Ted Snell, Born Sandy Devotional, 1949–2023

by Darren Jorgensen

It was devastating to hear of Ted Snell’s death for those of us who were touched by his unflinching support of the visual arts. Snell pursued a selfless career sitting on national arts boards, curating shows and managing galleries while always and endlessly advocating for art and ideas.

Article: The Negative Commonwealth: Australia as ‘Laboratory’, Then and Now

by Lorenzo Veracini and Dan Tout

Federated Australia was seen for a long time as a significant social ‘laboratory’. The Commonwealth itself was seen as an ‘experiment’. This widespread metaphor relied on a particular pattern of perception: the country was ‘new’ (it was not), and the country was allegedly isolated (it was not, at least not completely). Many believed that its social environment could be controlled, like that of a scientific laboratory. A laboratory is designed to shut all disturbances out – the value of the data and experiments depends on it.

Issue 177, August 2023 – Reflections on the Pandemic

This special issue revisits the Thesis Eleven online project: Living and Thinking Crisis. The original project published close to fifty contributions; a multimedia presentation that included postcards, words, poems and music responding to the pandemic in the real-time of its making. This issue of the journal brings a selection of these to publication and reflects on this moment of global upheaval and transformation.