About CTA Nancy Mauro-Flude

I am a mother (of Pearl). You will often find me in places where the freshwater meets the salt water in the kitchen at parties.

I am deeply involved in making change in support of community-centred connectivity. One example is the current and nascent development Permacomputing through related art production and free culture activities. In FLOSS+Art, I discuss some of the provenances in the first collection of essays on free and open-source software digital art production, gender issues and how power relations are identified and addressed within these initiatives, processes and spaces, most recently specifically, the Southern Ocean Pacific region.

My work is informed by sustained involvement in free software projects, crafting tools and sharing practices to empower artists and allies in more inclusive, aesthetic, and culturally informed interactions with code. I draw on my expertise in theatre anthropology, postmodern dance, Linux-cognizant computing arts, and the Divine Trash Strata, as is my commitment to pedagogies that grapple with social justice, heritage frontiers and future literacies from an antipodean perspective.

For more than two decades, I have been actively seeding the ground for digital inclusion, locally, nationally, regionally, and globally, to sustain diverse arrays of networks and kinships. Some of my collaborations and initiatives include Networked Art Forms Tactical Magic Faerie Circuits, the first Ghetto Bienalle Haiti that won the International Award for Public Art;Eclectic Tech Carnival, GenderChangersAcademy among many other instances you can find in this web archive.

I currently serve as an elected member of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre, contributing my expertise to the intersection of technology, culture, and society through Post Carbon Research along with supervising Post Graduate candidates, lecturing and developing progressive syllabus at the School of Design at RMIT University.

Since 2003, I have secured over $1.4 million in competitive funding through innovative, collaborative, and creative practice research serving as the lead artist and/ or Chief Investigator, demonstrating my capacity to lead and manage large-scale. initiatives.

As Principal Investigator (PI) in 2013, I curated Networked Art Forms: Tactical Magick Faerie Circuits (NAF:TMFC) at Contemporary Art Tasmania (CAT). This project established a dynamic cohort of local and internationally renowned artists and theorists, featuring lectures, workshops, exhibitions, podcasts, and community radio broadcasts. My successful track record secured support from from Mondriaan Funds (NL) and from national and regional arts organisations. NAF:TMFC, integrated into the inaugural Dark Mofo, a satellite event of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), garnered notable reviews in Realtime Arts Magazine [https://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue115/11207] and .dpi Feminist Journal of Art and Digital Culture, among others.

Evaluative research was disseminated in Runway#23PROTOTYEPE interrupts aren’t hidden (2014). Eventually leading to a commission as guest editor for Runway’s digital issue, Runway#45 Asemic (2022) a decade later.

Building on this momentum, I spearheaded the nascent research area of holistic computing arts with undergraduate students, HDR candidates, ECRs, and peers who are internationally renowned practitioners and theorists. This effort has culminated in submission for a CAT 1 Australian Research Council Grant worth supported by substantial commitments from Partner Organisations totalling thereby strengthening relations with the GLAM sector. Which we are awaiting for outcome.

The success of NAF:TMFC also led to the commission of Divination: A Romantic Mutiny in a Maelstrom of Data a large-scale work involving multiple stakeholders that premiered at Dark Mofo 2016 toured to Radical networks NY and represented Australia at the Beijing Media Arts Biennale 2018 Funded by Creative Australia, CAT, ArtsTas, and DFAT, it garnered acclaim from TheMix ABCTV, Artlink, and The Guardian, described as a “30s DaDa cypherpunk Internet cafe.” appealing to a broad public audience. These projects demonstrates my capacity to foster an extensive, flourishing generational network, and solid international trajectory in art and media culture.

In 2007, I co-founded moddr_, a centre for artistic modification at WORM Rotterdam, funded from 2007-2015. One of our notable projects, hotglue.me, is a web-based platform that enabled over 15,000 non-technical users to publish unique digital content. My ongoing collaborations with many of these colleagues underscores the quality of my academic leadership.

In 2017 I was art Chair for the 11th Creativity & Cognition Symposium, I directed a large-scale 3-day showcase MICROBITES at the ArtScience Museum Singapore, which received acclaim, including a IEEE journal review, earning a CHI Development Fund award.

As founder of Autolumin I am, informed by sustained involvement in free software projects, crafting tools and sharing practices to empower artists and allies in more inclusive, aesthetic, and culturally informed interactions with code. I draws on her expertise in theatre anthropology, postmodern dance, Linux-cognizant computing arts, and the Divine Trash Strata, as is my commitment to pedagogies that grapple with social justice, heritage frontiers and future literacies from an antipodean perspective.

Applying my expertise in anthropological thinking to participatory design Nancy has made significant contributions to electronic media arts, and has played a key role in Commoning the Networks fostering initiatives in open-source technologies, mobile Linux, and wireless systems earning acclaim from [industry experts] Linux News](https://lwn.net/Articles/315705/) and E-wearablesarbiters.

My commitment to nurturing proficiency incommunity practice was acknowledged in Real Life: Mapping Digital Cultural Engagement Centre in the First Decades of the 21st Century, a significant international impact report produced through a partnership between the Australia Council for the Arts and National Arts Council Singapore, evincing her two-decade trajectory of contributions as an exemplar.

Since 2018, I has been an elected core member of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT University.

As am an artist and transdisciplinary scholar with international recognition in electronic media art informed by involvement in free software projects, crafting tools, and participatory practice to empower artists in more inclusive, culturally informed interactions with code. My aesthetic application of networking infrastructure and custom-built toolsets in performances compel in situ engagement with publics, aiding shared activities and galvanising researchers to advance future literacies.

This reputation has led to many international invitations to showcase my work, such as the Museum of New and Old Art (2015, 2014, 2011), Transmediale (2015, 2014, 2011), and ISEA (2006, 2009, 2020, 2024). The impact of my artistic contributions is featured in pivotal books, for instance, Parallel Realities: Development of Performance Art in Australia (2017); endorsement by industry experts Linux News (2009); accolades from respected peers and elders Akomfrah & Eshun ‘Certain Received Wisdoms’ (2019), and coverage in broadcast media.

I’ve been acknowledged in significant impact reports, such as ‘Real Life: Mapping Digital Cultural Engagement in the First Decades of the 21st Century’ by OzCo, including my artwork featured on the cover page in 2020; I was recognised in Ars Electronica’s ‘Women in Media Arts’ keynote.

Electronic Media Arts and Digital Ethnography encompasses a broad spectrum of creative practice outlets and scholarly publications, including NonTraditional Research Outputs (NTROs). Distinction is marked by significant collaborations, commissions at peer-reviewed symposia, exhibitions, residencies, grants and keynote invitations.

I have achieved all of these.

My track record reflects a robust trajectory of iterative cycles of creative research, critical reflection, and articulation of discoveries in presentations. As a researcher committed to advancing radical, sustainable, and poetic computational culture, transdisciplinary events like ISEA stand out as premier platforms for sharing ground-breaking inquiries amidst rapid developments.

Additionally, Creative Practice outputs (NTROs) are important touchstones for excellence and become the engine that generates academic publications in Journals like Continuum (Mauro-Flude 2021), CoDesign (Mauro-Flude & Akama 2022), Leonardo Journal of Art, Science & Technology (Mauro-Flude 2015, 2023) rare Q1 outlets in Art and Design.

My empirical studies of experiential processes are longitudinal research translations; notable examples include ‘Writing the Feminist Internet’ (2024), ‘Caring about the Vast Horizon’ (2022), ‘Performing with the Aether’ (2020), and ‘Methodologies of Risk’ (2017) all published by Routledge.

Recognition garnered through citations and endorsements from respected peers, industry experts, and media commentaries is a testament to the quality, impact and significance of my scholarly work (i.e., Dziekan 2012, Lovink 2022, Musiol 2023, Burrell 2023).

The relationship between research, education, and knowledge exchange

My experiential pedagogy is internationally recognised, spanning tertiary contexts to grassroots activism. Prof. Mellado and Prof. Soriano describe my holistic computing knowledge-sharing initiatives as those of “a powerful medium, whether on a computer in a hacklab in Romania, a voodoo ceremony in Haiti, or in a classroom in Tasmania” (Utopias of Technological Art Fifty Years On, Artnodes Journal, 2013).

The quality of my research-integrated pedagogy is evidenced by international recognition, peer teaching awards, and invitations by senior colleagues to examine and collaborate in supervising high-quality HDR candidates, in my capacity as member of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC).

As of 2024, I have guided sixteen HDRs to completion. I design and deliver innovative research-integrated pedagogy, ranging from traditional syllabi to studio-based curriculum development. I pursue peer feedback to benchmark my collaborative Learning & Teaching (L&T) methods with students and peers, presenting at festivals, symposiums, and summer schools, such as the Hackers & Designers Distributed Summer Academy (July 2020) and the Learning to Teach Creative Technologies Remotely symposium (NYU, summer 2022). These engagements build meaningful connections and catalyze discussions on T&L practices with colleagues nationally and globally. My L&T courseware is published in esteemed resource guides for art and design communities. Notable publications include the Cyberfeminism.Index (2023) and the Critical Coding Cookbook Reader (2022), curated and edited by respected peers from Parsons School of Art, Media, and Technology (NYC).

During my tenure at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (2015-2016), as leader of the MFA program, I developed a creative research methods syllabus for a diverse international cohort. I curated “Extra Terrestrial Radio,” a 27/7 10-day streaming program framed by the Meta.Morf: Trondheim Media Art Biennale, allowing students to communicate their practice to a wider public while gaining technical experience. This fostered “soft skills” through critical connections and reflections on socio-cultural issues related to digital production and broadcasting ethics. The political significance of radio and related philosophies was explored with arts pioneers such as John Akomfrah and Kodwo Eshun, examining Afrofuturism’s possibilities in counter-media. This collaboration was featured in We Travel the Space Ways by De Gruyter, an academic press disseminating outstanding scholarship.

These initiatives exemplify my commitment to integrating research, education, and knowledge exchange, providing students with valuable experiences of peer-refereed processes to gain feedback within and beyond the academic paradigm, becoming and fostering a flourishing community of practice.

Building meaningful and high-impact research partnerships

My research is strengthened by longstanding, trusted relationships that mobilise decades of cooperation and strategic alliances across tertiary contexts, GLAM and grassroots initiatives. My two-decade career as an artist and later as an academic is reflected in groundbreaking radical feminism sandboxing initiatives such as the permacomputing movement, autoluminescence.institute (as founder), and Dyne.org (as collaborator) among others.

As curator and co-convener of symposiums, I’m informed by peer reference groups involving multiple stakeholders.to ensure the process and outcomes meet the needs, expectations and deliverables, Ie., Internet Lore in Southeast Asia at the Asia Research Institute (2016-2018), Economythologies X (2020-2022) (economythologs.network), innovative platforms for participants to explore diverse art economies through cooperative experiential practices; also reveal the value of co-creation and reciprocal informal conversations.

Initiatives like these generate empirical studies of sustained relations and build capacity so cultural institutions can adapt and iterate continuously. A co-authored article with feminist economist Kate Rich, “The Thorny Question of Art and Economy” (2023), published in Dystopian and Utopian Impulses in Art Making (Bristol: Intellect), is a sector diagnosis analysis of collaboration with Indigenous custodians pakana kanaplila and the Museum of New and Old Art. These projects showcase my capacity to respond to well-defined needs and problems identified by GLAM partners, aligning with their strategic objectives to catalyse institutional shifts.