Sawtooth Thinker-in-Residence discussions in 2014 will start around the term 'geo-critical' which, as GEOcritical, is the theme for the 2014 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) annual conference, to be held this year right here in Launceston, Tasmania. First time in the regions and we're IT! The conference will be based around Inveresk, but Sawtooth is playing a part. More later.
While the conference will dump a whole lot of thinking beings into our midst around 5-8 December, the Thinker program (with a coordinating Thinker and hopefully a swag of guest Thinkers) will try to get a head start, be ahead of the game, etc etc. So we're thinking GEOcritical. This does not mean we will abandon NewMat -- indeed, one does in no way preclude the other, although either can help define that other.
The Thinker will add some GEOcritical considerations to the blog in the next little while, but in the meantime, would like to convey a recent NewMat moment from the waiting room at one of Launceston's 'imaging' (read x-ray) centres. Sturdy bloke aged 40s/ early 50s waits for x-ray. He's wearing shorts and a dark chocolate-brown T-shirt which has a panoramic image across the chest, more brown tones, a silhouette of two hikers looking towards a golden sunset, out over a vista of apparently endless wilderness. The slogan (there had to be one), in cream text beneath the image: The best things in life aren't things. NewMat meets GEOcritical ...
