Art+Australia Cover Artworks: The Pivot, The View & The Mirror

BACKGROUND This research portfolio of Art +Australia covers, commissioned for the peak Australian art journal's new editions, showcases the intersection of the researcher’s contemporary design practice with interdisciplinary research spanning postcolonialism, immersive phenomenology, and the impact of emerging AI technologies. The custom designed interactive covers explore the role of the artist in a contemporary postcolonial context [The View](Traut,2022), challenge conventional notions of perception through digital phenomenology [The Pivot](Merleau-Ponty,1964;Gibson 1986;Taddio,2022), and raise questions about the emotional impact of AI in an increasingly technology-driven world [The Mirror](Bridle,2023). CONTRIBUTION Working with the editorial team, Donnachie (code) & Simionato (design) created the three bespoke interactive web experience covers. Each presents a visual and material metaphor for the issue’s topics of concern including an animated custom font for physics-based type-fall for The Pivot; generated “Australian landscape” paintings via an AI agent as flats on a VR stage for The View; and a generative text projection-mapped VR “Internet Painting” for The Mirror. SIGNIFICANCE Art+Australia is Australia’s longest running art magazine, these editions feature internationally renowned artists, curators, writers and contributors such as Natalie King, David Pledger, Richard J Frankland & Patricia Piccinini. Attesting to their value, these covers have received international accolades: The Pivot was deemed an “Excellent Work” and included in Tokyo Type Directors Club “Best of Typography 2023”;The View was featured in a Spectrum magazine (The Age / SMH) article on AI, alongside Cindy Sherman (Stephens,2023), and featured in Artshub (2023); The Mirror was screened at The Science Gallery Melbourne in the context of the “Expanded AI: Panel Discussion” (Walton,2023)