These lectures aim to shed light on the complex creative collaborations in relation to innovation, interdisciplinarity and inclusion, and involve case-studies of industry projects that demonstrate innovative approaches to collaborations and complex notions of authorship. Examples include R&D approaches for a VR documentary project that was shortlisted for Sundance New Frontier Lab, and a multi-authored community-based feature film project. Within these lectures questions are raised around a number of assumptions about authorship – particularly in highly collaborative spaces of creative production, live broadcast and performance – and raise issues relating to intellectual property, moral rights and representation, to community consultation and attribution of credits. The ends do not justify the means, and these classroom discussions of ethical collaboration and notions of “authorship” are critical in the development of future practitioners and their practice.
The deeply interconnected nature of collaborative practice, as well as the deeply interconnected nature of our contemporary world, brings together many different sets of knowledges, values, approaches, and expertise to exciting, innovative, and sometimes, volatile ends. Therefore, as creative practice educators, we have responsibility to ensure that cultural and emotional safety, respectful consultation, and authentic representation are present throughout our curriculum and studio practice. One such approach is to redirect the notion of creative “authorship” to “custodianship,” by taking responsibility of creative work from conception through to its ongoing interactions and impact in public life. More and more, this idea of custodianship is already prevalent in young people who are actively participating in a rhizomic socially networked environment that is built on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, actions and relationships. Will “digital natives” soon be superseded by “social network natives”, who demand accountability and social responsibility? We are already seeing this in our classrooms, where students are more confident than ever to challenge long-established conventions.
This edition of NiTRO aims to bring together different perspectives on collaboration and authorship in the many facets of creative practice education. Some issues covered in this edition include how a creative, strategic pedagogy may: define and design an inclusive and culturally safe curriculum; equip students to be ethical practitioners; support students to reflect on the positionality of their storytelling that provides insight into other knowledge systems; give students the knowledges to navigate questions of cultural IP, cultural consultation and their ethical relation to representation and story; establish ethical collaborations when working with communities outside our own; balance professional and educational expectations while developing new pathways to knowledge and: develop more inclusive, ethical and sustainable creative educational practices in this complex environment. It is our intention that these investigations will provide a starting point for further discussions, and research partnerships, to discover more about this important topic.
In this edition of NiTRO:
Romaine Moreton (AFTRS) discusses the “pathways and protocols” for producing media with, for or about Indigenous peoples and communities
Stacy Holman Jones (Monash) outlines the curriculum design approach to knowledge, skills and practices at Monash University
Cathy Henkel (ECU) and Isabel Turner (ECU) explore debate as a teaching tool to reveal and understand student bias and preconception
Julia Prendergast (AAWP and Swinburne) shares how Literary Industry Practice brings individual understanding and builds a community of practice
Rowan Woods (AFTRS) and Duncan McLean (AFTRS) consider the demise of the traditional authorship model within a rapidly changing film industry environment
Kath Dooley (Curtin), Marsha Berry (RMIT), Margaret McHugh (UTS), Craig Batty (UNISA) and James Verdon (Swinburne) discuss the ASPERA study into diversity within Australian tertiary screen production curricula and offer advice to instructors and for curriculum design
Sue Joseph (UNISA) explores the tensions present in the relationship between industrial and academic ethics practices in creative writing and journalism
Karen Pearlman (Macquarie) considers the challenges to gender equity culture change in the film industry, starting with film history education
Pearl Tan (AFTRS) shares the benefits to teaching and learning offered by recognising diverse student cohorts as marginally situated knowers
Deborah Turnbull Tillman (UNSW) and Anna Tow (UNSW) discuss their pedagogical approach based on Artist as Accomplice and Curator as Collaborator
Beata Batorowicz (USQ) and Linda Clark (USQ) unpack the ‘Students as Partners’ approach as a way to empower women artists
EO Gill (AFTRS) explores the TransAuto practices which are potentially reparative, collective experiences of making and theorising that complicates normative notions of authenticity and representation, collaboration and authorship
Dr Alejandra Canales is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with an extensive career in directing, producing, curating, and programming, and teaching and curriculum development. She holds an MA Hons from AFTRS (2005) and a Doctor of Creative Arts from the renowned Institute of Culture and Society at Western Sydney University (2011). Alejandra is an experienced educator across documentary and screen media, both practice and theory. She is currently Acting Course Leader (Masters) and Senior Lecturer in Documentary at AFTRS. Previous teaching roles include NYU Sydney, Western Sydney University, Sydney Film School, and The National Institute of Dramatic Arts, NIDA. Alejandra was co-founder and co-Director of the inaugural version of Antenna Documentary Film Festival (Sydney, 2011) and was part of the programming team for several years. She is currently working across virtual reality, immersive storytelling and recently presented her work at AIDC Australian International Documentary Conference, Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK, and NewImage Festival in Paris.
Susan Danta is the Head of Research at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and has previously held the role of Course Leader (Postgraduate) overseeing the Master of Arts: Screen, Master of Arts Screen: Business Leadership and Graduate Diploma in Radio. She completed a Masters of Digital Media at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (2007) and a Postgraduate Diploma (Animation) at the Victorian College of the Arts (1999). Susan is an accomplished content creator and animator. She was the series creator, director and animator of the acclaimed documentary interstitial series Heirlooms and animation projects for Shine Australia, SBS Television and Disney Channels AUNZ. Her other award-winning films include documentary and experimental short animations Mother Tongue, Driving Home and Shadowplay. She has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (animated self-portrait exhibition); Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australian Culture Now); The 4th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (Seeing There – Diasporic Sites); and the Smithsonian Institute USA (Animated Shorts Down-Under – An Australian Retrospective).