The Drawing Room

There comes a point in everybody's life when the relationship between parent and child changes.

When we start to become our own adults, parents no longer need to provide care and advice in the same way. 

It used to be when around the age we left school and went to uni but that is beginning to change… which can make the 

Dr Laurence Steinberg argues in his new book ‘You And Your Adult Child: How to Grow Together in Challenging Times’  that factors like work and the economy mean that we’re moving through our life stages at about 5 -10 year later than our parents.

You may have heard it said… that truly good design is actually design you don’t notice. Clothes that just seem to fit perfectly…  the warm invitation of a beautifully lit room… or the ease of comfortable furniture… the natural flow of highly functional architecture.

But some argue that design should also contribute to a bigger conversation… one about ideas… and art... our vision of the future.

Speculation: 8 Billion Little Utopias is part of the Design Fringe program and explores this idea.

Guest:Dr. Vincent Alessi, Curator and Director of The Linden New Art Gallery 

If you knew your body wasn’t going to fall apart and you could live forever with augmented or even improved body parts… with no need to worry about failing eyesight … that bung knee … heart disease … would that make you more interested?

This is Transhumanism … a movement that wants to use science and technology to make humans … better and live forever.

Zoltan Istvan has been a journalist, and science fiction writer, worked in Real estate and has been a political candidate and believes in the transhumanist movement. He even drove a coffin-shaped bus around America to promote the ‘longevity movement’. 

When you imagine a circus what do you picture? 

A ringmaster … a trapeze artist… Strong-man… clowns… amazing feats of physical stamina and acrobatics... even fleas?

While circus arts have progressed from this, our picture of it might not have caught up with the possibilities of this art form.

The National Institute of Circus Arts is holding a summit on Circus arts and the industry's issues as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya in the early 90’s, Ondara listened to the family’s battery-operated radio, devouring any sort of music he could cram into his young ears.

Eventually he came to folk music, after losing a bet, and finding out that ‘Knockin' On Heaven Door’ wasn't in fact a Guns N Roses Song, but by some guy called Bob Dylan.

He won the Green Card Lottery and moved to the States, not LA or New York … but Maple Grove, Minnesota - a place as American as Apple pie and more importantly, Dylan’s home state.

Tour info for Ondara can be found here

Most of us have a connection to divorce. Maybe your parents got a divorce… or you’re supporting a friend through a marriage breakdown ... or perhaps you’ve been through one (or more) yourself. 

The narrative surrounding divorce is mostly sad … painful … messy. 

Photographer Harry Borden illustrates the ripple effect that the breakdown of marriage creates … including the positive outcomes of peace, reflection and re-creation, in his new book On Divorce. 

Cephalopods make for a perfect canvas to discuss natural intelligence versus Artificial intelligence in ‘Distributed Consciousness’.

The technicolour images and distorted voiceovers explore biological and artificial intelligence, distributed computation and cognition, cryptography, evolution, phenomenology, ecological awareness, climate change, and activism. Got it? good.

You can see Distributed Consciousness at the Melbourne ACMI Gallery. 

Bamboo is considered one of the most versatile and environmentally friendly materials in the world. It’s long supported all manner of construction in the east, more recently being used to build pavilions in China and even schools in Bali … so why don’t we see more of it used in Western nations?

Italian architect Mauricio Cardenas Laverde is in Melbourne as part of the Tools for After Design festival.

What do polymer bank notes, the electric drill and Zinc sunscreen all have in common?

They were all inventions with patents written in Australia. And while these became highly successful, not all patents are. 

‘IP Provocations’ is a new podcast exploring whether patents are facilitating the spread of knowledge and innovation as they were designed to do or whether they’re in fact inhibiting it.

This winter it felt like absolutely every person was overseas for a European summer … and the one place they all seemed to be going was Italy.

If your friends did not send you a postcard or bring you back a souvenir, then let the Australian Chamber Orchestra send you a little taste of Italy.

Postcards from Italy takes a look at the way five selected works from across four centuries display the cultural influences of Italy ... Music is not necessarily the Italian stereotype you might expect.

Principle cellist Timo-Vekko ‘Tipi’ Valve take you on an Vacansa Italiana.