Devora Neumark: Collaborative Performance Art in Search of Beauty and Home: Making a Case for Participatory Research and Co-creativity
Jen Rae: Riparian Project

2-5pm
Venue: Founders Room, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts,
234 St Kilda Road, Southbank
To register: www.trybooking.com/BFFM
Devora Neumark: Interdisciplinary artist Devora Neumark is a Faculty Member in the MFA Interdisciplinary Art program at Goddard College (Vermont) and a SSHRC-funded Humanities PhD Scholar at Concordia University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture. Her research/creation project examines the role that beauty plays in the process of homemaking in the aftermath of forced displacement. www.devoraneumark.com

Jen Rae is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural producer and researcher from Canada, practicing in Melbourne since 2008. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2003) and a Masters of Art: Art in Public Space (2009). Jen’s practice-led research explores cultural adaptation to climate change and related environmental issues. She investigates the ways in which artist-led ecological projects can more effectively engage with the public by working in collaboration with other disciplines in the identification and communication of environmental concerns. Her work also employs methods to reduce the environmental impact of creating such works and is continually looking for innovative ways reduce to her ecological footprint in the studio and through production.

Jen Rae is currently a PhD candidate in the Art & Environmental Sustainability research cluster at RMIT University. Jen will be discussing her work on the Riparian Project (http://theriparianproject.com.au/ [1]) – a public art initiative that aims to influence a shift in grazing practices in Victoria to improve river health – which forms part of her PhD research. Her research examines to what extent can practice-based research in art be informed by collaborative work with other disciplines in the identification of environmental concerns, and through what methods can the public sphere be addressed to provoke awareness and initiate change in response to sustainability.

Kelum Palipane: Towards a Sensory Production of Urban Space: Developing a Conceptual Framework of Inquiry based on Sensory Embodied Practice and
Dr Kate Shaw: Re-thinking the ‘creative city’: reconciling global strategies with local subcultures

2-5pm
Venue: Founders Room, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts,
234 St Kilda Road, Southbank
Register: www.trybooking.com/BFFM
Kelum Palipane is a graduate architect with experience in the field of architecture in Melbourne. She is currently reading for her PhD at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, aiming to develop an urban design framework that would help retain and foster the diverse place-making practices of multi-cultural communities in neighbourhood regeneration projects.
Dr Kate Shaw is a Melbourne University Future Fellow with a PhD in urban planning and a master’s degree in urban policy. Her research interests include social equity, cultural diversity, low-income and student housing markets, gentrification, and urban policy and planning. She has received several awards for publications in these areas and is regularly invited to advise city councils and local campaigns on matters of planning and policy. Her most recent book is a collection of essays co-edited with Libby Porter titled: Whose Urban Renaissance? An international comparison of urban regeneration policies (2009).