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ARTS AND SCIENCE COMBINE FOR UNIQUE RESIDENCIES

Three arts and science projects will test the boundaries of their practices as part of a unique collaborative residency program.

The Synapse residencies are a joint initiative between the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and the Australia Council for the Arts and have been awarded annually since 2004.

Australia Council Director Emerging and Experimental Arts Dr David Sudmalis said the residencies enabled long-term partnerships between artists and scientists in academic settings.

“The Australia Council supports creative partnerships and development opportunities for artists and the Synapse residencies enable them to work with scientists on an equal level,” Dr Sudmalis said.

“We have recognised that the methodologies of the arts and sciences can be similar in their creativity and rigour.”

ANAT Director Vicki Sowry said: “Synapse residencies support interdisciplinary partnerships to pursue research that is both experimental and speculative, leading to unanticipated and exciting outcomes.  We have also been very pleased to see past collaborations continuing well beyond the initial 16-week residency period.”

This year’s residency recipients are:

  • Eugenie Lee, in partnership with Body in Mind at the University of South Australia, Neuroscience Research Australia and the University of Sydney.
  • Dr John McCormick, in partnership with Motion.Lab, and the Centre for Intelligent Systems Research, Deakin University.
  • Dr Trinh Vu, in partnership with AMAERO Engineering and the Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing, Monash University.

Building on her 2014 Arts Access Australia residency, Amplify Your Art, Eugenie Lee will work with Dr Tasha Stanton and Prof Philip Poronnik to create simulations of chronic pain within a virtual reality environment.  The team will investigate how altering sensory perception using virtual reality technologies could contribute to the development of a therapeutic tool for chronic pain management.  This builds on Lee’s work in investigating the complexities of chronic pain in installations, sculptures and performance.

For the past decade, Dr John McCormick has been researching movement tracking and simulation techniques for live performance environments.  He will join Prof Kim Vincs and Assoc Prof Douglas Creighton to explore whether haptic and robotic technologies can make dance performance more accessible to audiences who are deaf-blind, blind or vision impaired.

Dr Trinh Vu will expand on her extensive work in additive technologies through a project with Prof Xinhua Wu and her team to test the constraints and potentials of 3D printing with metal powders.  The investigation will focus on the characteristics and conventions that result by bringing together digital technology and scultptural form.

Independent artist, Dr Leah Barclay, was awarded a residency in 2014 to work with researchers at the Australian Rivers Institute.

“Synapse has been a fantastic opportunity to experiment and to develop a truly interdisciplinary foundation for a creative idea that we hope will have a lasting impact,” Dr Barclay said.

ANAT has been at the forefront of the interdisciplinary and experimental arts practice in Australia and internationally since 1988.  Throughout its existence, the organization has championed creative risk-taking and been a proactive catalyst for experimentation and innovation across art, science and technology.

For more information on Synapse residencies, go to: www.anat.org.au/synapse-art-science-residencies/

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