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David Pledger

One of Australia’s true creative originals…Pledger has generally made the world a smaller, and far more exciting, place.

A History of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards, 2016, Michael Shmith

David Pledger is one of the most exciting, ambitious and prolific artists of his generation.

Steven Richardson, producer, programmer

Pledger is a leading creator, producer, writer and thinker on the value of artists to society.

Platform Papers #63, On the Lessons of History, Katharine Brisbane, 2021

David Pledger is a conceptual, media and performance artist, and a curator, writer and futurist who operates at the intersection of art, technology and science, and explores their relationships to society and culture.

He creates artworks and public events of scale with multiple intentions including the valorisation of artistic practice and the mobilization of granular, progressive social change.

His artistic interests include the body, the politics of power, public space, climate change, social justice, the digital realm and collective futuring which align with his research interests – orientalism in intercultural theatre practice and the neo-liberalisation of western democracies.

From his initial practice, live performance, he has developed a unique dramaturgy engaging artists across artforms with experts from social, scientific and academic fields.

His award-winning work is notable for engaging publics in productive and provocative ways in live performance, interactive artworks, digital art, ideas and discursive events.

david pledger cv
david pledger dissertation 'wall of noise, web of silence'
Education
2018
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), School of Architecture and Design, Spatial Information Architecture Lab, Sound Studios, RMIT University
1991
Masters of Arts (MA), Asian Studies, Monash University
1986
Diploma of Dramatic Arts, Acting, NIDA, UNSW
1983
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Politics and Cinema, Monash University
Selected Curation
2021-2022
ANAT SPECTRA 2022 :: Multiplicity, online limited series event and Science Gallery Melbourne, Australia
2020
Assembly for the Future (with Alex Kelly), BLEED Festival, Melbourne, Australia
2017
Hightower Hoteling (with Louise Bezzina), Bleached Arts, Peppers Soul, Surfers Paradise, Australia
2017
2970° The Boiling Point, HOTA Gold Coast, Australia 
2017
Asian Dramaturgs’ Network, Singapore-Australia Meeting (with Lim How Ngean), Adelaide, Australia
2016
Strange Attractor, (with Adelina Larsson), Canberra, Australia
2015
Down the Rabbit Hole, Bleached Arts, QT Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Australia
2015
2970° The Boiling Point, Arts Centre Gold Coast, Australia
2015
Monsoon Australia, (with Margie Medellin and Arco Renz), Sydney, Bundanon, Australia
2015
UberMentor, Gold Coast, Australia
2014
YARN, Gold Coast, Australia
2013
The Art of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australia
2012
Asia + Europe = Australia, Arts House, Melbourne, Australia
2009 - 2011  
Australia Council-IETM Collaboration Project, Brussels, Belgium
2008
Meetings and Conversations, Arts Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 
2008
Making Performance, European Capital of Culture, Liverpool, UK
Awards and Fellowships
2008
Asialink Arts Residency (China)
2005
Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Louis Esson Drama Prize (nomination)
2005
Australian Writers Guild Award, Inaugural New Media Writing, (nomination)
2004
Victorian Green Room Awards, Best Direction, Opera (nomination)
2004
Victorian Green Room Awards, Best Design, Opera (nomination)
2002
Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship
1999
Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award
1999
Kenneth Myer Performing Arts Medal
1997
Australia-Korea Foundation Fellowship
2001
Victorian Green Room Awards, Outstanding Event (nomination)
1997
Victorian Green Room Awards, Innovative New Form (winner)
1996
Victorian Green Room Awards, Outstanding Event (nomination) 
1995
Victorian Green Room Awards, Outstanding Event (nomination) 
1995
Victorian Green Room Awards, Outstanding Event (winner)
1995
Victorian Green Room Awards, Outstanding Event (nomination)
Write
Essay
Publication
Year
Arts Hub
2023
Art + Australia
2023
Institute for Networked Cultures, Amsterdam
2021
ArtsHub
2020
ArtsHub
2020
The Daily Review
2020
The Daily Review
2019
Intermedial Theatre
2019
Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics
2019
Imagined Theatres
2018
Dancehouse Diary 
2016
National Association for the Visual Arts
2015
ABC Radio National
2012
ABC Artworks
2010
Theater Schrift Lucifer #100
2010
Speak
Topic
Organiser
Year
Indigenous Film Conference, International Sami Film Institute, Guovdageaidnu, Norway
2023
Art+Australia, Science Gallery Melbourne
2023
RESET Arts and Culture and Vitalstatistix
2023
Griffith University
2023
Agora 5. Plurality University Network (France)
2023
Plurality University Network
2022
Currency House Creative Convention, Australia
2021
The Guardian
2020
Nyala Bulahbu Gali
Bleach Festival
2019
Cultural Justice and the Right to Thrive  Platform Papers Book Launch
Footscray Community Arts Centre
2018
Asian Dramaturgs’ Network 
2018
Asian Dramaturgs’ Network
2017
National Association for the Visual Arts
2017
How Australian Cultural Policy intersects with Global Cultural Policy
Footscary Community Arts Centre
2016
MPavilion
2016
Korean Cultural Centre
2015
Art as an Irritant
ABC Gold Coast
2015
An Artist’s Guide to the Re:Search Universe
Deakin University
2015
Space for Change
International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts
2014
AMPERS&ND Atomic
Seoul International Dance Festival
2014
Strategies for the Internationalisation of Performing Arts in the Nordic Countries
Nordic Performing Arts Days
2014
Re-valuing the Artist In the New World Order: Re-Mastered
Nordic Performing Arts Days
2014
Collaborate or Perish: The End of the Specialist?
The Graduate Union Melbourne University
2014
Public Cultures Symposium
Public Cultures Symposium, Research Unit of Public Culture
2014
The Arts is No Place for Artists: Contemplating Context and Complicity
Art and Encounter Symposium: Festival of Live Art
2014
The Convergence of Art and Technology
Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres
2013
2013 Australian Theatre Forum
2013
The Australian Institute of Sport
2013
National Dance Forum
2013
Selected Press
Article
Publication
Year
Agora 5. Plurality University Network (France)
2023
The Guardian
2020
Witness Performance
2020
RealTime issue #133
2016
The Art and The Curious
2015
Real Time
2013
Call for Rolling National Strikes by 'Marginalised' Artists
The Australian
2013
Real Time Arts
2008
The Sydney Morning Herald
2007
Pledger’s Dark Society 
The Age
2004
Minnows Urge End to Funding Framework
The Australian
2004
The Sydney Morning Herald
2000
Selected Citations
Title
Publication
Year
The New Platform Papers Vol 1. Currency House
2021
Performance Research, A Journal of the Performing Arts, Volume 23, 2018 - Issue 4-5: On Reflection – Turning 100
2018
RealTime #133
2016
Melbourne Now Limited Edition
2014
Working with Technology/Making Technology Work
Australasian Drama Studies #65
2014
Platform Papers #40
2014
Worth Its Weight in Gold
2014
Not At A Cinema Near You Platform Papers #37
2013
Artlink vol 33
2013
Platform Papers #37
2013
Virtuality and the Art of Exhibition
2012
The Theatre of Images Revisited
Multimedia Performance
2012
Artlink vol 29 #1
2009