2025 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

ASPERA invites proposals for papers and panels interrogating the role of experimentation in Australian screen production education and research.

 

As the shape of our natural environment, technologies, and social institutions bend and twist in unprecedented ways, this year’s conference spotlights the roles and possibilities of experimentation in Australia’s screen media ecologies. How does the act of experimentation—its curiosity, uncertainty, and contingencies—reshape the ways we teach, practice, and theorise screen media? How does the process of testing and tinkering enrich our storytelling? What happens when convention is destabilised by speculative, artificial, or unpredictable methodologies? And what is at stake for media ecologies devoid of risk taking?

 

With an increasing focus on job-ready graduates from our classrooms, experimental practice might be seen as a dirty word. Experimental filmmaking is often relegated to the fringes of screen culture, where it can be celebrated as avant-garde. Yet when we trace the provenance of influential filmmakers and industry pioneers, we discover experimental short films and playful engagements with the materiality of image and sound. Universities have historically provided the means and motivations to push the medium beyond its prescribed uses. Experimentalism is arguably at the heart of our work in screen education and research, the proposed dialogue at this year’s ASPERA conference aims to nourish its vitality.

 

Experimentation in screen production extends well beyond genre. At the inception of motion pictures, the technology arguably lacked purpose until practitioners like Georges Méliès toyed with its materiality. Within contemporary screen industries, innovation and originality emerge from divergent modes of testing and exploration.

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Cinematographers experiment with lenses and lighting; costume designers with fabrics and stitching; directors and actors experiment with motivation or improvisation; writers with words and worlds; while motion designers and others are currently navigating the affordances of gen-AI. If experimentalism is embedded in the creative industries, what are the unique knowledges and skills of a professional experimenter?

 

Experimentation is fundamental to our methods of research, teaching, and preparing for future industries. We welcome submissions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following sub-themes:

 

Pedagogies of experimentation: How do experimental practices enhance screen production education? What pedagogical innovations arise from embracing risk, failure, and creative disruption in learning environments? How are we drawing upon the canon and archives of experimental film?

 

Rethinking methodologies: What constitutes experimental screen research? How do alternative methodologies, cross-disciplinary approaches, and practice-led inquiries expand the field?

 

Archival excavation as contemporary intervention: How do experimental film histories reverberate in digital cultures? In what ways does experimental cinema remain relevant in an era dominated by digital and streaming platforms? What is the legacy of legendary experimental filmmakers like David Lynch, and who might be positioned to carry on this legacy?

 

Experimental cinema and place: How do experimental filmmakers engage with place? With Country? What are the distinctive signatures of place based experimental filmmakers?

 

Diversity and the unexpected: Who gets to experiment? How do experimental approaches amplify underrepresented voices and cultural perspectives? What alternative ontologies, temporalities, and aesthetics emerge from experimental praxis?

 

Risks and uncertainties in screen industries: What role does experimentation play in our screen industries? Is there a willingness to take risks in an era of safe bets?

 

Speculative screens and Artificial Intelligences: What does experimentalism mean in an era of machine-generated creativity? How might AI extend, subvert, or complicate our approaches to screen production and research?

 

We invite scholars, practitioners, and educators to submit abstracts by Monday 23rd of June 2025.

Proposals and inquiries should be directed to conference@aspera.org.au

 

Submission Guidelines: Abstract submissions due: Monday 23rd June 2025 to conference@aspera.org.au

 

Solo or co-presented research papers (up to 20 minutes)

Please submit a 300-word abstract (in PDF format) outlining your proposed paper and a short bio (100 words)

 

Themed panels - presentations for 90mins - Panels of 3 x 20mins OR 4 x 15mins thematically linked solo or co-presented research papers followed by questions.

Please submit a single 600-word abstract (in PDF format) outlining panel theme and proposed papers.

 

Roundtable - discussions for 90 minutes - led by a chair bringing together 4 to 6 participants (including the chair as a participant if speaking as well as chairing) to offer short (up to 6 minute) position statements to lead discussion. The roundtable does not involve the presentation of formal research papers but rather is designed to create a forum. The format is flexible and can be adapted to allow members of the roundtable to introduce exercises or other activities where appropriate.

Please submit a 600-word abstract (in PDF format) outlining your proposed panel.

 

Key Dates:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday 23rd June 2025

• Notification of Acceptance: Monday 28th July 2025

• Conference Dates: Tuesday 25th November – Thursday 27th November 2025

 

 

For inquiries and further information, please contact:

Dr Aaron Burton

School of the Arts, English, and Media

University of Wollongong, Australia conference@aspera.org.au