Arts, Culture & Research

Makers

Makers

TRAX
Melbourne | Australia

Tara Prowse, Producer

Tara Prowse is a creative producer and multimedia artist, with skills in large scale project and production management. Originally from London, Tara has lived and worked in Australia for the last 9 years, where she completed post graduate studies in Community Cultural Development at one of Australia’s leading arts schools- Victorian College of the Arts, focusing her research on the significance of Digital/New Media in a community context. Since 2004 she has been Creative Producer for TRAX, developing live performance and digital media through cultural partnerships. Within TRAX Tara relishes her wide range of responsibility; curating, coordinating and producing; specifically in the last two multi-year projects Market Value & Under Me Skin. However, she is also an accomplished video designer and whenever she gets a chance to become the Artist again, she jumps at it, working in animation, short film & projection. Over the years Tara has worked with Melbourne Museum, World Vision Australia, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Department of Planning & Community Development, City of Melbourne, BighART, Next Wave Festival, Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts, Outback Theatre for Young People & a myriad of independent production companies and cultural development organisations.


Brian Cohen, Director
Born & raised in the environs of New York City, Brian is the swiss army knife of artists influenced heavily by years of rambling around the world on freight trains & social justice campaigning. After attaining his BA in Theatre from Fordham University, he staged theatrical productions of original work across the United States & Europe, and in 1999 he migrated to Australia. Now living in Melbourne he’s produced & directed theatre & film projects for a wide variety of clients including Melbourne City Council, World Vision, Oxfam, Polyglot Puppet Theatre, Outback Theatre, Big hArt, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Parkville Youth Justice & the Plan B Project. He intends to continue telling outrageous stories and be as close to the source of where they come from as possible.


Mandy Field, Creative/Research/Consultant
Mandy has worked with all arms and legs of the performing arts process: as a performer, in direction and in arts management, with a focus on physical theatre and outcomes in community and cultural development. She has trained in Body Weather, Dance Theatre, Clown, Mime and Puppetry, and has facilitated Community Projects for The Village, The Big West Festival, Yalikut Willam Ngargee, The Friendship Djerrip Festival and Woodford Folk Festival.


Victoria Stead, Social Researcher
Victoria Stead joined the Globalism Research Centre in 2007 as part of the Community Sustainability Program. She works primarily on the Institute’s projects in Papua New Guinea, particularly the ‘Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Livelihoods’ project, which uses a collaborative, community-engaged research methodology to identify alternate pathways to development. Victoria’s background is in politics and history, and her primary area of interest is contemporary social movements and political mobilization. She completed her Honours degree at La Trobe University in 2006. Victoria also co-ordinates the comparative database for the Community Sustainability Questionnaire, a well-being survey currently used in five of the countries in which the Globalism Research Centre works.


Samuel Van Ransbeek, Composer & Programmer
Samuel Van Ransbeeck is a Belgian composer living in Portugal since september 2006 and began working with TRAX in 2009 developing a range of new media projects. After finishing his studies in Latin-Modern languages in 2002, he went to study music theory and composition at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, Belgium. After completing his bachelors degree in Belgium in June 2007, he returned to Porto to obtain the Masters degree in composition. In 2008, the Stockwatch project was programmed in Max/MSP , a program that takes values of stocks at the stock exchange and transforms them into music. The program was received positively and gained critical acclaim all over the world.


Stu Liddell, Videographer & Sound Designer
A background in photography, television, music and filmaking bring Stuart into the media world multi-skilled.  He produces documentary style video and is skilled as a narrative director of fiction film.  As a musician and electronic music maker, he has toured, performed and accomplished feats as a sound designer for theatre and film.

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Vermont | USA

Tanya Gambardella, Artist
As a photographer, graphic designer & performer she has worked with groups like More Gardens! of NYC and Conservermont to promote awareness of causes such as public space, community gardens & sustainability. She runs intergenerational creative workshops in rural settings, bringing together young and old for collaborative exchange at places like the Cobscook Community Learning Center in rural Maine, as well as after school programs and recreation departments around central Vermont.

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Creative Associates:
Adam Katzman, Artist & Ecologist
 Angus Cerini, Writer & Actor
Bindi Green, Production Management
 Brendon Mikronis, Photographer
 Christie Petsinis, Architecture & Design
 Jeremy Angerson, Director/Producer/Actor
Jess Keepence, Production Management
 Katie Henfrey, Photographer
 Lou Smith, Editor & Writer
 Max de Bowen, Videographer
Maya Gorman, Production Designer
 Nadja Kostitch, Director/Producer/Actor
Paul Kavanagh, Technical Director
Sophia Di Venuto, New Media
 Stephanie Lake, Choreographer
Suzannah Morrison, Marketing
 Tom Civil, Graphic Design & Visual Artist

Backstory

Backstory

MAKING TRAX

In 2004 a couple of itinerant lovers named Brian & Tara kicked off TRAX as a family partnership, establishing an arts company which coincided with the birth of their daughter. The warehouse loft that was their home by day was also a stage at night and over the years the company grew producing live performance & new media projects often in partnership with people in communities.

TRAX initiates projects with organisations, government agencies, businesses and individuals and seeks to build authentic relationships through cultural enquiry. Working across genres from theatre to digital cinema and specialising in site-specific work, our interests are rooted in the arts, community and social justice.

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MANIFESTERING

In general terms, we are of the persuasion that new millennium societies are sorely missing functional ways of belonging and practicing collectivity. We share a sense of solidarity with those who experience forms of dislocation. We are not interested in using the arts as a development tool on demographics of people highlighted solely for their deficits, or institutionally imposed definitions of community. In measuring our neighbours through crime and income census data, well-intentioned interventions often overlook other areas of cultural crisis or beauty.

We like to acknowledge those spaces between people and seek to permeate barriers by creating opportunities to share power. Our contribution in this area is to democratise storytelling through New Media and afford it the highest production values and developmental attention we are resourced to achieve. We also delight in the fact that we are so close to the source of the stories we amplify, that they are mutually regarded as partnerships.

The working environments we establish enable equal emphasis on skill acquisition and artistic exploration; they are both culturally sensitive and fiercely creative. The bar is set high for artistic production values, but with a passion for research, we make a concerted effort to look after our process and measure the outcomes.

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THIS WEBSITE

Our front page is a Splash Gallery collection of diverse nibblets. In other websites you have to drill down through a menu structure to get to the goods, here if you see something you like in the Splash Gallery you open & explore the larger project it is a part of.

Partners

Partners

We gratefully acknowledge our partners & sponsors
for their generosity & friendships.


FUNDING BODIES

Australia Council for the Arts

Department of Planning & Community Development

Arts Victoria

Darebin Council

Preston Market


KNOWN ASSOCIATES

Breakdown Press

Outback Theatre for Young People

CuriousWorks

UTS Shopfront | University of Sydney

Paradigm Productions

Tape Projects

Polyglot Puppet Theatre

West Darling Arts

SquatSpace

Auspicious Arts Projects, Inc.

NEAT TV

Big Heavy World

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