Artists

Andrew Garton

Producer/Artistic Director

Andrew is a multi-disciplined new media artist who has been composing, performing and producing sound and video works for 27 years and hybrid media art over the past 15 years. He has worked extensively on the establishment of early Internet related services in Australia, the Pacific Islands and South East Asia and continues to work in the region fusing new media technologies with traditional arts practice with a strong cultural development focus.

He is co-founder and Artistic Director of Toy Satellite and a Council Member of the global Association for Progressive Communications. Andrew graduated in 2001 with a Master of Arts in Animation and Interactive Media and is currently curating a series of radiophonic works for ORF/KunstRadio on the theme of generative sound and radio frequency allocation.

John Power

3D special effects/video artist

After graduating in Fine Arts from Monash University in Caulfield, Melbourne, John worked for six years as a scenic artist in TV, Film, Ballet, Opera, and Theatre. During this time he also travelled through India, Europe, America, and New Zealand, and maintained his own practice as a painter, exhibiting in group shows around Melbourne and completing private commissions.

In 1995, he graduated with high distinction in the post graduate diploma in Animation and Interactive Multimedia at RMIT, Melbourne. After working at Planet X studios in animation and digital special effects for TV, John, as Art Director, helped set up the Olivetti (now Wang Global) Multimedia Centre in Melbourne.

John works with Post-grad and Research students at RMITs Centre for Animation and Interactive Media. in 2002, John completed his MA, which looked at notions of “Time-Based Collage” in desktop computer applications. John's current research is using Epic Game's “UnrealEd” software to develop real time video art work for live performance.

John began collaborating with Toy Satellite in 1998, designing interactive interfaces, video production and performance.

Justina Curtis

Webmaster

Justina is a co-founder and Director of Toy Satellite, working with the Association for Progressive Communication Women's Networking Support Program through Community Communications Online (c2o) and the Asian Women's Resource Exchange. She is also Web Standards Coordinator at RMIT University.

Justina's more recent work has centred around the use of Global Positioning System technology and the photo and video documentation of scalable references to the urban environment. She has collaborated with Andrew Garton on the production and performance of video works including Memory Effect (Small Black Box, Brisbane, 2002), BayFM New Years Eve Street Party (Byron Bay, NSW, Australia, 2002), From Drift to Derive (Small Black Box, Brisbane, 2003), D3 interactive (Australian Centre for the Moving Image).

Justina has performed with the Malvern Symphony Orchestra and the Fierce Throat screaming choir. She currently performs with the Preston Symphony Orchestra and consults to RMIT University's Information Technology Services.

Andrew Thomas

Interaction and interface designer

Andrew is an Art director and graphic designer working within the realms of new media and traditional graphic design. He has over six years extensive experience directing and producing visual design for local and global organisations, not-for-profit groups and cultural institutions in Australia, Asia and the UK.

Andrew graduated in Design (Graphic Design) with Honours at RMIT in 1998, and has since spent several years working independently and collaboratively with leading design practitioners in Australia and the UK. He has travelled extensively throughout Europe and South East Asia and is currently compiling a visual journal and photo essay of a recent trip from London to Bangkok via the Trans-Siberian railway.

Andrew has working collaboratively with Toy Satellite since 1999 and continues to direct and produce visual design on a contract basis. He is also Art Director for Secession Records, a Toy Satellite affiliate.

Ollie Olsen

Composer, synthesist

Ollie Olsen, composer, synthesist and sound designer, has been producing electronic and experimental music in Australia for the past thirty years. From his early studies in electronic music in the 70s, Ollie has gone on to produce a vast amount of work, ranging from experimental compositions to film and television soundtracks, to pop and dance music, to installation projects. He has lectured on electronic music at various universities and symposiums and performed with a wide variety of artists from across the globe.

Some Recent collaborations and projects include being nominated for Best Music Score for “Head On” AFI awards (2001); performed Generative/Regenerative live at Sonic Residues with Andrew Garton, Justina Curtis and John Power (2000); composed music and sound design for Troy Innocent's Semiomorph Installation (2001); performed with Negativland (from USA-2001); worked on the electronic component of Australian composer Richard Mills' opera, Batavia (2001); guest soloist with the Australian Art Orchestra (2002); recorded with Japanese bands, BOREDOMS and AOA (2001-2002); composed sound for Andrew Garton's D3 installation at ACMI (2003); contributed special effects sound design for Zhang Yimou's film House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Ollie is currently working on a number of recording projects, mostly electro-acoustic pieces for performance and release in 2005. They include performing at the What is Music? Festival alongside, The Residents, 01000, Pansonic, et al; and performing in the Terminal Quartet and its performance of Drift Theory 03.

Steve Law

Sound designer, performer

Since the early 1980s, Steve Law has been producing electronic music in various forms from his home in Melbourne. As a member of several electronic groups and from his many eclectic solo projects, he has released numerous recordings on labels all around the world. He also performs live frequently, both nationally and overseas.

Steve's many collaborations have included Ollie Olsen, Voiteck, Atom Heart, Tetsu Inoue, Riou, Speedy J, Alistair Riddell, Self Transforming Machine Elves, Monolake,Andrew Garton, Dale Nason, Bochum Welt, Terence Ho, Viridian, PaulAbad, Black Cab, Ai Yamamoto, High Pass Filter and Kazu Kimura. Locally, Steve has contributed to the Experimenta, Fringe, Electrofringe and Next Wave festivals, as well as composing music for film, multi-media and dance.

Steve has also been actively involved in Melbourne's electronic and experimental music scene since the late 1980s. In 1996 he was announced winner of the ABC Classic FM computer music award with his electro-acoustic composition "Urbania". Recently Steve has started his own label (Solitary), and has developed a particular interest in spatial audio and surround sound. He is also very interested in collaborating with other sound and vision artists, in recordings, audio-visual presentations and live improvisation.