Researchers | Social Archives: Circus Video

Research Team

Within the Australian Research Council (ARC) system a specific nomenclature is used to refer to research team members. These are people listed in the application and their roles are defined. Chief Investigators (CI’s) is the term used to refer to the principal investigators in a research project. ARC funded projects commonly consist of teams of Chief Investigators (CI’s), Partner Investigators (PI’s), and Australian Postgraduate Award PhD (APA) candidates who receive a scholarship.

Chief Investigators

Associate Professor David Carlin (Project Leader) (RMIT University): David brings to this project experience as a film and video documentary maker and former show director of Circus Oz. He has taught and led projects at RMIT focused on social and participatory media, and has scholarly and creative publications in the field of memory, narrative and media archives. This project provides him the opportunity to draw together these diverse interests and knowledge in leading an exciting inter disciplinary team of researchers from academia and industry. (RMIT research portfolio.)

Associate Professor James Thom (RMIT University): Jamie is a computer scientist with extensive experience in text retrieval, document databases and image/video retrieval. His main contribution to this project will be in the technology that supports content based video retrieval and combines it with community tagging. He will be the main supervisor for the computer science students working directly or indirectly on this project. His homepage with links to his publications is at http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/~jat/

Associate Professor Laurene Vaughan (RMIT University): Laurene Vaughan brings to the project an interest and diverse experience in exploring the ways that people experience the space of digital environments. She has extensive experience in design and practice based research and draws on these methodologies in her research and practice. In this project she has set herself two framing questions that will inform her individual approach to the collaboration. These are: How can the experience and the personality of the circus be maintained in this new space? How can rich layers of narrative be embedded in the experience of engaging with a database/archive? She will also be actively engaged in the supervision of the PhD candidates. (RMIT profile.)

Adrian Miles (RMIT University): Adrian has extensive expertise in online video with extensive publications in the field and being one of the first video bloggers in the world. In addition he is very familiar with social media from both a practical, and theoretical point of view. His main web site is at http://vogmae.net.au


Professor Peta Tait (LaTrobe University): Professor Peta Tait, from the Theatre and Drama Program at La Trobe University, has published extensively on circus and is one of the few scholars writing on new circus and specially on Circus Oz. She has worked with Dr Jane Mullett on Circus Oz materials over a number of years. She brings her knowledge of circus research, practices and archives to this project. See http://www.latrobe.edu.au/drama/tait.html

Partner Investigators

Mike Finch (Circus Oz): Mike Finch has been CircusOz’s Artistic Director since 1997, and before that was a co-founder of the Wollongong-based Circus Monoxide. He has a particular interest in the use of motion capture within the live performing arts. He has experimented with the use of video as a creative tool within the Circus Oz rehearsal room, utilising rehearsal footage and mash-up techniques to inform the creation of the live show’s running order. (www.circusoz.com.au)

Dr Nick Herd (Australia Council for the Arts)

Nick Herd is Director, Research and Strategic Analysis at the Australia Council. Nick has an extensive background in the cultural sector since the seventies. He has taken on many roles in that time, including exhibitor, distributor, broadcaster, broadcasting regulator, industry advocate, consultant, teacher and author.


Pete Williams (Circus Oz): Circus Oz Board Member Peter Williams is one of Australia’s thought leaders on innovation and online, mobile and emerging technology. Peter is a Partner with Deloitte, CEO of the newly formed Deloitte Digital, and until recently, was CEO of Australia’s largest online mobile and emerging technology firm, Eclipse. His work with the Flowerdale community was recently recognised internationally with the Forrester Research Groundswell Award for best use of social media for social impact. (Profile at Deloitte.)

Patricia Stokes (Victorian Arts Centre Trust – Performing Arts Collection)

Research Staff

Dr Kim Baston (Research Assistant)

Kim Baston has had an extensive career as a musician, composer and director of theatre and circus in the UK and Australia, and completed a doctorate on the function of music in contemporary performance at La Trobe University. She lectures at NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) in circus history and culture. She is responsible for digitizing the Circus Oz collection, and also answers stray questions about circus in general.

Laetitia Shand (Project Officer)

Laetitia holds extensive experience in marketing, arts and academic coordination. She has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from the University of Newcastle and a Diploma of Visual Art from RMIT. She enjoys working with people, time and resources to deliver outstanding projects. Her favourite Circus Oz act from the vault features ‘Erik the Dog’.

PhD Candidates

Reuben Stanton (interaction design, social media, web 2.0): This project offers me the opportunity to combine my extensive skills in interaction design and software development with my interest in the performing arts in the context of a real-world research project. I’m excited by this prospect, especially the new possibilities offered within social media environments with regard to ideas around history, narrative, collaborative video production, and shared experience.”; Lukman Iwan (computer science)

Research Associates

Dr. Jane Mullett (RMIT University): Jane Mullett, PhD, was the 2010 Research Fellow for the Circus Oz Living Archive Project. She was directly involved in the successful ARC Linkage application for this project. She has two strands of research interests: a long term practical and theoretical interest in circus performance and its cultural value; and an interest in climate change adaptation, particularly in the collaboration between art and science to create conceptual and applied knowledge of adaptation needs.
Jeremy Yuille: Jeremy Yuille is an interaction designer, digital media artist and academic with a background in digital art, music, performance and architecture. He has a Bachelor of Design Studies from the Architecture department of the University of Queensland and a Masters of Design from the Spatial Information Architecture Lab at RMIT University. Jeremy is a co-founder of the Media and Communication Design Studio at RMIT, where he undertakes collaborative research with the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID), supervises postgraduate students, and holds interaction design studios. He is also a certified scrum-master, and has been a director of the Interaction Design Association.