mimesis

BACKGROUND: This triptych of collected audiovisual pieces has been featured separately on ABC Radio, and for journal's Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde, Critical Arts and New Writing (Routledge). The works explore mimesis as a concept of self-expression to incorporate notions of mimicry, irony and repetition (Bhabha), and the world of materiality and technological determinism (Benjamin). I build on these ideas of mimesis through my heuristic inquiry: What is authenticity in social relations with the Other and how might this authenticity be expressed audiovisually? The discourse surrounding the colonial encounter has been inadequately addressed; my research draws attention to this tension and responds to the ways in which past and present can be reconciled. CONTRIBUTION: My contribution as creative director led to three audiovisual works. 'Fruta Bomba' is on intercontinental mimesis understood through an American/Australian multimedia lens. 'Home Song' reflects on the archive as a eulogizing sonic practice across two homelands. 'Culture Shock' comments on the repetitive value of 'shock' as redemptive and narrative potential. The research moves beyond positions on cultural stasis with their insistence on retaining 'authentic' forms of otherness. Otherness is seen as central to authentic social relations and definitions of mimesis. I situate practice and sociality within the encounter of cultures. This is a speaking position through which to productively respond to dominating forces, encounters with privilege, and difference. SIGNIFICANCE: This work led to an invitation to present at the international GI Science 2018 conference, where this work was also featured. It highlighted the value of blending interdisciplinary and heuristic approaches, and has been crucial to extending debates on how differences can potentially be negotiated for the greater good. These debates are urgent in a climate of increasing fragmentation, and political and environmental instability.