University research centres and screen infrastructure

The role that artists can play in activating cultural infrastructure has been well documented (Jeannotte 2008). While generative relationship building is strong the creative sector, there remains room to further explore how the space for innovation and artistic collaboration can be nurtured within educational institutions. The Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts is a research centre based at Flinders University. Since 2020, it has hosted five artists in residence from different fields of arts practice. This program seeks to foster a supportive ecosystem where unanticipated interactions and artistic invention transform perceptions an experience of creativity. Artists Rosina Possingham and Liam Somerville both used the virtual production technology in Flinders University’s The Void to undertake artist residencies that utilised cutting edge motion capture technology. Liam used The Void to build ESCHATECH VR, an immersive, climate-fiction Virtual Reality experience of the last 100 seconds of humanity on planet Earth. Liam worked with the in-house research and development team to problem-solve different technical briefs to forge new extended reality(XR) production techniques, language and protocols. Rosina developed an exciting VR project ‘Herding Caterpillars’, a creative digital approach to telling the story of the Chequered Copper Butterfly and its symbiotic relationship to a particular species of ant along with the flower of the Oxalis plant. Rosina was able to use the early stages of her Assemblage residency to develop a larger project with AR and VR experiences as part of the Nature Festival. While some research has been done on how university artist residencies developed fruitful synergies between art and science (Lee et al, 2018), this can be extended to consider the possibilities of digital spaces for artists. This presentation outlines some of the opportunities, challenges and benefits of working with artists and residents in university-based screen facilities focussing on the importance of relationship building, the valuing of creative practice in university environments and the benefits of such schemes for arts practice, students, staff and artists.