Robert Reid is a freelance playwright, director and academic. He is Artistic Director and a founding member of the Melbourne games and playful events company Pop Up Playground. He has had two plays produced at the Melbourne Theatre Company – Joy of Text (2010) and On The Production of Monsters (2012). Robert recently published Hello World! Promoting the Arts on the Net, a Platform Paper for Currency House. He is a reviewer for theatrealive.com; a panelist for the Greenroom awards Alternative and Hybrid Panel; a regular panelist for Arts Victoria; and host of the Meant to Be Spoken events for the Melbourne Writers Festival. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a post graduate diploma in directing in 2000, holds a Masters Degree in Creative Industry (Scriptwriting) from Queensland University of Technology and is currently completing a PhD in Australian Theatre History at La Trobe University

Photo by Sarah Walker

Fee Plumley is an artist, writer, consultant, speaker, and self confessed ‘technoevangelist‘.

My experience in Theatre Design and Technology (BA, 1995) somehow got distracted by the (then) quite new phenomenon known as the Internet. Seduced by this new digital culture, I went on to obtain a Masters in Interactive Multimedia Production (MA, 1997). This kickstarted a (trans)media arts practice as a creative producer, combining (primarily) technology, performance and literature.

An inherent early-adopter, I like to take others along for an extremely collaborative ride. I have curated public screen content (GMI, London, 1999 & BBC Bigger Picture, 2004), enabled community webcasting (Superchannel.org 1999-03), and created interactive experiences for clients including Douglas Rushkoff (Ecstasy Club, Manchester 1997) and the Manchester Literature Festival (The Burgess Project, Manchester 2006).

As co-founder of UK based company the-phone-book Limited (2000-2008), I was best known for encouraging people to be creative with their mobile phones at a time when most people didn’t realise the power they carried in their pockets. I have chaired a media arts network and advised boards of company development relating to digital strategies. I am often found as a speaker, mentor and juror at international arts gatherings, games festivals and educational establishments (Freeplay, ISEA, Banff New Media Institute [RIP], AIMIA & BAFTA). And I’ve been involved in a couple of international exhibitions (Huddersfield Media Centre, UK; Media Miniatures, Manhattan; Platform Animation Festival, Portland) and written for other people’s exhibitions (Larissa Hjorth, Micronarratives).

Until recently I was found promoting a culture of digital literacy and strategic innovation as the Digital Program Officer at the Australia Council for the Arts. There I was attempting to debunk the term “geek”, showcasing generative art systems, and helping arts organisations increase their confidence with social media and online tools. I eagerly await the arrival of the National Broadband Network & the chance to endorse its wealth of creative opportunity. Oh and I’m now a “distinguished talent” (hehehe) permanent resident too!

http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com/

Photo of Fee from here.

Dr Troy Innocent is a world builder, iconographer and reality newbie. His artificial worlds – Iconica (SIGGRAPH 98, USA), and Semiomorph (ISEA02, Japan) – explore the dynamic between the iconic ideal and the personal specific, the real and the simulated, and the way in which our identity is shaped by language and communication. He has received numerous awards, including Honorary Mention, LIFE 2.0: Artificial Life, Spain (1999); Foreign Title Award, MMCA Multimedia Grand Prix, Japan (1998); First Prize, National Digital Art Awards, Australia (1995); and Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica (1992). Innocent co-founded the digital arts collective cyber dada and through pioneering works such as Idea-ON>! contributed to the Australian new media arts practice during the 90s. His most recent works are urban art environments: an interactive sculpture garden entitled Colony in the Melbourne Docklands and Urban Codemakers, an Alternate Reality Game that reinvents the history of Melbourne. Innocent is currently Senior Lecturer in Games and Interactivity, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University, Melbourne. Innocent is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery

http://troyinnocent.net/

Photo of Troy from here.

30 year old blogger living in central Melbourne. Lover of all things foodie, pop culture, science and history, and sharing all of this from in and around the heart of Melbourne. Married to Daisy and part time father of the nerdling.

So far I’ve been a guest tweeter on We Melbourne, guest curator on A City with a Quirk and a guest speaker for the Melbourne Writers Club. I just need someone to give up their Facebook page for a week.

http://melbtown.wordpress.com/

Photo of Dan from here.

Suki is a street artist whose distinctive, art deco inspired paste ups can be seen in cities around the world.

https://www.facebook.com/suki.art/

Paste up image from here.

Jana Perkovic -Born in 1984 in Rijeka, Croatia. Resident of Melbourne, Australia since 2005. Dual citizenship as of 2011… I have been writing such things, publishing in different Australian media outlets, since 2008. I am a member of the Green Room Awards, judging for the Hybrid & Alternative Performance panel, which makes me see a lot of live art and in-between form. I co-edit and co-manage Spark Online with Carl Nilsson-Polias. I am a collaborator on the Arts Alive radio program, and a contributor to the Croatian program on SBS Radio. I am also regularly working at the Melbourne School of Design as a researcher and tutor in the fields of urban geography, design and planning. My main areas of specialisation, shall we say, are transport planning, GIS and cartography, urban policy and creative communities, and what is often (very facilely) called ‘place-making’: the right size, scale and grain of things. I have a personal interest in Japanese and Mediterranean urban structures, and in terrains vagues

http://guerrillasemiotics.com

Photo of Jana from here.

Melanie Liertz  is a freelance designer and maker for theatre, film, dance and circus with ten years of industry experience. She established Melanie Liertz Costume and Fashion Design in 2005, housed in the iconic Nicholas Building in Melbourne’s CBD. Graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts, majoring in Theatre Studies.

Photo of Mel from here.

Jess Kilby – I’m a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia. My work is primarily concerned with meaning and identity, and how we as humans construct it – for ourselves, and with each other. Personal mythologies, communal narratives, ritual, symbol, code. Why do we look up at the stars and see constellations?

I work online and offline, using performance, technology, game structures and mixed media artefacts to create opportunities for unexpected discoveries. The participatory experiences in my work are often filtered through a layer of abstraction; previous projects have used the Tarot, cut-up techniques, space weather and superhero mythology as frameworks for exploration.

I am drawn to shadows, rifts, the inscrutable and the ineffable. When I’m not making works for the public I can often be found wandering down graffitied drains and obscure laneways with camera in tow, or constructing elaborate found-object compositions from childhood soft toys, broken jewelry, discarded chandeliers, paper umbrellas, old medicine bottles, and whatever else drifts along.

I’m currently pursuing a practice-based PhD at RMIT University’s GEElab, where I’m triangulating the delta between ambiguity (by nature and by design), exploration and self-discovery. I’ve come to suspect that somewhere in there lies the darkly beating heart that oxygenates our dreams.

Dan Golding is a critic, journalist, and academic.

Dan writes about videogames, music, and film for a variety of publications. He is a regular at ABC Arts, and recently concluded his time in charge of Crikey.com.au‘s games blog, for which he won the ‘Best Games Journalist’ award at the 11th Annual IT Journalism ‘Lizzie’ awards. Daniel also has regular columns at Kill Your Darlings and Hyper Magazine, and has been published in The Guardian, Meanjin, The Walkley Magazine, Screen Education, The Conversation, The Australian, Kotaku and PC PowerPlay, while his writing has been cited by TIME Magazine and The New Statesman.

Dan is also a regular on the RRR radio program Byte Into It, and has appeared on SBS Television and numerous ABC local radio stations (Melbourne, Darwin, South-West NSW, Canberra). He has also spoken at the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, the Emerging Writer’s Festival, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Dan is also currently completing a Ph.D. in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, where he regularly tutors and lectures.

http://dangolding.com/

Photo of Dan from here.

Melbourne based mixed media artist and academic Clare McCracken graduated from a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne in 2004, majoring in Visual Arts and Theatre Studies.  She then completed a Masters Degree in Art in Public Space through RMIT University in 2008.

McCracken’s current practice has two distinct avenues.  The first is centred around interactive works within the public realm.  Working site-specifically and collaboratively, she undertakes a thorough site analysis to inform her creative output, creating a variety of works that encourage communities to develop a relationship with their local milieu.  These works often utalise narrative and pattern as a way of framing place.

The other facet of McCracken’s practice is gallery based and revolves around a series of fictitious characters. Through text, humor and digital images she uses their stories to reflect upon current issues, contemporary life and the impact of story telling on our identity.

McCracken has installed many temporary public artworks across Melbourne including at Federation Square.   In 2012 she completed a series of large-scale murals with artist Aslam Akram along the Victorian rail corridor.  In 2009 she installed Speed Cheek, a permanent installation beside the EastLink shared-user path in Noble Park.  In 2008 she collaborated with Techne Architects on the refurbishment of the old Richmond Post Office into a bar. Clare’s work has been exhibited in Melbourne and Internationally over the last 5 years including at the National Gallery of Victoria’s Kids Corner, Gallery Smith and at Sa Sa Bassac gallery in Cambodia.  McCracken’s work is included in privte collections and the State Library of Victoria’s rare books collection.

You can see more of Clare’s work at her website, www.mccracken.com.au