Publications
Essays, E-books, Websites, Catalogues, Picture books, Papers, Thesis, Press, are arranged chronologically.
2025 On Euphausia superba (Lisa Roberts)
Essay by Zara Sully with Lisa Roberts
Publisher: un Projects Melbourne, 2025
ISSN 1449-6747 (print)
ISSN 1449-955X (online)
2025 Portrait of Community: Vital Relationships
A rethink on how knowledge is passed down -
an evolving story with hyperlinks to art and scientific data
Essay co-authored by Lisa Roberts and Carmel Bird
with pictures by contributors to Portrait of Community
Publisher: Melbourne University Press 2025
ISBN 978-0-522-88220-9 (paperback)
350 messages are gathered in plankton mesh and screened in a winged TV
350 messages signify 350 parts per million (ppm) of C02 in the atmosphere considered safe for corals, krill, fish and other communities that humans depend upon. We're now at 422 ppm.
Plankton mesh comes from the Continuous Plankton Recorder used to measure ocean health, the same mesh used to measure the health of lakes, rivers and streams.
The winged TV signifies flying with my sister to be the angels we used to be before humans became slaves and customers of corporations and krill became products in supermarket trolleys.
If you listen, you may hear the wisdom of the universe. Listen. In the beginning, Sophie was a fish. She was a fish among fishes. She became a wonderful snake. Then a magnificent bird. Finally, Sophie became a human foetus, and she was born. A baby girl! Oh, she could dance and sing. "I am Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. I can play the violin!"
One magical day, she gave a concert, and in the music, people heard and saw the fish, the snake, the bird. And they knew, and they remembered – for yes! – long long ago they too were once fish, snakes, birds. On their shoulders their own wings grew, stretched, unfolded. Strong and bright. Sophie rose with the music, and the people rose with her. And oh, she played and played and played. It was the music of the human race, and in that music was the wisdom of the universe.xii
Euphausia superba (an Antarctic krill) hears the music in the Southern Ocean where she swims. In supermarkets people recognise themselves in the voices of girls and violins. They recognise the rhythm of the sea and imagine choreographies of past, present and future lives. People rethink how knowledge is passed down through structures of culture and learning; people make their own music, write their own songs, as artists and scientists, as individuals and communities.
Now the messages come for the plankton mesh and winged TV, arranged in cyberspace, hyperlinked, animated and fully referenced.
Photos by Jake West, of the 2025 Portrait of Community round table discussion at Sawtooth ARI (Artist Run Initiative) developed by Lisa Roberts with Sawtooth Director Zara Sully
2025 Matilda Allover Downunder - an e book/work book
with hyperlinks to art and scientific data, and work sheets
for writing your own story
Authors: Lisa Roberts with Living Data contributors
Publisher: Living Data Seeding Treaties Inc.
Matilda is a bird born with wings wrapped around a camera.
The camera can record in fast and slow motion, and in geological time.
It can see into the past, present and future.
It can also reveal dreams.
DOWNLOAD
CLICK on the Bird to download Matilda Allover Downunder (in progress):
2022 Flying with my sister - picture book
with animated online components
A celebration of relationships that make us who we are. An animated mix from my experience of my sister Nadya, made with fragments from her film script, family stories, photos, Facebook Messages and gifts of heartfelt art.
Born in Melbourne in 1946, my sister Nadya was a writer, artist, dancer, joker, oldest resident of what was once called Beechworth Lunatic Asylum. She lived all her adult life as a Ward of the State of Victoria. She died in Beechworth in 2022.
Lisa Roberts
Image from the printed book: 1950s photo of Lisa and Nadya by Noel Roberts. Eucalyptus beads made in 2022 by Barkindji artist Maddison Gibbs as a gift for Nadya.
2022 Flying with my sister - the video
Words, pictures, animations: Lisa Roberts
Page design: Claire Sives
DOWNLOAD
CLICK on the Bird to download Flying with my sister:
2021 Enabling enduring evidence-based policy
for the Southern Ocean through cultural arts practices
Australian Aboriginal perspectives and scientific data from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are combined. This image illustrates pattern-matching between the Australian river catchments on the ice catchments and glacial flows of Antarctica.
Enabling enduring evidence-based policy for the Southern Ocean through cultural arts practices
PERSPECTIVE article
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Front. Ecol. Evol. | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.616089
Lisa Roberts, Tracey Benson, Danae Fiore, Paul Fletcher, Ellery Johnson, Cat Kutay, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Katherina Petrou, Melissa Silk, Stephen Taberner, Victor V. Filgueira and Andrew J. Constable
2013 Print media's role in changing understandings
Imprint
The quarterly journal of the Print Council of Australia Inc.
Winter 2013. Volume 48, Number 2
Co-authors: Lisa Roberts, Melissa Smith,Eveline Kolijn,
2011 Krill Looks and Feelers
An academic perspective
Krill looks and feelers: a dialogue on expanding perceptions of climate change data
The Polar Journal
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2011
DOI: 10.1080/2154896X.2011.626628
Lisa Roberts& Steve Nicol
pages 251-264
Oxford Journal of Plankton Research
Volume 33, Number 7, 2011
DOI: 10.1093/plankt/FBR006.
Kawaguchi, S., Kilpatrick, R., Roberts, L.,
R., King, R.A, Kilpatrick, and Nicol, S.
pages 1134-1138
The animation Do krill have sex? is a component of the paper.
2011 Krill Looks and Feelers
A theatrical perspective
A theatrical presentation of the Polar Journal paper, Krill looks and feelers: a dialogue on expanding perceptions of climate change datais staged with Subtlenuance Theatre director Daniela Giorgi, for the international conference, Antarctica: Music, Sounds, Cultural Connections, hosted by the Australian National University, Canberra 27 - 29 June 2011
Lisa Roberts plays Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), Daniela Giorgi plays Antarctic krill biologist (Steve Nicol).
2010 Antarctic animation
How can animation be used to combine
scientific data and subjective responses?
Antarctic Animation: Gestures and lines describe a changing environmentby Lisa Roberts approved for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
October 2010
2015 Communication by pheromones
ABC Radio National, Ockham's Razor. Broadcast Sunday 12 July 2015
Robyn Williams introduces Lisa Roberts. "...Lisa Roberts knows about krill. She knows how krill have sex, where they do it, and that the entire krill population is likely to collapse by 2300. In a wide-ranging Ockham's, Roberts touches on the importance of inspiration, dialogue between the arts and the sciences, learning from indigenous systems of knowledge, and of course: krill."
Credits
Robyn Williams, Presenter
Tiger Webb, Producer
2015 Living data: how art helps us all understand climate change
The Conversation. February 5, 2015
Article by Lisa Roberts
Living Data: Evolving Conversations. Exhibition and Forum at the University of Technology Sydney, 2014. Curators: Lisa Roberts and Anita Marosszeky
Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2013
Article by Joyce Morgan
2013 The sex life of krill proves fertile ground for art and science
The Sydney Morning Herald: Entertainment, September 12, 2013
Article by Nick Galvin
The Fracts - a coal seam gas exploration
Undermine, April 18, 2013
Article by Carina Lee
1992 CARDS - a picture book to inspire readers to listen to the voices of the young
Words and pictures: Katherine Brown
This is a photo of my daughter, Katherine Brown, in 1992 when she was eight. That year she produced a picture book about a pack of playing cards and a peace conference. In 1992 I helped with the actual production, and the distribution to family and friends as Christmas gifts. Katherine sent a copy of the book to my mother, her grandmother. When my mother died I took possession of that copy of the book. I think the story is brilliant and timeless. I share it now because I believe there can be deep truths in the words of children.
Large format BW photo of Katherine. Photographer unknown.
The photo and an original printed copy of book are in my collection, Sydney.
DOWNLOAD
CLICK on the Bird to download CARDS (in progress):
1981 Joey's Eggshell people - a picture book
made to inspire readers to make characters and tell their stories
Joey paints and decorates his breakfast eggshells until he has a whole collection of little people to play with. The book includes instructions for turning eggshells into people and other creatures. The story was inspired by playing with my son Joe, making a collection of very different looking creatures.
Will the different creatures play well together?
Joey's Eggshell People in National Library of Australia
Photo provided by Naomi Nicholson (2017)
Publisher: Oxford University Press 1981
Words: Tony Scanlon
Pictures: Lisa Roberts. Original artworks in private collections in Australia
DOWNLOAD
CLICK on the Bird to download Joey's Eggshell People (in progress):
