Andrew Speirs

Research

My research and creative production spans fine arts, medicine, history and criminology, and I exhibit in Digital Arts & Sculpture.

I am a member of two University Research Clusters:
SHERI - Sydney Humanities & Social Science e-Research Initiative
http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~scripts/SHSSERI/

GREV: Graphical Reasoning in Educational Visualisation.
http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~scripts/GREV/

Journal Editorial Board Membership
Journal of Creative Work ISSN 1556-6757
The International Journal of Learning ISSN 1447-9494
The International Journal of the Humanities ISSN: 1447-9508


Works in Progress

1. Book: Portraiture, Physiognomy, Biometrics and the Art of Looking
2. Novel - Fiction, working title - The Burden of Being Kipper
3. Digital Project: - working title - Palimpsests & Ghosts - Multi projection of 3D animation


Past Research

The impact of globalisation and 9/11 on space and scopic regimes.

Doctoral research examined biometrics and the construction of deviance and criminality from the nineteenth century to the War on Terror.

An examination of the hypotheses that use of space in Australia has been determined to a great extent by our landscape, architecture and our history of penology.

Research at Sydney's St. Vincent's Cardiopulmonary Transplant Unit was presented in papers on art, subjectivity, donor families and transplant youth.

A residency at the Sydney Children's Hospital, developed digital art practices for homeless youth, and researched the use of video for self-efficacy in adolescent females.

Exhibition research has examined space, surveillance, criminality, detection, and interactivity with works in digital media and public interactive sculpture at such sites as Sydney's Darling Harbour, Taylor Square, South Dowling Street, Oxford Street, and in Canberra on the lake

In my spare time I learn Mandarin, write fiction, and take long bicycle trips such as cycling Istanbul to southern Egypt - enjoying the people and food while sketching life and civilizations along the way.

Key Publications

2007
Speirs A, 'Corporeal Connoisseurship: Enlightenment Body Criticism, the Biometric Type and the Individual' The International Journal of the Humanities ISSN: 1447-9508

Speirs A, 'Optical Fundamentalism: Portraiture, Physiognomy and the Biometric Body', Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities January 12-15 2007 ISSN 1541-5899

2005
Speirs A, "The Art of Looking / From the Phrenological to the Biometric Body" Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, aaANZ 2005 Sydney

2004
Speirs A, "Digital Visualisation in University Teaching and Research" The Australian Council of Universities Art and Design Schools Conference, ACUADS 2004 Canberra

Speirs A, "Digital Visualisation for Idea Analysis" Computing Arts 2004 University of Newcastle

2003
Speirs A, "The Individual and the Stereotype; from Lavater to the War on Terror", the Australian Council of Universities Art and Design Schools Conference, Hobart, 2003.

1998
"Fragmentation , Transplantation and Virtual Worlds: An Art Project for Transplant Youth", US College Art Association, Toronto

"The Reconstructed Body", paper presented at the Australian Council of Universities Art and Design Schools Conference, Melbourne.

1994
"Self Efficacy for Adolescent Females through Video Interview", Sydney University/ The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital. Research into the therapeutic environment and self-representation through video.

Exhibitions

Key Solo Exhibitions
DIGITAL IMAGES, University of Sydney, 2004

DIGITAL IMAGES, Tasmanian School of Art, 2003

DIGITAL IMAGES, The Newcastle Gallery, 2002

DIGITAL IMAGES, ANU the Institute of the Arts, 1995

PUBLIC TIME BASED MEDIA, Oxford St, 1994

INTERACTIVE PUBLIC SCULPTURE, Darling Harbour, 1992-93

INTERACTIVE PUBLIC SCULPTURE, Cnr South Dowling Street & Anzac Parade, 1992-98

INTERACTIVE PUBLIC SCULPTURE, Floriade Commission Canberra, 1991

INTERACTIVE PUBLIC SCULPTURE, Taylor Square Darlinghurst, 1990 - 02

INTERACTIVE SCULPTURE, Cell Block, the National Arts School, 1989

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Key Group Exhibitions

Art Space, SH Ervin Gallery, Ivan Doherty Gallery

Collections: Australian National Gallery, Australian Consulate Brussels, TAFE Collection, AMP Collection, The National Art School Collection, University of Tasmania Collection.

Awards
2008 Post Doc Researcher, Leeds University
2006 Apple Scholarship
2005 RIHSS Grant GREV Research Cluster University of Sydney
2005 RIHSS Grant SHERI Research Cluster University Sydney
2002 University of Canberra CELTS Grant
1998 University of Newcastle Travel Grant
1996 APA
1996 University of NSW Research Grant
1994 Queen's Trust Grant
1994 Premiers Department Grant
1991 Floriade Sculpture Commission Canberra
1989 Berrima Print Award
1988 Capita Art Award Sydney

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