Australia produces some of the finest research in the world. Our universities and labs punch well above their weight in discovery and publication. But somewhere between the lab bench and the loading dock, that brilliance stalls. Manufacturing has shrunk to around five per cent of GDP. On measures of economic complexity — how sophisticated and diverse what we actually make and export really is — Australia sits near the bottom of the OECD table.
We are world-class at generating ideas. We are struggling to finish them.
This gap has a name: the valley of death — the space between a proven concept and a certified, manufacturable product. It isn’t a failure of science. It’s a failure of infrastructure, skills, capital and — we’d argue — imagination. Closing it means building the missing middle layer: pilot facilities, testing capacity, cost-of-production know-how, and the human networks that connect researchers with makers and manufacturers.
It’s a fair question. ART Performances exists to champion creativity at the intersection of imagination and possibility — so why are we opening a conversation about industrial policy and sovereign capability?
Because the same forces that drive great art are the forces this problem needs most: curiosity, rigorous experimentation, collaboration across disciplines, and the courage to carry an idea from concept into lived reality. Translating an idea into something real — a performance, a product, a piece of infrastructure — is fundamentally a creative act. The creative sector understands that process better than almost anyone.
And this isn’t a problem the arts can afford to sit out. A nation that can’t turn research into industry will find it harder to sustain the tax base, the jobs, and the public investment that culture depends on. Advanced manufacturing and a thriving arts sector aren’t competing interests — they’re built on the same foundation. Strengthen one, and you strengthen the conditions for the other.
We’re not claiming to solve this alone. We’re claiming that every sector, including ours, has a stake in seeing it solved — and that the creative industries have a genuine, practical role to play: as storytellers, as convenors, and as an independent stage where researchers, makers, technologists and policymakers can meet honestly, outside the usual commercial and political frames.
Closing the Gap: Why an Arts Organisation is Turning Toward Australia’s Industrial Future Our opening statement on why this matters to us, and why creative organisations have a responsibility to contribute to the national conversation on industrial capability.
From Raw Materials to Sovereign Might: Rebuilding Australia’s Missing Translation Layer A deeper look at the data behind the gap, the policy landscape now taking shape, and what it will actually take to rebuild the “missing middle” between world-class research and sovereign industrial capability.
We’re exploring these ideas out loud too. Our podcast series brings researchers, makers, technologists and creative practitioners together to talk honestly about where Australia’s ideas get stuck — and what it will take to get them moving again.
This is a conversation we want to have in the open, with as many voices as possible. If you’re a researcher, maker, founder, policymaker, or simply someone who cares about where Australian ideas end up, we’d love to hear from you.