AEGIS: Art + Ecologies
This research network currently has 96 members, a mix of independent and affiliated environmental arts and humanities scholars from RMIT, other Australian universities and international institutions. Its members’ research activity in this field: exhibitions, seminars, fieldwork, conference papers and academic research publications has enabled it to establish high-profile links with other groups and organisations in the field.
Established at RMIT in 2006, in 2008 AEGIS led the School of Art’s first conference Cultures of Sustainability, which was followed by a regular program of exhibitions, seminars and publications, attracting a dedicated following of researchers in the arts, humanities and natural sciences. In 2012 several members of AEGIS collaborated with artists and writers in Shanghai and Tokyo on an ARC Linkage Project Spatial Dialogues: http://spatialdialogues.net/home/
In 2019, AEGIS joined forces with CAST to facilitate shared interests and expand collaborative potential in research. It aims to bring researchers and postgraduate students at RMIT together with external AEGIS associates to further research on how the arts & humanities are responding to challenges to resilient global ecosystems.
You can find out more about AEGIS via their website aegisnetwork.org.
Research Projects
Past Exhibitions
Publications
Jones, O, Rigby, K. & Williams, L. (2020)‘Everyday Ecocide, Toxic Dwelling, and the Inability to Mourn: A Speculative Response to Geographies of Extinction’ Environmental Humanities 12:1, 388-405
AEGIS Contacts
Associate Professor Linda Williams
A cultural historian with a background in social & critical theory, Williams works in the environmental humanities and studies in human-animal relations with a focus on how histories of the longue durée continue to shape responses to the present day crises of climate change and mass species extinction.
Her research in cultural and environmental history investigates the status of the nonhuman world in western art & thought, particularly in European ideas of nature from 17th century early modernity. This focus includes the question of how the arts, science and processes of globalisation have shaped the affective & material practices of everyday life .
Williams has given numerous international keynotes, is a regular peer-assessor for many journals, the ARC , and postgraduate examination. She led an international ARC Linkage Project Spatial Dialogues, and has also curated several major international exhibitions.
Williams is currently the Higher Degree by Research Coordinator in the School of Art at RMIT where she supervises a number of doctoral candidates. Linda Williams: research publications linda.williams@rmit.edu.au
RMIT University, Building 6, level 4, Room 12. +61 3 9925 2369 linda.williams@rmit.edu.au Recent research publications: https://rmit.academia.edu/LindaWilliams Staff Profile: https://art.rmit.edu.au/people/associate-professor-linda-williams/
Dr Debbie Symons
Dr Debbie Symons is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her work addresses a range of themes, including humanity's complicated relationship with the natural environment, the dynamics of the global political economy and the effects of consumer culture. Symons is an artist in residence at Billilla Historic studios, where she is undertaking a practice-led research project titled Sing. This new body of work features a hundred hand-woven bird nests made from African oil palm fronds is funded by the Copyright Agency’s Create Grant. In 2015, Symons’ work was exhibited in Paris as part of the Australian representation in ARTCOP21. In 2014, she was awarded the [MARS] Gallery Exhibition Prize in the inaugural Linden Art Prize. In 2015, Symons' was awarded the inaugural grant and residency at Creative Spaces: Carlton Connect Studio, LAB-14, Carlton, funded by the City of Melbourne Symons' was awarded the Emerging Artist New Work grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2009.
AEGIS Members
Angela Clarke
Angela Singer
Anne Bevan
Ashley Kerr
Belinda Wilson
Bernie Jenny
Bill Fox
Cameron Robbins
Carol Freeman
Catherine Clover
Catherine van Wilgenburg
Cathy Greenfield
Chris Hudson
Clare McCracken
Colleen Boyle
David Stephenson
Deb Verhoeven
Debbie Symons
Dominic Redfern
Emma Lindsay
Felicity Spear
Felix Wilson
Fleur Summers
Freya Mathews
Genichi IDE 井出 玄
Giovanni Aloi
Guy Morel
Harry Nankin
Heather Hesterman
Irene Barberis
Jan hendrik brueggemeier
Jazmina Cininas
Jazmine Targett
Jen Rae
Jennifer Lade
Jessie Boylan
Joachim Froese
Jodi Newcombe
Josh Wodak
Karen Carter
Kate James
Kate Rigby
Keith Armstrong
Kit Wise
Kristen Sharp
Kumi Kato
Lesley Duxbury
Linda Williams
Lorraine Shannon
Louise Fowler-Smith
Luca Ihlein
Lyndal Osborne
Mandy Martin
Marco Amati
Martin Walch
Mathew Selinski
Maurizio Toscano
Miyuki Jokiranta
Nikos Pantazopoulos
Peter Ellis
Phil Edwards
Philip Samartzis
Pie Bolton
Rebecca Mayo
Rebecca Najdowski
Richard Dunn
Rob Kesseler
Rod Bennison
Ross Mclean
Ruth Johnstone
Saffron O'Neill
Sam Leach
Sarah Bekessy
Sarah Edwards
Sarah Jane Pell
Sarah Tomasetti
Simon Finn
Simon Perry
Siobhan Murphy
Siobhan O'Sullivan
Stephen Haley
Steve Baker
Su Ballard
Suzie Lachal
Thom van Duren
Thomas Bristow
Tim Collins
Tommaso Durante
Toni Roberts
Tony Lloyd
Tyler Payne
Valentina Palonen
Wendy Wheeler
Yvette Watt
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