Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts

Writers Assemble! is South Australia's new writers' festival. Across three days and seven events, this FREE festival brings together some of Australia's best writers for discussions on craft, careers, and creativity.

The panels deliberately jumble writers from different genres and age groups—spicy romance meets children's literature, horror crashes into YA fantasy—to uncover the universal themes and techniques that power all stories. Each session will spotlight one of the five story senses—Humour, Justice, Belonging, Danger, Wonder—and explore how writers bring these senses to life in the books you love.

For emerging writers, an interactive Meet the Publishers session offers a chance to hear directly from South Australian publishers and ask your burning questions about getting published.

The festival concludes with a star-studded conversation on what it takes—and what it feels like—to be a bestselling author. We hope you can join our guests and celebrate the best in reading and writing.

What we do

Assemblage has 5 main areas of research activity:

Strategic areas, e.g. Arts and Health
Seed grants
Artist in Residence program
Activating College infrastructure
Transdisciplinary events.

_{Professor Chris Hay opening the 2024 Wal Cherry Lecture at the Adelaide Festival Centre.}

Digital Artist in Residence

Find out more about our Artists in Residence

Find out more about Rosina's project Herding Caterpillars

Each year Assemblage runs an Artist in Residence programme which is the result of a competitive application process. The two – three month residency is designed to benefit the chosen artist as well as our students and researchers. Their work is allied to the major research themes of Assemblage.

In 2022 we hosted our Digital and Environmental Artist in Residence, Rosina Possingham. This residency was focused on amplifying research and activity in our motion capture and virtual production studio The Void.

2022 Artist in Residence Rosina Possingham

_{Project partners: Flinders University's The Void, Butterfly Conservation SA, Brewed Engagement Extended Reality (BEER) Labs}

Meet past Artists in Residence

Liam Somerville

Rosina Possingham

Jesse Budel

Emily Steel

Sarah Neville

Lawrie Ashford

The VOID

Find out more about the VOID

Assemblage’s motion capture and digital story platform is The Void – a powerful collaboration space for digitising performance, screen production and experimentation.

The Void is a flexible and adaptable digital facility that integrates performance and digital art to produce creative works that can be projected on a screen or played as video games – all in real-time, high visual fidelity and centred on the vision of the artist.

^{Sally Coleman in the VOID with Unreal Engine}

Seed Grants for Creative Collaborations

Assemblage grants are truly transdisciplinary.

To date, funds have supported projects in the areas of: Creative Writing, Drama, Screen, Gender, Cultural Industries, Music, Archaeology, English, Philosophy, VP, Theatre, Fashion, Science and Engineering. The 2024 grants included:

New voices, different questions: re-engaging historical Hollywood
Reconstructing Shakespeare’s ‘lost’ musical dramaturgy in the digital age
The triangulation project: Yoga as a tool for integration in acting pedagogy and practice
The Coming of the Forest: A folk horror and ecoGothic audio drama, will interrogate the relationship between urban and natural environments
Welcome to Plato's Cave: An immersive retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, which invites participants to interact with each other and AI characters to conquer the Cave's secrets.

Works by academics

Postgraduate works

Who we are

Professor Chris Hay

Director - Assemblage Centre

Contact our researchers

The Assemblage Centre Management Committee provides strategic direction to deliver the Centre’s strategy and objectives.

Professor Sharyn Roach Anleu - CHASS Dean (Research)
Sean Parsonage - CHASS Director, CHASS College Services
Associate Professor Claire Henry - Screen
Associate Professor Tully Barnett - Creative Industries
Dr Alex Cothren - Creative Writing
Dr Christopher Hurrell - Drama
Dr Lauren Woolbright - Digital Media and Visual Effects
Dr Nicholas Godfrey - Screen
Dr Sean Williams - Creative Writing
Melanie Ross - RHD student
Professor Chris Hay - Drama

Projects

Connect with us

Sign up for our eNewsletter for updates on events, projects, research initiatives and new developments at Assemblage.

Email: assemblage@flinders.edu.au

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Study at Flinders

Whether you’re preparing to take centre stage, work behind the scenes, direct or produce and internationally acclaimed feature film, write an award-winning play, or lead the future of the Arts, Flinders’ suite of degrees in the Creative Arts and Industries will help you realise your ambitions.

As the no. 1 university in South Australia for full-time employment, learner engagement, skills development, student support and teaching quality in the Creative Arts*, you’ll be taught by award-winning, practising creative artists and you’ll take your creativity to new heights with industry partners, hands-on courses and state-of-the-art facilities.

Higher Degrees by Research

*The Good Universities Guide 2022 (undergraduate),
public SA-founded universities only

Acknowledgement of Country

Flinders University was established on the lands of the Kaurna nation, with the first University campus, Bedford Park, located on the ancestral body of Ngannu near Warriparinga. Warriparinga is a significant site in the complex and multilayered Dreaming of the Kaurna ancestor, Tjilbruke. For the Kaurna nation, Tjilbruke was a keeper of the fire and a peacemaker/lawmaker. Tjilbruke is part of the living culture and traditions of the Kaurna people. His spirit lives in the Land and Waters, in the Kaurna people and in the glossy ibis (known as Tjilbruke for the Kaurna). Through Tjilbruke, the Kaurna people continue their creative relationship with their Country, its spirituality and its stories.

Flinders University acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians, both past and present, of the various locations the University operates on, and recognises their continued relationship and responsibility to these Lands and Waters.

Flinders University Reconciliation Action Plan