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Lisa Roberts

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Visual artist / interactive author, leader of the Living Data program., University of Technology Sydney

I was born in on Norfolk Island 1949 to an Aboriginal Australian mother and English father. My family connections are in Victoria, Tasmania and England. I created the Living Data program to explore the similar and different ways we understand and respond to our changing climate, as scientists and as artists.

I trained to be a dancer and a visual artist. After working in Antarctica as an Australian Antarctic Arts Fellow I moved to Sydney and completed a Diploma of Aboriginal Studies at Eora College, and then a PhD in New Media Arts at the University of New South Wales. These explorations led me to reconnect with my Aboriginal family in Victoria and to recognise the primal forms in art and data as languages of relationship. Like many First Nations Australians dispossessed of cultural knowledge, I work to reconnect the different ways of knowing that together sustained Aboriginal Australia for tens of thousands of years. My PhD resulted in a language of primal gestural forms that I still use to combine scientific data and subjective responses. I'm a continuing student at Eora, Artist in Residence in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney, and Visiting Scientist (a.k.a. Artist) at the Australian Antarctic Division, Tasmania.

My work is presented online, in public spaces and at conferences and exhibitions, including art and science events and Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings.

Interactions between Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists and other artists, have led to the project, 'Seeding Treaties: Voices from the Southern Ocean'. The aim of the project is to inspire and inform people to tell their own stories of relationship to the natural world: http://www.antarcticanimation.com/content/wordpress/

Experience

  • 2010–present
    Program leader, Living Data
  • 1971–present
    Independant artist, Lisa Roberts

Education

  • 2017 
    Eora Aborignal College, Cert 3, Aboriginal Cultural Arts
  • 2010 
    University of New South Wales, PhD
  • 2007 
    Eora Aboriginal College, Grad. Dip. Aboriginal Studies
  • 2000 
    Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Master of Art
  • 1988 
    Swinburne Institute of Technology, Grad. Dip. Animation
  • 1976 
    Melbourne State College, Dip. Ed.
  • 1971 
    Victorian College of the Arts, Dip. Art

Publications

  • 2021
    Enabling enduring evidence-based policy for the Southern Ocean through cultural arts practices, PERSPECTIVE article Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution Front. Ecol. Evol. | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.616089 Lisa Roberts, Tracey Benson, Danae Fiore, Paul Fletcher, Ellery Johnson, Cat Kutay, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Katherina Petrou, Melissa Silk, Stephen Taberner, Victor V. Filgueira and Andrew J. Constable
  • 2017
    Reconnecting Art in Science - Antarctic and Indigenous Perspectives, Australasian Society for Phycology and Aquatic Botany (ASPAB) Newsletter Vol. 34(2) 2017. pp. 13-16 Lisa Roberts,William Gladstone
  • 2013
    Print Media's Role in Changing Understandings, The Quarterly Journal of the Print Council of Australia Inc. Winter 2013. Volume 48, Number 2
  • 2011
    Ocean-bottom krill sex, Oxford Journal of Plankton Research Volume 33, Number 7, 2011. DOI: 10.1093/plankt/FBR006. Kawaguchi, S., Kilpatrick, R., Roberts, L.,King, R.A. and Nicol, S. pages 1134-1138
  • 2011
    Krill looks and feelers: a dialogue on expanding perceptions of climate change data, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2011. DOI: 10.1080/2154896X.2011.626628. Lisa Roberts & Steve Nicol. pages 251-264
  • 2003
    Flying Carpet: Sailing Girl, Xunta de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela 2004 ISBN:84-453-3745-9
  • 2002
    Roget's Circular, CD-ROM author Lisa Roberts, with art work by Lisa Roberts & Melissa Smith, illuminating the Macquarie Thesaurus. Pub. Macquarie Library, Australia.
  • 2001
    Roget's Circular: Digital prints, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane, 2000. Sasha Grishin, Australian Identities in Printmaking, The Australian Print Collection
  • 2001
    CyberArts 2001, International Compendium Prix Ars Electronica,Pub. SpringerWein, New York
  • 1995
    Beware of Pedestrians, exhibition catalogue. ISBN: 0 646 24336 5
  • 1994
    Portrait of Carmel Bird, Island, Jan-Feb 1994 issue, front cover, reproduction of painting
  • 1994
    Dance Therapy Redefined, Johanna Exiner and Dennis Kelynack with Naomi Aichison and Jenny Czulak, illustrated by Lisa Roberts, Pub. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinios, USA.
  • 1992
    Interacta, No. 3992, A.C.T.A. journal, pp. 21-3.
  • 1992
    Picture This, Careers in Visual Arts, Crafts & Design, Arts Training Victoria, pp. 36-7.
  • 1992
    Lowdown, Vol. 14, Youth Performing Arts 5, pp. 7-11.
  • 1992
    Australian Art & Artists, J. Rollinson and S. Melville; Science Press, Australia. pages 317-332
  • 1992
    A Buyer's Guide to Australian Art, Graham Ryles, Mandarin Books
  • 1991
    Australian Women Artists, Max Germaine
  • 1986
    Drawing in Australia, Janet McKenzie, Macmillan Australia. page 73
  • 1984
    Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Vol.11, Alan McCulloch, Hutchison, Australia, p. 1031.
  • 1983
    Australian Artists and Galleries in New Zealand and Australia, Max Germaine. page 452
  • 1983
    Joey's Eggshell People, Tony Scanlon, illustrated by Lisa Roberts; Oxford University Press.
  • 1978
    Cinema Papers, April - June, Issue 16.

Grants and Contracts

  • 2013
    C3 Creative Fellowship
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Climate Change Cluster, UTS
  • 2007
    Australian Post Graduate Award
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 2002
    ustralian Antarctic Arts Fellowship
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 2002
    Australia Council New Media Grant
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 1994
    Australian Film Commission grant
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 1991
    Australian Film Commission Grant
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 1991
    Telematics Trust Grant development funding
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Telematric trust/Rotary
  • 1981
    Australian Film Commission post-production grant
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government
  • 1974
    Australian Film Institute grant for film, Still Lives.
    Role:
    Maker/director
    Funding Source:
    Australian Government