Vision
Our vision is to achieve socio-ecological justice by seeking to identify and co-create
inclusive pathways for all Australians to embrace more-than-human futures
grounded in Indigenous teachings of caring for Country.
We will forge a transdisciplinary collective of Creative Industries Faculty academics and partners
to lead a proactive, creative response to the unfolding planetary ecocide.
Purpose
Our research will question and seek to catalyse the urgent social changes required
to mitigate and reverse collapsing ecological systems, and assure justice for all species.
We will achieve this through a focus on innovative, transdisciplinary research projects, experimental artworks, designs, critiques, and socially engaged actions deeply informed by the environmental humanities, ecological justice studies, Indigenous perspectives and decolonial theory.
The realities of climate change, biodiversity loss and species extinction, and environmental decline are complex and systemic. It is therefore the urgent responsibility of every discipline to contribute to this malaise, necessitating engagements that are intersectional, transdisciplinary and relevant to diverse publics. However, the complexity of re-imagining and building towards sustaining futures can often appear insurmountable. When faced with problems so distributed and immense the public necessarily vacillates between states of anxiety, apathy and aspiration. Yet, aspiration is the only one of these three states that firmly foregrounds positive action.
As ‘change agents’ our team will encourage aspiration through our work, by crafting dynamic opportunities for wider engagement that foster capacities for collective action. We achieve this by building focus around the problems and solutions of sustaining futures in innovative ways, which open up and retain these opportunities for diverse audiences. We draw upon the group’s capacities for critical analysis, deep investigation, lateral thinking, and nonlinear insight, working at the intersection of nature, science, justice, theory, design and art. Our creative and design interventions are grounded in critical theory, rigorous research and reflective practice, fusing an activist ethos with an effective and affective poetics. This allows us to shine a bright light on the cultural roots of our environmental crisis.
The group’s overall purpose will be achieved through a focus on innovative, transdisciplinary research projects, experimental artworks, designs, critiques, and socially engaged actions, deeply informed by the environmental humanities, ecological justice studies, Indigenous perspectives and decolonial theory. Our research will therefore question and ultimately seek to catalyse the urgent social changes required to mitigate and reverse collapsing ecological systems, and assure justice for all species.
Objectives
Learn
Learn from and be guided by Indigenous Australians to foster and communicate a deeper understanding of their cosmologies, ontologies, and epistemologies.
Investigate
Investigate how the sustenance and prosperity of humans and more-than-humans are profoundly interdependent within the ‘nature-technology continuum.
Engage
Engage art, communication and design to catalyse the far-reaching social changes required to mitigate and adapt to the crippling impacts of the planetary ecocide.
Bring together
Bring together senior to early academics and HDR candidates, engage in critical HASS scholarship, and co-author NTROs and TROs in an atmosphere of deep learning, nurturing, and mentorship.
Capabilities
Indigenous Research
The group’s focus across design and creative practice is strengthened by the exploration of Indigenous concepts such as care for and stewardship of Country.
Design
The group contains some of the strongest performers in Architecture and Design Practice and Management.
Creative Practice
Our group comprises a diverse mix of practice-led scholars and artists internationally renowned for their innovative, creative and ecological contributions to creative industries and broader societal concerns.
