Advocacy – LARSEN

And another thing: strategic venting and collegiality as care

Inspired by SACSA’s workforce Plan Updates for the Australian Arts sector, I’ve been thinking about the importance of strategic venting and collegiality as care – two common-sense strategies we’ve all seemed to lose the knack of in recent years.

Have your say on the Productivity Commission report on copyright and AI

The Productivity Commission is looking for feedback on its interim report on harnessing data and digital technology.

The report includes recommendations for a text and data mining (TDM) exception to Australia’s Copyright Act, which would allow the AI industry to use writers and artists’ work without consent or compensation to train their Large Language Models (LLMs) – with potentially devastating effects for Australia’s creators and creative industries.

Why we cancelled our Bendigo Writers Festival panel

I was so looking forward to this weekend’s Bendigo Writers Festival, where I was meant to join Madison Griffiths and Cher Tan as part of the Cities of Literature Book Club to discuss Looking at Women Looking at War by the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.

However, following the decisions and actions of Festival and Presenting Partner La Trobe University this week, and in solidarity with fellow participating writers, we no longer feel able to take part.

And another thing: Meta’s Grand Theft AusLit

Like many others, we were dismayed to learn that mega-corporation Meta has stolen the work of thousands of Australian creators to train the Large Language Model for its flagship AI, Llama 3, without permission, license or compensation – including both editions of The Relationship is the Project.

Victorian Inquiry into the cultural and creative industries

The Parliament of Victoria’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee has opened an inquiry into (some of the) funding and supports available to Victoria’s cultural and creative industries.

Contextually fine

Just over a year ago, I was in holiday in Tasmania with my beloved and besties, and pretty bloody happy about it.

It was early September 2023 and I was hanging and chatting with one of my pals in an outdoor hot-tub another had coaxed into warmth with a smokey wood fire. I felt safe and peaceful and surrounded by love. There may have been wine.

We were talking about my poetry book, which had been out in the world a few months. My spa buddy asked, given my creative practice had taken place almost exclusively online for over a decade, how I had fared with the more dangerous sides of digital space – trolling, censorship or other forms of abuse.

The statements we make

As artists, cultural workers and arts organisations, ours is the business of statement-making.

I was reminded of this recently by the work of Portuguese artist Tiago Casanova, whose installation Every wall is a Statement is currently part of the A liberdade e só a Liberdade exhibition (‘Freedom and only freedom’) at The Art and Culture Center of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation in Évora.

I was also reminded, less pleasantly, by recent rushed and fumbled public statements made by Australian arts and cultural organisations in response to local and global issues or events like last year’s Voice Referendum (or the need for voice, treaty and truth more broadly) and the ongoing genocide in Palestine — including the statements that many have made with their silence.

Victorian creatives, have your say

The Victorian Government wants your thoughts on what the arts mean to you and what they should do to support the state’s arts, cultural and creative sector.

Have your say on the Creative State consultation by Monday 26 August 2024.

Loving our libraries

My free occasional enews has included some bad news about libraries lately, so I wanted to set the record straight.

And another thing: SLV as the example you don’t want to be

As a critical friend to the arts and cultural sector, I try not to ‘out’ organisations who haven’t already made headlines. Unfortunately, after a year of record fumbles and fails in response to Palestine, that still leaves a lot from which to learn from (with new ones seemingly added every day).

So it’s been deeply disappointing to witness an organisation so many have held in high esteem become the high-profile poster child for poor practice. I look at the example of the State Library of Victoria in the latest edition of my ‘and another thing’ vlog.