Creative Research Workshop In Hamilton August 6

Media Release - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 30 2003

Wintec Announces Creative Research Workshop In Hamilton August 6

Forum and workshop led by Australian experts will explore research in creative practices including art, design, music, and media production

Mention “research” and most people have visions of test tubes and scientists in white lab coats. But the government, in its definition of research for the Performance Based Research Fund, notes that research investigations might result in not only reports and chemical compounds, but artistic works, designs or performances.

Director of Wintec’s Media Arts Creative Industries Research Centre, Danny Butt, said that there is a growing awareness of the similarities between “traditional research” and creative practices.

“Research agencies around the world no longer see the two areas as completely separate,” said Mr. Butt. “Creative artists contribute to their field in the same way a scientist does. Firstly, they look at existing work in their field. Then they develop an idea which might make a new contribution. They experiment in ways that might change their initial thinking. Finally, they put the results of their work out for others in their field to evaluate.”

The workshop is part of SPARK3, Wintec’s conference for art, design, music and media practitioners, which features international figures in the creative industries. “The conference brings together tertiary educators and practitioners in the creative sector from all over the country - and there is a lot of interest in the new research definitions. It is an ideal time tofocus on these issues” said Mr. Butt.

The workshop will be led by Dr. Anna Munster, Lecturer in Art History and Theory at

the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. She is also a practising new media artist, who works in internet, video, sound and photographic media. She currently holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant for research into artists' contributions to the body-computer interface. Dr. Munster will be joined on a panel by Lisa Grocott, a former Wintec staff member who is now Research/Graduate Coordinator in Communication Design at RMIT University and Creative Director at Melbourne design agency Studio Anybody.

Participants can register for the conference on the SPARK3 website: http://spark.mediarts.net.nz

ENDS

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