Full documentation of all papers and performances:
http://seam2013.wordpress.com

Curators: Benedict Anderson, Margie Medlin and Paul Gazzola.

Cultural production through collectives, cultural funding initiatives and free education in the 70’s and 80’s, created idealist environments for art production. However, by the 90’s to the present day, these ideas have shifted increasingly towards institutionalised authorship. On the one hand, arts practitioners are able to operate as entrepreneurial self-producers and on the other are bound to venues, funding strategies and organisations. The focus of SEAM2013 Symposium is to give a platform for independent artists to formulate their autonomy and direction. Opening up discussions around the cultural production of interdisciplinary performing art practices in performance, design and scenography were framed through the Symposium’s themes of Authorship, Audience and Curation. The SEAM2013 Symposium performance research sought to position the following research questions:

Authorship – What are our methods of defining and negotiating accreditation between artists and producers, artists and other artists, artists and communities? How do we share ownership and how do we negotiate ground in forming collaborations?
Audience – Who is the audience? How do they relate to the work and to each other? What expectations do they bring? How do they become activated?
Curation – What are curators? What influences do they exert in the production of dance and performance? Are themes important? What are the pressures exerted on artistic production through theme driven festivals?

Over three intensive days, SEAM2013 mounted a combination of 50 lectures, performances, academic papers and media artworks by individuals and groups from across Australia and 12 other countries to address what impacts the cultural frameworks we create and involve ourselves in. SEAM2013 builds on the work produced by a national and international community of participants over the last three Symposiums in 2009/10 & 2011. Generating an ongoing platform of dialogue for art makers and theoreticians, SEAM2013 bridges both practice and academia in the fields of authorship, engagement and production.

The Symposium was financed and supported by Critical Path, University of Technology Sydney, Interarts Program, Australia Council for the Arts, Arts NSW and Performance Space.