Curating Transdisciplinary Residencies: Time and Place for a ‘First Kiss’

Thwaites, D., McKenzie, V. & Herath, D. (2024). Curating Transdisciplinary Residencies: Time and Place for a ‘First Kiss’. In Gavin Sade, Andrew Brown, Leah Barclay, Jen Seevink, Anastasia Tyurina and Rewa Wright (ed.), Everywhen ISEA2024: Proceedings of the 29th International Symposium on Electronic Arts. Volume 1: Academic Papers. Queensland University of Technology and ISEA international.

Artist residencies offer opportunities for creative interaction between different cultures, communities, and practitioners. Beyond providing time and space, hosts facilitate artists’ immersive social encounters with place, allowing them to explore unfamiliar processes of experimentation. Drawing on a case study
of a robotics and arts-based residency, which birthed the choreographed robotic installation ‘First Kiss’ by Melanie Lane, this
short paper considers the complex rhythms of transdisciplinary collaboration; their awkward intimacies challenging seamless
trajectories of innovation.

Image credit: Robots ‘kissing’. Photo by Melanie Lane.