A two day forum of creative research, experimentation and practice held from April 28-30 at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Serial Space Gallery, Chippendale.
This inaugural camp invites germinal, spectral, peripheral, and hypothetical ideas to be presented in a range of Show & Tell formats, including Installation, Paper, Performance, Recital, Round-table, and Screening.
Welcoming research finds, works in progress, poetry readings, film screenings, slideshows, conceptual cooking, travel reflections, labyrinthine introspections, artworks, and all other profundities to be offered up for engagement.
Specifically intended to facilitate outer realisations of the inner excitations of artists, researchers, academics, and practitioners, in the spirit of exposure, stimulation, and cross-pollination.
Featuring pre-disseminated abstracts and proposals, integrated self-catered mealtimes, activated question time, and a live zine-print of all camp materials.
About the organising collective
Inspired by the possibility of an unmediated and relaxed forum of intellectual, creative and artistic inquiry, the organisers of Open Fields are a group of students from UTS and UWS who are currently undertaking postgraduate research (in writing, cultural studies and the arts). We have come together to collaborate on this event because we each identified aspects of our own research and practice which we felt didn’t have a place in a traditional academic conference. We felt that there were elements of our work which were often neglected in favour of more formal or typical forms of inquiry – particularly the creative, ephemeral, intangible or orbital themes or approaches which often exist in traditional research, but seldom have a place for expression in the end-product.
It is our desire to encourage people to expand their research or practice beyond a closed, introspective or restricted format and take this opportunity to include, develop and explore all the possibilities in their chosen field. We wanted to set our own boundaries, and pursue our own interests, without the usual pressure of conformity, yet still within an intellectually rigorous and challenging forum, where we could expect high-level engagement and feedback.
Contact us at openfieldssydney@gmail.com
With support from Transforming Cultures at UTS, Serial Space Gallery, and the Writing & Society Group at the University of Western Sydney.
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