Gateway Collective, founded by Isaac Baulch and Karl Sauerwein in 2021, is challenging the norms of the fashion industry’s landscape - bringing a fresh, minimalistic, and cleancut streetwear label to compete on the scene with luxury brands, who have in recent years themselves diverted attention to the growing mass of the streetwear scene.

Some may argue that analog photography is a dying art, but chat to any film devotee and they'll point you towards a thriving community of independent photo labs and happy snappers keeping the medium alive.

As a lover of the arts in all forms – art, architecture, music, dance, design, and all that falls between – I have been deeply impressed by the creativity of these industries during these ‘unprecedented times’ to innovate the Arts to be more accessible than ever before.

The performance followed the lives of people in three homes under lockdown – characters stood on neighbouring balconies (literally, standing on the elevation in Hackett Hall) interconnected in their dialogue but separated by the bounds of quarantine.

Unbound was the fruition of three years of work that set out to explore the women of The Canon, in particular by the Bard (Shakespeare), through an amalgamation of various existing plays and sonnets.

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​The three leading sisters - Emilia (from Othello), Ophelia (from Hamlet) and Volumnia (from Coriolanus) - took centre stage in a way unprecedented to any of Shakespeare’s works. Unbound explores their resilience, direction and relationships in the fight to stay fit in a world defined by power and its dynamics.

Lucy Stronach, the 2021 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, is a force to be reckoned with.

In this interview, I sat down with the bright change-maker to discuss the ins and outs of her Australia-wide, year long series of youth consultations, and her resulting views on the issues most important to young Australians today.

"Unlike many plays that chase resolutions, full circles, tied knots, and happy endings, BOOM: a failure story, challenges what we perceive to be a good narrative, and flips the conventional on its head by following the plot of an impending crisis – with the natural disaster of choice being the volcanic eruption of Mt. Linguano.....

What I loved about the production was that despite the contextual differences – pandemics and volcanic eruptions are in fact not same, same, but different – the piece offered a great deal of value to be extrapolated to our current lives."

Less is more. A phrase used by creatives far and wide to highlight the fact that despite the razzle dazzle of complicated, technical design and creation, sometimes simplicity is the most powerful approach for a creative to undertake.

When viewed from that lens, simplicity, minimising and Marie-Kondo-ing your work and creative life to suit the exact needs of a client or audience, makes ‘less is more’ sound like the battle cry of empowerment for creatives of all industries.

However, when it comes to the economics of freelancing, and life as a freelance creative, less is in fact, not more.

"One of the most impactful things I took away from James’ talk was that as creatives, we are a powerful storytelling force with an ability to change the world through our craft. Our ability to think dynamically about all the ways we can fix problems, big and small, for clients in our local and global communities is an extraordinary opportunity.

“The great thing about the design industry is that we understand the value of different perspectives and experiences, and get to do something with it.”

I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to brave the challenges of analogue photography – its cost, its intricacies, inconveniences and limited availability- all in the pursuit of creating unique, beautiful art that captures the timelessness of frozen moments.

Much like the sentiments that vinyl collectors proudly share over drinks on a night out, there is something fundamentally different about engaging with a timeless – considered by some, dated - art-form.

The unit itself is modelled around walking into day one with a drive to learn, connect, grow, and adapt in order to tackle a problem you are passionate about, rather than an idea. The workshops naturally progress through stages to better understand one’s problem, questioning: who it impacts and how, what solutions may look like for different audiences, and what you can do to start solving that problem for people within 12 weeks.

It appears to me that Macedonia is currently tip-toeing along one of the greatest crossroads of its modern history, with a very short time left to reset some of the pathways it walks along now. What is the likeliness of losing or cementing national identity?

Will these sacrifices be fundamental to the success of its economy and citizens? What would a resolution of this cultural warfare look like?

Having been a fan of Michael Dameski's for years, it was amazing to get together on zoom from opposite ends of the globe to discuss all things dance and life.

Sydney-born Dameski skyrocketed to fame after competing in season 2 of NBC's World of Dance - and placing as a runner-up due to his incredible, personally choreographed routines and artistic vision.

“Believe in yourself, because there are plenty of people that believe in you. I’m probably my own worst critic, which is helpful because it pushes me to do better and bigger things, but at some point you have to acknowledge that you’re enough. You have a right to state your opinion, and you need to actually back yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t change or learn, but know that you’re enough and have a right to be at the table. Another thing – don’t be too proud to ask for help. People will help you if you ask them.”

Walking through the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s Lester Prize exhibition, I couldn’t help but consider the 1890 Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The story – in short and without spoilers – is much about an artist’s ability to capture the true essence, and quite literally the soul, of their subject. In combining intent, vision, technique and material to canvas, artwork becomes translation – where the artist communicates and shares not only part of their subjects’ story, but part of theirs as well.

"So, what makes COVID-19 different?...how do you fight something that is indifferent to race, religion, class, gender or circumstance?"

A discussion on the growing social change sweeping the world and how we might be at the end of this global event.

Young people, myself and those in my generation, are what I believe to be the instruments of change that are necessary to see conversations and global advancements about politics, gender inequality, opportunity, equity, and environmental issues be facilitated through general entrepreneurial, societal and fundamental movements of change.

A reflection on the 2019 UN Youth ‘Young Diplomat's Tour’