Artist Fee Plumley taking part in a smoking ceremony from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra

(UK)

British-born Fee Plumley was previously best known for encouraging artists to be creative with the technology they carried in their pockets through the-phone-book Limited (2000-2008). After a privileged migration to Australia she spent a few years as an ‘agitator*’ running the digital program for the Australia Council for the Arts. Mind-mapping ‘what next?’ from her gloriously dishevelled apartment in Darlinghurst in 2010 resulted in an idea that was part genius, part insanity: live in a bus while developing a new solo creative practice. It didn’t quite work out how she, even loosely, expected.

Now more than four years into life on the road, Fee has discovered that her desire to ‘make art’ or ‘encourage people to discover their inner geek’ has been almost entirely replaced by the urge to ‘step up’ and ‘help empower people to discover their inner activist’ through any means possible.  With far too many causes to battle outweighed by inspirational shoulders on which to stand, Fee’s hoping that a residency with Blast Theory will help her untangle what, if anything, creative tech can do to help her help #allthecauses.

“What the current system makes me want to do – as both an artist and a human – is grab people by the scruff of the neck, shake them vigorously and scream “can’t you fucking SEE??” in their faces… but that’s not a terribly effective way to ensure positive responses (even in the most ‘leftie’ of arts audiences). What I want help with from you is to better understand how to create ‘show don’t tell’ experiences that can help transition slacktivism into meaningful proactive change.” So, no pressure then…

Read more about Fee’s journeys via reallybigroadtrip.com and give yourself permission to pause with hammocktime.cc/the-power-of-pause.

*not official job title