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NATO (Northern Arts Tactical Offensive)

Posted: February 4, 2010 · Comments: 0
Still from promo for NATO

Still from promo for NATO

This is one from the archives. A 35 second promo for the Northern Arts Tactical Offensive, to be used at screenings and events (obviously, or quacking for details may be somewhat less effective). NATO was a collective in Manchester who did various subversive and situationist-influenced performances and other artworks, including the March for Capitalism and a spoof tourist guide to Manchester for the Commonwealth Games (2002), directing tourists to the alternative Blitz Festival of international grassroots underground culture, in the form exhibitions, street theatre, outdoor music, film nights and presentations.

From NATO’s website:

NATO is a Manchester-based grassroots art collective. Our work as a collective, or through collaborative projects, aims to bring grassroots and underground art dealing with current social and environmental issues out of the confines of its more typical contexts, exposing it to a more diverse and mainstream audience.

We believe art and culture can be used as part of the transformation of life, society, and our everyday reality, not just a diversion from it.

True art and imagination can be used as part of the transformation of life, society, and our everyday reality, not a diversion from it. Art can be at its most inspired when it fosters awareness of the power each individual has to act for themselves, to make their own art, to believe in their own ideas, take control of their lives and change them.

Link to the subsequent Fundamental international art show exploring totalitarian religion here.

Done by Law

Posted: January 4, 2009 · Comments: 0

Done by Law

Done by Law Podcasts


In 2008 I was the web developer for the Done by Law website which was launched recently. Done by Law is the radical law show on much-loved 3CR community radio here in Melbourne, produced by a great team of people working in various areas of the law for the Federation of Community Legal Centres in Victoria.

The site is a simple audio blog built using WordPress, designed by Tom Civil of the wonderful local publishers, artists and activists Breakdown Press, and project managed by Marian Prickett from the Done by Law show. I had a lot of fun making this website, hacking WordPress is a fiddly yet satisfying thing to do. It’s also satsifying helping a community radio show find it’s place on the web.

Revolting in Prague

Posted: August 9, 2008 · Comments: 0

Shooting in Prague for Undercurrents

Shooting in Prague for Undercurrents

Revolting in Prague (26mins 23sec, 2000). Riots, pink fairies, corporate men and money. An insight into the IMF/World Bank summit which activists shut down in 2000. 50,000 people traveled to Prague to stop the money men destroying our planet.

This is a video produced by Undercurrents (directed by Paul O’Connor), the video activist production company where I worked in 2000-2001, of the IMF / World Bank protests in Prague, 2000. I was a camera operator for the event, following the pink and silver march, with my camera buddy, Flo.

It was quite an experience, being part of a huge mass of people from all over Europe and the world, converging to protest the policies of these institutions who put economic restructuring ahead of people and the environment, demanding that governments privatise basic services, build infrastructure such as dams without regard for environmental and social destruction and more in exchange for their development loans. Undercurrents was part of the independent media who came together around the prague.indymedia.org project to tell a broader story of the protest than the narrow, conflict-based news coverage in the mainstream press.

Climate On The Linec

Posted: July 29, 2008 · Comments: 0
Climate Camp in Newcastle

Climate Camp in Newcastle

Climate On The Line (1min 53sec, 2008) is a brief clip showing brave young protestors laying themselves on the line (literally – the train line), as part of a series of peaceful direct action blocking the coal trains in Newcastle. Many groups of activists prevented the coal trains from running all day, in one of Australia’s biggest displays of direct action against the destructive export of coal which is fueling climate change.

I was in Newcastle recently for Climate Camp Australia 2008. It was an inspiring few days of workshops, info sessions, movement building skillsharing stuff and actions to stop coal trains from running to Port Waratah all day, in one of Australia’s biggest displays of direct action against exports from the world’s biggest coal port, one of Australia’s biggest contributions to destructive climate change.

It was also a convergence for some young folk who were covering the event independent media style. I was helping out organising the media space and doing a spot of filming/editing too.

Check out this video on EngageMedia of activists locked on to the coal trains on Sunday 13th July:

You can find more coverage of the camp and associated actions here on EngageMedia.

Subvertising at the OK Cafe

Posted: March 20, 2008 · Comments: 0
Still from Subvertising at the OK Cafe

Still from Subvertising at the OK Cafe

Subvertising at the OK Cafe (4 mins 53 sec, 2002) is a short D.I.Y. video about subvertising and stencilling, which shows you how to create stencils from ordinary materials you can find at home.

I made this video about a subvertising and stencil graffiti workshop at the OK Cafe in Manchester in 2002. The OK Cafe was the name of an ongoing squatted social centre that moved from squat to squat over the years, run by different collectives. Workshops, parties and meetings etc. were held in this incarnation of the OK Cafe – an old pub near Deansgate.

Memorably, at one squat party (scene of my first ever dj set) there was only one toilet that worked upstairs, so another was constucted using an old-style red phonebooth and a bucket. Partygoers had to pop into the phonebooth just off the dancefloor to relieve themselves during the night. The party was really fun, my friend Alex pulled out a drumkit into the middle of the dancefloor for my set and drummed along to the tunes (a mixture of punk, riot grrl, electroclash and rnb as I recall). It was an all-girl d.j. night, my friend Hazel also played an amazing set the highlight of which was the crowd going wild to Joan Baez’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and Jo Banana played a steamy set of northern soul.

Anyways, I digress, the workshop was by a couple of excellent local graphic and stencil artists who were also responsible for great political posters and whatnot. This video was made for BeyondTV, the video distro site I was working on at the time, played in the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2003.

For now you can view the video here.

Oceania Indymedia Newsreal

Posted: March 18, 2008 · Comments: 0
Still from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal 3

Still from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal 3


Oceania Indymedia Newsreal was a compilation of short, critical documentaries focusing on social and environmental issues in South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Distributed online and also on VCD, three editions were produced in 2003, 2004 and 2005 including pieces on Maori struggles in Aotearoa, East Timorese campaigning over Australia’s theft of oil in the Timor sea, life in the slums of Jakarta, climate change in the Pacific, Food not Bombs in Australia and much more.

I co-produced the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal with Tim Parish and Andrew Lowenthal in conjunction with Access News and EngageMedia, and did the motion-graphics and authoring for all three discs. This is one example from the newsreals, featuring a confronting and moving video “Through The Wire” about the 2002 breakout from the Woomera asylum-seeker detention centre, directed by the late video activist extraordinaire, Pip Starr.

More videos from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal can be found here on EngageMedia.

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