2009 was an intense and productive year for CuriousWorks. We successfully ran large scale projects on both sides of this vast continent, at the same time as transitioning to more mature systems and processes for the company.
It was a year of endings – we concluded our 3 year project at Miller Technology High School (in partnership with Casula Powerhouse) and already miss Sally and the 2168 crew. But our partnerships are only growing in 2010 in Liverpool and we’re certain we’ll be able to work with many of our old friends there again.
The Migrant Project, the little dream that started the whole CuriousWorks ride – also came to a close. But we did it in style, with a packed out screening of This City is a Body: The Migrant Project film to friends and colleagues towards the end of the year. It was one of those rare, truly fulfilling nights.
Peter Cossey – although he remains a part of the curious family – also finished his time at CuriousWorks in 2009, as his position supported by the Vodafone Australia Foundation came to an end. In many ways, the All Around You model is our own take on the user-centered design approach; and the influence of the design sector on CuriousWorks would never have been so beneficial and evolved without Peter’s influence. He embodies radical innovation! We wish him well in his future, crazy journeys.
Amidst the endings, a new partnership began with Country Arts WA, supported by BHP Billiton Ore, to begin working in and around Newman, remote Western Australia. We loved getting to know the people of Newman and the partnerships with CAWA, BHP and the local council, Shire East Pilbara, look set to blossom. We hope to keep returning to the Pilbara, with Newman as our base, for many years to come.
Above and beyond all the different projects – which you can check out below – this was the year CuriousWorks turly became a “company”. We’ve set up flexible, robust systems that will enable us to turn CuriousWorks into a sustainable, cutting-edge institution that can hang around for generations – not dependent on any particular person or collective. Our Connector / Development Manager – Naomi Bower – came on board early last year and played a huge part in this, with patience and persistence. Thanks also goes to our wonderful board who took on an active role in guiding us through this transition – and are still doing so. The CuriousWorks community rocks my socks.
As our mission states, we’re not here for a haircut. The best thing we did in 2009 was successfully set up systems to take on the task of achieving our mission in a truly sustainable, innovative and creative way. We’re here to permanently and subtly affect the systems of cultural production in Australia in a way that benefits all Australians. With 2009’s work behind us – and our 2010 team and suite of programs ready to roll – I totally feel ready to do this.
- Shakthi, CuriousWorks Director
Every six months, CuriousWorks makes a highlights video, packing our activities in that period into 2-3 minutes. Check out (most of ) the year in visual summary!
Statistics:
2009 was the final year of developing the All Around You model before the launch of the toolkit. All Around You is our model for using new media in under-resourced communities creatively, sustainably and efficiently. The model works to empower a community’s cultural leaders to tell their own stories in their own way – for the long-term, social betterment of their community. The toolkit will be a free online and physical resource, available to anyone who wants to use all or part of the model for their own community. It launches in April 2010.
In 2009 the model was largely developed by continuing our key partnerships in Western Sydney and the Pilbara, in order to ensure that our process can be equally helpful for communities at the edge of the city and the desert. We finished a three year engagement with Casula Powerhouse and the reFILL program – with students at Miller Technology High making their own video sketch comedies and presenting at the national Generations conference in Melbourne, run by Cultural Development Network.
We spent 3 months of the year in Newman, remote Western Australia, helping its youth build their own arts media enterprise in and out of school – and lobby for a permanent youth space. This was the beginning of a great partnership with Country Arts WA, supported by BHP Billiton Iron Ore, which we will be working to grow over the next 3-5 years. Newman’s first ever film festival concluded the 2009 stage of the project, seeing the local Indigenous mobs, the mining mobs and the local Thai mob come together to watch movies and performances from throughout the diverse community. ABC TV came along to cover the event as well.
In 2010 we are planning to return to the Pilbara and grow the work we have seeded there. Our work in Western Sydney proceeds to another level with the support of the Westpac Foundation. We’ll be working on a high-quality media series being developed for the web about life in Western Sydney, by youth from Western Sydney. Once the toolkit is launched, 2010 also sees a new focus in building sustainable creative enterprises out of the collectives of young people we are working with around the country.
reFILL :: February – September
In partnership with Cultural Development Network, Liverpool Council, Casula Powerhouse and Miller Technology High School, CuriousWorks led digital media workshops with students from Miller Technology High. reFILL focused on engaging High School students of Arabic and Indigenous backgrounds, particularly those who otherwise don’t connect to classroom activities, have poor attendance and are seen as being potential early school-leavers. CuriousWorks began digital media skill-building in 2008, and in 2009 focussed on building sustainable workflows for the Miller students to continue creating their own brand of video content long after reFILL workshops finish.
Their work was also exhibited at Casula Powerhouse in July 2009, and you can check out the reFILL journey in the summary videos below:
Generations Conference :: September
reFILL was one of five initiatives forming the Generations project, spearheaded by Victoria’s Cultural Development Network (CDN), giving five local councils the opportunity to explore community based arts over a 3 year period. Liverpool was one of the local councils selected, and representatives from CuriousWorks, Casula Powerhouse, and participants in the reFILL project presented at the “Regenerating Community” conference in Melbourne which focussed on the achievements and experiences of the Generations project. As well as representing their work in reFILL, CuriousWorks held a brief New Media Training crash course, and documented the three day event and published it online for ongoing reference.
Newman :: June – November
In partnership with Country Arts WA, supported by BHP-Biliton Iron Ore, CuriousWorks spent 3 months in Newman building skills in video and web development, youth representation and empowerment, and sustainable digital media practices. Rather than write about the myriad of connections and content we supported in seeding, building and sharing, we share this more easily digestible video with you:
In 2009 CuriousWorks also continued to collaborate with other local governments, schools, cultural centres and organisations through more short-term programs. We helped them build their capacity to integrate new media usefully into what they do, and worked with the people in the communities they worked with, in order to help them tell their stories.
PAKT :: January – October
PAKT is the pilot program of the How Big Are Your Dreams initiative, a new year-long program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school and TAFE students who live or study in or around Sydney. This is a partnership between Gilbert + Tobin, Tranby Aboriginal College and UTS, with CuriousWorks playing an active role in facilitating youth engagement through the www.AllAroundYou.net platform, developing the short film Caught Between with Powerhouse Youth Theatre, hosting “project days” where creative works by the young people were incubated and realised, and providing skills development in video production and web publishing. You can see these works featured on this site developed by one of the PAKT participants.
The King is Dead :: January
In partnership with Ashfield Youth Theatre and Burwood Council, CuriousWorks developed a site specific theatre piece in Burwood Park with local young people. They devised, developed and wrote the script for the piece not only in rehearsals but also through a private online group, to great success. The resulting performance was a wild, fantastical adventure into one young girl’s imaginations about her fighting parents…
Find more videos like this on All Around You
Rasa Unmasked :: January – May
A slightly different project to our usual community development projects, this was a partnership with Lingalayam Dance Company for their 2009 season of Rasa Unmasked, a work that premiered at the Opera House and toured Singapore, Malaysia and India. CuriousWorks developed a new media marketing strategy for the Sydney leg that brought together an international South Asian community to share in the stories behind Lingalayam Dance Company and a touring, classical Indian dance troupe. The season at the Opera House completely sold out. You can visit the show’s website at www.rasaunmasked.wordpress.com.
Find more videos like this on All Around You
Fairfield “Bring It On” Festival :: February – April
Working with Fairfield council towards their annual Bring It On youth festival, CuriousWorks ran workshops to develop original video and animation works to be exhibited. We then began training a media crew to film and edit the event into a 10 minute documentary.
Auburn Youth Centre :: February – March
Video workshops with Beyond Empathy at the Auburn Youth Centre, allowing young people to film and edit their own short video pieces, as well as developing a film clip for a local hip-hop crew.
SCEGGS Darlinghurst :: March – November
CuriousWorks held weekly video workshops with Year 7 students from SCEGGS Darlinghurst, helping them develop the skills to create their own films from inception to post-production. They created several videos throughout the year, and published them on the school’s online student portal, as well as on www.AllAroundYou.net. CuriousWorks also assisted senior drama students in developing short site-specific theatre pieces, and presented the Migrant Project as an example of contemporary site-specific theatre for study by Year 12 students.
Purfleet :: April
Video workshops with Beyond Empathy, creating video content with young indigenous Australians in rural NSW. Young people were engaged in making videos about their local wall painting project, a local dance group, and a video clip!
Casula Powerhouse Video Workshops :: May – December
Throughout the year, CuriousWorks has run one-off video workshops at Casula Powerhouse where school students on an excursion to Casula get the opportunity to shoot and edit their own short “ball game” video. We worked with students from Doonside Tech, Liverpool Public, Casula Public and Lurnea High. This program has now been expanded in 2010 with the support of Arts NSW.
Flick Movie Making Camp :: July
For one week in July, a dozen young people with cerebral palsy from the Spastic Centre developed their own video projects at CuriousWorks HQ. Working from concept to shoot and post-production, the group created 3 short videos during the week, which culminated in a screening of the works on the final day!
Marble Bar :: October
With the support of the Shire East Pilbara, workshops were held for one week with young people in Western Australian Pilbara town, Marble Bar, which markets itself as the hottest place in the world! The young people took photos and videos to create their own representations of life in town, with a showing of their work to the community at the end of the week. In 2010 we hope to offer media makers from smaller communities around Newman, like in Marble Bar, an opportunity to attend and showcase their work at the Newman film festival.
Statistics:
New Media Training :: June – August
CuriousWorks has held its own digital media training program at CuriousWorks HQ, empowering individuals from the community and arts sectors with the skills to create their own multimedia websites. They learn skills in video production, online publishing, web building, and social and digital media strategies, all in 4 short sessions. A quote from one of the participants:
The New Media Training is fantastic… I was surprised at how quickly you can learn new media techniques and how effectively you can apply them without buying new equipment and software. The trainers show you how to work with what you’ve got. – Lorraine, academic and environmental campaigner
OzGreen :: November
In the lead up to OzGreen’s national Youth Lead conference, CuriousWorks empowered young environmentalists in their network from around the country to express their concerns and causes through video and internet publishing. The idea was to pass on skills to the OzGreen network that they could then use independently throughout the company’s activities, integrating new media into what they do on an everyday basis.
Find more videos like this on All Around You
Statistics:
Through the arts program, CuriousWorks stages biennial productions of interdisciplinary and intercultural work that promotes widely the perspective of Australia’s more marginalised communities. 2009 was a changeover period, with the conclusion of The Migrant Project, the beginning of Oz+Lanka and the birth of an idea for a new, long term creative initiative through the Splendid Arts Lab.
The Migrant Project
In 2009, CuriousWorks’ first ever initiative, The Migrant Project, finally came to a close. An interdisciplinary and intercultural performance project from 2005-2007, a feature film was developed over 2008-2009 documenting and restructuring the stories told in performances and conferences from 2005-2007. This City is a Body: The Migrant Project had a packed out screening in November for participating artists, friends and colleagues. In 2010 the work will begin the film festival circuit and also has an educational distributor in Contemporary Arts Media. A DVD of the work will be available once the film circuit is completed.
Oz+Lanka
With the support of the Australia Council for the Arts – Theatre Board, CuriousWorks began research on a new performance work centred around 4 generations of Sri Lankan-Australians. The work will look at some of the unexpected connections between generations of people from a minority and migratory culture, as well as uncovering some of the untold stories connecting Australia and Sri Lanka. A first draft script, containing text as well as audiovisual score, will be completed in May 2010.
Splendid Arts Lab
Shakthi, Creative Director at CuriousWorks, was one of ten artists to take part in the inaugural Splendid program, in partnership with Australia Council for the Arts and Splendour in the Grass. This program began with a 3 week lab centred around developing new ideas for interdisciplinary, site-specific projects. A new project idea emerged through this process which will be CuriousWorks major arts work from late 2011 onwards. Unfortunately we can’t reveal the details of it yet – but we’re very excited and you’ll be hearing about it soon!
Online Systems and www.AllAroundYou.net
2009 saw CuriousWorks’ general online presence grow dramatically through a dedicated implementation of a revamped, internal digital media strategy. Our main websites had 44,351 hits in 2009 – an increase of over 100% on the previous year.
In early 2009, CuriousWorks launched www.AllAroundYou.net: a home for creative, community arts digital media. www.AllAroundYou.net has become a hub for young people, media makers, community workers and other curious folk to share their video works and connect with other young people sharing unique stories across Australia. The portal now features over 1,000 videos, has over 450 members and 10,000 photos shared!
DS Frenzy :: March – April
CuriousWorks held events at CuriousWorks HQ and the Prairiewood Youth Centre to experiment with and encourage the use of “homebrew” technologies on the Nintendo DS. An example of this was playing the home-made freeware application “Pocket Physics”, an educational resource explaining the basics of physics through video gaming. Another example was using the DS as a midi controller, which has a variety of creative uses for the media arts, mobile and installation sectors.
During 2009, CuriousWorks actively sought to plan for the future, and built project proposals, funding and partnerships accordingly. We have completed a 2010- 2012 business plan and have clear aims for this period around our core projects and services. This includes reducing short-term projects and launching major projects and initiatives that closely match with our mission and harness the benefits of our online toolkit.
The development of a social enterprise model of new media empowerment is seen to be the next stage of enabling CuriousWorks’ mission. We received support from the Westpac Foundation to run this program in Western Sydney and are planning to run a sister project to the Western Sydney initiative in the Pilbara. We have also continued our positive relationship with the Australia Council for the Arts and have applied for additional funding with them from 2010 – 2011, along with being invited to apply for program funding.
We are currently in meetings with new partners about collaborating over the next three years to enhance our distribution of the toolkit. We have also created a partnership with Macquarie University, enabling CuriousWorks to have its first rigorous external evaluation of the Western Sydney project.
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The 2009 report in plain text, including the 2009 financial report, can be downloaded right here.
Big thanks to all who turned out for the August Twist, what an excellent night, eh?! Details for the next one:
8-11 pm, Wednesday 15 September 2010
402/11 Randle St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Pop it in your diaries!