CALL DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 20, 2012
Balance-Unbalance is an International Conference designed to use art as a catalyst to explore intersections between nature, science, technology and society as we move into an era of both unprecedented ecological threats and transdisciplinary possibilities. We are thoroughly looking forward to hosting artists, scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, engineers and policy experts from across the world to engage in dialogue and action towards a sustainable future. Balance-Unbalance 2013 will also host a diversity of virtual components allowing global accessibility and significantly reducing the carbon footprint of a major international conference.
One of the main goals of Balance-Unbalance is to develop the role of the arts and artists in dealing with environmental challenges. The previous events held in Buenos Aires in 2010 and Montreal in 2011 (http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca) provided a powerful platform for reflection, debate, and ideas leading towards Balance-Unbalance 2013, hosted in the UNESCO Noosa Biosphere Reserve on the Sunshine Coast of Australia.
The 2013 conference theme, Future Nature, Future Culture[s] is aimed to provoke discourse around what our elusive future might hold and how transdisciplinary thought and action could be used as tools for positive change.
Submissions are now being accepted for the International Balance-Unbalance 2013 conference to be held at Central Queensland University in Noosa, Australia from May 31 – June 2, 2013. Balance-Unbalance 2013 is being held in the beautiful resort town of Noosa, in parallel with the Floating Land 2013 Green Art festival and just prior to the ISEA 2013 (International Symposium on Electronic Art) conference in Sydney, so participants can maximise their time in Australia by attending all three events.
For more information see our website on www.balance-unbalance2013.org
Facebook www.facebook.com/balanceunbalance
FORUM Talking about suicide: history, art and the media
Thursday 15 November, 6–8pm (Gallery open from 5:30pm), Kenneth Myer Auditorium, Kenneth Myer Building; Cost: Gold coin;
General
Join Inspired Lives: Discovering Life in Imagination curators Dr Erminia Colucci and Amy Middleton, artist Mic Eales, historian Dr Juanita Feros Ruys, and journalist and writer Chris Johnston in a forum that will explore the taboo of suicide from historical, personal, artistic, psychological and cultural perspectives.
Dr Juanita Feros Ruys, University of Sydney
Dr Juanita Feros Ruys will speak about the legal and theological approach to suicide in the Middle Ages, looking at some of the more personalised approaches to the topic from the point of view of first-person medieval texts that reveal psychic trauma and distress and an expressed longing for death. Such desires are of course complicated for the medieval person by the powerful strictures surrounding self-murder in the medieval period.
Dr Erminia Colucci, University of Melbourne; Mic Eales, artist; Amy Middleton, The Dax Centre
Dr Erminia Colucci, Mic Eales and Amy Middleton will speak about how sharing the original voice of suicide survivors through creative art practices can deepen our insight and understanding of a phenomenon that affects – directly and/or indirectly – many of us.
Chris Johnston, The Age
Chris Johnston will speak about media representations of suicide and ethical journalists’ dilemmas.
Booking information: info@daxcentre.org or +61 3 9035 6258
RSVP by 8 November
Viewers are advised the exhibition contains themes relating to suicide. While the artworks themselves contain no explicit visual reference to suicide, the accompanying exhibition texts make reference to the personal experience of survivors.
The Dax Centre
Kenneth Myer Building
The University of Melbourne
Genetics Lane off Royal Parade
Melbourne, Vic, 3010
2012 JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM UNVEILED
Opening with Japan’s biggest box office hit of the year Thermae Romae
29 November – 9 December
The 16th Japanese Film Festival (JFF) opens in Melbourne with its biggest line-up yet. Boasting many titles that are now showing in Japan, with some yet to be released the JFF will screen at Hoyts Melbourne Central and ACMI Cinemas.
Opening the Festival is Japan’s biggest box office hit of the year, Thermae Romae, a laugh-out-loud comedy starring Hiroshi Abe as a time-travelling Roman architect that journeys between ancient Rome and present-day Japan. The film is centred on bath culture, from Japanese bathhouses to Roman baths becoming the portal between the two eras.
The Festival will close with epic saga The Floating Castle, based on historical events. Set in 16th century feudal Japan, it’s the tale of a 20,000 strong army battling for their lives against 500 men. Originally set for a September 2011 release, it was postponed to this November due to a large water attack scene that was deemed inappropriate to be released in the same year as the tsunami.
Fresh from Japan comes the 35th Montreal World Film Festival ‘Special Grand Prix Jury’ Prize winner, A Chronicle of My Mother starring Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins).
Earlier this year, Japan’s oldest active film director Kaneto Shindo passed away, aged 100. Postcard was Shindo’s final film, written from his own war experiences and was Japan’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2011 Academy Awards.
From the director of the 2009 Academy Award-winning film Departures, Yojiro Takita returns with Tenchi: the Samurai Astronomer, a samurai assigned with the task of charting the stars across the length and breadth of Japan.
Fans of Japanese thrillers will be pleased to see Goose Bumps – the Movie in the mix. Initially a cult TV series, this is a compilation of six chilling stories not about the supernatural, but the curiosity and madness that lurks deep within us all.
Rurouni Kenshin, another film currently topping Japan box office grossing over 555 million yen ($7 million) in its first five days, is a must-see for all samurai lovers. But for those who are after a different type of blade action, Helter Skelter gives you a glimpse of the ugly side of beauty – when plastic surgery gets out of hand.
Families will enjoy newly animated feature Friends: Naki on the Monster Island, a heart-warming story about an unlikely friendship that forms between a monster and a human child.
For the full program, visit www.japanesefilmfestival.net
Tickets go on sale now!
Facebook – japanesefilmfest – and on Twitter @japanfilmfest / #jff16
