April 2019 – Alix Beattie: Street Art Researcher

Experience

Published on April 23, 2019May 31, 2020 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

Professional Experience

Client Service Manager
Nanda\Hobbs
July 2011 – June 2019
Nanda\Hobbs is a commercial art gallery located in Chippendale. The gallery represents over 30 artists and has an exhibition calendar that runs throughout the year with an opening every two/three weeks. The gallery also has a corporate art rental side, art valuations, tours at the AGNSW and art consultation for artworks outside of the gallery.
Duties: My position at Nanda\Hobbs has been one that has been highly client based, stock administration and administration with the database for clients and artworks for the business.
Achievements: Streamlining and changes of processes for the client rental program. Nanda\Hobbs changed over the client management system to Salesforce in 2014 and my role was to guide the project with the developers, implement the system and train staff in the use of this new CRM.

Research Assistant
SDN Child Services
January 2012 – February 2012
Short term research project for a tender to obtain access for under privileged children into their programs. Tender was accepted.

Hotel Manager
West Ryde Hotel
October 2000 – June 2011
A local family run hotel that has two bars, a beer garden, bistro and gaming lounge.
Duties: Event Management, staff co-ordination and roster for over 20 employees, opening and closing of the hotel, banking and finance, customer service, bar duties, kitchen duties, cellar operations, ordering of stock and crowd control.

Courses and Development Opportunities

Graduate Certificate in Researcher Engagement, Development and Impact
Western Sydney University, AUS
Jul 2018 – Present
A course that is available to PhD students to track and achieve the outcomes of their research journey. The course provides guidelines to completing a PhD whilst engaging with career aspects for after the completion of the PhD.

How to structure your thesis
Western Sydney University, AUS
May 2020
A course facilitated by Dr Geoff Hyde that provided the framework to write my thesis.

Symposium on Democracy
Washington Jefferson College, USA
February 2020
A day symposium on democracy in America which included three key note speakers and two break out sessions. The talks and breakout sessions discussed issues and challenges that democracies are facing, both in American and around the world.

An Introduction to American and Wyoming Politics
University of Wyoming, USA
August 2019 – November 2019
This is a first year core subject for students at the University of Wyoming. I am taking these classes to give me an insight into American politics both on a federal and state level. Various works I come across on the street – both inside and outside the USA – have political connotations hidden within the imagery. A deeper understanding into politics is vital to understand what the artist is conveying.
Please note – I am only attending the lectures as a learning aid, I am not enrolled in the course.

Street Art Tours
Strawberry Tours & Street Art London Tours, UK
Sept 2019
These tours guided me around the street art capital of the UK – Shoreditch. Both tours provided information about local artists, international artists and the collaboration that occur within the community and with other artists. I was able to view works of artists for the first time as well as directly engage with members of the street art community. The tours gave me a contextual understanding street art and graffiti are used to activate the public city in specific areas.

Resilient Research
Western Sydney University,AUS
June 2019
A course that provides guidance for post PhD, including transferring skills from the PhD to professional life, insights into resumes and how to create an online prescience through LinkedIn. The workshops were facilitated by Dr Shari Walsh from Growth Psychology

Social Media Analytics: A practical Introduction
Western Sydney University, AUS
May 2019
An introductory course to analyse social media data using the program Tableau. The course was facilitated by Prof Axel Burns.

How to structure your Confirmation of Candidature document
Western Sydney University, AUS
September 2018
A course facilitated by Dr Geoff Hyde that provided the framework to write a research proposal.

Salesforce Training
Salesforce, AUS
September 2014
Training to use the cloud based customer relationship management (CRM).

#FaceOfTheDaySG

Published on April 22, 2019August 13, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

On a recent trip to India to attend a friends’s wedding, I had a day lay over in Singapore. During my stay I visited the National Museum of Singapore to see an exhibition on Polaroid cameras that I was interested in, In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology.

During the visit I stumbled across DigiMuse Connects, which was a part of Singapore Art Week 2019. DigiMuse is a program curated by the National Museum of Singapore for creative people, to design a projects that engages technology within the cultural sector.

One particular project caught my eye was, #FaceOfTheDaySG by fashion Designer Yang Derong. The designer used Instagram as a visual diary and documented his creation of a different outfit and persona for everyday of the year on the social media platform. The project focussed on creating a visual dialogue of these personas that reflected everyday events, social issues, icons and trends with the aim of starting a conversation with the online audience. The engagement was designed to make the audience think and reflect on contemporary issues through the images they were viewing.

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Can-advertising-be-considered-an-act-of-vandalism?

Published on April 20, 2019May 30, 2019 by alixbeattieLeave a comment

The best part of travelling to my uni – Western Sydney University – is the train journey from Central Station to Parramatta. Viewing ‘pieces’ created by graffiti writers on the walls that encase the railway tracks. The combination of text, characters and symbols that allow the names to jump out of the wall. A blur of colour – depending on the speed of the train – or a slow train that allows for the gallery of work to be exhibited with every detail viewed.

Recently, I saw an image on the train that caught my eye: a mural of a bear (which reminded me of Lotso from Toy Story 3). My initial thought was, ‘I want this image for my instagram’ but I was too slow and missed the shot. I spent the day hoping it would be there the next day – always a risk when you research an ephemeral art form, how long it lasts depends on too many factors.

Whilst waiting on the station the next day, I watched the train roll in and was silently outraged to see the carriages were covered in advertising – including the windows – making it difficult for me to look out and see passing artworks.

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