coburg; Sewing and alterations business supporting migrant, asylum seeker and refugee women.
Etiko, 536 Sydney Rd, Brunswick; Ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible clothing and footwear.
Go Kindly, 520B Sydney Road, Coburg; Pillows, quilts and mattresses business, supporting women experiencing homelessness.
Tempo Rubato and The Piano Project; 34 Breese St, Brunswick; Live classical music venue whose profits support the Piano Project, which provides access to music education.
That Paper Joint, 544 Sydney Rd, Brunswick; B-Corp collage studio, workshop and gallery.
Schoolhouse Studios, 28 Victoria St, Coburg; Not-for-profit creative spaces.
Kind Boys Club, online store selling tees, onesies and prints.
The Beautiful Bunch, 75 Reid Street, Fitzroy North; Florist supporting young women from refugee backgrounds.
The Social Studio, 101/30 Perry St, Collingwood; Part fashion educator, part retailer, part production house for Melbourne’s refugee and new migrant communities.
Homie, 296 Brunswick St, Fitzroy; Fashion brand supporting young people affected by homelessness or hardship.

There are many more, so please be in touch if you think we’ve missed someone or would like to be added to the list.

If you own or work in a local creative social enterprise, or you know someone who might like to get involved, please contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

Thank you!

The lively conversation during the workshop was captured by a local graphic recording artist, Zahra Zainal, who illustrated the discussion in real-time as it progressed. Thank you, Zahra, for introducing us to graphic recording and for making such a valuable contribution to the workshop!

And a big thank you to all who attended the workshop – as always, the workshop would have been nothing without you. Thank you for sharing your experiences! We appreciated your generous insights and honesty.

What is a Creative Social Enterprise?

As part of the Creatives, Communities and Economies research project, we’re working with artist and academic Grace McQuilten to learn about creative social enterprises in Merri-bek and the sustainability of the social enterprise model for creative businesses.

Two indigenous peoples wearing t-shirts with honouring country slogans.

A local creative social enterprise, Clothing the Gaps. Image: Clothing the Gaps.

Social enterprises are businesses that trade to intentionally tackle social problems, improve communities, provide people access to employment and training, or help the environment. There are currently more than 3,500 social enterprises trading across metropolitan and regional Victoria employing an estimated 60,000 people and contributing $5.2 billion to the Victorian economy.

What is a social enterprise?, Business Victoria

Creative work is produced and consumed in an economic system, so depends on money for its creation and the livelihood of its makers. In this sense, creative work can be understood as an enterprising activity. But there may be tensions between non-economic and economic values leading to exploration of alternative economic models of business.

The Social Studio at Melbourne Fashion Week 2022. Image: The Social Studio.

Creative social enterprises leverage their products or services to create social and economic benefits for community benefit, particularly marginalised communities. For example, The Social Studio is part educator, part retailer, part production house and all about people (and also co-founded by Grace!). Their not-for-profit social enterprise in Collingwood uses fashion and creativity to create work and learning opportunities for Melbourne’s refugee and new migrant communities.

A social enterprise model enables greater creative and critical freedom because it reduces reliance on a single source of financial support.

Profit-making is often not the goal of artists, and this is where social enterprise may provide a model for alternative forms of economic organisation in the arts. A social enterprise model enables greater creative and critical freedom because it reduces reliance on a single source of financial support (for example government, philanthropic or market). A social enterprise model can address inequities in the art system itself, including the financial insecurity faced by many artists and arts organisations and the conditions of work for artists and art workers.

Follow along with us as we learn more.

Stay tuned for a recap of our workshop with local creative social enterprises to learn about their experiences – if this is you or you know someone who might like to get involved, please contact us, we’d love to hear from you!

What is a social enterprise?, Business Victoria

Creative Sites of Resistance: imagined futures, by Jody Haines

Creative Sites of Resistance: imagined futures is a new collaborative project by artist-researcher Jody Haines. The social portrait project for women, by women* was created during Jody’s time as an artist-researcher-in-residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick from 17th-28th October.

*female-identifying, trans and non-binary persons

Creative Sites of Resistance recognises a significant and persistent problem in the way that women are visually represented in our public spaces. The differing expectations around gender and appearance are clear when you scroll through social media or watch the news. Consider the example of people in positions of authority and power. A recent Pew Research Centre study found that men appear twice as often as women in news images, with a majority of photos showing exclusively men, and a study of the stock exchange in New Zealand found that men were often pictured in higher positions and encompassed more space within the frame. This dominance also exists behind the lens. Photography is a stubbornly male-dominated field, despite women being early pioneers. So, perhaps the problem can be summarised like this: when it comes to positions of power and authority, we see more men, more of men, and more images by men.

A few seconds from a short film for Creative Sites of Resistance: Imagined Futures,by Jody Haines.

Creative Sites of Resistance aims to shift the current visual narrative through collaborative portraiture. It is a project by women, with women, made for use in public space. The project challenges the typical experience of having your portrait taken, where time can be rushed and the photographer can dominate through giving directions. Even the language of photography – shooting, capturing, and taking – is reconsidered. These forceful, even violent, words are replaced with making to describe a collaborative approach.

A woman stares at the camera with her hands in her pockets.

Creative Sites of Resistance by Jody Haines, in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

Socially engaged photography can respond to and critique the dominant visual narratives we see across our public spaces.

The portraits for Creatives Sites of Resistance were made during a 2.5 hour session, with multiple cups of tea and plentiful snacks to sustain the conversation and image-making. Together with Jody, the participants explored how they experience resistance and connection and still dream of radical possibilities. Questions raised in the conversations considered gender equality, feminism, and how each woman would like to see themselves in a portrait. There was also opportunity to record reflections, walk in the park, and look at the world (literally) through different colour lenses.

The artist writing on the glass wall at PlaceLab.

Artist-researcher Jody Haines setting up at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

The language of photography – shooting, capturing and taking – was replaced with making to describe a collaborative approach.

A woman prepares to take a photo of another woman.

A woman prepares to take a photo of another woman who is seated by a tree..

Behind the scenes and the final portraits.

The final portraits were printed with different colour filters to represent personal associations with connection and resistance. A short film of vox pop responses complemented the portraits, with an accompaniment of birdsong and the sounds of creek. Although the outcomes were treasured by the participants, it was the process that made this project meaningful.

The exhibition will be on view in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick until the week ending 11^th November 2022.

If you’re in the neighbourhood, please drop in and have a look!

The portraits are installed in the PlaceLab studio, on the wall and column.

Creative Sites of Resistance by Jody Haines, in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.

Thank you!

Thank you to Jody for sharing your project with RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick and the community. You helped us to reconsider the language and methods of photography, and how they help us to connect to each other while resisting dominant cultural narratives.

A big thank you to the women who joined Jody to make a collaborative portrait – without you, this project was not possible.

What is an artist-researcher? A Q&A with Dr Marnie Badham

As part of the Creatives, Communities and Economies research project, we’re hosting three artist-researchers at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick for residencies between September and November 2023. We’re excited to see how Varuni Kanagasundaram (clay, textiles), Jody Haines (photo, public art), and Channon Goodwin (mapping commons) bring their practices into our research studio. We’ll post updates for each artist-researcher during their residency, but in this post we chat to Dr Marnie Badham about art and artist residencies as research practices. Marnie has extensive experience as an artist-researcher and is one of the academic leads on the Creatives, Communities and Economies project.

A sign on a grass lawn says public reading as resistance #1.

‘Public Reading as Resistance‘ facilitated by Marnie Badham, Kelly Hussey-Smith and collaborators. Image: Ceri Hann 2019

What does an artist-researcher do?

Creatives increasingly play an important role in the civic imagination by activating public space, connecting with communities, asking critical questions, and documenting our times. Artist-researchers use creative practice to examine and respond to these critical questions and contexts.

What is an artist residency?

Residencies typically provide artists with time and space away from everyday life to research, develop, and produce new creative work. Residencies can be hosted by arts and non-arts organisations and studios, equipment, and connections with creative peers or new audiences may also be provided.

While artist residencies seemed to once be an endeavour of creative solitude, the preoccupation with ‘the social’ in contemporary residencies can be located in the historical lineage of early artist colonies and systems of social exchange. Increasingly, residencies provide opportunities for socially-motivated artists to develop projects that are site-responsive or focused on public interaction. These residencies can include partnerships with community, local government or health, education or justice organisations.

Badham, Marnie. 2017. The Social Life of Artist Residencies: Working with People and Places Not Your Own. Seismopolite: Journal of Art and Politics 18 (1-2)

Creatives increasingly play an important role in the civic imagination by activating public space, connecting with communities, asking critical questions, and documenting our times.

A pair of jeans hanging over a stack of folded jeans. — For Jane and Tyler, 2022, Marnie Badham, The Nurses and Midwives’ Art Exchange, Archive of Feelings Exhibition, The Design Hub, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.

How does Creatives, Communities and Economies respond to the current arts contexts?

The work of artists, photographers and community organisers have become hybridised, digitised, and increasingly responsive to people and place. New labour models for the future of creative work are being developed within the ongoing crisis facing the arts nationally and locally – new and radical strategies for the visual arts industry are a priority for artists, arts organisations, government and is our research subject for Creatives, Communities and Economies and other ongoing projects.

Creatives, Communities, and Economies will host three diverse artists and practices with a focus on forms of ‘artist in community’ engagement. These projects will enable collaborative, place based, context responsive, socially engaged art practice and hyper local industry engaged problem solving. These artists will engage RMIT PlaceLab as a test site for creative engagement through alternative social economies for the future of work in the creative industries enabling experimentation, collaboration, and real-world application for the research.

Thanks, Marnie! We appreciate your insights and your work as an artist-researcher.

Want to get involved in this project?

Drop in to the RMIT PlaceLab and add your story to our community map. The map is a connection of the overarching themes of sites of creativity, loss, and potential in Brunswick and we would love to hear your thoughts.

Badham, Marnie. 2017. The Social Life of Artist Residencies: Working with People and Places Not Your Own. Seismopolite: Journal of Art and Politics 18 (1-2)

Meet the Artist-Researcher: Jody Haines

Meet Jody Haines, our artist-researcher-in-residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick from 17th-28th October.

Jody is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne and a PhD candidate in the School of Art at RMIT University. Jody’s relational practice is built on Indigenous feminist (new) materialism – a combination of yarning, relationality, and standpoint. Jody is a proud descendant of the tommeginne peoples of northwest lutruwita (Tasmania).

A photo of a woman with short curly hair and a camera.

Jody Haines, by Jody Haines.

How do you describe your creative practice?

It’s a combination of social practice and photo media, but my most recognisable work is probably large-scale public activations, or what I call “big face in public space” work. My work explores themes of identity, representation, and the female gaze, looking for what radical possibilities can emerge when we centre care, respect, listening, and reciprocity at the heart of our work and relationships.

A close-up photo of a camera lens that turns what you're looking at upside down.

Looking through the lens and her studio. Images: Jody Haines.

What has been the focus of your previous work?

I’ve used site-specific and relational methods to collaborate with local communities across Australia, developing projections, paste-ups, and street-wide photographic activations. Some of these projects include Women Dreaming for Women of the World & Festival 2018 (Gold Coast Commonwealth Games), Our People Our Place for Horizon Festival 2019, various iterations of #IAMWOMAN an ongoing relational portrait series, including Arts House 2019, Immerse Public Art Festival 2018, and One Night in Footscray 2018.

A gallery installation of photo panels above a table.

A close-up shot of a photo on a perspex panel.

A portrait of a black woman and child projected onto the Treasury Building.

‘Last Supper’, a gallery installation, and ‘Eye to Eye’ social portraits projected onto the Treasury Building. Images: Jody Haines.

Can you tell us more about your new project, Creative Sites of Resistance?

For the RMIT PlaceLab residency, I want to create a social portrait project for women* by women. (*female identifying, trans and non-binary persons) The working title is Creative sites of resistance: imagined futures. The project will become a photographic paste up within the Merri-bek area, accompanied by links to video vox pops produced with collaborators.

This approach for this project – as socially-engaged photography and video – is to respond to and critique the dominant visual narratives we see across our public spaces. It also explores the ways in which we maintain the active process of resistance and connection and still dream of radical possibilities in a COVID-19 reality.

The making will occur during 3-hour sessions, which include multiple cups of tea, conversation and future mapping. We will make performative self-directed portraits and a short video Vox-pop (one minute duration) on equality and the future, exploring gender inequity issues, feminist futures and the politics of representation, questions including:

How would you describe gender inequality?
Where is feminism now?
And how do we maintain the active process of resistance and connection and dream of radical possibilities in a COVID-19 reality?

The composite group image paste up is a performative future re-imagining – a potential site of resistance and a site of connection. The video Vox pops will form a video work on the future of feminism and how we maintain and create sites of connection and sites of resistance.

Thanks, Jody! We look forward to seeing your new collaborative project take shape in our studio.

Keep an eye out for a follow-up post on Jody’s residency.

Meet the Artist-Researcher: Varuni Kanagasundaram

Varuni Kanagasundaram is the first artist-researcher-in-residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick. She is a current PhD candidate in the School of Art at RMIT University and has been recognised through international fellowships and residencies, public art commissions, and exhibitions in Australia.

As part of her residency at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick, Varuni is inviting the local community to share in her practice through workshops. We sat down with her to learn more about her work as an artist-researcher.

Using local clay and nature to draw during Varuni’s workshop at RMIT PlaceLab 2022. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.

How do you describe your creative practice?

My creative practice and current PhD research are centred on translating cultural practices of women from South Asia as a way to convey the feelings of displacement, transience, loss, uncertainty and memory experienced by migrants. These feelings are explored through the materiality of clay and textile and agency in rituals at places of encounter.

How has your background and experience informed your work?

I was born in Sri Lanka, then migrated to Aotearoa (New Zealand) as a child, and later moved to Australia. This has given me experience of multiple places and cultural practices. I like to engage with the community to understand the many experiences of marginalised communities through a creative project. I started exploring migrant stories during my undergraduate studies and have continued since.

Varuni’s workshop at RMIT PlaceLab in September 2022. Image: RMIT PlaceLab

Thanks, Varuni! You can learn more about Varuni’s practice on her website, http://www.varunik.com.

We loved hosting her first workshop at the RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick Studio and we look forward to helping out at her next workshops out and about in the Brunswick community.

What is the creative economy?

The Creatives, Communities and Economies research project considers the experience of different creative workers in Brunswick and the Merri-bek area.

The industries that make up the creative economy span many disciplines including visual arts, music, theatre, performance, literature, public art, design, fashion, filmmaking, craft and more.

Stencillin’ by Jo Morcom.

The contribution of these industries to the wider economy is sometimes lost in broad discourse about rising inflation, house prices and employment data. However, creative industries in Australia are estimated to account for some $110bn in the economy .

Morgan R, 2021, 'Harness creativity to build a better future', The Australian newspaper

According to UNESCO (2013), the creative economy is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the global economy as a ‘non-monetary value-generating force that contributes significantly to the achievement of inclusive and people-centred sustainable development’. The benefits of a creative economy go beyond pure economics to recognise the positive contribution of the arts to create strong communities and liveable cities.

This research project acknowledges the vibrant contribution that creative workers bring to local communities and considers how creative practices can be supported in order to be sustainable.

Creatives, Communities & Economies at Melbourne Knowledge Week

RMIT PlaceLab was introduced as RMIT University’s new research initiative at Melbourne Knowledge Week in May 2022. This included a first look at our research projects for Cycle 01, including Creatives Communities and Economies.

The event was held at The Capitol as part of the RMIT Culture Talks series. Researchers Dr Alison Bennett and Dr Marnie Badham spoke about Creatives, Communities and Economies, inviting people to consider the challenges for working creatives in the community, particularly with the recent impacts of the pandemic.

Follow along here with the Creatives, Communities and Economies projects as we explore the experiences of different creative workers in Brunswick and Merri-bek.

An artist and group of people are looking at a map.

Five Weeks in Spring 2020. Image: Shane Hulbert, Marnie Badham and Tammy Wong Hulbert

Two people present research at the Capitol.

A panel discussion sits on the stage at the Capitol venue.

Photos from Melbourne Knowledge Week 2022. Images courtesy of RMIT.

RMIT PlaceLab acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University.

RMIT PlaceLab respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present, as the original and continuing Makers of Place.

Brunswick 2

CYCLE 01 2022

Creatives, Communities & Economies

Creatives, Communities & Economies

Long Story, Short

An exploration of how creative practitioners are responding to the ongoing challenges facing the arts through hybrid and digital approaches.

What We’re Exploring

Status

Share?

Fine print

Project Team

Researcher

Hayley Thompson

Academic

Assoc. Professor Grace McQuilten

Academic

Dr Marnie Badham

Academic

Dr Alison Bennett

Academic

Dr Alan Hill

Researcher

Julie Gork

What's On

Event

18 – 20.10.2022

You’re invited to: Creative sites of resistance

Brunswick 2.18

20.05.2023

The Creatives, Communities & Economies Project Report is here!

The Creatives, Communities & Economies Project Report is here!

Brunswick 2.17

12.05.2023

The Working Photographer Pilot Study & Meet the Researcher: Michelle Williams

The Working Photographer Pilot Study

Meet the Researcher: Michelle Williams

Brunswick 2.16

04.05.2023

Common Knowledge with Neon Parc

Common Knowledge with Neon Parc

Brunswick 2.15

13.04.2023

Common Knowledge with Haydens Gallery

Common Knowledge with Haydens Gallery

Brunswick 2.14

30.03.2023

Common Knowledge with The Wandering Room

Common Knowledge with The Wandering Room

Brunswick 2.13

23.03.2023

Common Knowledge with Pink Ember Studio

Common Knowledge with Pink Ember Studio

Brunswick 2.12

20.02.2023

Meet the Artist-Researcher: Channon Goodwin

Meet the Artist-Researcher: Channon Goodwin

Brunswick 2.11

06.01.2023

Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek

Fragments of Connection: Learning Merri-bek

Brunswick 2.10

12.12.2022

Threshold Crossings by Varuni Kanagasundaram

Threshold Crossings by Varuni Kanagasundaram

Thank you!

Brunswick 2.9

02.12.2022

Workshop: Creative Social Enterprises in Merri-bek

A Workshop with Creative Social Enterprises in Merri-bek

Supporting local Creative Social Enterprises

Thank you!

Brunswick 2.8

02.12.2022

What is: a Creative Social Enterprise?

What is a Creative Social Enterprise?

Follow along with us as we learn more.

Brunswick 2.7

07.11.2022

Creative Sites of Resistance by Jody Haines

Creative Sites of Resistance: imagined futures, by Jody Haines