Tuesday 2 July | 10.30 – 12.30
This panel featured scholars at the forefront of drawing on artistic epistemologies for research oriented towards global justice, environmental activism, decolonisation, and breaking down of hierarchies of power. They addressed key questions about the processes, aesthetics, ethics, impacts, and evaluation of artistic activism, with goals to probe existing knowledge of the social, environmental, and political contributions artistic activism can make and better understand how it functions. Panellists explored challenges such as: What is the role of art as we face dire planetary problems? How much evidence is there that art can function persuasively to change attitudes and behaviours? What kinds of creativity work best to progress social and environmental change, and how do we know? In what ways is or is not art a form of communication? What are the risks in harnessing art to change?
This plenary session was kindly sponsored by Massey University School of Humanities, Media & Creative Communication.
Chair: Prof Linda-Jean Kenix, University of Canterbury
Speakers
Prof Shih-Diing Liu, University of Macau
Dr Helen Pearse-Otene, New Zealand
Dr Mark Harvey, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Prof Elspeth Tilley, Massey University, New Zealand
Speakers' bios
Prof Shih-Diing Liu, University of Macau
Shih-Diing Liu is a Professor of Communication and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Macau. He is the co-author of a new book titled Affective Spaces: The Cultural Politics of Emotion in China (Edinburgh University Press, 2024; Companion Website: https://sdliulab.omeka.net). Liu’s writings have appeared in Asian Studies Review, Third World Quarterly, Social Movement Studies, and Feminist Media Studies. His previous book, The Politics of People: Protest Cultures in China (SUNY Press, 2019), has focused on the cultural and creative aspects of protest and dissent in China, particularly highlighting dramatic forms of artistic performativity.
Dr Helen Pearse-Otene, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Helen is a Wellington based theatre practitioner and registered psychologist. Since 1999, she has been a member of Te Rākau, a Māori theatre company that applies a range of techniques from Western and Māori performance paradigms in its work in mainstream professional theatre and community arts collaborations around the country.Helen is a member of the kaupapa Māori advisory panel for the Family Violence Clearinghouse and the New Zealand Vietnam Veterans’ Association Executive. She is also a professional practice advisor in Te Whakahāngai, the post-graduate health psychology internship programme offered at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University Wellington.
Helen’s academic interests are in arts-based research, historic trauma, indigenous psychology, and therapeutic landscapes. Her master’s thesis was a creative partnership with a group of Vietnam War veterans that produced a play exploring their unique perspectives on ageing, disconnection, selfhood, and healing from combat trauma. Her PhD research applied Māori theatre pedagogy and traditional pūrākau in a marae-based community project on historic sexual trauma. This year she will be contributing to TIAKI, a multidisciplinary study on how communities support the wellbeing of Māori who have experienced imprisonment.
Dr Mark Harvey, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Mark Harvey (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāruahine iwi, Clan Keith) is an artist and social researcher focussing on social justice, ecology, the environment and mātauranga Māori. His art practice involves performance, social approaches, public participation, notions of activism, productive idiocy, video and curation. He has presented a wide range of contexts including the Venice Biennale, the ANTI Festival (Kuopio, Finland), City Gallery (New Zealand Festival of the Arts), Live Works (Carriage Works, Sydney), The Physics Room (Ōtatahi, Christchurch) and Circuit Aotearoa (online).
Harvey has led a number of national research projects focussing on the social dimensions of forest ecology, te ao Māori and science communication and engagement across a range of approaches, such as Toi Taiao Whakatairanga and Mobilising for Action. He has published writing in a range of publications around all these themes. With a PhD in creative practice Harvey is a Senior Lecturer at CAI, The University of Auckland.
Prof Elspeth Tilley, Massey University, New Zealand
Elspeth Tilley is Professor of Creative Communication at Massey University, New Zealand. Her transdisciplinary research creatively and critically explores art’s influences on public discourse and cultural change. As a creative-practice researcher, she is an award-winning playwright specialising in works that address environmental and social justice crises. As a critical researcher, she investigates the ethics and appropriateness of methodologies for implementing and evaluating artistic activism, including the impacts of colonialism on how we understand artistic value.
