A is for art: Textbase has its origins in the Melbourne artworld circa 1995. With the proliferation of artist-run galleries and projects at that time, a group of writers were bringing philosophy, art theory, feminist theory, psychoanalytic theory and a broad range of literature into the galleries in the form of catalogue essays, reviews and articles. There was a certain amount of collaboration between writers and visual artists and much trading of means. Textbase was established in 1996 as a focus for textual activities and writers’ projects within the artworld. With a series of installations and projects over the past two years, Textbase has used the gallery space as a site at the intersection of writing, visual art and a host of other practices including film, video and hypertext.

A is for aims: Expanding beyond the artworld, the Textbase publication will explore broader questions of writing and how it works. We aim to focus on developing fictocritical and experimental writing and to explore writing as a visual medium. We see a basic failing in current Australian literary, art and academic journals to really explore what writing can do. The majority of journals depend upon a concept of intellectual property founded on the myth of the individual artist-creator-god figure. What the Textbase publication aims to do is redefine creativity as primarily a social act.