PUBLICATIONS 2021-2023
- Elizabeth Stephens, ‘The Mechanical Turk: A Short History of “Artificial Artificial Intelligence”’ Cultural Studies (2022): 65- 87
- Sarah Collins, “The Operatic Roots of Performativity: Bodies Decontextualised in Butler, Brecht, and Busoni”, Cambridge Opera Journal (2022), 1-29.
- Ionat Zurr, “Outsourcing Care for Life”, in Arc-hive: Case Studies and Life as an Object, ed. by Ena Hodžić, Olga Majcen Linn, Jurica Mlinarec, and Luja Šimunović (Kontejner, 2022)
- Oron Catts, “Post-promethean Art”, in Arc-hive: Case Studies and Life as an Object. ed. by
Ena Hodžić, Olga Majcen Linn, Jurica Mlinarec, and Luja Šimunović (Kontejner, 2022) - Sarah Collins, “On or about 1932: The Mechanical Reproduction of the Middlebrow”, in The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Middlebrow, eds Kate Guthrie and Chris Chowrimootoo (Oxford University Press, 2023)
- Ionat Zurr & Oron Catts, Tissues, Cultures, Art (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming in 2023)
- Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, “Thermopolitics”, in Viral Cultures, as part of the series Biotechne: Interthinking Art, Science and Design (series editors: Charissa Terranova and Meredith Tromble) Bloomsbury Press, forthcoming.
EXHIBITIONS
- Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, in collaboration with Steven Berrick, ‘Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle’, PS Gallery, Fremantle, 5-26 Feb, 2022
PROJECT EVENTS
- “Life in the Age of Automation: Cultural and Creative Perspectives”, Study Day, 26 Sept., 2022, UQ, Brisbane. Hosted by Elizabeth Stephens and the Digital Cultures and Society Hub (UQ)
Partners:
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) admscentre.org.au
- Digital Cultures and Society Hub (UQ) LINK
- ARC “The Cultural and Intellectual History of Automated Labour” (UWA/UQ) automationcultures.com
- ARC DP “The Geopolitics of Automation” (WSU) LINK
“The Art and Science of Synthetic Biology”, LASER talk, Institute of Modern Art, 27 Sept.
2022 Brisbane. Speakers: Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr, and Jestin George. Hosted by Elizabeth Stephens and Grayson Cooke.
“Automation Cultures” Seminar Series, UWA and online:
- Shintaro Miyazaki (Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Media Studies and Computation), “Counter-Algorhythmics as Prefigurative Dances of Commonism”, 9 Dec. 2022
- Ned Rossiter (WSU, Media Studies), “Automated Dreams”, 21 Oct, 2022
- Chris Danta (UNSW, Literary Studies), “Dear AI Reader: Nonhuman Perspective and Evolutionary Thinking in the Human-Machine Relation”, Sept. 2022
- Warren Mansell (Curtin, Psychology and Population Health), “The Automation of Life: Engineering Negative Feedback Control”, 29 July 2022
- Orkan Telhan (UPenn), “Automation and Istanbul’s Public Gardens”, 17 Dec. 2021
- Pia van Gelder (ANU), “Automation or Divination: David Tudor and the Instrument of his Instruments”, Nov. 2021
- Sean Dockray (ANU), “Falling”, Nov. 2021
- Gunalan Nadarajan, “Dressing Animals, Governing Files, Managing Traffic: Habits of Automation”, 22 Oct 2021
- Paul Vanouse, “Labor, Bodies, Nonhumans & Identity”, 26 Aug 2021
KEYNOTE LECTURES GIVEN BY PROJECT TEAM
- Ionat Zurr, Monster Conference, Limina Journal in collaboration with the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions and the Classics Department at the University of Reading UK, 9/9/2022
- Ionat Zurr, m/other becomings symposium. Aalto University 9/6/2022
- Elizabeth Stephens: Transparent Women: The Visual Cultures of Medicine ANU. 9/11/2022
- Oron Catts, Robots as Surrogate to Biological Functions, in Creative Collaborations #2 Art, Design & HRI. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design, Jerusalem 12/05/2022
- Oron Catts, “Frankenstein’s Reproducibility Crisis”, in Quantum Words Perth, WA State Library, 17/09/2022
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Panel on “Automating Life: Cultural and Creative Perspectives”, Cultural Studies Association of Australasia conference, 2 Dec, 2022, Melbourne. Convened by Elizabeth Stephens.
Papers Presented:
- Santiago Renteria Aguila, “Machine Listening Aesthetics: Reanimating Sonic Ecologies”
- Elizabeth Stephens, “Automaton and the Invention of “Life””
- Ionat Zurr, “Who Cares? Michael Richardson (respondent): “Nonhuman Witnessing of Automated Life”
Panel on “Automating Life”, in “Life in the Age of Automation: Cultural and Creative Perspectives”, Study Day, 26 Sept., 2022, UQ, Brisbane
Papers Presented:
- Elizabeth Stephens, ‘“Fauxtomation” and Programmable Life”
- Oron Catts, “Art as a Precursor to MetabolicRift Technologies”
- Ionat Zurr, “The Revitalisation of Automation”
- Sarah Collins, “Automation as Mimesis”
Other:
- Oron Catts, Sarah Collins, Elizabeth Stephens, Ionat Zurr, “Neutralising Nature: Automation, Agricultural Technologies, and the Morality of Improvement”, IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS), 28-31 Oct. 2021, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (virtual)
- Tarsh Bates, Oron Catts, Sarah Collins, Dale Tilbrook, Ionat Zurr, “Automation Cultures Digestion: Panel”, 3SDC Contestable Food Systems Symposium, Seedbox Community Garden event, 10 Feb. 2022
- Ionat Zurr, “Life as an Object”, Kersnikova Creative Europe project Arc-hive (17/02/2022)
- Ionat Zurr, American Communities program presents: Bioart & Resistence: A Global Virtual Roundtable, Cal State LA USA (16/3/2022)
- Ionat Zurr: Laser Talk – Beyond Spontaneous Generation – an art & science encounter
- Sarah Collins, “Belonging as Mimetic Contagion”, Australian Academy of Humanities Symposium, Ballarat, Nov 2022
- Sarah Collins, “The Stone Guest”, American Musicological Society Conference, New Orleans, Nov 2022
- Sarah Collins, “The Future of AI”, French Dialogues, Hosted by UWA Law, Perth City Council Library, Sept 2022
- Sarah Collins, “Animating the Inanimate: musical automation on stage and screen”, Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Oct. 4, 2022
- Sarah Collins, “Sounding Simulacra: The Aesthetics of Automation in Opera and Animation”, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2022
- Sarah Collins, “Papageno on the Assembly Line”, American Musicological Society Conference, Nov 2021
- Oron Catts, “Life as an Object”. Kersnikova Creative Europe project Arc-hive (17/02/2022)
- Oron Catts, “Post Promethean Art” @ JRC-EC [artist talk] Talk at the Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Organised by the JRC SciArt project 24/05/2022
- Oron Catts, “Nature free (Agri)culture – Hacking and Contesting Future Food Systems” in HACKERS, MAKERS, THINKERS, Collective Experiments in Social Fermenting, Berlin University of the Arts and Art Laboratory Berlin 27/05/2022
- Oron Catts The European Commission Joint Research Centre Science Summit 2022, “Ethical challenges of a future world shaped by emerging technologies” (Block: Needs for Science in the Future) 14/06/2022
- Oron Catts, Imagining a New Policy Agenda for Australian Arts & Culture, The University of Western Australia’s Public Policy Institute, WA State Library 06/10/2022
- Oron Catts, Metabolic Rift Technologies at RIXC Art Science Festival and Renewable Futures Conference 2022: SPLINTERED REALITIES, Riga, Latvia 08/10/2022
- Oron Catts, Nonconsensual Artwashing, in Navigating Ethics in Arts Partnerships (The Summit), the Chamber of Arts and Culture (WA), 25/10/2022
AFFILIATED POSTGRADUATE PROJECTS
- Santiago Renteria Aguila, “Machine Listening: Reanimating Acoustic Ecologies”, PhD candidate, UWA
- David Friedrich, “Phenomenology of Bionic Sensation. Rethinking the relationship between sound and hearing based on the cochlear implant”, PhD candidate, UWA

Wolfgang Koch as Faust in Ferruccio Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Munich Opera Festival, 2008. © Wilfried Hösl.