What has changed in your perspective towards your work?

I’ve got a product design - industrial kind not digital - background so I’m really curious about systems. With products it’s about how things are made, the thinking process behind it and the wider systems the product functions within and has an impact on. Thinking about Covid-19... it’s been such a system disruptor and across a lot of aspects of life. It’s brought out vulnerabilities we have in ourselves, communities, industries, businesses and organisations and of course in the creative sector too. In a lot of ways it’s a situation we all haven’t had to deal with before and there’s that confronting thought of how do we even deal with this?? It’s a lot to take in! We’re all dealing with it in different ways and it’s become important to be conscious of that when engaging with people and in business.

Personally, it’s been a struggle to work at times. Feeling unmotivated, tired, mind-elsewhere, down, lonely, all sorts! I tried to become observant of that and see what kind of mood or vibe I’m in and match doing work and other things to that. So working to or with your mood. It sometimes worked haha

For work at The Open Fort - with the first lockdown, we had projects go from ‘it’s happening’ (pre-covid), ‘let’s see what happens and wait a moment’ (at the start of lockdown) to ‘let’s put it on hold’ and eventually ‘cancelled’... So, when it comes to designing and delivering activations and engagements now we also devise variations to go with the alert levels or how it could work across them. Like hands-off and hands-on versions. Every project now has an additional creative challenge flex in there.

Overall... perspective wise in regards to creative work - and actually creative outputs in general - I feel it’s even more important for there to be projects and opportunities for people to express and decompress themselves in healthy ways, share how we’re doing and artforms to help express and articulate that and lastly, create moments to enjoy and appreciate what we can!

How did you keep in touch with your peers during isolation?

I sure did! It would have been absolutely unbearable and isolating to another level if I couldn’t do that. I live by myself and in hindsight it would have been more comfortable to be elsewhere! There were phone calls, video calls, every weekday work calls with Toby, shared movie watching, message groups, games online especially drawing ones and video games.

Thanks to everyone for all the contact and connecting moments throughout all of this!

Is there a particular moment this year that you remember?

My birthday this year because it was a complete contrast to last year’s. Last year it took place during the first lockdown in my tiny apartment where I live by myself. Though there were video and phone calls it still felt a bit of a downer to not be around people. This year though it was filled with family, friends, loved ones and ice cream! The best things in life. Going from one extreme to the other and with the overall circumstances we’re all in makes me really appreciative of moments where we can come together in person.

Like the stranded island scenario, if you knew you were going to be in isolation, what are 3 things you would have planned to have with you?

A touch screen laptop, noise cancelling bluetooth headphones and a game controller.

What kind of art have you turned to in this past year?

It’s great that art takes so many forms so I’ll be wide in my response to this question and share some of the creative content and mediums I’ve been getting into.

TV Shows! I watched through a few which I know people have recommended to me for yeeeaars like Community. I purposely try not to catch up on shows because I know what I’m like - I will binge.

Pop Music! I really enjoy listening to music and there’s really great and well made pop songs coming out from around the world. However, because I almost only listen to mixtapes on Soundcloud I have no idea who I’m listening to anymore and often there’s not a lot of pop. So, I thought I’d indulge and re-familiarise myself with the genre and I’ll be honest I really enjoyed it!

Photo Essays! I love this format for storytelling and news reporting. I’ve been following BBC’s ‘News in Pictures’ for over 10 years. You can get a glimpse into a topic, event or circumstance along the vibe of ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. I ended up thinking of ones for me to do during lockdown too after walking almost all the streets within the CBD and making sketches and notes on sites of interest.

And! I’ve been doing a bit of drawing, sketching of product and furniture ideas I have and listening to history podcasts which I’ve really gotten into.