Ms Ursula Frederick

PhD Student and Project Officer

T: ( 02 ) 6125 8352

F: ( 02 ) 6248 0054
E: ursula.frederick@anu.edu.au

Research School of Humanities
College of Arts and Social Sciences

Qualifications:

BA(Hons) Fine Arts and Archaeology, University of Western Australia, Perth.
Cert Photography, Mount Lawley Technical College, Perth.
MA(Research) Archaeology, Australian National University, Canberra.

Short biography:

Ursula came to the RSH (formerly CCR) in 2001 after three years as an archaeologist in the private sector. Prior to this she completed an MA (Research) in Archaeology at the ANU and a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts at UWA. Her MA thesis was concerned with exploring continuity and transformation in the social context of rock art production during the process of Aboriginal-European contact in central Australia.

Ursula's primary research interests include art, material culture studies and the archaeology and history of cross-cultural exchange. Ursula's interest in the arts is presently motivated by the study of art as expression of personal, social and cultural identity and agency. Particular areas of investigation include the arts of Indigenous Australia, contemporary photography and printmedia, and graffiti. Her archaeological research is directed towards the social dimensions of archaeology and cultural heritage studies, landscape archaeology, studies of place and the intangible. She is also interested in contemporary archaeologies and the ways archaeology is communicated within popular culture.

Research Interests:

Ursula's Masters dissertation examined Indigenous rock art within central Australia, focussing on charcoal drawings produced during 'contact' with European settlers and explorers. The work sought to view changes and continuities within the Indigneous art system in light of the social context of their production. Following a similar line of interest, Ursula has undertaken a study of Groote Eylandt rock art with Annie Clarke. This project is similarly concerned with examining contact art as a record of relationships between people, places, and ideas over time and space. The current focus of their Groote Eylandt research is the representation of vessels and vehicles and the significance of art as an approach for communicating connections, distance and difference.

In addition to her rock art research, Ursula is engaged in the scholarly investigation of contemporary graffiti. These pursuits, combined with her current project, reflect Ursula's ongoing interest in the way humans shape their environments through art and mark-making activities.

Current Research Projects:

In 2007 Ursula began her doctoral research on the art and aesthetics of car cultures. The project is a cross-disciplinary investigation combining the fields of art, material culture and visual anthropology based at the ANU School of Art. This research explores such themes as value creation, the everyday, obsolescence and transformation. Along with a dissertation and exegesis the project will incorporate Ursula's own art practice. To date, Ursula has presented four seminars touching on this work: "Making Special, Making Strange" (Aug 2007), "Once Upon a Time... there was a car" (Nov 2008) and "U-Turns" (Dec 2008), "Two Days in Detroit" (Sept 2009).

Selected Publications:

Edited volumes

2009 Compelling cultures: representing cultural diversity and cohesion in multicultural Australia. Special issue of Humanities Research, XVI. 1 (with Anna Edmundson and Kylie Message).

2007 Women Willing to Fight: the fighting woman in film. Co-edited with Silke Andris, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

1999 Making a Mark, special issue of Archaeology in Oceania, v34 n 3. with M.Wilson and J.P. White

Chapters in books

2008 "Pieces of Place: exploring the personal souvenir", co-authored with J. Foxlee and N. Hall. In Senses of Place, Canberra: National Museum of Australia.

2008 "The Mark of Marvellous Ideas", co-authored with A. Clarke. In P. Veth, P. Sutton & M. O'Neale (eds) Strangers on the Shore, Canberra: National Museum of Australia.

2007 "Past, Present, Future: Finding Treasure in the Lives of Lara Croft". In S. Andris and U. Frederick (eds), Women Willing to Fight: the fighting woman in film. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2007 "Why Women Willing to Fight?", co-authored with S. Andris, In S. Andris and U. Frederick (eds), Women Willing to Fight: the fighting woman in film. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2006 "Closing the Distance", co-authored with A. Clarke, In I. Lilley (ed.) The Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands. Blackwell Guides to Archaeology. Blackwells, Oxford.

2000 "Keeping the Land Alive: Changing social contexts of landscape and rock art production over the course of Aboriginal-European contact" In A. Clarke, and R. Torrence (eds) Negotiating Difference: Re-interpretations of intercultural encounters in Oceania, One World Archaeology, Routledge, London.

Journal articles

2009 "Revolution is the New Black: graffiti/art and mark-making practices", Archaeologies, special issue edited by Rodney Harrison and John Schoefield

2009 "Wandjina, graffiti and heritage: the power and politics of enduring imagery" co-authored with Sue O'Connor, in K. Message, A. Edmundson and U.Frederick (eds), Compelling cultures: representing cultural diversity and cohesion in multicultural Australia. Special issue of Humanities Research, XVI. 1

2009 Introduction, co-authored with A.Edmundson and K.Messge, in K. Message, A. Edmundson and U.Frederick (eds), Compelling cultures: representing cultural diversity and cohesion in multicultural Australia. Special issue of Humanities Research, XVI. 1

1999 "At the centre of it all:Considering 'contact' through the rock art of Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park", in Frederick, U., M. Wilson and P. White (eds) Making a Mark, Archaeology in Oceania, v34 n 3.

Digital Media

2009 LIGHT JOURNEYS: Australian Women Working in Photography, www.lightjourneys.net.au, website and online exhibition space co-curated and developed with Lee Grant, updated monthly.

2005 <abstractions>, online exhibition, co-developed with C. Bridgewater, K. Hayne and K. Westmacott

Catalogue essays

2003 "One Thousand and One Nights: story and synergy in the art of Ian Abdulla", in H. Morphy & N. Lendon (eds), Synergies, Canberra: ANU.

Other

2006 Invited Lecture, "Signs of Contact: Groote Eylandt rock art and cross-cultural exchange", co-authored with A.Clarke, in Picturing Relations. Groote Eylandt Barks Symposium. Online transcripts, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne. (http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/events_transcripts).

Disciplines:

art, archaeology, visual culture, material culture, heritage

Teaching:

Ursula has developed and participated in a number of intensive scholarly programs focussed on art and heritage, including Towards a Culture of Nature, co-convened with O. Beazley, B. Egloff, H. Morphy and T. Heyd. Land Culture and Community co-convened with S. Kleinert, H. Morphy and M. West. Diasporas and Contested Heritage co-convened with O. Beazley, K. Keeffe and H. Morphy.

She has also presented a number of guest lectures and tutorials in archaeology, art and field photography, most recently:

"The Car as Material Culture", for Museums and Collections, Masters of Liberal Arts, ANU.

"Cyberlives: art and identlty in Second Life", for Art Theory, School of Art, ANU.

"Art and Archaeology: Intersections in Digital Media", for the Masters of Visual Culture Research, ANU.

"Pixelated Pasts: Archaeology and Digital Media" for the Masters of Visual Culture Research, ANU.

Conferences:

Ursula is a regular presenter and convenor at conferences, workshops and symposia. Her most recent papers include "The Everyday and the Unseen", at WAC 08, Dublin with Annie Clarke, and "Revolution is the New Black: Graffiti, art and mark-making practices", in Archaeoethnography, New Ground 2007, Sydney.

In 2008 Ursula convened the RSH 20/20/20 seminar series 'Once Upon a Time' and served on the committee for Photographies: new histories, new practices and in 2007 developed Drawn Together: The Production and Collection of Indigenous Drawing, a 2 day symposium May 28-9, Canberra. In 2005 she co-convened Cruising Country: a symposium, film and art event exploring automobilities in non-urban Australia, with Lisa Stefanoff, Canberra, May 27-29.
Other 2007 conference presentations include:
"Searching for Scribble: An Introduction to the archaeology of drawing", Canberra.
"Making Special, Making Strange: art and car culture aesthetics", Canberra.
"Postcards from the Edge:historic inscriptions from the Quarantine Station" with Annie Clarke and Anna Williams, New Ground: AAA07, Sydney.

Activities:

Throughout 2008 her artwork appeared in several exhibitions including Suburban Zeitgeist, photo/not-photo, WAC08 Fringe, and Changing Climate, Reinventing Lives. In 2007 she curated Drovers' Drawings: historical graffiti from outback Australia, Foyer Gallery ANU School of Art. In 2005 she curated, with Lisa Stefanoff, rust, dust and other places, Foyer Gallery ANU School of Art.

Professional societies:

Australian Archaeological Society
Canberra Contemporary Art Space
Megalo Arts