The year is 2031. Millions of out of work artists sift through debris in texture mines, looking for patterns that have not yet been seen online. Four years earlier during The Great Enumeration, AI tools were used to ingest all known documented artworks, and now that platform has been acquired by a multinational, providing artwork through paid subscriptions.
ArtMinr, by Jonny Scholes, proposes this future, prompting us to consider the types of systems and ecologies we desire, and the potential routes we might already be treading.
This Experimenta Social utilises the provocation of Scholes’ work to facilitate a dialogue around the future of labour, the commodification of culture and the extractive nature of digital capitalism.
Be introduced to the work and themes in ArtMinr, and then engage in a dialogue around the value of art and the challenges of our future, through the lens of cultural economist, Professor David Throsby AO, and climate focussed sector leader, Angharad Wynne-Jones. Facilitated by Bianca Durrant.
This facilitated panel discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A, and casual drinks (with non-alcoholic options) at ACMIX.
ArtMinr by Jonny Scholes is a participatory installation that will be presented as part of Experimenta Emergence: National Tour of Media Arts, launching at Noosa Regional Gallery in June 2025.
WHEN: Tuesday 13 May 2025, 6.00 – 7.30pm
WHERE: The Gandel Digital Future Lab 1, ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne
Presented in partnership with ACMI X
Find out more about the recent commissioned research Artists as Workers, by David Throsby and Katya Petetskaya here: https://creative.gov.au/research/artists-workers-economic-study-professional-artists-australia-creative-australia
Speakers
Jonny Scholes
Jonny Scholes is an emerging artist whose practice spans new media, street art, painting, internet art, and installation.
Jonny ScholesLives and works on Nipaluna Country
Hobart, Lutruwita/Tasmania, Australia
Jonny Scholes is an emerging artist from Nipaluna, Lutruwita. His practice spans new media, street art, painting, internet art, and installation. He is passionate about understanding the world, particularly in areas of geopolitics, news media, ethics, futurism, and technology.
He learned to program at the age of 13 when, after getting bored of the few computer games his parents allowed him to play, he started breaking them in ways that enabled him to do new things. A few years later he applied the same philosophy to finding urban spaces few people knew about.
Scholes’ work sits at the intersection of technology and exploration of in-between spaces. He often uses his knowledge of computer systems, networks, and cultures to impart an understanding of technology to his audience or to explore contemporary social issues.
Resources
Angharad Wynne-Jones
Angharad Wynne-Jones is a visionary leader with 30 years’ experience in the arts and culture sector in Australia and internationally. She now facilitates Creative Climate, an artist-centred consortium of groups and individuals, working at the intersections of art and climate response.
Angharad Wynne-Jones
Angharad Wynne-Jones is a visionary leader with 30 years’ experience in the arts and culture sector in Australia and internationally. She now facilitates Creative Climate, an artist-centred consortium of groups and individuals, working at the intersections of art and climate response.
See more: https://www.creativeclimate.org.au
David Throsby, AO
David Throsby is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney. He is internationally known for his research and his many publications on the economics of art and culture. His interests include the role of artists as economic agents, the role of culture in sustainable development and the relationships between economic and cultural policy.
David Throsby, AO
David Throsby is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney. He is internationally known for his research and his many publications on the economics of art and culture. His interests include the role of artists as economic agents, the role of culture in sustainable development and the relationships between economic and cultural policy.
See more: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/david-throsby
Bianca Durrant
Bianca Durrant
Bianca Durrant has 20 years’ experience in the arts sector to bear for the organisation. As an authentic leader with a focus on working collaboratively to achieve outcomes, Bianca has developed a professionalised approach to her leadership informed by leading small arts organisations, producing and curating the work of leading Australian and international artists and consulting across the sector in strategy, diversity initiatives and funding.
Holding masters qualifications in fine arts, and bringing a strong business acumen rounded by leadership training from Oxford, Bianca approaches the eco-system of the arts sector to look for ways to bring people and organisations together to deliver what is needed most – with great care for artists and a developmental approach for the sector. She has extensive experience creating teams both within and across sectors, involving government, industry, researchers and creatives, with a passion for using art as a platform to create community dialogue around critical global issues. Previous roles include General Manager, Liquid Architecture, where she secured inaugural organisational funding and diversification (gender) strategies for the Board, staff and programming; Gallery Manager for Faculty Gallery (now MADA Gallery) Monash University; and board roles in the visual arts with CAVES Inc. and KINGS ARI. Bianca is based between Naarm (Melbourne) and Berlin.