Reading Group – Philip Brophy: Screenic

Please join Cool Change, in partnership with un Projects and Adult Contemporary, for a discussion of Philip Brophy’s Screenic: Politicised Writings on Being Screened, a collection of essays on screen-based art published by Discipline in May 2024.

⏰ SATURDAY, 3 AUGUST, 3:30 – 5:30 PM AWST (5:30 – 7:30 PM AEST)
🌏 OLD CUSTOMS HOUSE (WALYALUP/FREMANTLE) & ONLINE (via ZOOM)
🛜 https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86785713182?pwd=GYv36KAwa4KbzR9FTHX19dPWITxQ0R.1

Screenic: Politicised Writings on Being Screened—an anthology of Philip Brophy’s writing on art over the last twenty-five years. The focus of the selection is on art that involves screens: projected as film in museums, digitised for installations in galleries, curated as documents within exhibitions, presented as outdoor illuminations on buildings, utilised for the production of VR and AI-generated content, and even wall murals derived from televisual screens. The driver for the writing of these articles is an interest in media literacy within fine art contexts.

Together, the articles reinforce the view that ongoing changes taking place in the mediascape over the last two decades create challenges for artists, producers, curators, viewers, and critics—sometimes resulting in a rejuvenation of how media art can be imagined and presented, other times evidencing an anaemic grasp of the contemporary mediascape that whorls outside the white cube.

The book is available to purchase in paperback form for $35.00 (RRP) from Adult Contemporary (Boorloo/Perth), Perimeter Books (Naarm/Melbourne), Books at Manic (Naarm/Melbourne), and Discipline (online). For those unable to get a copy of the book in time, a selection of articles that appear in the book and are available online are listed below and should be read in advance of the meeting.

➡️ Melbourne Central Commercial Mural Paintings (Memo, Melbourne, 2021)
➡️ Voiding Effects & Terrorized Language: 2. The ISIS Videos (2015)
➡️ Deliverer of Rants (Photofile No. 85, Sydney, 2008)
➡️ Curating Video Art 101 (Photofile No. 74, Sydney, 2005)
➡️ Please Stop with the Boring Video Art (Like No. 9, Melbourne, 2000)

Philip Brophy is a polymath—a musician, composer, sound designer, filmmaker, writer, artist, graphic designer, academic, and curator—with uniquely criss-crossing preoccupations. In 1977, he formed the group → ↑ →, which produced experimental music, films, videos, and live performances. In 1993, he directed the feature film Body Melt. Last year, Brophy wrote for un Extended, edited by Diego Ramirez.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.