Joyce Hinterding, Floric Antenna 1 (Orange Lichen study) detail, 2018 Eraphite on glass, wood, custom cables, mixer headphones 85 × 85 cm
About ANAT
The seeds for ANAT were first sown in 1984 through Interface, an art and technology project presented at the Adelaide Festival of Arts. Its popularity led to a research-based pilot in 1985 and a national consultancy tour in 1987, culminating in ANAT incorporating as the Australian Network for Art in Technology in 1988.
About ANAT
Over the past 35 years, the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) has cultivated opportunities for artists to create experimental work in and with science and technology.
What We Do
Through residencies, symposia, workshops and other professional activities supported by robust national and international networks, ANAT plays a unique and critical role in Australia’s artistic and cultural ecosystem.
Beyond the Arts
We acknowledge that humanity and our planet Earth is amid a transformative era, facing some of the greatest ecological, social, cultural, economic and technical challenges in human history.
The Importance of Storytelling
As a species, the stories we bring to life in this decade will contribute to living beings and systems, flourishing or failing — including humans. ANAT’s artists play a critical role in this. We are being invited to consider whose stories bring life to and in what ways.
The Centrality of Collaboration
Collaboration is in ANAT’s DNA. We forge relationships across industry, academia, the community and government to create unique opportunities for artists. It is in this confluence that we imagine, research and invent new solutions and breakthroughs.
A Vast Network of Alumni
The ANAT Alumni is a vast network comprising hundreds of artists, scientists and technologists who have participated in our art, science and technology programs since 1989.
NAVA Code of Practice Supporter
ANAT supports NAVA’s recommendations for all arts policies to have a binding requirement by the federal government through Creative Australia and all state and territory governments that fees be paid by all government funded organisations to artists who have been commissioned or have loaned works for exhibition. These fees must be paid at least at the minimum recommended rates specified in the NAVA Code of Practice for the Professional Visual Arts, Craft and Design Sector.
Board
The ANAT Board is responsible for ensuring that ANAT’s strategic vision and mission are actively connected to ANAT’s operations. The Board is supported in this by three subcommittees focused on Risk, Development and Human Resources. The Board is made up of duly elected members of ANAT. Additional members may also be co-opted within the guidelines of the ANAT constitution.
MICHAEL NELSON
He/Him
Michael works with international information provider LexisNexis. For a decade prior to that, he was senior manager at Sheahan Lock Partners, a multidisciplinary insolvency practice, focusing on forensic investigation and complex litigation. Before that, he spent 15 years working as a marketing and communications specialist in the performing arts arena, including time with the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Adelaide Festival of Arts and Australian Dance Theatre, and the Federal Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.
BRAD DARKSON
He/Him
Brad Darkson is a South Australian visual artist currently working across various media including sound, sculpture, multimedia installation, and painting. Brad's practice is regularly focused on site specific works, and his current research interests include technology, surveillance, identity, ritualised human behaviour, and the neo-capitalist hellhole we're all forced to exist within. Conceptually Brad's work is often informed by strong ties to both his Narungga First Nations and Anglo Australian heritage.
MELISSA DELANEY
She/Her
Melissa's work dwells in the intersections of arts and cultural development, education and government, recreation, wellness, creative industries, technology and science, in work she sees as social sculpture.
A vital focus of the work and practice is interdisciplinary partnerships and collaboration.
With post graduate qualifications in creative industries, visual art and arts management, Melissa's recent practice is centred around creating systems of care, resources and networks, and shaped by a philosophical grounding in the slow movement and the intimate.
Additionally, Melissa is certified in mindfulness meditation teaching, is a trained raw food chef and Yin Yoga teacher and holds a graduate degree in Wellness (Health Science) through RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), fields she brings into a holistic approach to work and leadership.
In April, 2024 Melissa was made an Adjunct Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT School of Art.
MELITA GRANT
She/Her
Melita is a Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. She works with social justice and sustainability partners from the Asia-Pacific region, and specialises in integrated water resources management in international development with a focus on inclusion. With an academic background in international relations and environmental management, Melita has expertise in a range of sustainable development issues, and has worked for over 20 years’ in government, university, and civil society sectors. Melita is exploring artistic connections with water management programs in the Pacific as part of her PhD in support of decolonising methodologies.
r e a
They / Them
r e a (they/them) is the artist’s professional name. They are also known as Dr. Rea Saunders and are from the Gamilaraay / Wailwan and Biripi peoples of NSW. They currently live and work in the Blue Mountains (Dharug Country). r e a is an experimental interdisciplinary artist / curator / activist / researcher/ cultural educator and creative thinker. Their creative practise-led research extends over three decades, their art often focuses on unveiling the silence of the colonial archive. Their creative research extends into the reclamation and reframing of the bla(c)k queer body, as they re-story Indigeneity and bla(c)kness! r e a has received numerous scholarships and grants throughout their creative and academic career, these include: a Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, a New Media Arts Fellowship (Australia Council for the Arts), a Fulbright Scholarship; and the Australia Council Award for Emerging and Experimental Art in 2020.
MICHELE SAINT-YVES
She/Her
Living with disability on Kaurna Country, Michèle Saint-Yves primarily writes for performance—stage, screen, and poetry. Her embedded access ground-breaking play CLOCK FOR NO TIME won the SA RUBY AWARD 2022 for ‘Outstanding Work: Collaboration.’ She has four degrees, with the latest in 2020 as a medico-neuroscientist, winning UniSA Cancer Research Institute’s Cancer Biology Prize.
CHRISTOPHER D. SCHAFFER
He/Him
Christopher D. Schaffer was admitted as a Lawyer in 2014 and began his legal career with the graduate program of the Australian Taxation Office before being called to the Private Bar in 2021. Christopher accepts briefs broadly across civil and commercial areas of practice, including Taxation, Equity and Trusts, Judicial Review, Administration, Debt and Insolvency, Succession and Estate, and Property and Contract matters.
Christopher has special interests in strategic advice, Not-For-Profit and Charity groups, and Artificial Intelligence. He enjoys exploring art, both old and new, and finding creative outlets in written pieces and through working with people, particularly in educational environments, having been a sessional academic since 2022.
ANA TIQUIA
She/Her
For nearly 15 years Ana has worked as a strategist, cultural producer, curator and artist at the intersections of art, technology, design, and futures research. Ana is founder of cultural and strategic consultancy All Tomorrow’s Futures, and has worked in the UK and Australia with organisations including Somerset House, the Barbican, Melbourne Museum and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra to produce exhibitions, installations, and interactive projects using advanced technologies. As an artist, Ana explores how practices and infrastructures make worlds. Her work intervenes in everyday, workplace, and institutional practices to seed diverse futures of data and technology, work and labour, and energy, material, and multispecies relations.
BRAD TUCKER
He/Him
Brad Tucker is an Astrophysicist and Cosmologist at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mt. Stromlo Observatory, and the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University. Brad received Bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Philosophy, and Theology from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in Astrophysics and Cosmology from Mt. Stromlo Observatory at ANU. He leads programs using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and TESS to understand why and how stars explode. He’s also building a network of ultraviolet telescopes in the upper atmosphere and conducting a search for Planet 9.
Brad frequently gives talks to school groups and the public about Astronomy and has regular segments on various radio and TV stations. He has also developed a series of Astronomy coins with the Royal Australian Mint, consulted on science fiction movies, and has been featured in TV specials. Currently, he is in the process of writing his first popular book and has developed an online Astronomy course.
Staff
The staff at ANAT deliver ANAT’s mission to engage with art, science and technology to enable and influence cultural, community and economic developments. Their experience, dedication and creativity, focused on a shared vision, ensure the success of ANAT’s ground-breaking programs.
MELISSA DELANEY
Chief Executive Officer | melissa@anat.org.au
She/Her
Melissa's work dwells in the intersections of arts and cultural development, education and government, recreation, wellness, creative industries, technology and science, in work she sees as social sculpture.
A vital focus of the work and practice is interdisciplinary partnerships and collaboration.
With post graduate qualifications in creative industries, visual art and arts management, Melissa's recent practice is centred around creating systems of care, resources and networks, and shaped by a philosophical grounding in the slow movement and the intimate.
Additionally, Melissa is certified in mindfulness meditation teaching, is a trained raw food chef and Yin Yoga teacher and holds a graduate degree in Wellness (Health Science) through RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), fields she brings into a holistic approach to work and leadership.
In April, 2024 Melissa was made an Adjunct Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT School of Art.
JENN BRAZIER
Program Manager | jenn@anat.org.au
She/Her
Jenn Brazier is a practicing photomedia artist with a Bachelor of Visual Art, majoring in Photography and Digital Imaging. She has worked in the arts industry for 20 years across a broad spectrum of the sector, including higher education, a commercial gallery and public art (Arts programming) at the City of Adelaide. Areas of interest in the support of artists and the cultural community as integral to planning and programming include First Nations led practices, a focus on experimental and cross-disciplinary arts and ways of working that celebrates, encompasses and values quiet ways of listening and learning for richer artistic experiences and outcomes.
Jenn originally began her career in the arts at ANAT back in 2004 as Membership & Administration Officer. In 2017 she returned with a focus to enable artists to push the boundaries of creative experimentation.
CAROLLYN KAVANAGH
Marketing & Communications Manager | carollyn@anat.org.au
She/Her
Carollyn Kavanagh is a communications strategist, independent curator and graphic designer living on Kaurna Yarta. An unwavering advocate for the intrinsic value of art, she recognises the indispensable role that artists play in shaping our world. Prior to her current role, Carollyn was Project Curator at SALA (South Australian Living Artists Festival), Design and Communications Coordinator at Guildhouse, as well as Senior Print Designer at News Corp.
Carollyn has a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communications, a Graduate Diploma in Art History and a Masters Degree in Curatorial and Museum Studies. Her master's thesis focused on house museums' unique hybrid public-private nature.
STEVEN PICKLES
Technical Officer | pix@anat.org.au
He/They
Steven Pickles, aka Pix, is a founding member of Hackerspace Adelaide. After getting a degree in Computer Science, he quickly fell in with the wrong crowd and spent a decade helping artists build interactive installations for the European new media art festival circuit. His work has given him a unique perspective on the relationship between technology and the arts, backed up by an enduring fascination with all things geeky.
AUSHAF WIDISTO
Project & Communications Officer | aushaf@anat.org.au
He/Him
Aushaf is an emerging writer and arts administrator from Indonesia. He provides support across all ANAT departments, including business operations, marketing & communications, and programs.
Having received a Bachelor of Urban & Regional Planning from Institut Teknologi Bandung and a Master of Cultural & Creative Industries from Monash University, Aushaf’s goal is to leverage arts and culture to create better cities and communities.
His writing has been featured in numerous publications across the web, both under his real name and pen name Adam Erland. In 2023, he was the Writer-in-Residence at The Mill Adelaide.
Aushaf's debut book, A Decade That Matters, was published in January 2024 with Makna Group Indonesia.
RUBY BRAZIER-POPE
She/Her
As a Gen Alpha fluent in technology, Ruby has a strong interest in immersive art forms, preferring to work with themes exploring loyalty, affection and protection. Not one for shunning more traditional forms though, she cites ceramics as a favourite (in particular, bone porcelain).
Since starting her residency, Ruby has enjoyed working closely with her new colleagues, excelling in security and ‘the zoomies.’ The therapeutic value of Ruby's HR tasks including offering social support, reducing stress and increasing cognitive abilities, have made for an even happier ANAT office.