Faculty of Arts School of Culture & Communication

Associate Professor Scott McQuire

Senior Lecturer, Media and Communications

Biography

Scott McQuire completed his PhD on the social effects of camera technologies in the Politics Department at the University of Melbourne in 1995. Since then he has lectured in disciplines including politics, sociology, cinema studies, and art and architecture, as well as media and communication. Scott has held a number of visiting research fellowships including the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, UCLA in 1998 and the Celeste Bartos International Film Study Center, Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2000. He is an active researcher who has received funding from the Australian Research Council for 5 research projects. He has also received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, and has undertaken research consultancies for the Communications Law Centre, the Australian Film Commission and the Australian Key Centre for Media and Cultural Policy. Scott is on the editorial boards of the Digital Arts Edition, Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture, and Memory Studies.

Current research

My research explores the social effects of media technologies, with particular attention to their impact on the social relations of space and time, and the formation of identity. My next book, The Media City traces the way in which cities have become increasingly media-dense environments, transforming previous conceptions of public and private space. I am also a Chief Investigator in a major ARC funded project examining the spatial impact of new media on contemporary art and art institutions (2003-2006). A new project examining the social impact of large public screens under development.

Research interests

These projects continue my longstanding interest in better understanding the ways that media change our experience of the world--how we encounter the world around us, how we engage with others, and how 'we' are transformed in this process. In Visions of Modernity: Representation, Memory, Time and Space in the Age of the Camera (1998), I explored the ways in which the development of media technologies such as photography, cinema and television was deeply implicated in the emergence of modern society. The book sought to analyse a number of related themes, including changing conceptions of realism in the era of technological images, the transformation of practices of memory by the development of audio-visual archives, and the impact of the space-time compression characteristic of electronic media on the nation-state and the formation of national identity.

In conjunction with this more theoretical orientation, I am experienced in undertaking empirical and industry-based research. I have produced two major research reports concerning the effects of technological change on the Australian film industry, both commissioned by the Communications Law Centre, and jointly published by the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, and the Australian Film Commission. Crossing the Digital Threshold (1997) examined the impact of digital technology on film production, focusing on sound, picture editing and special effects, as well as the impact on skills and training, independent production and the emerging digital 'studio without walls'. Maximum Vision: Large Format and Special Venue Cinema (1999) explored the growing popularity of cinematic forms such as IMAX and theme park 'film rides'. Each of these projects utilised a research methodology combining qualitative interviews with key industry practitioners in conjunction with scholarly theoretical approaches. In 2003, I completed a third phase of this research focused on the impending shift to digital distribution and exhibition in cinema.

I have also written and lectured widely on visual culture and new media arts, including contemporary photography, video and installation-based works. I was a co-organiser of the major Australia Council funded conference Empires, Ruins + Network: Art in Real time Culture held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in April 2004. An edited book from this event, focusing on the ways in which contemporary art can contribute to a more critical transcultural agenda, was published in 2005. I have also published a limited edition artists book, The Look of Love (1998), with photo-monteur Peter Lyssiotis.

Teaching

Full subject descriptions are available on the University of Melbourne Handbook.

Publications

Books

Major research reports

Book chapters

Journals articles

Major catalogue essays (by commission)

Articles in non-refereed journals

Reviews and short articles

Electronic publishing

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