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Screen Ecologies is a book which first existed as an orated text — something co-written by Emma Hicks and sophia bartholomew through the winter (Canada) summer (Australia) of 2016, and originally titled “Present, not present (or the smell that comes from the rocks before the rain).” Moving between philosophical reflection, poetic description, ink drawings, and family stories, Emma and sophia use their digitally-mediated friendship to consider broader questions around the maintenance of boundaries, social contract, healing, embodied communication, and the terms and limitations of knowledge exchange.
“What is enacted in online spaces? Objects circulated as stories, stories circulate as objects. The light from outside travels in with you, I can see it behind you… The air might get heavy, but it’s gravity that will give you shape. Grave-digging and negative numbers. The object is being articulated by the barbecue over your left hand shoulder, behind me there’s a refrigerator…”
Published collaboratively with Moniker Press, a limited edition of Screen Ecologies was risograph printed in Vancouver, BC, 2018. Earlier versions of this work were presented at the (Popular Culture Association of Australia & New Zealand) PopCAANZ Conference Digital Ecologies panel (2016) and at “Transcultural Collaborations: Advocating Reciprocal Spaces,” a First Nations & First Peoples Artist Panel Discussion at the Sydney College of the Arts (2017).
BIOS
Emma Hicks is an interdisciplinary artist and writer of Kamilaroi and English heritage, based in Sydney, Australia. She recently completed a PhD at Sydney College of the Arts (2017). She was awarded the Dr Charles Perkins AO Memorial Prize (2013) and was a recipient of the Indigenous Writers’ Mentorship Program at the NSW Writers’ Centre (2015). Emma has presented her work throughout Australia and internationally.
sophia bartholomew is a queer non-binary femme and an interdisciplinary artist. They are descended from Norwegian, Irish and English settlers, living in Canada. They received their BFA from UBC in 2012, and co-directed Connexion Artist-run Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, from 2012 to 2015. sophia has presented their work at public galleries and artist-run centres, and has attended residencies across Canada and in Cuba.
Since both attending a Banff Centre residency in 2013, Emma and sophia have kept an active correspondence and established a collaborative writing practice — mediated by email, instant messaging, and video chat.
