Dr Naomi Merritt joined the University of South Australia as a lecturer and researcher in contemporary art and visual culture in 2015.
Naomi is currently working on a monograph titled Jeff Wall and the Concept of the Picture (to be published by Routledge in early 2021). This is Naomi's first book and it is based on her PhD research on the photography of Canadian artist Jeff Wall (completed at the University of Melbourne in 2014, where it was nominated for the Chancellor's Prize). From a contemporary vantage point, this book evaluates the conditions that established Wall’s legacy, and his shaping of the medium of photography since the late 1970s, against the backdrop of the demise of modernism and the transition from... Read more
About me
Dr Naomi Merritt joined the University of South Australia as a lecturer and researcher in contemporary art and visual culture in 2015.
Naomi is currently working on a monograph titled Jeff Wall and the Concept of the Picture (to be published by Routledge in early 2021). This is Naomi's first book and it is based on her PhD research on the photography of Canadian artist Jeff Wall (completed at the University of Melbourne in 2014, where it was nominated for the Chancellor's Prize). From a contemporary vantage point, this book evaluates the conditions that established Wall’s legacy, and his shaping of the medium of photography since the late 1970s, against the backdrop of the demise of modernism and the transition from analog to digital photography.
Naomi's research investigates the ideologies and socio-technological dynamics that inform cultural production, with a particular focus on visual culture, art, and systems of representation. She is interested in the ways in which our sense of identity and our ways of interpreting and representing the world are culturally constructed, and the ways that artists critique these processes. Naomi's research has an interdisciplinary outlook and is at the intersection of visual arts, visual culture, cinema studies, and cultural studies.
Naomi has expertise in critical theory, cultural studies, intersectional feminism, gender / sexuality / queer theory, postcolonial theory, visual arts, cinema, photography, and creative arts research methods.
Naomi's pedagogical approach emphasises the importance of critical thinking for creative practitioners, artists, educators, and producers and consumers of culture. She believes in the need for artists and creative practitioners to have excellent visual analysis skills and the ability to critically contextualise their work and communicate it to others. Naomi is closely involved in the Art and Design Honours program, where she teaches creative practitioners research skills and research methods. She is a summative peer reviewer of teaching at UniSA and has received two UniSA teaching awards.
Naomi is a member of the UNISA research concentration 'CP3: Creative People, Products, and Places'.
Naomi's qualifications include:
Link to Naomi's book:
https://www.routledge.com/Jeff-Wall-and-the-Concept-of-the-Picture/Merritt/p/book/9781350137868
About me
Research
Research since 2008 is shown below. To see earlier years visit ORCID or ResearcherID or
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2010 |
Open access
|
| 2009 |
Open access
|
Select Conference Papers and Public Presentations (Since 2013)
2018 ‘Queering the Pole: The Disruption of Heteronormative Visual Pleasure in Male Exotic Pole Dancing’, 12th Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, Cultural Studies Association, University of Shanghai. Also chair and organiser of panel ‘Gender, Sexuality, Culture, and the Creative Arts’ at this conference.
2016, ‘Queering the Pose: The Disruption of Heteronormative Visual Pleasure in Drag Fashion Modelling', 11th Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, Cultural Studies Association, University of Sydney.
2016, Finalist in the AAANZ PhD Prize, 'Jeff Wall: Reading Pictures', AAANZ conference, ANU, Camberra.
2016, 'Displacement Strategies in Hokusai's Views of Mount Fuji', AAANZ conference, ANU, Canberra.
2015, ‘The Creative Practice of Art History’, ‘Artist Speak’ lecture series, University of South Australia.
2013, ‘Lost in translation’ - Public Lecture at the National Gallery of Victoria, in conjunction with the ‘Jeff Wall: Photographs’ exhibition.
2013, ‘Jeff Wall: The Crises of the ‘Concept of the Picture’, PhD Completion Seminar, Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Symposium, University of Melbourne.
Naomi Merritt's artwork 'Eye' (Silver Gelatin Photgram, 2006) appeared as the cover image for the book Deleuze's Philosophical Lineage (G. Jones and J. Roffe eds., Edinburgh University Press, 2009) and Deleuze's Philosophical Lineage II (G. Jones and J. Roffe eds., Edinburgh University Press, 2019).
External engagement & recognition
External engagement & recognition
| Engagement/recognition | Year |
|---|---|
Academic Excellence, Early Career TeacherDivision of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, University of South Australia |
2017 |
MemberArt Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) |
2016 |
MemberThe Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) |
2016 |
Teaching Awards
Teaching & student supervision
Teaching & student supervision
Supervisions from 2010 shown
| Thesis title | Student status |
|---|---|
| Country photography: practicing ontological dualism within the work of art | Current |
| The geometry of cultural space: contemporary art, ethics, aesthetics and Islam | Current |
| Zips, string and neon: Drawing a line from Abstract Expressionism to Conceptual Art; what role did line-making have in developing an abstract aesthetic to become a signifier of presence? | Current |
| Inside, outside, passing through: queer passages in a contemporary sculpture-based practice | Completed |
| Queer embodiment and network-based media: reconfiguring cartesian understanding of the body and technology within a visual arts practice | Completed |