CoVA was established in 2018 to facilitate innovative and sustainable research and collaborative projects in the visual arts at the University of Melbourne.
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LATEST
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Sight Unseen: Visualising the Unseeable through Art and Science
PRE-ORDER NOW AVAILABLE At its most fundamental, the act of seeing is the sensory experience of detecting light. A confluence of science, art, cultural knowledge, imaging and imagining, Sight Unseen – which is edited by Edward Colless, Suzie Fraser, and Ryan Jefferies, and designed by Daly & Lyon – positions the notion of sight to be so much more.
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Talanoa Forum: Moana Rising
First presented at the 59th Venice Biennale, the Talanoa Forum extends the themes of the Paradise Camp exhibition by bringing together 24 artists, curators, scholars, activists and policymakers from Australia, Aoteroa New Zealand, Sāmoa, Tahiti, and Italy. Over three days, this interdisciplinary program will highlight urgent issues around small island ecologies, climate justice, decolonial museology, diasporic and Pacific alliances. Powerhouse Ultimo. 10–12 October 2023 10am–5pm.
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Enough: Artists and writers on gendered violence
On March 15, 2021, more than one hundred thousand people marched across Australia in a series of March 4 Justice protests calling for gender equality and justice for victims of sexual assault. Enough: Artists and writers on gendered violence comprises creative responses to the issues highlighted in these protests.
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Always and Altered Exhibition | Benalla Art Gallery
4 August - 17 September 2023, Benalla Art Gallery
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Double Nation by Ian McLean
In this major new account Ian McLean traces the history of Australian art, from colonial art practice to the search for a national art in the twentieth century.
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Unlikely Issue 08
Unlikely Journal Issue 08: Birds and Language now online
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The Crawling Man Project
by Dr Kiron Robinson. A CoVA Small Grant project supported by the Victorian College of the Arts, School of Computing and Information Systems & Melbourne School of Engineering.
NEWS + EVENTS
cova-research@unimelb.edu.au
CoVA’s research priorities align with the University of Melbourne’s aims of engagement-led research that value s invention and innovation. They serve to build strong research collaborations with industry partners and are explicitly conceived to bring about positive change to local communities, Australia and the world.
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Postnational Art Histories
During the past 50 years, contemporary art practices, theories and criticism have engaged deeply with the many postnational challenges to national sovereignties yet the nation state and nationalisms are as strong and influential as ever.
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Art Across the Archipelago
This program aims to produce a new understanding of cultural alliances across the Asia Pacific region with programs specifically focused to facilitate collaboration between institutions and individuals across Australia, Indonesia and India.
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Communicative Cities
Contemporary society, and public culture, is no longer formed by values and practices that arise from and remain bound to a homogenous group, but has multiple origins, addresses diverse communities, and flows across territorial boundaries.
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Feminism and Intersectionality
The Feminism and Intersectionality program is designed to challenge dominant narratives and ideologies, and propose new frameworks in which to continue making and legitimising forms of knowledge and cultural production that are otherwise rendered invisible.
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Art + Science
The CoVA Art and Science program, supported by Science Gallery Melbourne, facilitates vital, national and international research projects in this space, building relationships between the University of Melbourne and scientific and creative research institutions across the world.
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Dialogues
Lectures, conferences, exhibitions, artist talks, podcasts and symposiums hosted by CoVA or convened by CoVA fellows.
cova-research@unimelb.edu.au
People Updates
cova-research@unimelb.edu.au
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Art + Australia
Art + Australia is a publishing and research body that focuses on contemporary art and its relationship to broader theoretical, social and geo-political contexts. Based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne, and living intimately with the vibrant pulse of its art school host, Art + Australia presents a rigorous and uncompromising perspective on what might constitute both art and Australia in the twenty first century.
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ANZJA (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art)
The AAANZ publishes the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art (ANZJA). The ANZJA is Australasia’s principal refereed art history journal. The journal is dedicated to research in art history, art practice, art theory, and exhibition and museum studies. 2014 ushered in a new era for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. The journal is now published with Taylor and Francis, a division of Informa. It is published in hard copy and online via the ANZJA site on Taylor and Francis.
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Project Anywhere
Project Anywhere is a global blind peer reviewed exhibition program dedicated to art at the outermost limits of location-specificity. Although descriptions and images of hosted projects are featured on a dedicated website, Project Anywhere is neither an online exhibition nor a journal. It is instead a vehicle for illuminating artistic projects located anywhere and elsewhere in space and time. It is perhaps best imagined as an exhibition comprising the entire globe in which the role of curator is replaced with a peer evaluation system.
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Currents Journal
Currents is an interdisciplinary arts and practice-led-research journal dedicated to the flow of ideas occurring between the disciplines of visual art, film, production, architecture, design, dance and theatre; along with art, architecture, theatre and music history. Collaboratively published between the Centre of Visual Arts (CoVA) University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia, Currents charts the social, creative and historical dialogues generated by early career researchers across these discrete yet interrelated disciplinary fields.
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Unlikely
Unlikely is a transdisciplinary online journal. An experiment in form, Unlikely engages its audience and contributors through a two-stage process of live events that showcase the work of creative practitioners, followed by peer reviewed electronic publication of creative arts work and traditional scholarly articles and essays—both overseen by an international editorial board and panel of peer reviewers. Unlikely opens unexpected spaces for artistic exchange and scholarly conversations across mediums, disciplines and continents. It offers researchers from humanities and artists working in practice-led research the chance to participate in and explore a range of practical and theoretical contemporary art concerns.
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Perimeter Editions X CoVA
Perimeter Editions X CoVA is a exemplary new publishing series reflecting current and emerging research from the Centre of Visual Art at the University of Melbourne. Launching in 2021, this series aims to deliver responsive and relevant material intersecting art, culture, society, and science published by Perimeter Editions.
Past Publications
cova-research@unimelb.edu.au
Internal Partners
External Partners
