Amanda Morgan

The work proposes an eco-poetic, image-making methodology to animate encounters between humans and marine animals. It is from my current research in oceanic care, where marine creatures are gathered and held on the flatbed glass. This speculative artistic practice explores how touch and tactility might help to poetically frame new forms of multispecies care at a time of oceanic crisis. The image-making process leaves imprints from the previous cameraless image. The objects are tactile and moved haptically with digital glitches on the glass. The image is a hybrid of digital and analogue imaging techniques. The print was made by pressing against glass during times of ecocide, and it combines a performative process with drawing and scanning. Inspired by cephalopods and informed by ecofeminist theory, the work draws on a fluid, caring and more-than-human practice of visual storytelling through and with marine ecologies.

Amanda Morgan is a Millowl / Naarm Artist, a PhD candidate and a senior lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne. Her current research Scanimalia: A Tentacular Method for Oceanic Care, is an eco-poetic method of image-making and storytelling that explores interspecies touch, care and visual proximity through the repurposed print technology of the flatbed scanner. Her research stages marine animals and humans as co-performers in a process of tactile imaging, positioning the scanner as a ‘tentacular stage’ for entangled humanimal relations. Morgan’s performative prints respond to oceanic care and sustainability with camera-less image-making techniques. Morgan responds to Australia’s southern reefs with installations, moving image, performance, sound and prints. Selected exhibitions include Maxi Gallery, Rome. Mars Gallery, Melbourne. Gene Siskel Film Centre, Chicago. Lisbon Film Festival, Portugal. Glendale College Gallery, Los Angeles. Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. Robert Beck Cinema, New York. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.