Organising Committee
The ISEA2013 Organising Committee is made up of academic and cultural partners that have the curatorial and theoretical experience to offer sound oversight, and the extensive networks required to bring such a complex and broad ranging event to life.
ISEA2013 Director – Jonathan Parsons
Jonathan most recently directed the very successful 2012 Byron Bay Writers’ Festival. Previous to this, he was the artistic advisor for AWESOME, Perth’s leading youth contemporary arts festival. Jonathan was the director of public programs at the Queensland State Library from 2007 to 2009, during which time he managed more than 110 events and oversaw the doubling of library participation numbers. He was one of seven international associates who developed the 2008 London International Festival of Theatre program, and from 2002 to 2007 he was the director for Brisbane’s River Festival – the city’s major annual community cultural and environment event. Jonathan started out as artistic director of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival from 1996 to 2000.
ANAT Director – Vicki Sowry
For the past two decades, Vicki has established and delivered professional programs for artists and filmmakers in partnership with industry. She has worked at Metro Screen, the Australian Film Commission, ABC Television and the Media Resource Centre. She joined ANAT in 2007 to manage the Art Science program, and in 2012 was appointed Director.
Co-Chair - Prof. Ross Harley
Ross Rudesch Harley is an artist, writer and educator in the field of new media and popular culture. He will bring his experience in running TISEA in 1992, and over 40 years experience in media arts, to ISEA2013. His work crosses the boundaries of media art practice, cinema, music, design and architecture. His video and sound work has been presented at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, New York’s MoMA, Ars Electronica in Austria, and at the Sydney Opera House. He was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2008, and is currently Dean & Director of COFA, University of NSW.
Co-Chair – Dr. Kathy Cleland
Dr Kathy Cleland is a writer, curator and researcher specialising in new media and digital cultures and is a graduate of the University of Auckland, UNSW and UTS. She was appointed to the Digital Cultures Program at the University of Sydney as Lecturer in 2003 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010. Kathy’s key areas of research are new media art and digital culture. Kathy is also a freelance curator specialising in the field of contemporary art and new media. Her exhibitions have been presented in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, including ARTificial LIFE, the Cyber Cultures exhibition series, Mirror States and Face to Face: portraiture in a digital age. Dr Cleland’s research interests include new media art, digital portraiture, avatars, virtual characters and representations of the self in virtual environments. She is currently researching audience interaction with robotic and virtual characters, the theatrical presentation of robots, art and the aesthetics of surveillance, and new modes of audience interaction and participation.
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ISEA2013 Team
Executive Creative Producer – Alessio Cavallaro
Alessio is a leading curator and producer of electronic arts in Australia. He was Senior Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (2000–2010); curator of Australian media art, Ars Electronica (2004); founding Director of dLux media arts, Sydney, and inaugural member of Australia Council for the Arts’ New Media Arts Board (1997–2000); curator of numerous sound art exhibitions; and producer/presenter, 3.91.cannibale, a pioneering program of experimental music and sound art on public radio 2MBS-FM, Sydney (1979–1989). Publications as co-editor include Essays in Sound (1994–1998), the national arts journal RealTime (1996–2000), and Prefiguring Cyberculture (MIT Press 2003). Alessio was co-producer of ISEA1992, Sydney.
Creative Producer – Carli Leimbach
Carli Leimbach is a producer, curator and artistic director. She has a keen interest in presenting and promoting transformative, innovative and provocative contemporary work across disciplines to new audiences. She has designed and created innovative exhibitions, public programs and events for large scale festival settings including 01SJ Biennial San Jose (USA), Splendour in the Grass Festival (NSW), Cockatoo Island Festival (NSW), Woodford Festival (QLD), Gang Festival (Indonesia), Burning Man (USA), Fringe World (WA), Dartington Music Festival (UK), Underbelly Festival (NSW), Laneways Festival (NSW), Dance Tracks: Sydney Opera House (NSW) and Body Pacifica: Casula Powerhouse (NSW). Alongside ISEA2013 she is also the Executive Creative Producer for SITUATE art in Festivals; a groundbreaking initiative designed to build the culture of experimentation and interdisciplinary arts practice in Australia by facilitating opportunities for early career artists to conceptualise and create new work for festival audiences.
Creative Producer – Antonietta Morgillo
Antonietta Morgillo works as the Program Manager for the Theatre Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, where she has developed and implemented many strategies and initiatives for the theatre sector, such as TransLab, Dramaturgy Fellowship, Managing and Producing Services (MAPS for artists), and the australianplays.org website. Antonietta has also worked as a writer, director and performer for theatre, film and documentary. She has a Graduate Certificate in Documentary, is a graduate of Screenwriting from AFTRS, has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in cinema studies, theatre and writing for theatre, and is a graduate of the Drama Centre, Flinders University. Antonietta currently manages the Cultural Leadership category for the Theatre Board, as well as a number of initiatives in partnership with other artform boards including In the Mix, Mobile States and Creative Partnerships with Asia.
Creative Producer – Merindah Donnelly
Merindah Donnelly is a Wiradjuri woman from Gomeroi/Anaiwan country in Tingha, NSW. Merindah works as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program Officer for Market Development at the Australia Council for the Arts. In this position she designs and develops strategies to support indigenous artists and companies to develop new markets nationally and internationally. Alongside Rhoda Roberts, Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House, Merindah produced and co-directed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performing arts showcase for the Australian Performing Arts Market 2012. A passionate ambassador for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, she practises NSW Aboriginal dance and weaving, and is a leading advocate for the rights of her people to claim control of and enhance their cultural maintenance and development through the arts. Merindah has been recognised for her work as a finalist in the NSW Australian of the Year awards, and was listed in the Australian Financial Review’s top 100 Australian Women of Influence.
Operations Manager – Kristen Bowen
Kristen is an experienced administrator, communicator and facilitator. She has organised conferences in both local and remote locations, and most recently was the Conference Organiser for the 15th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference held in Alice Springs. Kristen’s experience is built from an early career of executive assistant and office management positions, and her skillset includes administration, event/conference organising and finance management. Kristen has worked across the fields of media, advertising and events.
Marketing Manager – Tiani Chillemi
Tiani Chillemi is a communication specialist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary practice, independent media and audience engagement. Working across various marketing, publicity and production titles, she has developed audiences for Time Machine, Rolling Stock and Anode art festivals, as well as co-founding the Underbelly Public Arts Lab and Festival at Carriageworks. In Melbourne Tiani curated, produced and promoted the contemporary artspace 1000 £ Bend and the Eco-City exhibition for the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab. From 2010 – 2011 she spent two years working with cultural organisations in Cambodia producing the largest multi-arts festival, Angkor Art Explo, touring to rural and urban communities throughout the country. Tiani also sits on arts boards for The Wired Lab and Altoparlente Ltd. and is currently the Development Manager at Metro Screen, the largest film, TV and digital media hub in New South Wales. www.decodemedia.com.au
Social Engagement – Elliott Bledsoe & Fee Plumley
Other people probably consider Elliott Bledsoe a freelance digital and social strategist and analyst. But he prefers to describe himself as a guy who knows a lot about copyright in the digital environment, about the arts and about the internet, digital technologies and the social web and how people interact with all of these things. Before going freelance he was the Digital Content Officer at the Australia Council for the Arts for almost two years where he looked after all things that publish, play, post and tweet. He managed the Australia Council’s suite of websites and their social media portfolio. In that time he increased their core platforms—Twitter and Facebook—by more than 1000% each, making their social presence one of the most significant in the arts in Australia. Before working at the Australia Council he was the Creative Industries Project Officer at Creative Commons Australia and a research assistant with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi). elliottbledsoe.com | @elliottbledsoe
A self-confessed ‘technoevangelist’, Fee Plumley was previously best known for encouraging people to be creative with their mobile phones through the-phone-book Limited (UK). She moved to Australia in 2008, and in 2011 was granted permanent residency on a Distinguished Talent visa. Last year’s crowdfunding campaign for #homeJames (the reallybigroadtrip bus) went viral thanks to tweets from Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman and Hugh Jackman. This major social media floozy last year live-tweeted Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s Eve #TrashMasque, and managed a team of live-tweeters to cover the 2012 Adelaide Festival Artists’ & Writers’ Weeks. This year she is the online community wrangler for Adelaide’s Mini Maker Faire and ISEA2013, the latter launching an official collaboration with Elliott Bledsoe. In the physical world she curated an art/games program for Freeplay Independent Games Festival, mentored for The Hive and was commissioned for Canberra’s Centennial Birthday celebrations. Her journey into ISEA follows on from being a Keynote speaker for Balance/Unbalance conference and lead artist in residence at Floating Land Festival. Expect nothing but trouble to come from her as she tours the country. reallybigroadtrip.com | @feesable
Production Manager – Kate Blackmore
Kate Blackmore is an artist who works with performance and video. She is a founding member of artist collaboration Brown Council (with Kelly Doley, Frances Barrett and Diana Smith), whose live performances and video works have been shown in a range of Australian and international contexts including: the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney; Artspace, Sydney; the National Museum of Contemporary Art (NMOCA), Seoul; the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; and the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane. She is also a member of Serial Space, a curatorial collective made up of five artists dedicated to providing a platform for the development and presentation of time-based art in Sydney. In 2012, Serial Space curated and produced Time Machine, a major, 10-day festival showcasing experimental work by over 50 local and international artists.
Conference Program Coordinator – Laura Fisher
Laura recently completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of NSW, exploring the ethical problems that surround Australian Indigenous art. She has lectured and published on a range of subjects, chiefly in the areas of Australian Indigenous history and art, Australian artists’ biographies and international public art. She is currently based at the National Institute for Experimental Arts at COFA, where in addition to her role with ISEA2013 she works as a research assistant on Design and Art Australia Online (DAAO) and the ARC Discovery Curating Cities Project.
Copywriter/Editor – Helen Sturgess
UK-born visual artist Helen Sturgess lives and works in Sydney, Australia. She has exhibited in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Germany as well as Australia, and is a past finalist in the prestigious Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship (2003), the Phoenix Prize for Spiritual Art, Canberra (2007) and the Fauvette Loureiro Travelling Artist’s Scholarship (2011). She holds an MVA (Sculpture, Performance and Installation) from SCA, Sydney University (2008), where she received a number of scholarships and awards. She also received an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant in 2004, and often works with industry sponsorship to achieve her projects. Her work explores a number of themes, including: the fundamental interdependency of human existence; the mind/body relationship; how the human body locates itself in space; and re-presentation of half-remembered early experiences and sensations. Many of her works are characterised by an innate tension. She also writes, edits and proofreads visual arts text.
Production Assistant – Laura Lotti
Laura is a writer and researcher, with a strong experience in online communication and events organization. Prior to start her PhD at the University of New South Wales, she completed a MA in Digital Media at Goldsmiths, University of London. In Europe, she gained an invaluable expertise in online communication and events organisation by closely collaborating with various institutions such as the Barbican Centre, London and media arts festival as Transmediale, Berlin. Laura’s research interests revolve around interface cultures and media ecologies. She has also worked as free-lance writer for UK and international magazines, focusing on the intersection between music and technology.
Curatorial Intern - Hannah Greethead
Hannah Greethead is our curatorial intern for ISEA2013. Her studies in Industrial Design fostered an interest in electronic art and experimental design and ultimately led to her assistance on the The Rocks Pop-up program and 107 Projects exhibition. Hannah has a Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design from the University of Technology, Sydney (2012) and is currently studying a Master of Art Administration at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney.
COFA Workshop Coordinator – Chrisoula Lionis
Chrisoula Lionis is a Sydney based researcher and curator. She teaches at both the University of New South Wales and the Australian Catholic University and recently completed her PhD thesis at the University of New South Wales. Chrisoula recently curated the Beyond the Last Sky: Contemporary Palestinian Photography and Video exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography in 2012 that was the first exhibition of contemporary Palestinian art in Australia. Chrisoula also convened the satellite Beyond the Last Sky Symposium at UNSW that brought together artists, theatre practitioners, activists and academics to explore the history of the representation of Palestine in Australia. Chrisoula continues her work as part of the curatorial team programming the annual Australian Palestinian Film Festival and currently works as Acting Manager of the National Institute for Experimental Arts.
COFA Workshop Coordinator – Karen Ryan
Karen Ryan is a Sydney based artist who completed both her BFA (Hons) and then her MFA in 2010 in sculpture and installation at COFA, University of New South Wales. Karen is currently the School Administrator at the School of Media Arts at COFA.
Conference Program and Workshop Coordinator – Timothy Maybury
Timothy Maybury is a Sydney-based researcher and Juris Doctor candidate at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Art Theory (Hons) from UNSW-COFA in 2008 Tim has been active as a musician, broadcaster, art writer and curator in both Sydney and New York. Tim is currently focused on merging his background in arts with his passions for social justice and human rights. He works as a researcher on the ARC Linkage Reconsidering Australian Media Art Histories in an International Context project at the National Institute for Experimental Arts at COFA, as a paralegal for Native Title Services NSW (NTSCORP) and serves as Vice President of Amnesty International Australia’s NSW Branch. Tim will be chairing the Re:imag(in)ing Indigenous New Media Arts panel as part of the Latin American Forum at ISEA2013.
Conference Program and Workshop Coordinator – Diana Smith
Diana Smith is a Sydney based artist and writer working across video and performance. She is a founding member of artist collaboration Brown Council whose works have been shown in a range of Australian and international contexts including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul and the National Gallery of Indonesia in Jakarta. Diana teaches at the University of Technology in Sydney, curates the ongoing lecture series Cinemania and is currently working on a new online archive of video interviews with Australian performance artists. She is a PhD candidate at the College of Fine Arts where she also works as a researcher on the ARC Linkage Reconsidering Australian Media Art Histories and her research has featured in a range of arts magazines and academic publications.
