Dr Daniel Palmer

Position title

Lecturer, Theory of Art & Design

Qualifications

• BA(Hons) W.Aust,
• PhD Melb

Statement

Daniel Palmer’s research and professional practice focuses on contemporary art and cultural theory, with a particular emphasis on photography and digital media. He is also an active art critic and occasional curator. His PhD thesis, Participatory Media: Visual Culture in Real Time (2004), explored contemporary modes of individualised spectatorship within digital visual media.

Prior to joining the Faculty of Art & Design in 2005, Palmer worked as Curator of Projects at the Centre for Contemporary Photography – where he is now a Board Member – and taught at the University of Melbourne in the School of Art History, Cultural Studies, and Media & Communications, as well as the Centre for Ideas at the VCA.

A prolific writer and commentator, Palmer has published over forty catalogue essays and fifty art reviews since 1997. He is a regular contributor to Australian and international art journals including Photofile, Art & Australia, Real Time, Broadsheet and Frieze.

Research/Professional activities

Selected Recent Publications (last 5 years)

• Traces and Imaginings: Contemporary Australian Photo-Artists (Sydney: Piper Press, forthcoming 2008) (with Blair French)
• ‘Gavin Hipkins: Empire and Other Children’s Stories’ in Empire (Auckland: Rim Books, forthcoming 2008).
• ‘Contemplative Immersion: Benjamin, Adorno & Media Art Criticism’ in Transformations, Special Issue on ‘Walter Benjamin and the Virtual: Politics, Art and Mediation in the Age of Global Culture’, Issue 15, November 2007.
• ‘Guggenheim Ga Ga’, Art & Australia, 45.2, Summer 2007, p. 291.
• ‘David Stephenson’ in John Stringer (ed.), Cross Currents: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, exh. cat. (Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007), pp. 106–107.
• ‘Venice Biennale: Asia and Australasia’, Frieze, 109, September 2007, pp. 132–133.
• ‘Reinventing Interactivity’, Experimenta Playground: International Biennial of Media Arts, exh. cat. (Melbourne: Experimenta Media Arts, 2007).
• ‘Jennie Lang & Geoff Robinson: An Arrangement to Span the Distance Between’, exh. cat. (Melbourne: Heide Museum of Modern Art, July 2007).
• ‘The Object of Things: Daniel von Sturmer at the 2007 Venice Biennale’, Broadsheet, 36.2, June 2007, pp. 79–81.
• ‘The Art of Self Display: On Anne Zahalka’s Portraiture’ in Hall of Mirrors: Anne Zahalka Portraits 1987–2007, exh. cat. (Melbourne: Centre for Contemporary Photography, February 2007), pp. 3–8.
• ‘Simryn Gill: 32 Volumes’, exh. cat. (Melbourne: Centre for Contemporary Photography & Maitland Regional Art Gallery, October 2006).
• ‘Nike Savvas, Atomic: Full of love, full of wonder’, in Adventures with Form in Space: The Fourth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project 2006, exh. cat. (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2006), pp. 58–59.
• ‘Daniel von Sturmer’ in 21st Century Modern: 2006 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, exh. cat. (Adelaide: Art Galley of South Australia, 2006), pp. 66–67.
• ‘White Noise’, frieze, 97, March 2006, p. 162.
• ‘Tracing the Origins of Australian Fashion Photography, The La Trobe Journal, No. 76, Spring 2005, pp. 87–103.
• (ed.) Photogenic: Essays/Images/CCP 2000-2004 (Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2005).
• ‘Nicolas Bourriaud Interviewed’, Broadsheet 34.3, September–October 2005, pp. 166–167 (with Anthony Gardner).
• ‘Ian North: Canberra Suite with Coda’, Broadsheet 34.2, June-August 2005, pp. 108–111.
• ‘How Australian Photography Became Contemporary’ in Natalie King (ed.), Supernatural Artificial: Contemporary Photo-based Art from Australia, exh. cat. (Melbourne: Asialink, 2005), pp. 44–45. (A touring exhibition to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography)
• ‘Pat Brassington’ in 2004 Biennale of Sydney – On Reason and Emotion, exh. cat (Sydney: Biennale of Sydney, 2004), p. 50.
• ‘Medium Without a Memory: Australian Video Art’, Broadsheet 33.3, September-November 2004, pp. 20–21.
• ‘Doing it for Themselves: Artist-Run Alternatives & Contemporary Australian Art’, in Face Up: Contemporary Art from Australia (Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2003) (with Tessa Dwyer), pp. 44–55
• ‘Digital Art: A Rich Ecology’, In Repertoire: A Guide to Australian New Media Art (Sydney: Australia Council, August 2003), pp. 4-6.
• ‘The Order of Things: The Edition and the Series in Contemporary Photomedia’, Photofile, Issue 67 (‘Pop’), December 2002, pp. 18-22.
• ‘Icons and Other Pictures: the Photograph in the Art Market’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 21, July-September 2002, pp. 86-8.
• ‘Habitats, Fictions and Gestures: Australian Photography Now’ in Photographica Australis (ed. Alasdair Foster) (Sydney: Australian Centre for Photography, 2002), pp. 60-64.

Recent Conference Presentations

• ‘Media Art and Its Critics in the Australian Context’ at re:place – Second International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science, and Technology, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 15–18 November 2007.
• ‘Simryn Gill: Photography and the Ruins of Colonialism’, at Global Photographies: Histories, Theories, Practices, Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland, 27–29 June 2007.
• ‘Embodying Judgment: New Media and Art Criticism’ at CHArt – Fast Forward: Art history, Curation and Practice after Media, Birkbeck College, University of London, 9–10 November 2006.
• ‘Walter Benjamin, Photography and Art Criticism’ at Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity, University of Technology, Sydney, 17–19 August 2006.
• ‘Write to Exist’ at ‘Thinking the Future: Art, Design and Creativity’, The Australian Council of University Art & Design Schools, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, 27–29 September 2006.
• ‘Photography: The Democratic Witness?’ presented at Witness A Photography Symposium, The School of Art History, University of Melbourne, 20 September 2003.
• ‘The Paradox of User Control’ presented at the Digital Art and Culture conference, RMIT University, 22 May 2003.

Grants (last 5 years)

• 2008–2010 Australian Research Council, Discovery Project, ‘Genealogies of Digital Light’ (Chief Investigator with Professor Sean Cubitt and Dr Les Walkling)
• 2007 Australia Council, New Work, Visual Arts Board, ‘A Critical Account of Australian Art Criticism’
• 2007 Monash University Faculty Travel Grant
• 2006 Monash University Faculty Small Grant
• 2004 Creative Fellowship, State Library of Victoria
• 2004 Australia Council, Professional Development, Visual Arts & Craft Board

Editorships

Contributing editor, Real Time 2001–
Editorial Board, 3-Deep Publishing
Guest edited Photofile journal 2001 & 2004
Editor, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 2005–6

Supervisions

Current Supervisions

MFA

• Deborah Bain-King
• Kristian Haggblom
• Susan Reddrop
• Keith Wong

PhD

• Damiano Bertoli
• Cate Consandine
• Vince Dziekan
• Elena Galimberti
• Mark Guglielmetti
• Laresa Kozloff
• Sally Mannall

Links

www.danielpalmer.com