Art + Australia is Australia's longest running art magazine, with its precursor Art in Australia established in 1916. Art + Australia is a publishing and research body that focuses on contemporary art and its relationship to broader theoretical, social and geo-political contexts. Based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne, and living intimately with the vibrant pulse of its art school host, Art + Australia presents a rigorous and uncompromising perspective on what might constitute both art and Australia in the twenty first century. The print journals are themed publications encompassing explorations of contemporary and historical art and have thus far included: Recomposite, Extraterritoriality & The Plague. For each edition of the journal A+A has commissioned some of Australia's most highly regarded arts writers, artists, critics and theorists. From the artistic and written contributions, to the layout and design, A+A journals are committed to experimental explorations of the discursive conversations that contribute to Australian culture and broader contexts. This issue of Art + Australia (the third in the journal's new academic context) extrapolates contemporary and historically-inflected notions of the plague. Within this metaphor, a number of doom-laden scenarios are clustered: not only pestilence - by whatever contagious agent and through whatever toxic medium: disease, data cloud or drone - but also collapse, crash and extinction. These ideas are examined through various cultural moments and artistic practices.
