Today, much artistic activity takes place outside traditional exhibition circuits and is variously characterised by where and when it is situated. Many of these artistic activities are more concerned with events, actions, sites, relations and processes than with the display of discretely exhibited objects. Indeed, given that some contemporary artistic projects manifest as radically spatially diffused distributions of elements, artists and audiences alike face significant challenges when presenting, disseminating and evaluating work of this kind. This free online symposium will explore various ways in which artistic projects located outside conventional exhibition contexts and programming schedules are represented and evaluated. Comprising a series of presentations, performances and online discussions featuring the work of artists, curators and other creative practitioners working outside established exhibition formats, this event will explore art at the outermost limits of location-specificity.

Curated by Simone Douglas (Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York City) and Sean Lowry (Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Art and Music, The University of Melbourne) as part of an ongoing partnership between the Centre of Visual Art (University of Melbourne) and the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons  (Parsons School of Design, The New School).  Douglas and Lowry have been collaborating since 2014 across a series of international conferences, symposia and publications dedicated to publicly connecting diverse artistic activities taking place outside traditional exhibition circuits.

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Importantly, this symposium was conceived as an opportunity for invited emerging artists from Melbourne (the original location for the event) to present alongside peer reviewed and more established voices. Huge thanks to all of our presenters and chairs, many of whom had to work very quickly and under less than optimum conditions to adapt their presentations to an online format.