The image of a ‘tortured genius’ suffering in their lair for their art has long dominated perceptions of the artist in their studio.

Post, post­modernism, this studio visits another studio ­ the space of the artist, a creative, fragmented, disjointed and complex place of art making, and home to 16 artists in residence. G ertrude Contemporary is a not­for­profit dynamic centre for the production and presentation of contemporary art. Openly fostering ‘a culture of risk’ with the artist at its centre, G ertrude Contemporary provides a creative community for some of Australia’s most celebrated and innovative artists.

Students will liaise directly with emerging artists to research, script, shoot and edit a video portrait representing their art making practice. They will learn how to represent an artist’s career, investigate their inspirations and record the complexity of contemporary art making practices ­ in short they will interrogate the very notion of capturing creativity in our time. These films will be made in collaboration with other students and the final portraits will be embedded within the gallery’s website.

However, capturing contemporary creativity can be a hard task: the social, the political and the conceptual often override traditional materiality. In this studio students will be immersed in a world of shape shifting ideas and bits and bytes. They will face many challenges: how to work with artists who are in early developmental phases, how to identify and film a specific creative practice and how to paint a portrait of an artist in a digital age. This studio presents a unique opportunity to work with some of the very best emerging Australian artists and to produce work that may be featured on the gallery website.