Jason Maling is an Aotearoa-born, Naarm-based interdisciplinary artist working across participatory performance, installation, sculpture and social practice. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Strange Engine, an artist-led organisation that supports ambitious, long-form and site-responsive work through tailored production, financial and dramaturgical frameworks.

Maling’s practice is centred on the design of situations rather than objects. He builds systems that people enter into, navigate and reshape, often without fully realising where the authorship sits. These works frequently unfold over extended durations and operate across civic spaces, institutions and unconventional sites, combining live performance, constructed environments, sound, image and social choreography. His approach is structured but deliberately open-ended, allowing meaning to emerge through participation, attention and interaction. His projects have been presented widely across Australia and internationally, often in contexts where art is not expected to behave in conventional ways.

 Anna Schoo is a producer and arts professional with a rare combination of large-scale delivery experience and deep engagement with experimental practice. A long-time collaborator of Jason Maling, she works across programming, production and business management, supporting projects that range from civic spectacles to highly idiosyncratic, artist-led works.

Her career spans major public events and independent practice, including roles as Program Manager for the inaugural White Night Melbourne, programmer for the inaugural festival of The School of Life Australia, and programmer for New Year’s Eve celebrations for the City of Melbourne. She has worked across numerous major festival delivery teams and toured extensively with large-scale productions.

From 2017 to 2024, Schoo was Creative Producer for The Wired Lab, where she supported the development of experimental, site-responsive work in regional New South Wales. She holds a postgraduate degree in Performance Creation from the Victorian College of the Arts and is currently Executive Producer of both Born in a Taxi and Strange Engine. Her work is defined by an ability to hold complex projects together without flattening their ambition.

 Martyn Coutts is an artist, dramaturg and educator working across performance, digital media and participatory practice. His work frequently sits between disciplines, integrating live performance with video, sound and technical systems in ways that are both conceptually rigorous and pragmatically grounded.

He lectures in Digital Media and Projection at the Victorian College of the Arts and has an extensive background in video design for performance, collaborating with a wide range of artists and companies. Coutts has a particular interest in how media systems shape perception, behaviour and collective experience. He moves easily between artistic and technical roles, often acting as a bridge between idea and execution. His work is marked by an ability to hold complexity without overcomplicating it, allowing projects to remain responsive while still structurally sound.

 Sarah Rodigari is an artist and researcher whose practice moves between performance, installation and text. Her work is often durational and site-responsive, shaped through careful attention to context, conversation and the subtle dynamics that emerge when people gather.

She has presented work at major institutions including the Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, ACCA and MUMA, as well as internationally in New York and Mexico City. Rodigari’s approach is precise and process-driven, often resisting spectacle in favour of quieter, more sustained forms of engagement. Her projects tend to unfold gradually, revealing their structure through time rather than declaration. Alongside her artistic practice, she contributes to research and teaching in contemporary performance, maintaining a strong connection between thinking and making.

Jackson Castiglione is a multidisciplinary artist working across performance, film, audio and public art. His practice often centres on participation and voice, with a particular emphasis on working with children and non-professional performers.

He has developed projects across a range of formats including live performance, podcasts and community-based works, often using accessible structures to invite direct and unfiltered responses. Castiglione has previously worked with pvi collective and is currently Artistic Director of Infinity, where he develops performance work with and for young people. His projects frequently balance humour and critique, creating environments where participants are encouraged to speak plainly, take ownership and occasionally disrupt the expected tone of the situation.

Rebecca Burdon is a senior executive and advisor working in climate policy, energy transition and regulatory systems. Her professional background sits outside the arts, bringing a different kind of rigour and perspective to collaborative projects.

She has held leadership roles across research, consulting and policy organisations in Australia and internationally, working at the intersection of government, industry and public policy. Her focus is on governance, large-scale systemic change and the design of frameworks that support transition within complex environments. Burdon’s involvement in artistic contexts reflects an interest in how creative practices intersect with broader systems, particularly where questions of responsibility, ethics and long-term impact are at play.

Willoh S. Weiland is an artist, writer and curator known for developing ambitious, large-scale projects that operate across disciplines and involve diverse publics. Her work often brings together artists, non-artists and communities to produce outcomes that are both expansive and grounded in lived experience.

From 2010 to 2018 she was Artistic Director and CEO of Aphids, where she led the development of a significant body of experimental work and supported a wide range of artists. Her practice is driven by a commitment to collaboration, liveness and the social potential of art, often taking on projects that are complex, logistically demanding and conceptually bold. She continues to work across artistic, curatorial and advisory roles nationally.

Madeleine Collie is an artist, writer and researcher whose practice spans live art, performance and text. Her work is often subtle and durational, exploring intimacy, time and the conditions under which participation becomes meaningful.

She has worked across Australia and internationally, including in the UK, and has been associated with research contexts such as Goldsmiths, University of London. Hodge’s practice frequently operates at the edges of visibility, favouring situations that unfold slowly and resist easy categorisation. Alongside her artistic work, she contributes to critical discourse through writing and research, maintaining a close relationship between reflection and practice.

Jess Olivieri is an artist and curator working across visual art, dance and theatre. Her practice is grounded in collaboration and long-term engagement, often working with communities to develop projects that respond to specific social and spatial contexts.

She is currently Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects, where she leads a program of socially engaged and community-based work. Olivieri’s projects frequently navigate the intersection of artistic process and lived experience, creating frameworks that support participation while maintaining a clear conceptual direction. Her work reflects an ongoing commitment to expanding how and where art can operate.

 Lara Thoms is a Naarm-based artist, curator and creative producer whose work sits at the intersection of social practice, performance and public life. She has a long-standing interest in bringing together unlikely groups of people and holding those encounters in ways that are both generous and quietly subversive.

Her projects often involve complex collaborations with participants outside the arts, ranging from community groups to specialists with highly specific knowledge. There is usually a strong conceptual frame underpinning the work, but it is delivered with a lightness that allows humour and contradiction to remain active. Thoms has held significant leadership roles in the sector, including as Co-Artistic Director of Aphids, and has worked extensively across festivals, galleries and independent contexts in Australia and internationally. Her practice consistently returns to questions of authorship, power and how artistic structures can redistribute voice without losing clarity.