Guest edited by David Cross and Cameron Bishop
Perhaps it is appropriate that the etymology of risk is caught between two competing meanings. The Italian word risco loosely translates to cliff which implies that negotiating said cliff is not for the feint hearted. There is another school of thought however that risk has its origins in the Arabic word rizq which means gift from divine providence. The space between cliff and gift seems like a prescient reflection of how we are currently negotiating risk in the academy. Risk in the academy oscillates wildly either as a set of properties to be managed, reconciled and neutralised, an electrical current essential for activating any kind of zeitgeist transformation, or as a category always negotiating territory along this continuum. This forthcoming issue of creative matters attempts to take some risks with risk, inviting contributions that grapple with what this term or operation means in an academic world of seemingly ever-increasing dissonance. At a time when organisational structures and systems are under duress and we negotiate disinformation, deepfake AI and the brutalities of global and local conflicts with their concomitant partisan politics, how might, or can, creative practitioners working in the university context navigate the myriad faultlines and at the same time preface a heightened and committed capacity for taking risks. We invite contributions from across the creative spectrum to consider what risk means and how it might be configured to build resilience, alterity and resistance to forces that seek to neutralise cultural complexity.
SUBMISSIONS DUE: Monday 7th April
LENGTH: approx 800 words
QUERIES & SUBMISSIONS: editor@ddca.edu.au