Art, Design, Media

Literature & Ideas: Migration and Detention

This episode of the Art, Design And Media podcast is part of a special RMIT Culture and student produced series, Literature and Ideas.

Authors Shokoofeh Azar and Zana Fraillon explore cross-sections between the refugee experience and literature. They share their experiences writing about migration, detention and border policies.

Shokoofeh Azar is an Iranian-Australian author and journalist, who sought political asylum in Australia in 2011. Her first novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

Zana Fraillon is a multi-award winning author of books for children and young adults. Her novel The Bone Sparrow explores a refugee child's experience in an Australian permanent detention centre.

This first episode has been drawn from On Migration and Detention, a live panel hosted by Astrid Edwards, presented by RMIT Culture's Salon series.

Hosts: Anthea Yang and Else Fitzgerald

Producers: Anthea Yang, Chris Alphonso, Hayden Spurrell and Lauren Webster.

Supervising producer: Carly Godden

Learn how to write a winning pitch for your narrative nonfiction proposal.

How do writers come up with their nonfiction ideas? And what role does research play in the writing process?

This episode aims to unpack the genre of narrative nonfiction, observing the traits and tricks of reading and writing this exciting and growing genre.

RMIT Gallery's latest exhibition Future U (29 July-23 October 2021) explores what it means to be human during a time of rapid technological acceleration. In this accompanying podcast, co-curators Dr Evelyn Tsitas and Associate Professor Jonathan Duckworth discuss the exhibition with artists Dr Pia Interlandi and Alexi Freeman.

Interlandi talks about designing garments for the grave and what might change when death happens on another planet, like Mars.

Freeman discusses his practice using biowaste to make textiles, a sustainable practice likely to be increasingly necessary in the future.

Duckworth talks about his interactive work, 'Disruptive Critters', which uses artificial intelligence to provide a humorous exploration of future creativity and digital disruption.

Hosted by Aeden Ratcliffe.

: Dr. Evelyn Tsitas, engagement manager at RMIT, talks to the Bluestone Collection Chair Bin Dixon-Ward and Treasurer Robyn Phelan. The recent donation of the Bluestone Collection of contemporary craft to the RMIT Art Collection reflects the university's own commitment to the act of making and the creative application of skills. Built by a group of craft practitioners, writers and supporters dedicated to raising the profile of makers over the last decade, the Bluestone Collection features 20 works by as many artists, many of whom are RMIT alumni. The collection will be displayed from 18 March at RMIT's newly refurbished Carlton Library, Level 3, Building 94, 23-27 Cardigan Street, Carlton.

From embellishment and exaggeration to identity, gender and desire: RMIT Gallery's latest exhibition 'Pleasure' (29 November-7 March) presents the work of a diverse group of artists who used the body as a personal, provocative and at times political canvas. In this accompanying podcast, listen to Co-Curator Evelyn Tsitas and Communications Specialist Aeden Ratcliffe talk with artists John Pastoriza-Piñol, Ciara Murphy and Judith Glover about their works.