Editorial: Crevice Communities

Abstract

The topic of Crevice Communities became relevant to the Creative Practice Circle (CPC) research group, based at Charles Sturt University (CSU), during the COVID pandemic and lockdowns. The group had planned a symposium on their first theme: Listening in the Anthropocene, which was to be based in the regional city of Wagga Wagga on Wiradjuri Country in central New South Wales. The research group had funding to bring two eminent guest speakers, Mandy Martin, a highly regarded Australian visual artist, and Margaret Woodward, former CSU academic and now independent artist living and working in lutruwita/Tasmania.

COVID struck and the CPC rallied to present everything online, including the launching of their first online arts exhibition. It seemed to the research group that support for the arts, generally, was diminishing – particularly in the right-wing political world, as well as academic circles, and COVID brought us all to a standstill. In spite of this, both the symposium and the exhibition were a success, and the results are still available in the online space (CPC, 2020; Munday et al., 2021).

COVID damaged many artists who had their ability to move in the wider community completely stemmed. It also offered new opportunities and helped communities everywhere to envision new opportunities for inclusion and collaboration. The CPC, as an online collective of creative practice researchers and artists, continued to meet and share ideas, particularly related to the environment and wellbeing. We began to see ourselves as a ‘crevice community’ like the “small pockets of vegetation uniquely adapted to thrive in the harsh conditions of the rocky terrain of exposed mountain summits” (Antioch University, 2024). We existed with very little outside support. Crevice Communities became our new theme, and we encouraged each other to create works and write about our research.

Publication in journals can be problematic for some academics, particularly in the arts, with predominantly more so-called high-quality journals available for researchers in the sciences. This was the motivation for beginning the Journal of Creative Practice Research. We particularly wanted to provide an avenue for Early Career Researchers and other arts-based researchers to be able to have their research published and available for members of our ‘community’ to read and reference. The articles in this first edition ‘give life’ to that intention.

The articles in this edition speak to and broaden the notion of crevice communities across a wide breadth of arts and humanities practice ranging from history and fiction (VanDuinen), to those that link real places with online places through digital art (Brueton and Woodward), while others describe craftivism (Alexander et al.) or find ways to reshape connections with Country (Bailey). We encourage you to read carefully and thoughtfully those articles that capture your interest and apply their ideas in your own crevices of practice. We thank all authors for their contributions. 

Getting a first edition off the ground has had its difficulties, and hopefully future editions will be more streamlined. We hope the journal will be a place where varied ideas in creative practice can be shared as springboards to new and innovative ways of seeing, thinking and making.

References

Antioch University. (2024). Between a rock and a hard place: Crevice communities. https://www.antioch.edu/centers-institutes/monadnock-ecological-research-education-project-mere/adopt-a-crevice-community/. 

Creative Practice Circle. (2020, August 27). Listening in the Anthropocene. Charles Sturt University. https://creativepracticecircle.csu.domains/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FINAL.pdf 

Munday, J., Charles, C., O’Connor, M., Sorensen, T., Ulrich, B., & Waters, L. (2021). Editorial: Listening in the Anthropocene. Fusion Journal, 19, 3–7. https://fusion-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Fusion-Issue-19-Listening-in-the-Antrhopocene-1.pdf