To introduce the exciting diversity of voices that make up the first edition of  Demos Journal,  we embark upon a reflection on the relation between democracy and creativity itsel...

1. Respublica Scotorum I took this photograph a week or so before the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. The placard, leant on a rucksack on an autumn pavement, was part of a s...

https://player.vimeo.com/video/137788588 Artist Statement This short film explores the current political issues surrounding refugees in Australia, focusing on their social rejectio...

“The ocean is at its best today.” It was hard to believe how this sentence which, on the surface, seemed so optimistic, could be so depressing. An individual’s engagement with crea...

– Photographs and interviews by  Elena McGannon Artist Statement  Four years ago, after being isolated and raped on a night out with friends, a female district attorney told Daniel...

Without presenting myself as an authority on racial identity politics or African-American culture, this essay discusses the way in which creative media has been a forum for resista...

When we first released our opening theme, we included this blurb to kickstart some responses: “To create, creativity, the power to create, creative resistance – things as elusive a...

… Through many years of To me creating  Creating can be the most  I find it hard to grasp the word “create” and  Every now and then  Sometimes I survive by creating,  I don’t know ...

Public Funding and Why it Matters If we start with the basic idea that the arts, in their many forms, from theatre, music, and film to visual practice, enrich, challenge, and comfo...

[gallery columns="1" link="none" size="full" ids="374"] Electric. To be risk averse in this neighbourhood is not an option. With pylons passing high overhead to connect others to t...

In a 2005 article for  The   Guardian , Robert Macfarlane lamented the lack of a cultural response to climate change, asking: ‘where are the novels, the plays, the poems, the songs...

W hile there is no single understanding of democracy, there is broad agreement that it involves a people allowed to meet and speak freely, with the right to choose and question its...

Ascending  Loving your scrutiny, Agreeing with your Calculated appraisal, This conversation Is a staged renovation Of my crumbling insides. You aspire towards Beauty And frown at m...

In a recently published book,  Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity , the Sociologist Maurizzio Lazzarato considers the question of what genuine creati...

For a long time, I remained convinced that the only difference between myself and others was the permanent scowl I carried with me everywhere. The turmoil of my internal state and ...

I can’t deny how much I already feel this. But my focus refuses direction, won’t be blinked into moistened clarity. Muffled by a hum, just behind my ears. Whispering hushed tales o...

– Esther Carlin interviews Claire Louise On a cold Tuesday around midday I met with Claire Louise, a fellow first year Visual Art student, at the ANU School of Music café. She was ...

Emphatic Exordium The concept of a ‘people’ is a distinctly weird one. Everything about it seems tendentious and unclear; even grammatically, the expression “a people” appears to t...

You could be forgiven for thinking, or even believing, that you have a say in decisions that impact your life because you live in a democracy. “I vote. Therefore, I have a say.” Bu...

Tallara Gray is an activist with Seed and studies visual art at the University of Queensland. Linnea Burdon-Smith spoke with her about Seed, activism, her art and upbringing. Where...

Introduction The Greek debt currently totals somewhere around 240 billion euros. Throughout what has come to be called the Greek debt crisis, the actions of the European Union has ...

This image comes from a fleeting moment from the car window as we drove home from Castlemaine along the Hume Highway one lat...

In Australia marriage equality waits impatiently for political sanction. Already, it has received the sanction of society, with public opinion polls consistently showing majority s...

Holly Zhang; Jemimah Cooper; Linnea Burdon-Smith; Louis Kleé; Odette Shenfield