Peter Hewitt, Baganlul djamaga (Speak for Country): Ochre on stringybark painting This painting visualises a methodology of (re)storying with Country as Teacher, guided by Elders. It grounds the research in cultural responsibility and intimate, relational knowledges.

In this yarn Peter respectfully shares and gives voice to the methodology chapter of his PhD titled ‘Mina Minga Mudjingaal (Hold Mother Protector Spirit): Pre-Service Teachers Sitting with Country as Teacher and Knowledge Holder’. The talk introduces Baganlul djamaga (Speak for Country), a stringybark painting, as the primary script and central methodological framework in an interdisciplinary study. As a communication vessel carrying memory of Bagan (Country), cultural teachings, and ceremony, Baganlul djamaga embodies protocols of respect and positions Country as Teacher at the centre of the research process. Methodologically, the painting process informs research decision-making, knowledge creation, and relational connectedness to Country. The research contributes to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) by modelling how Country, central to Aboriginal education for at least 60,000 years, can inform pedagogical and curricular transformation. Baganlul djamaga offers a (re)culturising pathway that centres cultural protocols, relational learning, and the integration of Aboriginal knowledges in teacher education.

Bio:

Peter Hewitt is a Jerrinja-Yuin man deeply connected to culture and family. He has a breadth of expertise in education and the creative arts, encompassing roles in Aboriginal education, educational leadership, visual arts teaching, and contemporary artmaking. Peter is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Aboriginal Education at UoW.

Thu 13 August 2026 3pm – 4:30pm Online Meeting ID: 475 104 216 986 5 Passcode: KR3ic3G5

As the graphical fidelity the latest technology can produce has plateaued, gamers are increasingly revisiting the retro games which often defined their initial passion and love for the medium. The rapid transformations the medium has undergone in a few decades imply that research simply needs to be afforded the time and space to delve deeper into the ecocritical value of retro-aesthetics and to consider the ways they can inform new paradigms of contemporary game design. I propose that to go forward we must first go backwards and unpack the eco aesthetics found within the medium’s past. To do this I will be considering the works of Víctor Navarro-Remesal, Alenda Y. Chang, Graeme Kirkpatrick as well as a host of retro games, including my own retro-inspired project, Nautilus Epoch.

Bios:

Roko Zaper is a researcher, illustrator and video game designer based in Sydney, Australia, currently undergoing a PhD at the University of New South Wales. His main area of interest is how video games can be designed to reflect less anthropocentric relations with animals and environments. He has also worked extensively in media and education and is passionate about pushing the creative boundaries of multimedia and creating novel forms of storytelling.

18 June 2026 3pm – 4:30pm

‘Surreal AI’ zine now out

David Rousell: Critical Forest Studies, New Animisms, and the Elemental Turn 

This talk will share examples of recent research in Critical Forest Studies, an emerging field dedicated to relational and transdisciplinary research with forests. Video and audio works will be shared with a view to opening conversations around the ‘new animisms’ and how these theories are reshaping methods of more-than-human research. We will also consider how Critical Forest Studies might contribute to a wider ‘elemental turn’ across the humanities, arts, and social sciences, inclusive of Critical Air, Water, Time, and Energy Studies. 

Bio: David Rousell (he/him) is an artist, researcher, and writer who lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri and Bunurong lands in Naarm (Melbourne). He is Associate Professor of Regenerative Education at RMIT University and a founding convener of the Critical Forest Studies Collaboratory. His work is transdisciplinary and spans critical studies in philosophy, education, cultural studies, history, geography, art and design. 

WHEN: 14 May 2026
TIME: 3pm – 4:30pm

JOIN:
Meeting ID: 453 919 178 064 0 Passcode: Ys22AK6X

Join the meeting now

‘POP AI’ zine now out

The Vitalities Lab presents a new salon for sharing arts-led and creative research in the more-than-human worlds we inhabit. This series is organised by Professor Deborah Lupton, Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, and Dr Anastasia Murney.

Each gathering offers a space for lively exchange across disciplines, exploring how creative methods can illuminate the vitalities that emerge when humans encounter non-human entities – other living beings, the four elements of earth, wind, air, and fire, geological features, and human-made objects, including built environments and digital devices.

Bringing together researchers, practitioners, artists, curators, thinkers, and the creatively curious, these salons feature special guests and activities that invite participants to engage with more-than-human entanglements in innovative and surprising ways.

Salon #3: Jennifer Mae Hamilton, Weathering

In this Salon, Dr Jennifer Mae Hamilton will briefly sketch the theoretical framework of weathering. This is further elaborated in their recently published book, How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (Bloomsbury, 2026),co-authored with Astrida Neimanis and Tessa Zettel. Jennifer will share some concrete examples of their work in practice, including the Community Weathering Station (CoWS), Armidale Climate and Health Project (ACHP) and more recent studies in Shiatsu. They also hope to touch on some of the key concerns of their memoir fragment ‘Modes of Thermoregulation’ (TEXT, 2026) before opening into a discussion about embodiment, affect, the theory/practice nexus and the centrality of process.

Bios:

Dr Jennifer Mae Hamilton lives and works on Anaiwan Country as Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of New England (UNE), curator and community organiser. Her research explores climate change adaptation as an embodied process from a queer, feminist and anti-colonial perspective, using creative practice methods, community economies frameworks and close textual analysis. Her most recent publications are ‘Modes of Thermoregulation’ (TEXT, 2026) and co-authored with Astrida Neimanis, How to weather together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026). She’s also the 2026 convenor of grassroots community transition organisation Sustainable Living Armidale and curated the group show How to weather together at New England Regional Art Museum November 2025–February 2026.

Professor Deborah Lupton is SHARP Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Australia. Her research is interdisciplinary, spanning sociology, media and cultural studies, and often involves arts-based and other creative methods for research and community engagement. She is located in the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre, leading both the Vitalities Lab and the UNSW Node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Professor Lupton is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of NSW and has been awarded two honorary doctorates. She is the author/coauthor of 20 academic books and editor/co-editor of a further 11 volumes.

Dr Anastasia Murney is an artist, researcher, and award-winning educator living on unceded Gadigal land. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for Social Research in Health and The Vitalities Lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She holds a PhD in Art Theory and Visual Culture (2021) and teaches across contemporary art, social movements, and environmental humanities. Anastasia has published her research in international peer-reviewed journals and edited books published by Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan. She has led creative arts workshops at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Wollongong Art Gallery, and Frontyard Projects in Marrickville, Sydney.

Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris is an Australian-Swedish curator, writer, and researcher based on Dharug and Gundungurra Country. Her expertise lies in eco-aesthetics, curatorial theory, and water-based methodologies. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Research Associate at UNSW within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). Bronwyn holds a PhD in curatorial theory and maintains an independent curatorial practice. Her research proposing the Hydrocene as a disruptive epoch is internationally recognized and is the focus of her monograph, The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water (Routledge, Environmental Humanities Series 2024).

WHEN: 13 November 2025

TIME: 3pm – 4:30pm

HOW TO JOIN: Via Microsoft Teams. Join the meeting now.

Further information:

Jennifer Mae Hamilton

How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change

How to Weather Together Sydney Book Launch Party

Modes of Thermoregulation

Community Weathering Station (CoWS)

Armidale Climate and Heath Project