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Critical Animals 2012 – Artist Meet and Greet

Blind Date: When Theory Meets Practice with Matthew Abbott, Eva Bujalka and Harriet Parsons

Immutable Balance with Dr Angela Philp (UoN), Vivienne Rogis and Elizabeth Bellamy.
Presented with the University of Newcastle

Dance Jam: A Discourse on Diversity with Min Mae

Fast vs Slow Critical Practice followed by a screening of Patrick Kelly’s “Detour off the Superhighway”

Constructing Identity in Contemporary Performance with Hossein Ghaemi, Travis Englefield and Kate McDowell

Centre for the History of Emotions event: Bodies in Distress with Gabe Watts, Una McIlvenna, Carolyn McKay and Mimi Kelly. The event included an installation by Mimi Kelly and a
performance by Grace Turner of the Conservatorium of Newcastle.

Josh Harle’s workshop ‘Walking the Digitial City’ and Josh Harle, Chris Harle and Evelyn Kwok discuss their work on ‘The Space Panel’.

The launch of ‘ATLAS’ – Chris Cottrell, Josh Harle, Evelyn Kwok and Marilyn Schneider. Thank you to Scott Brewer from the University of Newcastle for launching our exhibition.

Breakfast Reading Session at Good Brother Espresso with Malcolm St Hill, Sam Moginie, Danuta Raine and Owen Kirkby. Presented with the University of Newcastle.

An afternoon at the Royal Exchange: Hyper/Reality and Political Dissolution and Experimental Writing and the Force of Fluidity.

An evening of Poetry at the Gun Club: New Quarrels: Innovative Poetry and the Poetics of Knowing and launch of Keri Glastonbury’s ‘Grit Salute’ and Derek Motion’s ‘lollyology’.

We were truly blown away by everyone that made this year’s TiNA as impressive as it was.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all Critical Animals artists and audiences. Special thanks to our major sponsor, The University of Newcastle (Thanks to Professor Kevin McConkey for the continued support) and our sponsor the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at UTS (Thanks to Professor Van Leeuwen). Thank you to the Octapod and Auspicious Arts. To Aden Rolfe, Keri Glastonbury, Ella O’Keefe, Yolande Norris, Astrid Lorange, Scott Brewer and Angela Philp. Thank you to Dean at the Royal Exchange; Elissa, Chris and Steph at Good Brother; Emily and Dennis at the Lock-up.  A huge Thanks to Pat and his crew at the Gun Club. Thanks to Robbie and Dale for their tech genius (and an extra special thank you for staying back on Sunday night!) Thank you to Pip, Chad, Zoe, Ben, Geoff, Gareth, Jane, Nick, Jen and Sarah! Thank you to Kosta and Wednesday for your help.
See you all next year and please keep in touch.

Critical Animals 2012
Julia, Tulleah, Sophie and Beau xx

Join us tomorrow morning at 10am for readings from writers and poets, from  both Newcastle and Sydney.

Breakfast reading session at Good Brother cafe 10am Sunday 30 September

Sam Moginie is a poet and musician living in Sydney. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Sydney, working on Australian Poetry in the 1970′s.

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Malcolm St Hill is a poet and prose writer who is completing a PhD at the University of Newcastle. His work, a study of his grandfather, draws heavily on poetry as a means of exploring the inexplicable, and mapping responses to trauma. His work explores the creation of character in creative non-fiction and how voice is given to those previously mute.

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Owen Kirkby is poet from Sydney University who has won several prizes and has been published in voiceworks and BLOCK journal.

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Danuta Raine is a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle. She will read from her work “Dragon and the Queen of Poland”. The novel is set in contemporary Newcastle with a narrative sequence which follows the experiences of a 20yr old forced labourer in rural Westfalen Germany.

presented with the University of Newcastle.

 Nicola Themistes talks about her first trip to TINA and her 2012 Critical Animals appearance. 

When I arrived at my first This Is Not Art festival in 2011, I was heaving the unpublished manuscript of an experimental novel in the back of my mind. My reason for making the journey from Melbourne up to Newcastle for the festival was to meet people and to encounter new ideas that would assist me in bringing my project to completion; part of me wanted to publish the book myself, but at that stage I had very little idea about what that sort of undertaking would entail. Should I publish online or in print? How would I go about promoting and distributing my work? Is it a completely crazy endeavour to self-publish your first novel?

Over the course of the festival, I participated in a lot of discussions and asked a million questions about what it would take to get my novel, Spectacle City: An Allegory, off my computer screen and out into the world, without having to resort to mainstream literary publishers. When I attended a panel for Critical Animals, ‘Petit Presses and Artist Books,’ I found the answer to a lot of questions I’d been asking myself. The panel’s participants had all acted on the impulse to maintain an integrity of vision in producing their books as artistic objects, and their intelligence and enthusiasm inspired me to undertake the enormous effort of self-publication.

A year later, now that my project is complete, I’m really looking forward to returning to Critical Animals as a participating artist, in the hopes that I can now share my knowledge and experience of literature and life with other people who are seeking direction for their creative works. I’ll be speaking about the use of allegory in contemporary literature on the panel ‘Experimental Writing and the Force of Fluidity,’ which is a great opportunity to discuss the theoretical dimension of my writing in a bit more detail.

Nicola Themistes

Photo: Luke Kellet Headjam

As we lead up to the TINA festivities we are pleased to announce a couple of events, happening this week, which will give you a glimpse of our 2012 Artists.

In Melbourne - 

Nicola Themistes will be reading an excerpt from her book Spectacle City, an avant-garde allegory about contemporary life in the city of Melbourne. The reading will be held at Collected Works bookshop at 6pm this Wednesday, 12 September.

During the Critical Animals symposium Nicola will be presenting on the panel Experimental Writing and the Force of Fluidity (at 3pm on Sunday 30 September).

In Sydney -

Carolyn McKay will launch her exhibition, Covert, at Gallery Eight in Millers Point. Join Carolyn between 6 and 8pm on Friday 14 September for the opening. The exhibition runs until 30 September.

Carolyn will be presenting on two panels this year; Bodies in Distress (on Saturday 29 September at 2:30pm) and Hyper/reality and Political Dissolution (on Saturday 30 September at 12:30pm)

The Critical Animals Creative research symposium is looking for a new Co-Director for the 2012 and 2013 Festivals. The successful applicant will work alongside current directors Yolande Norris and Julia Shaw.

Interested researchers, thinkers, artists and organisers should send a CV and covering letter to critical.animals@gmail.com. Click here to view the Position Description.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Ella, Yolande and Julia

Co-Directors, Critical Animals 2011