PUBLIC PROJECTS

My public projects delve into the role of arts and culture as catalysts for education, development and change, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have taken place across Australia and the Asia Pacific for organisations such as the International Red Cross and United Nations.

In the projects below, I have played leadership and mentoring roles in exploring how creative practice, creativity, futures and design can be used in community settings to support systems change. Selected projects are showcased here and further projects can be provided on request.

I have over two decades of experience writing for the UN and the International Red Cross, as well as regularly contributing to and publishing the independent magazine SINTEZO, which I co-founded with Jelenko Dragisic in 2020. 

I am also currently enrolled in Faber's Writing A Novel course and working on my first book, Island of Strangers, a work of literary fiction that explores what it means to sustain clarity in a time marked by uncertainty.

SINTEZO is a magazine about how ideas evolve, change, appear, disappear, reappear and morph. It is intended to be a more defined space for conversation; it is an attempt to curate a broad conversation that can be informative and evocative.  A place where science and art become collaborating, informing forces.

Further information is available at https://sintezo.com.au/

FORESIGHT

BARI Festival
Brisbane

The Foresight installation took place as part of the BARI Festival to consider water scarcity and abundance and alternative futures to water usage. Communities were offered an immersive experience, swimming amongst the light and sound installation during the event.

Installed in the heritage listed Spring Hill Baths, built in 1886, the installation aimed to activate the space and open up a discussion about what our world could feel like, and inspire people to help shape it for the better in a playful and future thinking way when thinking about water.  It asked how Australian urban and rural communities could evolve with their fragile environments, and with ongoing water shortages or increases in water that disruption brings. It sought to counter an emerging perspective where the future is no longer something we shape through positive insights or choices, but rather something confined to narrow perspectives or threats.

DEAR CLIMATE 

School of Visual Arts’ Visual and Critical Studies Residency
New York, New York

Dear Climate is an installation re-imagining the wishing well. This work explores the concept of the human-nature relationship and shifts in climate through a wishing well situated in the waters of the Hudson River, inviting community to make a wish on behalf of the climate.

Installed at Chelsea Piers in the waters of the Hudson River, New York.  

STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE

c3 contemporary art space
Melbourne, Australia

Exhibited at c3 contemporary art space in Melbourne considers how the manifestations of myths, such as astrology, and popular culture are explored in the writing of French Philosophers Roland Barthes and Michel Serres.  Originating from an astrological chart, provided by Argentinian astrologer Corina Mascotti, this projection, prints and sound works maps the location of the planets and their symbolic meanings.  This potentially reveals a future prediction which allows different elements or ideas to emerge. It provides an opportunity to consider new pathways bringing us closer together as individuals, as discussed in Serres, and invites participants to pause and reflect on the role we are playing on contributing and addressing collective problems.   

Concept, prints and sound 
Caroline Austin, Fiona Jeanne Grisard, Mabel Frautsch. Projection Peter Thiedek

Mirror Mirror
Film
Release date
2025

This film project is a collaboration between myself and the director and actor, Candice Hill. The film explores concepts of narcissism and self-obsession, pushing boundaries and mediums, referencing sculpture and space as layers upon traditional storytelling. My creative direction in this film included responsibility for art direction, including costumes and set design, furniture and props, as well as the overall creative concept.

Photo credit: James Latter and Foxhole Films.

Curatorial Practice and Artworks