Superheroes: Creative Force, Cultural Zeitgeist and Transmedia Phenomenon. Since their emergence in 1938 comic book heroes have become imbedded in our popular culture, becoming part of our modern mythology. In each form and every generation these characters serve as cultural signposts, articulating our loftiest ideals and deep-seated anxieties. The project aims to explore the historic, creative and artistic development of the genre across multiple media and its political and social significance. The genre has been enormously successful in film, with the top 100 films accounting for approximately $13 billion in profit for the companies that produced them. The project will explore how the successful transmedia crossover further offers insight into the strategies that drive creative industries such as film, television, video games and comics. The project will work with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to develop a Melbourne Winter Masterpiece exhibition and a series of research projects, public events and an international conference to engage both the general public and academics.
Output(s)
Sarah Rees and Veryan Curnow of Jackson Clements Burrows Architects are the exhibition designers.
This exhibition could not occur without the generous support of Goalpost Pictures and Pukeko Pictures, ABC TV, and Swinburne University.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with Cinema and Screen studies at Swinburne University of Technology. The exhibition has been made possible in part as a result of the Australian Research Council Linkage grant project Superheroes & Me, which included academics from Swinburne University of Technology (Angela Ndalianis, Liam Burke) The University of Melbourne (Elizabeth McFarlane and Wendy Haslem) and National University of Singapore (Ian Gordon).
Cleverman was produced with major production investment from the ABC in association with Screen Australia and financed with support from Create NSW.