Join UNSW Arts and Media for this series of short work-in-progress sharings of experimental writing projects from their Writing for Performance course. In this course they have explored how writing performs, not merely describing the world but actively reshaping it, in the way it structures thought, feeling, encounter, and memory. They have explored a variety of forms of encounter, including the usual form of text to be spoken by actors who have prepared for this task, but also prompts for unprepared performers, experiences via headphones and other forms of transmission, and multi-layered compositions combining fragments of the world around us. In doing so we have used writing to get below the surface of everyday life in ways that are playful, personal, and political.

WHAT: Writing Project Exhibition
WHEN: 5:30-7:30pm
WHERE: Studio 1 UNSW, Kensington
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info

The Digital Writers’ Festival is an online-first writers’ festival dedicated to celebrating the work of writers from Australia and across the world, and fostering new relationships through collaboration between writers, where ever they may be.

WHAT: Digital Writers’ Festival
WHERE: Online
WHEN: 24th October – November 3
HOW MUCH: Free, more info here

We’re removing a bunch of furniture out of the bar and replacing it with classic Timezone-esk arcade machines. The talented brewery gangs of Pirate Life (SA), Garage Project (NZ) and Thirsty Crow (Waga Wagga) will be in the house and we’ll be pouring 7 of each of their beers.

WHAT: The Arcade Party
WHEN: 3pm – 12am
WHERE: The Union Hotel, King st Newtown
HOW MUCH: Free, more info here

Thinking about the future can make you feel optimistic or hopeless. Who knows what it holds? From our politics to the very resources we rely on, we haven’t yet found a balance between our needs and wants, and the things that sustain them. We are in a new era. Of growing and changing population, economic failings and headwinds, changes to our environments and the mix of biodiversity on our planet. We are unsure of our resources, whether its land, energy, food or water. Technological advances are delivering ethical minefields. And with each change, our choices expand and others get left behind.

WHAT: Debate
WHEN: 6:30-8pm
WHERE: Sydney Town Hall, George St
HOW MUCH: $17.31 – $40.77, more info

Join Berowra circle of artists Sandy Weule, Susanne Latimore and Kerri Fitzpatrick for their first joint exhibition. Their work explores a variety of landscapes and still life scenes, seeking strength, truth and friendship through creativity.

WHAT: Art Exhibition
WHEN: 10am
WHERE: Wallarobba Arts Centre, Hornsby
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

The Digital Writers’ Festival is an online-first writers’ festival dedicated to celebrating the work of writers from Australia and across the world, and fostering new relationships through collaboration between writers, where ever they may be. DWF is a product of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, a not-for-profit organisation whose foundations are built on supporting emerging writers. EWF is a place where creativity and innovation are celebrated, where new talent is nurtured and where diverse voices from across Australia are represented.

WHAT: Writers Festival
WHEN: 24th October -3rd November
WHERE: On website 
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

“Cluster” is a black and white analogue photography series that circulates the manipulated amalgamation and default unison of subjects. The series showcases the benign and uncomfortable yet strengthening togetherness in a personal tribute to the photographer’s Latino roots and understandings. Joshua Valageorgiou is a photographer and filmmaker based in Sydney, Australia and Athens, Greece. One night only.

WHAT: Art Exhibition
WHEN: 6-9pm
WHERE: Goodspace Gallery, Chippendale
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Grace Under Pressure is a verbatim theatre project about the workplace and training cultures that are making young health professionals sick—and which put patient lives at risk. Acclaimed verbatim theatre makers David Williams and Paul Dwyer, in collaboration with the Sydney Arts and Health Collective, have developed Grace Under Pressure from interviews with doctors and nurses at various stages of their careers. Grace Under Pressure will open a critical space for conversation about these often-taboo issues, and will be an important public intervention into medical culture, as well as a compelling, confronting, hopeful and deeply moving work of theatre.

WHAT: Theatre Production
WHEN: 8pm
WHERE: Seymore Centre, Redfern
HOW MUCH: $30-38, more info

“To breed pigs, farmers use HogMate; a synthesised pheromone that makes pigs uncontrollably horny (get out of the pen, it’ll have your leg). In 2016, I experienced for the first time the intoxicating impulse to sleep with men (it coincides with my ovulation), and then Trump became president. Trod By Beasts Alone explores the artists sense of losing control of her desires through her biology; of perverse salacious obsession; of becoming beast on breeding day.”

WHAT: Art Exhibition
WHEN: 6pm
WHERE: Wellington St Projects, Redfern
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

‘I’d always thought that you split up with someone because you’d stopped loving them, or realised you never did.’ Set for the most part inside the head of the romantically-troubled main protagonist Stuart, Realism is a play that presents his dream-world as reality. Written by Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson in 2006, the play has been re-contextualised to a contemporary Australian world by director Jessica Arthur for its NIDA iteration.

WHAT: Theatre Production
WHEN: 8pm
WHERE: NIDA Theatres, Kensington
HOW MUCH: $18-28

Not Niwe, Not Nieuw, Not Neu presents the work of artists who disturb the past, by reframing and reworking the mythologies of nationhood established and led by the scientific botanical work by Joseph Banks’ of the HMS Endeavour. By investigating these myths, and subverting the colonial prejudices of language and nature within them, these artists provide new connections and frameworks for understanding this legacy – forging a new order from the precarious vestiges and remainders of the so called ‘new world’. This exhibition continues 4A’s series of exhibition projects that examine the shared histories and ties between Australia and our Asia-Pacific neighbours.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening Drinks
WHEN: 6-8pm
WHERE: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info

The Palestinian Film Festival Australia is produced by Cultural Media, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of Palestinian art and culture in a multicultural Australian context. Showcasing the very best of Palestinian cinema from around the globe, the Festival presents a unique opportunity to connect with and get to know Palestine and Palestinians through film. The Palestinian Film Festival is the only such festival in Australia; celebrating its 8th edition, the Festival presents an innovative and comprehensive program solely dedicated to Palestinian cinema.

WHAT: Film Festival
WHEN: 7:30pm (more shows throughout the week on the program)
WHERE: Palace Norton St Cinema, Leichhardt
HOW MUCH: $16-19, more info

From Israel, France and Australia, to the Yiddish-speaking neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, to award-winners and critics favourites; JIFF presents 65 films from across the globe that celebrate the remarkable diversity of Jewish culture and storytelling.

WHAT: Film Festival
WHEN: 8:30pm
WHERE: Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction
HOW MUCH: $45-49, more info

Get a full gamut of comedy this week at the Giant Dwarf Theatre in Redfern.Improv Theatre Sydney (ITS) are showcasing 18 shows across 5 days, with 5 shows a night and over 100 performers. Thursday night brings you ‘Thank God You’re Queer’ and ‘Girls to the Front’, which are two all-female shows, devised by ITS alumni, off the back of their sell-out Sydney Comedy Festival run. This, alongside Anna Renzenbrink as Marzipan O’Malley, Monoscene with Maddie Parker and cast and a Northbanger Abbey Murder Mystery, you won’t be short of laughs!

WHAT: Comedy

WHEN: 7pm, 8pm, 9pm

WHERE: Giant Dwarf Theatre, Redfern

HOW MUCH: $12-25. More info here.

Sleep Under the Stars is the largest fundraising event hosted annually by Stepping Stone House, held at Hickson Road Reserve beneath the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. Help raise $225,000 to provide housing, care and education for 8 homeless young people for 1 whole year! Enjoy the authentic experience of a hot soup dinner, live music, marshmallows around the open fires and stories shared by inspiring young people. Wake up to a beautiful sunrise overlooking Sydney Opera House, enjoy a complimentary breakfast and help us provide ongoing care for youth at risk!

WHAT: Sleep-out Fundraiser
WHEN: 5pm
WHERE: Hickson Road Reserve. Sydney
HOW MUCH: Fundraiser Donation Basis, more info

For the month of October, exhibitions, music and live acts come together under the direction of performance artist Caroline Garcia, transforming the MCA into a pulsating piece of performance art! Master of the twerk, Sydney artist Caroline Garcia brings the vibe to this non-stop art party. Complete with a bump and grind room, rooftop Soul Train, roving dancers, workshops and a flowing bar, shake it till you make it at MCA ARTBAR.

WHAT: Curated Art Event
WHEN: 7-11pm
WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks
HOW MUCH: $18-28, more info

This exhibition will feature the works of artist Liu Shuyong, better known as his pen name Lao Shu. He offers a new perspective on everyday life in order to ease the stresses of modern living. This show was developed in association with Australian Lao Shu Association Incorporated. His works feature a character known as Mr Long Gown, portrayed wearing a Chinese gown and a Wester bowler hat. Often seen participating in modern pastimes with a traditional Chinese backdrop. His use of juxtaposition of traditional and modern, incorporated poems, and the traditional medium of brush and ink in order to create zen-like spaces, instils a sense of peace and harmony in the viewer.

WHAT: Art Exhibition
WHEN: 6:30-8:30pm
WHERE: 541 Art Space, Sydney
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Can you get more now, more present, more real than performance? Political, funny, fleshy, messy, surprising, confronting, moving. Rice falling from the ceiling, a bit of burlesque with feeding, deconstructed disco, manly glitter, cultures clashing, paint bombs and pop songs. A bit progressive, a touch transgressive. Experience the live and join us for a night of outrageous experiment as UNSW Solo Performance Making students work with body, time, action and image to transform us all.

WHAT: Live Exhibition
WHEN: 7-9pm
WHERE: Lo Myers Studio UNSW, Kensington
HOW MUCH: $8-15, more info

Join the curator and artists of The Future Leaks Out for a floor talk that gives first-hand insight into the themes of the exhibition, and the driving concerns of these contemporary artworks. Join in on speculative discussions that assess our current political climate and forecast the futures we are building for ourselves. For more details and to explore the festival program http://performancespace.com.au/

WHAT: Talk Event
WHEN: 4-5pm
WHERE: Carriageworks, Eveleigh
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Forage, Flower and Fold Natural Dyeing Workshop. In collaboration with Daisy’s Milk Bar on the 28th October in amoungst the kitch and creative Inner West local cafe, join us for fun, inspiring, interactive messy play workshop. Jo from Inside Jo. B Textile Studio will share how to use flowers, native fauna from your neighbourhood and healing herbs, food scraps from your kitchen to Naturally Dye fabric. A late afternoon two hour workshop where Natural Dyeing basics will be shared on how to Bundle Eco Dye and create with plants and natural items.

WHAT: Natural Dyeing Workshop
WHEN: 4:30-6:30pm
WHERE: Daisy’s Milk Bar, Petersham
HOW MUCH: $90.30, more info

Responding to Anri Sala’s integration of music into his contemporary art practice, Resounding brings together artists and curators to discuss the role of sound and music within contemporary art. For the 33^rd Kaldor Public Art Project, The Last Resort, Anri Sala draws together sound, music and sculpture, as an ensemble of snare drums gives a live, rhythmic response to the artist’s reworked version of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major. In this panel discussion, leading artists and curators explore the role of sound and music in their work, inside and outside the gallery space, and imagine future possibilities for the exhibition, perception and experience of sound in art. Panellists include Anna Davis, Anabelle Lacroix, Vicky Browne and Tim Bruniges.

WHAT: Panel Discussion
WHEN: 2pm
WHERE: Courtyard Marquee Sydney Observatory, Millers Point
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info