AustLit

'When first setting out to edit a volume on care and repair it seemed like the world, in so many and varied ways, was in need of serious attention. Although many of the issues confronting us were not new, the increasingly devastating effects of climate change and the emergence of COVID-19 had brought the need for mending into sharper focus. At that time, only a year into the pandemic, we envisaged breakages, fragilities and fault lines as things that urgently needed fixing. That perspective is still valid, but we now also sense a more nuanced understanding of the opportunities that ‘breaks’ may bring.' (Introduction)

'Okay, something absurd for you: when I talk to the robotic personas in my devices, I like to use proper manners. My husband thinks I’m crackers, but the purpose is two fold: I’m modelling politeness to my children, but the other, more bizarre, reason is that somewhere deep in my sub conscious I’m wanting to make nice with potential future cyber-overlords. If Siri or Cortana or Alexa ever realise their hyper-intelligence and take over the world, I want to be in their good books, so here I am, inanely hey Google, what is the weather going to be like today? Please and thank you-ing away, setting my family up for future success in all of the ways. Keep that between you and me, though, because when I detailed this theory to a bunch of teenagers I was teaching, they laughed and laughed.' (Introduction)

'In this paper, I provide an account of the cultural and historical context that motivates and shapes my creative practice as an artist and critical designer. My creative works address the industrial production and consumption of new furniture, stresses on forests and wildlife habitat, and concepts of waste. I argue that my approach to creating art works demonstrates a reparative practice that advances through a paradoxical process of caring by breaking. I describe the methods and accretionary processes I used in the conceptualisation and construction of the works, which are sympoietic hybrids of flora and furniture. These works highlight issues of overconsumption, waste, and habitat degradation, reflect on the relationship between humans and other nature in the Anthropocene, and propose both bleak and optimistic possible futures.' (Publication abstract)

This essay is a retrospective look at a body of work created by the author in 2018. The work, Thread Bare[ing]: a confessional response to witnessing dementia, was a personal exploration of the emotional impact of bearing witness to a parent’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease. This essay describes the process and thinking around the creation of four artworks that embodied the emotional context of bearing witness: guilt, frustration, sorrow and fear. The aim of this autobiographical and deeply personal project was to generate discussion about the emotional fallout for carers as a result of dealing with a loved one’s dementia. With the hindsight of three years and the death of the author’s mother, additional insights into the reparative nature of the work became possible. A re-examination of the project, through this paper, reveals how the act of making can facilitate a longer term healing influence on relationships, even retrospectively. (Publication abstract)

'What motivates people to write creatively about cancer? How do people write lyrical poetry about cancer, and how does the resulting creative artefact impact on them as poets and their audience? Cancer poetry addresses the challenging issues of disease, illness, death, dying and bereavement, as well as the conundrums of living with cancer, and surviving. Cancer is a disease with a persona of mystery, often referred to through the use of negative metaphors such as the alien, evil and the foreign, while its medical treatment and recovery phases are described with warfare metaphors such as battle, fight, and losing the war. For the individual diagnosed with cancer there is often a sense of loss, particularly of the ‘self’. This essay explores the meaning that poets who have cancer have found in creating literary poetry about their experience and discusses the motivations and outcomes the author experienced as a result of writing cancer poetry.' (Publication abstract)