Creative Exchanges: 2005

Nicole Plüss (NSW) Australian-Bhutan Friendship Association

Supported by Arts SA & the Australia Council for the Arts

Nicole Plüss writes for children and young adults and her writing often explores international and historical influences on Australian life. Plüss travelled to Bhutan, fascinated with the country and the Himalayas. During her residency Plüss visited many schools, speaking with students and teachers about reading and storytelling and giving workshops on creative writing and development of ideas. During her travels around the country she also explored and researched the careful approach of the Bhutanese to economic development and the maintenance of religious, cultural and environmental integrity, as well as the emphasis on individual as opposed to community endeavour, themes she now hopes to work into her writing.

Alan Schacher (NSW) Zuni Icosahedron

Supported by the NSW Ministry for the Arts & the Australia Council for the Arts

Alan Schacher’s practice combines dance, performance and installation, usually working collaboratively to realise provocative spatial experiences that are atmospherically and architecturally driven.  Schacher's research objective for his residency was to investigate ways of working with the 'performativity' of public spaces, and to engage with artists, organisations and architects to discuss and develop a 'choreography of public spaces'. This theme provided a rich ground for dialogue and exchange during his six months of travel through Asia, beginning with his arrival in Beijing on the Trans-Siberian railway for the conference, Capturing the Moving Mind. This extended to travels to Hong Kong, Guangzhou for the Guangzhou Triennial, followed by visits to Macau and Shenzhen.

Iain Mott (VIC) The Long March Foundation

Supported by the Australia China Council for the Arts

Iain Mott is a sound artist from Melbourne whose work focuses on interactive installation. His residency project with the Long March Foundation in China resulted in a project entitled Zhong Shuo which was exhibited in Beijing and Chongqing. Zhong Shuo is a sound installation which took the form of a kiosk 'confessional' from which nearly 1000 stories were collected. The interwoven stories and field recordings were broadcast from loudspeakers at each installation and converted into a realtime MP3 stream on internet radio. Hundreds if not thousands of people tuned into this 24h per day broadcast which ran from August up until December. Zhong Shuo (Stage 1) was awarded 3rd prize in the UNESCO Digital Arts Awards.

James Bradley (NSW) East China Normal University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & the NSW Ministry for the Arts

Twice one of The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists, James Bradley is the author of three novels, The Resurrectionist, Wrack and The Deep Field, and a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus.  During his residency at the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University in Shanghai, Bradley researched patterns of city life in 1930s and 21st century Shanghai which he plans to work into a novel.  Bradley also took part in the Shanghai Writers' Festival, gave lectures at East China Normal University and travelled to several cities in China for further research. Since his return Bradley has been asked to review several books about China by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Melissa Madden Gray (VIC) Jin Xing, Dance Theatre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Performer Melissa Madden Gray and her French alter ego ŒMeow-Meow have wrought cross-genre havoc to contemporary opera, improvised 'new music' and cabaret, created choreography for music/dance theatre and gone solo for multimedia performances. Madden Gray undertook her residency with internationally renowned transsexual performer Jin Xing and her Dance Theatre in Shanghai.  Together they created a two-woman dance-music-theatre piece The Day Doesn't Understand Why the Night is So Dark which they aim to present at the new Shanghai international dance festival - Shanghai Dance in 2007. Whilst in China Madden Gray also worked on a number of solo and collaborative dance/music/video pieces for, amongst others, the Time Based Arts Festival in Portland, Oregon, and the Adelaide Festival 06.

Robin Best (SA) Palace Museum & Porcelain Research Centre

Funded by Arts South Australia & the Australia Council for the Arts

Robin Best has worked in the medium of porcelain for the past decade. Her work is informed by patterns from nature and more recently she has been influenced by cultures other than her own including the Pitjantjatjara artists of Ernabella in the far north west of South Australia and the porcelain artists of Jingdezhen in China. During her residency Best expanded her knowledge of Chinese porcelain, making use of the collection of the Palace Museum and the Porcelain Research Centre in Beijing as well as travelling to Jingdezhen and Shanghai to create porcelain for two separate exhibitions.  Work made during Best's residency was exhibited in Snuff at Madam Mao's Dowry in Shanghai and exhibited in Writing the Painting as part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.

Sele Tete (WA) Guangdong Modern Dance Company

Funded by Arts WA & the Australia Council for the Arts

Independent dance artist Sete Tele has performed with various dance companies including Skadada, Company Loaded, Australian Dancers’ Company, Fieldworks Performance Group, ID339 Dance Group and 2 Dance Plus. In China he undertook a choreographic residency with the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, teaching classes and workshops and creating a new choreographic work City of Fall, accompanied by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Tele has since been invited back to work with the company in 2006.

Tim Humphrey (VIC) Shanghai Conservatory of Music

Supported by Arts Victoria, Australia-China Council & the Australia Council for the Arts

Tim Humphrey is a brass musician, specialising in developing integrated musical settings which involve live musical performance for dance and theatre. In China, Humphries worked with students from the trumpet department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and presented his collaborative work Full Moon/Trance-migration with Australian artists Tony Yap and Madeleine Flynn. He participated in the International Conference of the Asia-Pacific Society for Ethno-musicology, meeting with a variety of music professionals from around China, and around the Asia-Pacific region, and presenting a paper Contemporary Music for Ancient Dance: Ethno/musicological? that reflects his experience of cultural collaborations with Chinese, Timorese and Vietnamese communities in Australia. He has since submitted an abstract to the Electroacoustic Music Seminar 06 in Beijing.

Xing Jin (NSW) Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Beijing International Music Festival

Supported by the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of her residency Xing Jin was working as the Multicultural Marketing Manager at the Sydney Symphony. During her residency, which was divided over three months between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, she met with all the major Chinese arts festivals and arts venues and worked with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Beijing International Music Festival. She contributed to the program planning and market development strategies of these arts organisations and promoted opportunities for the exchange of musical performances and artists between China and Australia.

Lena Nahlous (NSW) Videotage

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of her residency Lena Nahlous was Director of Information & Cultural Exchange, an organisation working at the intersection of arts, culture, technology and community. During her time in Hong Kong, Nahlous worked closely with new media arts organisation Videotage within the Cattle Depot Artist Village. She participated in Videotage’s activities and assisted with events, submissions and research. In addition she attended arts and new media training, exhibitions, performances and events, and undertook research for Kowloon Stories, an oral history/storytelling/mapping project. Using Videotage as a base, she met with and interviewed a broad range of key people working within the arts and cultural sectors and talked about community cultural development and digital media in a NSW and Australian context.

Catherine Jones (VIC) Teamwork

Supported by Arts Victoria & the Australia-India Council

At the time of her residency Catherine Jones was the Associate Producer and Business Manager for the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. She has worked in project and arts management across a variety of disciplines and on festivals including the Melbourne Festival, Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Brisbane Biennial.  In India she worked with Teamworks, a highly versatile arts event and production company, with roots in theatre, social action, and the corporate world. Jones’ primary project was the inaugural Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, a new event designed to profile and showcase the Indian theatre industry.

Jayne Fenton-Keyne (QLD) Rimbun Dahan & the Singapore Poetry Festival

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts QLD

Jayne Fenton-Keane is a poet, new media artist and composer who takes poetry to different spaces with her poetry-sound fusions, installations and performances. The author of three poetry books, Torn, Ophelia's Codpiece and The Transparent Lung, Keane is an award winner in several genres, is completing a doctorate on embodiment and spatial poetics, and the founding Director of National Poetry Week. During her residency Keane explored pilgrimage as a creative method for inviting new knowledge into her writing. Activities included a residency at Rimbun Dahan in Malaysia, a residency at the Singapore Poetry Festival and appearances with the CGH Earth Chain in India.

John Zubrzycki (NSW)

Supported by the Australia-India Council & the Australia Council for the Arts

John Zubrzycki is a journalist whose 25 year association with India has included stints as a Hindi student, diplomat, consultant and foreign correspondent. Zubrzycki's last assignment on the sub-continent was in Pakistan and Afghanistan covering the aftermath of the September 11 attacks for The Australian newspaper. During his residency in India Zubrzycki researched the story of Mukarram Jah, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, and how the heir to India's largest princely state found himself running a sheep station in the Australian outback. Zubrzycki divided his time between Hyderabad and New Delhi exploring the many facets of this unique link between India and Australia.

Josephine Starrs (NSW) Sarai

Supported by the Australian Council for the Arts

Josephine Starrs is an artist whose video and new media works have been shown extensively in Australia and overseas at electronic art and media festivals. During her four-month residency at Sarai, New Delhi, Starrs created an interactive multi channel video installation. The resulting work, Seeker, was exhibited at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in February 2006 as part of the Contemporary Commonwealth exhibition. At Sarai she also conducted a workshop on gaming culture resulting in participants designing locative fictional game experiences. Additionally Starrs attended, 'World-Information City' in Bangalore, an international exhibition and symposium event focusing on the way the city is affected by information and communication technologies and the rise of electronic surveillance and control.

Margaret McDonell (QLD) Penguin India

Supported by Arts Queensland & the Australia-India Council

Margaret McDonell is a freelance editor who has worked on a variety of projects for a diverse assortment of clients, from indigenous life writing for the University of Queensland Press to aviation texts for the University of Western Sydney. Her residency with Penguin India involved editing a range of genres and enabled McDonell to pursue her interest on the impact of culture on the art of editing. She visited many publishers, book fairs and bookshops, and met editors, translators, academics and students of Australian literature.  In addition, McDonell was invited to address students at a range of Indian universities. Following her residency she worked as Coordinating Editor with IAD Press, an indigenous publisher in Alice Springs.

Andy Fuller (VIC) Lontar Foundation

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute & the Australia Council for the Arts

Andy Fuller is an Indonesia scholar, translator and author of short fiction, essays and poetry. During his residency at the Lontar Foundation in Jakarta, Fuller worked on editing, compiling and translating works of contemporary Indonesian short fiction for The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Short Fiction, which aims to provide readers access to modern Indonesian cultural and philosophical thought. Throughout his residency Fuller also wrote extensively - inspired by his surroundings he completed many 'definition poems' from observations of Jakarta, which he hopes to work into a collection larger pieces. Fuller's translation skills were also further developed by subtitling the film Serambi, and he produced a small collection of his translations entitled Water Exits from Skin.

Danius Kesminas (VIC)

Supported by the Australia Indonesia Institute & Arts Victoria

Danius Kesminas' practice is conceptual, project-based and highly collaborative. The work is non-media specific and he engages the traditional disciplines of sculpture, painting and print making, together with video, film, installation, architectural and site-based interventions, performance and the application of incendiary devices. For over a decade he has investigated the interface between art and music. In 1998 he co-formed the art/music collective Slave Pianos, a group devoted to the collection, analysis and performance of sound work by visual artists. Slave Pianos have presented exhibitions and performances in New York, Los Angeles, Kassel, Aachen, Edinburgh, and throughout Australasia. Kesminas has also taught in various tertiary faculties in the areas of painting, sculpture, architecture and landscape architecture, and in 2002-3 he was the Australian artist-in-residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Malcolm Smith (NT) Cemeti Art House

Supported by Arts NT & the Australia-Indonesia Institute

Arts Manager Malcolm Smith spent a total of six months in Indonesia immersed in the new media arts scene, working with video artists and artist-run initiatives. His main project while hosted by Cemeti Art House/Foundation, Yogyakarta, involved researching and building a DIY (Do It Yourself) Video Projector, as a way of investigating new approaches to the presentation of video art. Additionally he presented workshops and talks on a range of topics including practical DIY projector, Australian video art and arts management issues for artist-run initiatives. Ongoing outcomes include an online discussion group about Indonesian artist-run initiatives and several screenings of Indonesian video art in Australia. Following his residency Smith worked as Exhibitions Coordinator at Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney.

Rob Finlayson (WA) Ubud Writers and Readers Festival

Supported by Arts WA & the Australia Council for the Arts

Rob Finlayson works as an arts administrator, writer and community cultural development practitioner. He has led the Western Australia State Literature Centre Inc, worked in local government as an arts officer, community development officer and writer-in-community. In Indonesia Finlayson worked to implement best practice for an international writers' festival while based at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Bali. He continued working for the festival, despite the second Bali bombing that occurred just prior to the festival opening. The Festival proved successful in spite of the tragedy, with double the attendances of 2005 and extremely positive feedback from audiences and participants alike. Following the residency Finlayson went on to work with Arts WA.

Joanna Dudley (SA) Solo College of the Arts

Supported by Arts SA & the Australia-Indonesia Institute

Singer, musician, director and performer, Joanna Dudley, works at the Schaubuhne Theatre in Berlin. During her residency in Indonesia with the Solo College of the Arts, Dudley studied the various singing styles of the wayang kulit, Javanese dance techniques from wayang orang and wayang topeng as well as instruments of the gamelan. A result of the residency has been the international touring of the German-Australian co-production of The Scorpionfish, a music theatre piece which was developed during her stay in Solo; the creation of The Geisha Big Band with original arrangements of the Indonesian song styles; and the performance of renowned kroncong singer, Waldjinah and her band from Solo, at WOMAD Festival in Adelaide 2007/2008 and at the House of World Culture, Berlin in 2007.

Luke George (VIC) Nibroll

Supported by Arts Tasmania & the Australia Council for the Arts

Luke George was joint Artistic Director of StompinYouth Dance Company at the time of his residency where he produced and choreographed site-specific performance projects with and for young people in Tasmania and interstate. In Tokyo, George worked as a choreographer on a project with contemporary performance company Nibroll and its artistic director, Mikuni Yanaihara. Whilst there, he developed new connections to contemporary artists in Tokyo and performed a new work which he created with a Nibroll dancer titled Here, not now over. The work was presented as part of a Japanese contemporary dance season over five nights at Die Prazte Theatre in Kagarazuka, Tokyo.

Marele Day (NSW)

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Marele Day is an award-winning writer who has contributed to numerous anthologies, edited How to Write Crime and written a bestselling novel, Lambs of God. Day has also published a collection of crime-comedy stories, Mavis Levack, PI, and Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife. During her residency Day researched a novel that features the ama, female deep-sea divers of Japan. The residency allowed Day to explore the remote coast and off shore islands of Mie prefecture, to meet the ama and observe their way of life.

Meredith McKinney (NSW) Tezukayama University

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Meredith McKinney is a professional literary translator fluent in Japanese.  In 2002 she received a Doctor of Philosophy of Asian Studies from the Australian National University.  She has worked on four books of published translations and is currently a lecturer and tutor in Japanese and Asian Literature at the Australian National University. Whilst on her residency in Japan she undertook two projects. The first project was a book on the poetry and prose of Australian poet Judith Wright. She worked with Professor Sakai Nobuo of Tezukayama University in Osaka to translate the book into Japanese. The second project was the completion of a translation of the tenth century Japanese literary classic The Pillow Book that was published by Penguin Classics in 2006.

Sophie O'Brien (NSW) Arts Initiative

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of her residency Sophie O’Brien was the Project Manager for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2005, and was previously Exhibition Manager at the Biennale of Sydney and Managing Curator for the Visual Arts Program at the Perth International Arts Festival.  O'Brien undertook a residency based at the Arts Initiative Tokyo, where she researched contemporary Japanese art, investigated alternative curatorial and exhibition models and initiated discussions with several key Japanese curators in order to realise future exhibitions.  Whilst there O’Brien presented a talk on Australian contemporary artists in conjunction with a small postcard and catalogue exhibition.  She has also been invited to work as a project manager on the Singapore Biennale with curator Fumio Nanjo.

Suzanne Ingleton (VIC) Pusaka Performance Centre

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Suzanne Ingleton has been at the forefront of political cabaret and stand-up comedy since the mid-seventies, touring widely in Australia and overseas, writing and producing for television and community arts projects.  During this residency Ingleton completed a play dealing with the Malayan Emergency of the fifties, Flower of Malaya, and visited local communities in Kelantan to undertake field study and research into shamanism and performance which will feed into her book Being There in Spirit.

Victoria Cattoni (NT) Rimbun Dahan

Supported by Arts Northern Territory, the Australian High Commission Kuala Lumpur & the Australia Council for the Arts

Victoria Cattoni is a visual artist working in the mediums of video, installation and multimedia. Cattoni’s practice during the residency focused on dress and its cultural interpretations. The first half of the residency took place at Rimbun Dahan and culminated in the presentation of a collaborative video work TREE. During this time her work was also screened at the not that balai festival and she presented a public lecture at Galeri Petronas. In the second half of her residency Cattoni completed works for a growing list of exhibition commitments in Malaysia and Indonesia. Since completing the residency Cattoni has participated in the Bali Biennale 2005 with a digital media work titled White Onion:Bali Bride and exhibited new work entitled Kedai Kebaya.

David Griggs (NSW) Ateneo University

Supported by the NSW Ministry and the Australia Council for the Arts

Artist David Griggs uses painting, installation and dark humour to highlight the human potential for violence towards others and the environment. At Ateneo University Griggs developed a series of photographs and paintings directly influenced by emerging westernised tattooing practices in Manila. He exhibited this work at the internationally renowned Green Papaya Gallery and produced a 76-page book to accompany it. In full colour the book, THE BUKO POLICE, details a collection of photographs depicting varied tattoo styles in and around Manila. Griggs will return to Manila to complete collaborative work made with a local billboard painter.

Maria-Lourdes Doronila (ACT) Bienvenido Santos Writing Centre

Supported Arts ACT & the Australia Council for the Arts

Maria-Lourdes Doronila is a playwright and performance poet. Based at the Bienvenido Santos Writing Centre at De La Salle University, Manila, for her three-month residency, Doronila facilitated numerous playwrighting workshops and engaged with performance, dramatic and literary communities. Highlights included a poetry reading at the Australian Embassy featuring members of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines reading and interpreting poems written by Filipino-Australians; extensive workshopping her play Manila Takeway with a group of Manila playwrights to further develop the play and enhancing authenticity of voice; and work on community development projects for the residents of Borias Island.

Paschal Berry (ACT) Anino Shadowplay Collective

Supported Arts ACT & the Australia Council for the Arts

Paschal Daantos Berry is a writer and dramaturg for theatre and dance. He is interested in creating hybrid theatre through collaboration with artists from different art forms. At the time of his residency he was based in Canberra where he worked with choreographers and dancers through The Australian Choreographic Centre and its Quantum Leap Youth Choreographic Ensemble. He developed his new work The Folding Wife whilst in the Philippines working with Anino Shadowplay Collective in Manila. Through the time he spent with the collective and their wide network of theatre and visual arts practitioners, Berry was able to understand the immense impact that the arts have on disadvantaged sectors and communities.

Alexie Glass (VIC) Ssamzie Space

Supported by Arts Victoria & The Australia-Korea Foundation

Alexie Glass has worked as a curator, art critic, publisher and gallery manager. She was appointed Director of the Gertrude Street Contemporary Space during her residency. As the inaugural Asialink curator-in-residence at Ssamzie Space, Seoul, Glass had unlimited access to their in-residence studio artists as well as their extraordinary archive of catalogues, artists' documentation, DVD's, slides and journals. Glass met with over 100 artists and curators, visited many exhibitions, and developed several ongoing dialogues with collegiate organisations that have provided platforms for many new partnerships, including the opportunity to participate as a contributing curator in Bitmap, a photographic exhibition at LOOP Alternative Art Space, Seoul in 2006.

Alison Ross (QLD) LATT Children's Theatre

Supported by Arts Queensland & The Australia-Korea Foundation

Stage designer Alison Ross has designed for many Queensland companies including for drama, ballet, circus, visual and physical theatre; and outdoor, site-specific work. Ross' residency with LATT Children's Theatre, Seoul, on their production The Little Dragon combined her love of visual theatre, and her prop-making and teaching skills. Her residency, also hosted by Yongin University, included a mentorship with senior designer Taesup Lee, assisting and observing him as stage designer and lecturer in performance design. Since her residency Ross has been asked to work as the designer with a number of LATT's artists on a production for the World AIDS Day Festival in 2006 in Tanzania.

David Prater (VIC) Korea Literature Translation Institute

Supported by The Australia-Korea Foundation & the Australia Council for the Arts

David Prater is a poet and editor of Cordite Poetry Review an online poetry journal funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. His poetry has appeared in various publications including Meanjin, The Age and Best Australian Poetry 2003. During Prater's residency at Seoul's Sogang University, he taught two highly successful courses in creative writing and Australian literature, and researched Korean internet culture, in particular PC Bangs (interactive gaming rooms). Prater created blogs written in different PC Bangs across Seoul, influenced by his gaming rooms colleagues as well as observations of everyday life in the city. Prater's blogs and other writing are currently being prepared for publication.

Larissa Hjorth (VIC) Hallym University & Ssamzie Space

Supported by The Australia-Korea Foundation & the Australia Council for the Arts

Larissa Hjorth's practice incorporates video, photography, sound and even smell in order to explore the ways in which domestication and commodification are negotiated through everyday practices. In Seoul Hjorth worked collaboratively with artists, academics and people working in the telecommunications industry to initiate projects examining the role of mobile phones in Korea as a symbol of sociality and individualism. She conducted four projects that resulted in workshops (at Hallym University), produced video works and a catalogue entitled Snapshots and she held two open studio exhibitions at Ssamzie Space.

Lauren Black (TAS) Wildlife Heritage Trust

Supported by Arts Tasmania & the Australia Council for the Arts

Lauren Black began practising botanical art in 1997 at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, and continued refining her craft when she moved to Hobart in 1999.  Black's interest in Tasmania's rich botanical history has led to exhibitions aimed at engaging audiences with the past and present, often highlighting botanical works and figures that are little known in the public arena. Her desire to see contemporary botanical artists recognised in Tasmania has inspired her promote the work of others as well as her own. During her residency Black worked at the Peradeniya Gardens in Kandy, researched historical Sri Lankan illustration at the Natural History Museum in Colombo and gave workshops to students and the general public.

Sophie Cunningham (VIC) Pemberley House

Supported by Arts Victoria & the Australia Council for the Arts

Sophie Cunningham worked in publishing for many years and now works fulltime as a writer. Her first novel Geography, was published in 2004 and was set in India, Sri Lanka, America and Australia. In the solitude of Pemberley House and whilst trekking in Ladakh, Cunningham was able to do some of the close work needed to bring her second novel Dharma is a Girl's Best Friend to completion.  Cunningham also explored the life and writings of Leonard Wolf during his time Sri Lanka from 1904-1911.  She spent the remainder of the Sri Lanka leg of the residency researching the people and places of Wolf’s world.

Dominic Redfern (VIC) Chulalongkorn University

Supported by the Australian Embassy Bangkok & the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of the residency Dominic Redfern was a lecturer in video art at RMIT University in Melbourne.  During his residency at Chulalongkorn University Redfern worked on a project with Thai and British exchange students, challenging them to consider the history of Britain and Europe in Asia.  Redfern also exhibited in the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival and attended the Asiatopa Symposium on Performance Art in SE Asia. He represented Australia at the Thailand Animation and Multi Media Conference. Since his return Redfern has been working on a large-scale installation that combines his work on subjectivity and the video image with Thai and Australian landscapes. In 2007 Redfern returned to Bangkok to exhibit this work, supported by the Australian Embassy in Bangkok.

Simone O'Brien (VIC) Bibi Bulak

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Simone O'Brien has performed as an acrobat, clown, aerialist, actor, stuntwoman and performance artist for such companies as Circus Oz, Club Swing, Stalker Stilt Theatre, Legs On The Wall, and ABC Kids TV. O'Brien conducted her residency in Timor- Leste with the performing arts company Bibi Bulak, Dili, where she taught drama, dance, physical theatre and circus skills workshops to young people. Working closely with the local community O'Brien created a free site-specific physical theatre performance, Ikan Bo'ot at the Arte Moris Free Art School precinct in Dili. The show was an outstanding success with the local community and has since been invited to perform at the 2006 Brave Festival in Poland.

Michael Pearce (VIC) Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Michael Pearce is a theatre set and costume designer, visual artist and performer and has produced a large body of work with companies throughout Australia and internationally. During Pearce's second Asialink residency in 2005 with the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema, he focused on teaching design for dance using three-dimensional models. His students produced 55 set and costume projects based on a Vietnamese version of Romeo and Juliet which was exhibited as part of the Academy's 25th Anniversary. Whilst there, Pearce was able to deepen dialogues and networks with Vietnamese artists and performers he had met from previous visits, all the while collecting drawings and photos of Vietnam for his studio work and a future Vietnam inspired exhibition.

Rosemary Miller (TAS) Shanghai Animation Film Studio, China & Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, India

Supported by " Funded by Arts Tasmania and the Australia Council for the Arts

At the time of her residency Rosemary Miller was Director of Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart, headquarters to many of Tasmania’s arts organisations and activities. She has strong interests in performance, visual and media arts and in culturally diverse arts practices. To further these interests, she worked with Reckless Moments in Shanghai on Creative Futures, a three-year program of cultural collaboration between China and Australia. Valuable contacts and networks were further developed whilst based with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and through her travels in Hong Kong and Beijing. In India she was based with Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Gujarat, where she explored their inter-cultural and interdisciplinary arts programs.