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about
We're bearing daily witness to systems under strain… We routinely see bureaucrats scrambling with the whiplash of volatile markets, climate events wreaking havoc with devastating escalation, and our glue - our communities - are disconnecting, disassociating. And, at a very personal level, there's a feeling that life is inherently stressful, there’s never enough time, and it’s never quite possible to sit still and enjoy life.
I believe that as individuals, communities, and even as a species, we can make positive change. We can do something about the way we live our lives, and the places in which we live them.
With an ear for individual experience and an eye for design, I work with social research, civic engagement and digital media. a studio for all things is a collective space for the work, expertise and experience I dedicate towards making this positive change happen. The studio also has a blog - an online palette for the ideas which capture the places, people, spaces and projects inspiring this project.I hope you enjoy the studio, and that it flickers a thought, some inspiration or even a smile. And if it does, feel free to get in touch.
Cheers,
Talia
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bio
Ever inspired by cities which live and breathe their streets, in 2011 I departed my Melbourne home to be based in one of the world’s greatest urban laboratories - New York City.
With a background in social research, art and design, I specialize in understanding user experience and enhancing public participation. My research and projects span civic engagement, digital media, ethnography and urban installations.
I’m currently a Fellow at Project for Public Spaces, developing place-based research strategies and methods, including digital tools for community engagement and place evaluation. In life as an academic, I’m a Research Associate at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, University of Melbourne, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology.
I have a PhD, a study of museum visitor experience and screen-based art, contributed to a range of ethnographic studies about urban screens, broadcasting and social media, and coordinated tertiary courses in new media, policy, and urban culture. I publish about urbanism, art, media and politics, and recently co-edited a book about post-growth innovation, Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability (2011). As a social research consultant I’ve assisted government clients with audience research and communications strategy, and also regularly work with non-profits dedicated to social innovation and community-oriented urban design.
Yet, above all, with every observation, encounter and project, I'm an advocate for ‘the commons’, seeking ways that we can work collectively to turn our cities into thriving, vibrant places.
...And, in blissful moments when laptop-free, I’m usually hunting the sunshine, meandering on my bike, and planning my next glass-blowing adventure.
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projects
ETHNOGRAPHIC AND USER-EXPERIENCE RESEARCH
2013-2012 Occupying the Commons, New York City/Melbourne, Australia. Ongoing study about integrating urban and online experience to build the resilient capacity of communities. NYC-based fieldwork includes public space activation projects and community self-mobilization following Hurricane Sandy.
2012 Project for Public Spaces. New York City. Comparative user analysis study of key public plazas around New York City for prominent tourist destination client. Sites included Times Square, Herald Square, 911 Memorial. Data collected through methods such as time-lapse filming, behaviour mapping, flow counts and observation.
2011-2010 Social research consulting. Hall & Partners | Open Mind, Melbourne, Australia. Qualitative studies for public sector (Federal and State government) clients, using ethnographic techniques (group discussions, depth interviews, video and online ethnography) in policy areas such as climate change, immigration and refugee experience, gambling and economic reform. Products have included audience segmentation, developmental and baselines studies, behaviour change/agenda setting strategy, developing communications products with creative agencies.
2009 Australians’ Attitudes Towards Animal Farming. School of Design & Social Context, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. A qualitative, nation-wide social science study which used photo-elicitation techniques to identify factors that influence perceptions of animal rights. Coordinated empirical research activities, led focus groups, produced media catalogue for project library and reports for key stakeholders. Grant subsequently awarded to develop evaluation matrix for sustainable factory farming practices.
2008-07 Public Screens & the Transformation of Public Space, School of Culture & Communication, Melbourne University, Australia. A study into the impact of large public screens, based in Federation Square, Melbourne. Co-ordinated ethnographic research (recruitment, interviews and observation), visual documentation of empirical site, preliminary qualitative analysis of research data and production of research reports summarising early findings. Study subsequently expanded into a pioneering project linking public screens in Seoul and Melbourne for media events testing the transformation of public space.
2008-04 Moving Images, the Museum and a Politics of Movement: A Study of the Museum Visitor. School of Culture & Communication; School of Historical Studies, Melbourne University, Australia. PhD dissertation employing ethnography, social theory and cultural policy analysis to appraise visitor experience in Screen Gallery of The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne. Contributed to larger Australian Research Council-funded investigation, The Spatial Impact of Digital Technology on Contemporary Art and New Art Institutions (2004-07). Findings used for comparative field investigation between ACMI and similar international institutions, and for scholarly assessment of curatorial and institutional practices, as well as the gallery’s public value.
COMMUNICATIONS, ART & DESIGN
2012 'How Much Do I Owe You', No Longer Empty, NYC. As a part of The Wise City, developing a ‘commons wayfinding system’ to highlight local assets and activate the neighborhood in Long Island City.
2012 Broken But Not Defeated: Repair as Design Methodology and Social Practice, Istanbul, Turkey. Co-ran design workshop as a part of invited residency with KUAD Gallery on the occasion of the 2012 Istanbul Design Biennal
2012 Taking the Inside Out, Park(ing) Day, NYC. Held media and information exchange urban street intervention as a part of a 'Beyond Zucotti Park' launch, in association with Van Alen Bookstore.
2012 The Illuminator, NYC. Urban projections using tactical media van and pop-out library
2012, Occupy Town Square, NYC. Supporting communities to hold 'pop up town squares' by activating parks, wayfinding and civic revitalization.
2012 Greenpointing Tour, Archtober Month, NYC. Co-coordinated and led a public urban walking tour highlighting Greenpoint’s histories and encouraging critique of current revitalization plans.
2011 [co]design studio, pro bono research role at multi-disciplinary design studio working with communities to plan and build sustainable built environments, through projects and design education
2010-2011 Art Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukrainian-English translator for premier Kyiv-based art journal, distributed throughout Europe and US.
2010 EIDOS Art Development Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine, Communications Coordinator (pro bono)
20011-08, Project Australia, research director (pro bono) at not-for-profit organisation providing online incubator for social innovation.
2009 Penthouse Mouse Art and fashion event for L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Artist curator
2009-08, Genealogies of Digital Light Web developer for photography research project, School of Culture & Communication, Melbourne University.
2003 100 Years of Melbourne University Theatre, web & graphic designer for commemorative database and website, Melbourne University
2006 Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, pro bono researcher to support fundraising activities, Melbourne.
2002 Small Giants Television Web/visual designer for youth not-for-profit, Melbourne, 2002; 2001 Silver Bullet website/online game for stage production ‘Catch-22’, Melbourne Fringe FestivalMEDIA RESEARCH
2011 Q&A and Twitter: integrating public media platforms A fieldwork study of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Q&A live panel, current affairs program, examining the political potential of public broadcasting in light of its recent integration with Twitter.
2009 Submarine Cabling; Digital Television Recorder Formats. Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University, Melbourne. A baseline review of submarine cabling literature to support Australian Research Council grant proposal; review of TV recorder format literature in preparation for launch of premier digital television journal.
2005 Comparative Analysis of Journalism Policy. School of Culture & Communication, Melbourne University. Overview of key databases and literature to recommend key research areas for further investigation.
2005-04 International Television News Services. Media & Communications Program, Melbourne University. Coding and media content analysis of television news services for international research investigation.
TEACHING/LECTURING
2009 Tutor Lifestyle & Consumer Culture, School of Culture & Communication, University of Melbourne
2008 Subject Coordinator City Cultures–Urban Stories, School of Culture & Communication, University of Melbourne
2008 & 2006 Subject Co-ordinator, Media Futures & New Technologies, Media & Communications Program, University of Melbourne
2005-04 Guest lecturer & tutor Media Futures & New Technologies, Media & Communications Program, University of MelbourneEDUCATION
PhD, 2008, School of Culture & Communication; School of Historical Studies, Melbourne University.
Postgraduate Diploma in Media & Communications, 2003, University of Melbourne
Diploma Modern Languages (German), 2002 University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Creative Arts (Media Major), 2001, The Victorian College of the Arts/The University of Melbourne
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public words
Books
Maclurcan, D. & Radywyl, N. (2011) Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability, Taylor and Francis, CRC Press
Book chapters
Radywyl, N., Douglas, A., Papstergiadis, N. & McQuire, S. (forthcoming 2012) ‘Ambient Aesthetics: Altered Subjectivities in the New Museum in Museum Theory: An Expanded Field (eds. Andrea Witcomb and Kylie Message), Blackwells, UK
Radywyl, N.(2006) ‘The Australian Centre for the Moving Image’ in South Pacific Museums: Experiments in Culture, Clayton, Vic: Monash University ePress, pp. 22-23
Articles
Given, J. & Radywyl, N. (forthcoming 2013) ‘Questions & Answers & Tweets’, First Monday
Radywyl, N. & Biggs, C. (2013) ‘Reclaiming the Commons for Urban Transformation’ Journal of Cleaner Production [Special Edition]
McQuire, S. & Radywyl, N. (2010) ‘From object to platform: Art, Digital Technology and Time’ Time & Society, March 19:1, 5-27
Radywyl, N. (2010) ‘A Little Bit More Mysterious’: Ambience and Art in the Dark’, M/C Journal [Ambient], 13:2
Radywyl, N. (2009) ‘A Moment’s Daydreaming’ M/C Journal, 12:1
Radywyl, N. (2008) ‘Moving Images, the Museum and a Politics of Movement’, PhD Thesis, The University of Melbourne
Radywyl, N. (2007) Conference presentation, All Your Base Are Belong to Us, University of Melbourne
Radywyl, N. (2007) Conference presentation, Digital Incubator Symposium, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Radywyl, N. (2006) ‘The Promise of Little-Arty Microfish’ in Engage: Interaction Art and Audience Experience, Sydney:UTS, pp. 50-58
Radywyl, N. (2006) ‘Coming of Age: Theorising the Development of Communications Technologies’ [Review of Holmes, D. (2005) Communication Theory: Media, Technology and Society] in Southern Review, 39:2 pp.40-65
Radywyl, N. (2006) Conference presentation, Flux, University of Melbourne Radywyl, N. (2005) Conference presentation, FILE Symposium: FILE International Media Arts Festival, São Paulo, Brazil
Radywyl, N. (2005) Conference presentation, Critical Cultures, University of Melbourne
Nolan, D. & Radywyl, N. (2004) 'Pluralising Identities, Mainstreaming Identities: SBS as a technology of citizenship’ Southern Review: Communication, Politics and Culture 37:2, pp. 40-65.
Radywyl, N. (2003) ‘Robert Breer: master of the 4 inch X 6 inch’, online content for Masters of Animation Series, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
Radywyl, N. (2003) ‘going indie: plympton and making animation’, online content for Masters of Animation Series, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
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contact
- if a studio for all things has tweaked a little something, drop me a line...
e: natalia@astudioforallthings.com
tw: @NataliaRadywyl
bl: www.astudioforallthings.blogspot.com
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Posts
- Nov 11, 12Late rainy night’s jetlagging in Istanbul streets, my American companion tense with baited political breath, capturing a culturally mashed sentiment as votes counted in the US: collective eyes watching as Hope flies forth once more, rising towards old-wisdom relics, the strongest beacon in a stormy dark sky... Yes America Can! Congrats Obama.
- Oct 24, 12A little over 12 months in New YorkCity and I’m down to the last squeeze of my emergency Vegemite. Australia’s finest yeast extract product has been making a happy but too frequent appearance of late, smeared across a slightly charred (stovetop absent-mindedness on my part) white corn tortilla. The Tastes of Home. This one is a ritual framing all of my primary and secondary school mornings, Vegemite toast and a cup of tea, waiting for the kettle to boil, the toast to pop, standing in my family kitchen, looking out over the yard in which I took my first wobbly spin on a 2-wheeler, where my sisters and I traveled the universe in our lumber spaceship, where dad befriended the magpies (and now feeds them by the back door), where full northerly gusts can suck the last gasps of khaki from February’s grass and dry mum’s washing in moments. Where the Dandenongs cut a silhouette through the rosy frost of a crisp winter dawn. As I wait for my toast and tea.Home. Never one to be inclined towards homesickness, my mind has routinely drifted to this place since the nearing of my first 12 months in NYC, 16650km away from this new Brooklyn hearth, and soon to be a place only for mind-drifts as my parents email news about its impending sale, and their cautious step towards retirement.And so, my daily life is this other place. A city which pulses with self-creation, and has so easily lulled my own rhythms to its stride. Yet in all its greatness, it still cannot ease the palpability of compromises made to be Here. But, I acquiesce, always, because it’s the only place in which my disparate Melbourneparts have found a natural and coherent home. The politics and practice for creating a commons shape my work, projects and thoughts now, divulged to me by the city, and somehow unsurprisingly, among two of the city’s biggest urban anniversaries fall just a few weeks after my own. Yet these two, inherently linked events (although the connection isn’t often explicitly drawn), are by far more cataclysmic than my own, quiet Brooklynstory.The first, September 11, a date emblazoned by the first fiery burst in downtown Manhattan. An event so huge and unbelievable within my day-to-day reality at the time, that I could only make sense of it through my political self - recoiling with imaginings of the Bush administration’s brutish hands, pushing the globe into a new orbit. A moment of no return, yet a moment which continues to return, the aftershocks rising with dust and blood in the Middle East, every global economic shudder and national policy propped against fear, xenophobia and regional exclusion.Repercussion. In Melbourne the event spurred Federation Square’s eventual consecration, our new public plaza – built to commemorate The Most Livable City’s centenary. Labeled (with much municipal pride) as a design and tourism icon, the actual definition took form upon its rapid occupation by anti-Iraq war protestors in 2003.As the sun moved its way around a troubled earth, Australiaand New Zealandbecame the first to spin a global day of protest into action. Despite social media’s still nacent utility - Facebook a mere collection of thoughts, the first iPhone years from launching and Twitter far from conception, the information and urban commons found their meeting in this new public place, self-organized through us, our SMS’s, independent media, and a collective need to be heard.And so, the outrage of some 250,000 people shut down the city’s tram-lined spine, stretching from the grassy lawns of my beloved State Library - our surrogate civic meeting place, sweeping past the government-nominated (yet citizen-rejected) ‘City Square’, and pooling in and around Federation Square’s large urban screen, a nestling spot before our newly-housed public institutions, ACMI, SBS, the NGV. Our view of Fed Square’s stage and screen was framed by the city’s older spine, the Yarra river, and with stones mined from the ancient Kimberleys beneath our feet, my home, my only home then, produced another layer of history in this commons, made visible by shouldered solidarity, each face baring its own politics.All our grievances are connected, all our solutions are connected.These words are now the placeholder of that moment for me, although at that point hadn’t yet taken their public stage.They found their airing following a global urban event of a different kind, September 17, 2011, now just over one year ago. At this time, Zucotti Park, a small, windblown plaza nestled at the base of Wall Street's skyscrapers, birthed a radical change movement and became home to the 99%. At this time I was one month – just a few small steps – into my New York Cityjourney. Knowing almost no-one, I moved quietly along its streets, listening, feeling its immense energy, waiting to find my rapport with the city.I had heard news reports about ZucottiPark’s occupation, but the silent island of me was not compelled to join the cry of occupiers. Instead, I skirted its edges as the mercury dropped, made a few excursions, but somehow felt apart from the membership I was witnessing. This wasn’t Federation Square. This wasn’t a home I knew.
As the movement grew and self-organised I left New York, chasing bureaucratic threads to legitimise my North American journey. Mostly out of serendipidity, rather than intent, this phase took me to all of my prior homes: Berlin– Kyiv – Brooklyn - Melbourne. By the time I re-entered New York with my freshly pressed work visa, the occupation had been thoroughly disbanded, the mainstream media selectively silent, and, as I surfaced out of the subway from JFK, it seemed that the stubborn non-winter had also passed, the streets already blooming with promises of new things.And so they did. These cyclical narratives of home, politics and public space have found their common ground as I have made my own small place within them – a place burgeoning with projects, writing, people, reflection. These narratives have taught me that to feel engaged by the world one must engage with it, its messiness, its grievances – but then, in turn, yes, also its solutions…And herein lie the commons, not a static space, but the home of collective life practices shaped by wisdom, equity, and custodianship. It’s about a will to leave this planet in a better place than you entered it, and to strive to live your life as the change you want to see in the world.So, these are my thoughts in this moment now, a compensation, perhaps solace, to pangs for family and Australia’s wide open skies, so far, far away. With my final smear of Vegemite now just a salty residue on my lips, and this hot tea making an increasingly welcome presence in the change of season, I am carried forth into another, my second, NYC year. - May 27, 12
- May 27, 12
- May 27, 12
- May 27, 12At Building on Bond, oneunseasonably warm anddelicious NYC winter day
- May 27, 12A dusk-time cycle along New York's waters to see the final sun for 2011 tuck itself behind the Brooklyn Bridge for the evening, and all set to pick up the festivising where my dearest but unfortunately not-so-nearest in Europe and Australia left off.No resolutions, no scrawlings of deep reflection. Content to just let the sun do its rising tomorrow morning, and setting some hours later, and so on and so forth, and allow the moments to amass into this lifetime of mine.Einstein put it a lot better (even if not inspired by a peaceful NYE cycle-cruising around NYC):"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough..."
- May 28, 12With these Wintery Berlin Days drawing shorter and colder,and the calendar hurtling towards Christmas,not much else to do but bake ginger landmarks.Presenting the Fernsehturm, Alexanderplatz.
- May 27, 12
- May 27, 12
- May 27, 12These two images appeared virtually side by side in my morning's net-news digest. Pro-democracy protests in Cairo, and the flooding hoards of Black Friday in the US. The comparison of metaphors seems clumsily obvious - burning and desperate political will versus, well, burning and desperate bargain hunting. Somehow a call for democracy appears more authentic, more compelling - and certainly less grotesque.But if we look at these images within a continuum, and instead consider causalities and commonalities, we get the opportunity to recognise some important relationships between the two events. When I revisit the Egyptian image with Black Friday in mind, a cautionary tale begins to speak to me: 'don't let a hard fought battle fall cheaply'. I hope the opportunity is given to craft a new democracy carefully, mindfully, lest it lead to something unwieldy and unsustaining, as we now see across the North Atlantic. And when I re-examine those hopeful, Black Friday shopping faces from the vantage of the Egyptian protests, I see a common human thirst for change, groping for a better life - or even a better few moments. It might seem a stretch at first to link the theme of betterment with this gross expression of consumerism, yet I imagine there would be many among those hoards in America who see the Black Friday sales as the only way to put dinner on the table, to have presents for the holiday season, and thereby to resurrect their own self-worth as defined by that elusive late-capitalist American dream.So, collectively, these images show myth-making in action. These are the myths which give our systems coherency, and which we perpetuate as we strive to fulfill common prophecies of entitlement, be they steps towards autonomous representation within a fledgling democratic system, or a virile practicing of one's purchasing power.I write this from a quiet room in my friend's Berlin apartment, a city that's certainly weathered its own fair share of systemic integration and change, and a great deal of self-conscious contemporary myth-making. I feel like I'm on a peculiar political island as I watch old systems rupturing around me - southwards with the first growth spurts of the Arab Spring, whist around me in Europe and over west in the US cancerous economic growth has left broad systemic decay in its wake.From my little German island it would be easy to simply see the world for its faults, resign myself to lifelong despair and bemoan our politicians and sharp-suited leaders for the mess my generation is inheriting. And yes, as that grey wintery cloud once again arranges itself over the city it's somewhat of a tempting option. Yet, when looking at the images above I find cause for optimism, as what also speaks strongly to me, above anything else, is evidence of a dynamic of change. Stagnancy suffocates opportunity, and, at least in ecological terms, something new will always be borne of decline and rupture. And sometimes we don't even quite know what it will be. So, I'm an optimist, but I don't think a blind one, as I keep my watchful studio for all things eye on the ebb and flow of politics, and plot a semblance of forward-movement through this very interesting time.
- May 27, 12One day in the Lower East Side I caught a glimpse of this.I like to think it's Guerilla Poetry, penned late at night by some Marauding Rooftop Literary Warrior... While it may very well be an advertisement for Jennifer Aniston's latest something-or-other, I think I'll indulge my tale of spontaneous poetry. I like to think there's a wall-scaling vigilante on a mission to soften New York's urban edges with his/her lust for words.
- May 27, 12
- May 28, 12I spent the first weeks in Manhattan residing in Washington Heights between 187th and 188th streets. "But it's so far uptown!" came the cry from my NY-savvy hometown friends. However I was charmed by the idea of sandwiching myself between its Dominican and Hassidic residents - and settled in, conspicuous and content in my very white, mostly non-Spanish speaking, gentile Australianness.Whilst I've now moved downtown, taking up a kind and fabulous offer to camp out in a Greenwich Village loft, I look back on my brief residential excursion uptown with fondness. Mortan Williams' 24 Hour around the corner simply lacks the moments of geopolitical spunk I grew accustomed to - Yeshiva university students scrutinising the contents of Goya frijoles negros; shrunken abuelas hobbling to the counter, supersized jar of kosher pickles in one arthritic hand, plantains in the other.Anyhow, aside from the neighbourhood's aisle-side performances, I was also taken by some of the elegant art deco facades in Washington Heights and Inwood. Maintaining their dignity despite the impolite roar of Broadway below, they were erected in the 1930's when the A train was extended to 207th street. I feel they also mark a gateway to a beautiful part of Manhattan that many New Yorkers will - unfortunately - never venture to see, such as Fort Tyron and Inwood Hill parks, The Cloisters. The most elevated part of Manhattan seems a forgotten bystander to the hum of investment downtown. But then again, perhaps it's a thing of good fortune that the winds of gentrification have been slow to blow northwards.......and well, this next one isn't art deco, but I love this defiant little row of thatch and weatherboard on 187th.
- Sep 15, 11New Yorkers seem to live and breathe their streets.
Decades of dense apartment living has stretched the membrane between public and private life. Tense with the threat of rupture, the streets have been rendered front yards, thoroughfares, places for eating, fighting, exhibitionism, consumerism and play. And it's not a bad thing. Their unbridled internal logic rapidly becomes your own, your pulse finds their hum, and you come to realise that the streets are in fact New York's neural pathways, steadily firing, electric, and the currents by which the city becomes a cohesive form - expressive, dancing and ultimately flirtatious.
I like Serendipitous Street Experiences. It's like being treated to a Theatre of Chance, with an Audience of One. I came across this on Prince Street (I think) recently. Arborous social networking. I think it could take off. - Sep 15, 11As I've roamed NYC, I've been somewhat overwhelmed by the sad, sad bikes shackled to street-signs, scaffolding and bike spots all over town. I've been mourning these picked carcasses, at first assuming they were victims of careless abandonment. But now, as proud owner of Blue, and having thwarted Attempted Blue-Theft #1 after just the third streetside lock-up (must acknowledge Slightly-Too-Cool Bikeshop Man here. Your intimidating urbanness pardoned for solid bike-locking advice and products), I see that bike theft is A Big Deal here. Opportunistic. Heartless. Endemic. Even an old cranky bike like this one warrants industrial chainage.
I grow hopelessly attached to my bikes - their sticking gears, wearied brake-pads and glass-abused tyres are terms of endearment. The thought of an assaulted bike upsets me greatly, so, in honour of bikes ridden, bikes violated and bikes now clinging and forgotten to vertical structures all over NYC, I kick off a series entitled 'In Memoriam: Sad Bikes'.
Many more to come. From Cycling Street Cemeteries all over NYC.Ludlow StEast Houston StEast Village somewhere1st ave and Houston (I think)Near Houston - and the day after the hurricane... How??...still don't understand...
