At JMC Academy, creativity isn’t just a subject we teach, it’s how we learn, research, collaborate, and lead.
That ethos comes to life in the recent international publication of Making as Knowing, co-authored by Dr Ulrike Sturm, Dr George Catsi, and Dr Jodie Rottle, three powerhouse artists, educators, and researchers from our Postgraduate Department.
Published in Tangible Territory Journal (Issue 8), their project explores how artistic practice itself can be a method of inquiry, a way of understanding ourselves, each other, and the unknown.
Making as Inquiry: Collaboration Without a Map
Spanning JMC campuses in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, the trio set out to explore one deceptively simple question: How do we know?
Each began by creating an original work, a poem, an artist book, a soundscape, and then passed it anonymously to a colleague, who modified and responded to it before passing it on again. Over several weeks, the work evolved, reshaped by each response.
There were no rules about medium. No expectations around outcome. Just space for interpretation.
What emerged was more than a collection of works. It was a creative map of their relationship as colleagues, artists, and researchers. And it revealed that knowledge doesn’t always begin with answers. Sometimes, it starts in the space of making.
Explore some of Ulrike Sturm’s hand-made images created through the process:
The Work Behind the Work
This is the kind of scholarship we champion at JMC.
Making as Knowing reflects the values embedded in our Master of Creative Industries, where research is not removed from practice but in constant conversation with it. Here, learning is iterative and ideas are tested through doing, as students work to complete a creative project connected to their research.
Our postgraduate lecturers don’t just teach from a curriculum, they work, publish, perform, compose, and exhibit as creative practitioners. And they bring that lived experience into the classroom, guiding students through their own creative research and projects.
🧠 Read the full project: Making as Knowing – Tangible Territory Journal
