Speakers

Geoffrey is a Perth-based artist specialising in robotics, lasers, and optical interactive installations. Geoffrey studied Computer Science at The University of Western Australia before completing a master’s degree in Visual Arts at Curtin University. He has been exhibiting since 1986 with shows in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Singapore, New York and London. His most recent solo exhibition was in 2010, when he installed his robotic work Floribots at the Singapore Art Museum.

Geoffrey has also shown work at the National Gallery of Australia and participated in the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, The Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth and Sculpture by the Sea – in Bondi, Cottesloe, and Aarhus, Denmark. Geoffrey has completed a number of public art commissions including the laser-based work Transfiction (Canberra) and the robotic sculpture Totem at the new Perth Arena.

Jonathan Holloway is Artistic Director of Perth International Arts Festival 2012-15. He spent the last six years as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in the UK. During his time, audiences increased from 35,000 to 330,000, turnover increased by over 600% and ticket sales tripled. It became the fourth largest city arts festival in the UK through a program expanded to embrace site-specific work, large-scale outdoor events, circus, a children’s festival, physical and visual theatre and the visual arts. A new education programme worked intensively with over 15,000 young people year round.

Jonathan was Creative Director of Elemental, a large-scale theatre, music and spectacle event at Chalon-sur-Saone festival in France in 2003. From 1997-2004, Jonathan set up and ran the National Theatre’s events department on London’s South Bank. He was the founding artistic director of Watch this Space (the National’s acclaimed annual festival of international outdoor theatre, music and spectacle), the Festival of Lights (a biennial festival exploring light and fire festivals from around the world) and co-wrote/directed Robin Hood in the National’s Loft Theatre.

Andrew Jas­pan is The Founder and Edi­tor of The Conversation; an independent, not-for-profit, news and information service sourced from the university and research sector.

Jaspan previously edited The Age, The Observer (London), The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. He was Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue (London), and he founded and edited the Sunday Herald in Scotland. He is the Asia-Pacific Director for Innovation Media.

There is great pressure on newsrooms worldwide as advertising revenue falls and and shortcuts to a story result in bad outcomes for our society. Meanwhile academics struggle to communicate with the wider public. Andrew discusses a solution to both problems.

Andra grew up in a household where creativity was seen as important both for personal and cultural development. She has since carried that creativity through to her career as a public art consultant with a passionate belief in the positive effects of public art in the urban environment.

After completing a first class honours degree in architecture at UWA, Andra participated in establishing the Mundaring Sculpture Park, was the Director of the Crafts Council in Perth, and since 1990 has worked as a private public art consultant at Urban Threshholds.

Andra has developed and coordinated over 100 public art projects through the state government’s Percent for Art Scheme, for local governments and for private developers. She is currently the public art consultant for the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority and is writing the first book about public art in Western Australia with Maggie Baxter for UWA Publishing.

Andra’s interests lie in the evolution of consciousness and culture, and how collaborations can spark creations that are greater than the sum of their parts.

After training as a research psychologist at the University of Western Australia and lecturing in a number of Australian universities, Dr Lawrence entered politics in 1986, serving at both State and Federal levels for 21 years. She was at various times W.A Minister for Education and Aboriginal affairs and was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a State government. She shifted to Federal politics in 1994 when she was elected as the Member for Fremantle and was appointed Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. She has held various portfolios in Opposition, including Indigenous Affairs, Environment, Industry and Innovation and was elected national President of the Labor Party in 2004. She retired from politics in 2007.

Dr Lawrence is now Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Change in the School of Psychology at the University of Western Australia and Chair of the Australian Heritage Council.

Lucky Oceans co-founded Asleep at the Wheel with whom he won two Grammy Awards. In 1980, Lucky moved to Perth where he started composing for film and television and toured and recorded with Paul Kelly and Joe Camilleri and many others. In 1995, Lucky became the presenter of The Planet, a daily world music program on ABC Radio National which made him a central figure in Australia’s cultural life. In 2007 he started the Sonic Sessions concert series. His pedal steel guitar playing earned him a place in Hugh Gregory’s book, 1000 Great Guitarists.

Steven Tingay is a Professor of Radio Astronomy at Curtin University and a Western Australian Premier's Research Fellow. He is the Director of the Murchison Widefield Array, a precursor SKA (Square Kilometre Array) telescope due to come into operation in early 2013. Steven also currently leads a large team of academics and students as Director of the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

Steven seeks out experiments that are difficult and risky, but potentially have high rewards. A spokesperson for the value of science in society, he was recently awarded the inaugural Science Ambassador of the Year at the 2012 WA Science Awards.