AFTRS and DDCA (The Australian Council of the Deans and Directors of Creative Arts) present ‘Collaboration and Authorship’ for the 37ᵗʰ edition of NiTRO. The work, co-edited by AFTRS’ A/g Postgraduate Course Leader Dr. Alejandra Canales and Head of Research Susan Danta, explores the opportunities and challenges created by notions of authenticity, representation, collaboration and authorship and how our curriculum design and delivery seeks to address them.
“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.”
Alejandra Canales and Susan Danta, ‘NiTRO’ Edition 37
“We must look beyond our shores as issues surrounding authenticity, ethical storytelling and othering have become a collective responsibility in education at all levels and particularly within the arts... By what we reveal through the telescope and through the mirror, we make sense of who we are as individuals and as collective communities.”
DDCA president Professor Clive Barstow, NiTRO’ Edition 37
The publication features contributions from several AFTRS staff and alumni, along with writing by a group of their peers.
Director of First Nations & Outreach Dr. Romaine Moreton discusses the “pathways and protocols” for producing media with, for or about Indigenous peoples and communities in Mediating Relationships – Creating Ethical Spaces for Indigenous Storytelling.
Head of Directing Rowan Woods and Screen Studies Senior Lecturer Duncan McLean consider the demise of the traditional authorship model within a rapidly changing film industry environment in Unlearning Screen Authorship.
Senior Directing Lecturer Pearl Tan shares the benefits to teaching and learning offered by recognising diverse student cohorts as marginally situated knowers in Empowering Our Students as Situated Knowers.
Karen Pearlman (AFTRS Master of Arts (Film & Television) Editing, 2000; Macquarie) considers the challenges to gender equity culture change in the film industry, starting with film history education in Changing Film Culture: ‘After the Facts’ and the Educator’s Effect.
Anna Tow (AFTRS Master of Arts (Film & Television) Computer Animation, 2001; UNSW) and Deborah Turnbull Tillman (UNSW) discuss their pedagogical approach based on Artist as Accomplice and Curator as Collaborator in Collaborator and Accomplice: Co-operative Pedagogies for Transformational Learning.
Former Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network Project Officer EO Gill 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 in TransAuto.
