Mapping cinema as cultural and community infrastructure in Australia

This project invites 1-2 VRES students to work with QUT researchers to help develop Australia's first National Cinema Observatory, a proposed national research initiative examining cinema as cultural and community infrastructure in Australia, including its role within Australia's planning, cultural policy, and regional development frameworks. The project asks how Australians access cinema, how cinema infrastructure is spatially distributed across metropolitan, regional, and remote communities, and how cinemas contribute to cultural participation, social connection, and community life.

The topic is interdisciplinary, drawing on screen studies, cultural policy, urban and regional planning, geography, data analysis, and community research. This project will support the early evidence base for an enduring national research capability and builds upon significant work conducted by Dr Ruari Elkington and Dr Tess Van Hemert in their Digital Media Research Centre ‘Resilient Screen’s research project. The project exists in close industry partnership with research conducted by Mr Nick Hayes and Independent Cinemas Australia.

Students will be fully supported with accessing all data sets and research approaches. The students will engage with a mix of literature review, desktop research, data scoping, and policy analysis. They will examine existing research on cinema attendance, cultural infrastructure, social connection, cultural access, and regional/community development, with attention to how cinemas are currently measured and where the evidence gaps are still.

They may also engage with publicly available datasets, cinema location information, demographic and geographic indicators, and examples of comparable cultural infrastructure mapping. The focus will be on producing research that is accessible and useful for future Observatory work.

The students will undertake a focused literature and policy scan, name relevant data sources, summarise comparable national or international examples, and help refine research questions for a pilot phase of the National Cinema Observatory. Depending on the student’s interests and skills, this may include early mapping, spreadsheet work, short evidence summaries or a simple annotated bibliography.

The student will work with the supervisory team and will have opportunities to engage with Independent Cinemas Australia or other project stakeholders. Regular check-ins will support the student to keep the project appropriately scoped and to develop a clear research output by the end of the placement.

The student will gain experience in applied research design, cultural policy analysis, literature reviewing, data scoping and communicating research for non-academic audiences. They will also develop an understanding of how research can support industry, government and community decision making - all very useful and applicable to present to future employers.

The project will build skills in translating a broad research idea into manageable questions, working with mixed sources of evidence, and presenting findings in a clear and useful format. Students interested in screen industries, cultural policy, community research, creative industries, urban/regional planning, or data-informed cultural analysis would find the topic especially relevant.

The project aims to support the early development of the National Cinema Observatory, including an improved understanding of how cinema infrastructure evolves through openings, closures, redevelopment and patterns of community access by identifying key evidence gaps, research questions and data sources relating to cinema as cultural and community infrastructure. It will contribute to a clearer picture of how cinema access and participation can be studied beyond simple attendance or box office measures.

Expected outcomes may include a short literature and policy review, a summary of relevant datasets, an annotated bibliography, a set of proposed research questions, and/or an early scoping report to inform the next phase of the Observatory. The final output will be designed to be useful to both academic and industry partners.

No specialist technical background is needed, but students should have an interest in cinema, screen industries, cultural policy, community research, planning, geography, data, or creative industries. A careful approach to reading, summarising, and organising information will be important.

Experience with literature searching, spreadsheets, mapping tools, policy analysis or qualitative research would be helpful but is not essential. The ideal candidate will be curious, reliable, comfortable working independently with guidance, and interested in how cultural venues contribute to community life.