This Is Not Art[ery]

In the wake of this year’s This Is Not Art, the Australian Council’s online site ARTery has published a series of interviews with this year’s TiNA subfestivals, facilitated by CA’s very own Eleanor Zeichner. Click on the links below to catch up on the coverage.
National Young Writers Festival
Electrofringe  
Crack Theatre   
Critical Animals 

The Spheres: City Symphonies

Dear Melbourne Critters,

For those who missed the Spheres’ euphoric live preview of the Book of Hours at This Is Not Art, or their “rock and roll academia” paper, ‘City Symphonies’, as part of our Creating Cities panel – or for those who just can’t get enough – the Spheres will be performing a revised and expanded version of their City Symphonies paper, for free, this Friday at Long Play in North Fitzroy.

Also, whilst you’re at it, check out the wonderful Darryl Ephraums’ video piece on the Spheres, as part of his new Hear the Hum project.

Hope you’re all travelling well. More updates soon,

Critical Animals x

The Spheres: City Symphonies

Dear Melbourne Critters,

For those who missed the Spheres’ euphoric live preview of the Book of Hours at This Is Not Art, or their “rock and roll academia” paper, ‘City Symphonies’, as part of our Creating Cities panel – or for those who just can’t get enough – the Spheres will be performing a revised and expanded version of their City Symphonies paper, for free, this Friday at Long Play in North Fitzroy.

Also, whilst you’re at it, check out the wonderful Darryl Ephraums’ video piece on the Spheres, as part of his new Hear the Hum project.

Hope you’re all travelling well. More updates soon,

Critical Animals x

TESTING TESTING ONE TWO THREE

DANGER WILL ROBINSON

Critical Animalia: 24 Hours to go !

Just a quick message to say OUR ANIMALIA PLEDGING LINES ARE OPEN FOR ONLY 24 MORE HOURS LONGER ! Phew! Wowzers! The past month has been just bonkers. Once again: thanks everyone! thanks again and again. At this eleventh hour we’re $80 away from our final target, which in the scheme of things is like really, really, super close. If there are any last minute pledgers, please, now is the time to do it! Help us over the final line.

Sweet deal: FREE LMT CA T-SHIRT WITH ALL LAST DAY PLEDGES! Trust me, our CA Shirts are cooler than Dangerfield. Also, just so you know, we love you! love love love you! Have a great weekend, and let’s have chats soon !

Critical Animals xx
http://www.pozible.com/ca13

Critical Animalia: Incentives

View Incentives Video

At halfway through our Animalia Campaign, our Melbourne director Beau thought it appropriate to explain our pozible incentive system. Get in quick, as some of the remaining reward categories are going fast! Here’s the current tally, with 15 days to go. Please keep spreading the word and pledge pledge pledging !

Enjoy your weekend !

Critical Animals xx
http://www.pozible.com/ca13

A$15: This level of donation will secure a place for your name on the publication’s PAGE OF GLORY, as well as a call out on Critical Animals social media. You will also have exclusive access to an online PDF version of ‘Critical Animalia: A Decade Between Disciplines’.
3 Chosen Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$30: All of the above + a copy of the limited edition publication ‘Critical Animalia: A Decade Between Disciplines’, to be collected by you at the publication launch, or directly posted to you by one of our team.
29 Chosen 31 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$50: All of the above + a bespoke Critical Animals haiku, to be collected or posted with your copy of ‘Critical Animalia: A Decade Between Disciplines’.
14 Chosen 6 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$75: All of the above + a limited edition Critical Animals Mixtape Assembled by DJ Tender Buttons and DJ song requests to be played at the launch.
1 Chosen 9 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$100: All of the above + limited edition Critical Animals tie-dye t-shirt.
4 Chosen 1 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$200: All of the above + a platonic friend-date with Critical Animals resident hunk, Beau.
0 Chosen 3 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

A$500 – All gone ! All of the above + a handmade Critical Animals soft toy made by Sophie. You can also launch the publication at CA’13, and we’ll make sure you’re the star of the party! And/or, we’ll cook you something really delicious after the festival, and you’ll pretty much be our very best friend
1 Chosen 0 Available Est. Delivery Oct 2013

Critical Animalia: Thank You!

At just over 10 days into our Animalia campaign, we just wanted to write once again to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported our project, in whatever way they have been able to. In our meeting yesterday we couldn’t find the words to express our gratitude – so instead, we made a short clip to suffice.  Enjoy, and please keep pledging and spreading the word. We’ll be in touch soon.

Love,

Critical Animals x
http://www.pozible.com/ca13

Critical Animalia: Target One Reached!

A high-pitched scream of utmost gratitude to all that have contributed to our Animalia Pozible campaign. In an exhilarating period of just over 66 hours, we reached our initial marker, and even a little more. This means, as you know, our journal project is officially HAPPENING! We can’t even begin to thank everyone enough. Champagne is necessary; lucky it’s a Sunday. 

In particular, Critical Animals would like to extend our thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Gillian, Mike and Jennifer McAuliffe. We look forward to working with the Bold Park Community School in the future.   

The bubbly tastes sweet, but it could taste sweeter. I look at the calender and see we have 27 days to go. http://www.pozible.com/ca13 is still live and still accepting pledges. There are still over 60 journals that we’ve allocated to our incentive initiative. Our initial set target will just cover costs, and even then, only by the tightest of margins. Due to the overwhelming amount of support we’ve received, we’ve reevaluated our strategic plan and would like to stretch it further to make the production quality of Critical Animalia as outstanding as it’s proposed content. The more pledges we receive, the richer the printed page quality, the more pages we can print, the more copies we can produce. A Decade between Disciplines might be a limited print, but we’d like to print as many as possible. We’re also currently set for black and white print – with further support we can even think about color printing, which is something we never really thought possible.

If you can, we urge you, please keep pledging, and encouraging others that you know to do so too. We’re absolutely thrilled as to where we’re at at the moment and plan to channel this enthusiasm into making this project the best it can be. 

Thanks again, and again, and again, and again, 

Critical Animals x       

Party photo by Clayton Flores: http://claytonflores.blogspot.com.au

Critical Animalia: Campaign Launched!

So the project we’ve been riffing about is finally here:  tonight we launch our Animalia campaign to help raise the funds to produce for our tenth anniversary publication Critical Animalia: A Decade between Disciplines. In fact, wait, look, it’s on, it’s live, NOW. Our campaign will only last 30 days and will be speckled with promotional videos, announcements and surprises. We ask you ever kindly, if you can spare it, please pledge to our campaign and help make this project happen. Any pledge over $30 will secure you a physical copy of the journal, to be picked up at your leisure at the Animalia launch (or posted out subsequent to TiNA). In other words, a $30 pledge is pretty much a lay-by of your copy. Excellent! Of course, as you pledge higher, the rewards get even better.

We have a lot riding on this and appreciate all the support we can muster. We have set a modest target although we’re earnestly hoping to trump it, to ensure all costs are covered, all articles are printed, and all incentives met. The more pledges we receive, the more pages we can print, the better the publication, the better the launch party!

Please click on the link for more information: www.pozible.com/ca13. We’ll keep you posted as to how we’re going throughout the the month. If you can think of anyone you know who might be interested in supporting this project, please don’t hesitate to forward through this call out. Alternatively, like it on fb, retweet it, text it or scribble our deets on the closest cubicle wall.

Also, watch Tulleah, Denise and Eleanor being clever:
http://vimeo.com/69065635 and have a read of the write up below.
A big shout out to CA’13 Artist Dylan Hammond for help with the filming, editing and emotional support.

Thanks a million everyone, let’s speak soon, it’s ON!

Love,

Critical Animals

Inspired by the fabulous contributions and relationships that have emerged through the annual Critical Animals symposium, the publication will address questions regarding what it means to think or act critically today. Exploiting creative, analytical, written and visual formats, the publication will showcase Australian artworks and written pieces that challenge the relegation of critical thought to conventional academic fora, highlighting the intimate links between creativity and criticality as they appear in diverse forms.

Critical Animals have teamed up with Sydney-based project manager Denise Thwaites and designer Evelyn Kwok to produce the inaugural edition of the Critical Animals journal.

Creative Ecologies Retreat Call Out

As usual, it’s been a busy last few weeks in CA headquarters. Lots of interesting conversations, weird diagrams, black coffee and costume contemplations. A big thank you to all the clever critters who applied to contribute to our Journal; we’ll be with you shortly. Before we do so, however, we’d like to direct your attention to the following call out, aimed at Higher Degree Research Students engaged in creative writing doctorates. Applications close 28th June.

The Writing & Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney is hosting a four day writing program titled ‘Creative Ecologies: A Postgraduate Retreat in Creative Arts Scholarship’.

This retreat, targeted at postgraduate students engaged in research that incorporates a creative writing component and exegesis, seeks to develop an awareness of the connection between creative and critical discourses such that students can approach the writing process with more confidence while developing their skills as creative research-writers. Presentations, panels, writing workshops and writing circles will be given and facilitated by both the Centre’s academics (Prof. Ivor Indyk, Prof. Gail Jones, Assoc. Prof. Hart Cohen, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Dr Matt McGuire, Dr Milissa Deitz, Dr Rachel Morley) as well as visiting academics (Prof. Donna Lee Brien, Assoc. Prof Marion May Campbell, Dr Antonia Pont, Dr Keri Glastonbury, Prof Jen Webb).

For more information, please visit www.uws.edu.au/creative2013 

Will be in touch soon, for now keep on keeping on x

– Critical Animals

Photo: Jeff Wall – ‘Boy falling out of tree’ 2010.