Marcus Bunyan [] Image Maker

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Dr Marcus Bunyan is an artist who works with all forms of image making. His artistic practice investigates the boundaries between identity, space and environment, using fighter planes as a metaphor for humanist, environmental and technological themes. He trained as a classical black and white photographer but since 2004 has used mainly found and bought images to make his art.

Marcus writes Art Blart which reviews exhibitions in Melbourne, Australia and posts mainly photography based exhibitions from around the world, with insightful research and commentary. With over 1,400 posts in its archive, the ten year old website is a research tool and a form of cultural memory. It has a readership of 1,500 people a day and 5,000 likes on Facebook. The site is being archived by Pandora from the National Library of Australia.

Marcus has just published an 8,000 word paper on Death the image (2018) which investigates how the act of photography visually writes trauma and through analysis ponders how the camera captures human beings ante-mortem, at the death point, post-mortem and vita ad mortem.

He finished a Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne in 2013. His doctoral thesis at RMIT University (2001) investigated the link between self-esteem and body image and traced the development of male body image within photographic practice and gym culture. The thesis has been adapted into a website that includes research on photographs held at The Kinsey Institute and The Minor White Archive.

Early artistic work investigated personal narratives: the shifting interfaces of identity, sexuality, space, time and environment.

Later artistic work explored personal narratives as more universal themes: the fracturing of identity, the binaries of light and dark, absence/presence, pattern/randomness in spatio-temporal environments.

Current artistic work proposes an understanding of the paradoxes of contemporary life: the fracturing of the image plane, the ethics and morals of humans, the choices human beings make in environments, the hidden threat, the faint cloudiness in the cornea of things seen, unclearly - using images of fighter planes.

2017 @	Marcus Bunyan. 'The Only Recording' 1977 (2017) 47 mins CD disc. Various pianoforte pieces recorded in the Recital Hall of the Royal College of Music, London on the 15th November 1977. Limited release November 2017
2016 @	Paper: 'Exposure: The white Australian male in portrait photography 1858-1914' presented at 'Human Kind: Transforming Identity in British and Australian Portraits 1700-1914' international conference, The University of Melbourne, September 2016
2014 @	C0-curatorship of exhibition 'Out of the closets, onto the streets: gay liberation photography 1971-1973' at Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne, July 2014 Invited artist in the exhibition 'Transmissions: Archiving HIV/AIDS - Melbourne 1979 - 2014' at the George Paton Gallery, The University of Melbourne, July 2014 Invited artist in the exhibition 'Vital Signs - Interpreting the Archive' at Blindside, Melbourne, July 2014
2013 @	Completion of Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne Opening speech at the 'John Cato Retrospective' at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale with catalogue essay included in new book about the artist Catalogue essay for Colombian artist Erika Diettes exhibition 'Sudarios (Shrouds)', core program at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Curating of exhibition 'Density' by artist Andrew Follows at Anita Traverso Gallery, Richmond Text: 'Orality, (n)framing and enactment in the art of Jacqui Stockdale' in IANN magazine Vol.8, 'Unfound in Australia', October 2012 (published online January 2013)
2012 - 13 @	Mentoring of artist Andrew Follows under an Arts Access Victoria program
2012 @	Public talk: 'This is not my favourite photograph' part of ‘What makes a great photograph?’ at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP), Fitzroy, December 2012 Paper: 'Traversing the unknown' presented at the 'Travel Ideals' international conference, July 2012 published October 2012
2011 @	Opening speech: 'Movement and Emotion' and 'Jodie Noble Solo' exhibitions at Arts Project Australia, Melbourne Opening speech: 'John Bodin: Rite of Passage' at Anita Traverso Gallery, Richmond
2010 - 13 @	Studying Master of Art Curatorship part-time at The University of Melbourne Internship at fortyfivedownstairs gallery, Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
2008 @	Launch of Art Blart art and writing blog at artblart.com
2006 - 07 @	Lecturer in Fine Art Photography at RMIT University, Melbourne. Photographs included in 'Depth of Field: Conversations Between Photography and Textiles' exhibition touring England through Birmingham MAC. Publication of 'Pressing the Flesh: Sex, Body Image and the Gay Male', website adaptation of PhD research undertaken at RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria. 'Miss en Scene: Vision and the Digital Paradigm' paper presented at Art Association of Australia and New Zealand 2006 Annual Conference 'Reinventing the Medium', Monash University.
2005 @	Paper accepted for presentation 2005 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Hawaii, USA. 'SynchroMate: A Phatic Technology for Mediating Intimacy' paper presented at DUX 2005, San Francisco, Nov 3-5th 2005.
2004 @	Senior Lecturer in Photography at Charles Sturt University, NSW. Speaker at 'The Space Between' conference at The Faculty of BEAD, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA. Presenter at COFA seminar 'Research Through Practice: Beyond Research Equivalence in Art and Design', Sydney, NSW.
2003 - 04 @	Research Fellow and coordinator of the SIT-CRC project 'Mediating Strong Ties', investigating the promotion of intimacy between remote strong tie relations using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) undertaken in The Department of Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia.
2003 @	Presenter at 'Making an Appearance : Fashion, Dress, and Consumption', International Fashion Conference at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. Lecturing in cultural studies (new media, cybersociety, hypertext, professional artist) at VCA Centre for Ideas, Swinburne University, Victoria University, and The University of Melbourne.
2002 @	Lecturing in photomedia and multimedia at The University of Melbourne and Monash University, Melbourne; lecturing in media & cultural studies at the Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Speaker at the 'Mediated Spaces' Symposium, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Speaker at 'HID4 : National Health Conference', Sydney University, Sydney, NSW.
2001 @	Completion Doctor of Philosophy (Multimedia), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Lecturing in photomedia and multimedia at The School of Creative Arts, The University of Melbourne, Victoria. Speaker at 'HID3 : National Health Conference', Adelaide, South Australia.
1999 @	Visiting Research Scholar at The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, and The One Institute, affiliated to the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
1997	Winner of 'The AGFA National Photographic Award - The John Dallinger Prize for Photographic Excellence', Albury Regional Art Gallery, Albury, NSW.
1997 - 01 @	Doctor of Philosophy (Multimedia), RMIT Postgraduate Award scholarship, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
1995 - 96 @	Master of Arts, Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship (APA), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
1994 @	Postgraduate Honors, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
1990 - 93 @	Bachelor of Arts, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.