Staff

• About CuriousWorks

Shakthidharan

• Artistic Director & Manager
• Interdisciplinary Artist

Shakthi founded CuriousWorks in 2005.

His first initiative was The Migrant Project, a creative project that brought together 40 Sydneysiders with cultural and artistic ancestries from across the globe. From 2005-2007, The Migrant Project was a series of live performances and forums, garnering an audience of just over 2,000 people. Shakthi is in the final stages of a feature film and interactive DVD that will conclude the project.

His second initiative is All Around You. All Around You is a “platform” for under-resourced communities to stand on, that in the long-term enables them to represent themselves independently and sustainably. It is collection of innovative ways for digital media and the arts to be blended with everyday life in communities by harnessing existing resources. All Around You launched this year in Liverpool and travelled to the Pilbara in July. A model is being developed so that any organisation or group of individuals will be able to implement it in their own community, to be launched in early 2010.

Shakthi has directed and managed many projects for CuriousWorks, in partnership with Woodville Community Centre and the Villawood Koori Kids, Vibewire and the Square One Media Space, Shopfront Theatre, Historic Houses Trust, Lingalayam Dance Company, ACON, Powerhouse Museum, Performance Space, Filigree Films, Casula Powerhouse, Federation Square and Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Shakthi also writes and produces his own music under the moniker ASI. His first album, The Waiting, is being launched at the CuriousWorks HQ on November 22nd. Come along!

Before CuriousWorks, Shakthi was a producer in the Sports Department at SBS, did a stint in investigative journalism at the ABC and even managed a clothes store whilst completing an Arts/Media degree at Sydney University and an Arts / Media Production Honours at UTS.

Peter Cossey

• Online Director
• D.I.Y. Technology Educator

Peter was one of the recipients of the Vodafone Australian Foundation, World of Difference program for 2008 which has given him the opportunity to work for CuriousWorks for 12 months. For more information about the program check the World of Difference Website.

Peter will be doing a variety of work online this year but his focus is on the technical implementation of the All Around You web platform. All Around You is a grass roots community arts platform with a long term vision to empower marginalised communities of the Asia-Pacific by building a platform for enabling talented young people (under 35) in regional, remote and under-resourced areas to become ongoing makers of innovative, creative media.

Peter’s background in the digital media industry, including online publishing systems, interactive multimedia and educational video games make him perfectly qualified to help CuriousWorks create this community-connecting and artist-empowering virtual space. Peter has worked with a variety of organisations in education and the commercial design world including: Digital Eskimo, The Centre for Contemporary Art & Politics (COFA), The School of Media, Film and Theatre (UNSW) and the Catholic Education Office.

Aimée Falzon

• All Around You Arts Educator
• Interdisciplinary Artist
• Administration Officer

As an educator, Aimée leads the performance and visual arts components of CuriousWorks’ All Around You workshops. As an artistic collaborator she performed, wrote, sang and designed in The Migrant Project, in the spirit of her belief that the multiplicity of art-forms naturally intertwine and support each other. As an illustrator, she just finished a month of animating for CuriousWorks’ recent partnership with the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Federation Square, Overflow. This diverse arts work is balanced by Aimée’s role as CuriousWorks administration head, building on similar, previous work at Harbour St Management and ATYP.

Aimée is also a classically trained singer and flexible vocalist, and has trained in various physical performance methods, from Flamenco dance to Suzuki method. She completed actor training with the Actors Centre Australia, then studied Performance at the University of Sydney. She continued with the Australian Theatre for Young People, performing in nine productions over the last six years. Aimée has since performed in various, independent film and theatre productions.

Aimée regularly workshops and tutors young people in voice and drama through Powerhouse Youth Theatre, atyp, SCEGGS, Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre, ACDN and most recently with PYT for their ‘Mixed Abilities Ensemble’. She has assistant directed with Jo Turner for Ashfield Youth Theatre’s ‘Crossfire’ and also with James Winter for Company B’s ‘Youth Express’. Over the last 12 months Aimée has written and directed a series of interactive performances for Western Sydney high Schools for Macquarie Legal Centre. Aimée’s writing also appeared in the 2007 and 2008 Sydney Writer’s Festival.

Elias Nohra

• All Around You Multimedia Educator
• Filmmaker

Elias brings a passion for comics, film and video games to being All Around You’s Multimedia Educator. He has delivered a great amount of digital arts workshops in this role for CuriousWorks. Elias has also documented several live events for CuriousWorks as a filmmaker, and collaborated as cameraman and editor on several video works for the company’s first major initiative, The Migrant Project.

Elias also teaches film at University of NSW and various high schools around Sydney. He has developed a visual media mobile application for deaf people with The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and a prototype for an educational computer game, entitled Jackals of the Nile, for the Catholic Education Office.