GÖRKEM ACAROĞLU
CV
Dr Görkem Acaroğlu
+61 415 768 996
gorkem_a@hotmail.com
Education
2010 - 2015 Doctor of Philosophy
Deakin University
2009 Master of Creative Media - Interactive Media
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2004 Graduate Diploma - Theatre Direction
Victorian College of the Arts
2003 Playwrights Studio
National Institute of Dramatic Arts
2002 Bachelor of Arts, Honors - Theatre
University of New South Wales
2000 Master of Media Arts - Film and Video
University of Technology, Sydney
1998 Bachelor of Applied Science - Social Ecology
University of Western Sydney
Experience
Commencing her artistic career in Western Sydney in the 1990s, Görkem has been making theatre in all its forms throughout NSW, Victoria, and internationally. She has presented in numerous festivals and worked with multiple acclaimed Australian artists. She has written seven stage plays and directed over 60 productions from documentary and digital performance, live art, text-based theatre, immersive and site-specific performance and community engaged practice. She has worked with numerous theatre companies devising original works, presented multiple productions of contemporary plays, premieres of new writing working closely with the playwright, and numerous adaptations.
Over the past decade, Görkem has pioneered a form of documentary immersive site-specific performance with works including The 24 Hour Experience, a living documentary of the lesser known perspectives of place, 24 live works on the hour every hour for 24 hours, engaging 150 artists, 24 community partners and 24 venues in Melbourne in 2014 and then a new iteration in Ballarat 2015. As Creative Director of Metanoia Theatre, Görkem developed Milk Bars (2016) exploring the Australian milk bar phenomenon since its demise with the rise of supermarkets. Görkem curated 10Cs (2015), another site-specific immersive work that engaged 10 artists and a number of non-artists in an exploration of the ten commandments. Görkem directed the Birregurra Arts Ballyhoo (2018), part of Regional Arts Victoria’s Small Town Transformations, a live art event engaging multiple artists and community members after a two year engagement with the town of Birregurra.
Görkem was Creative Director of the Mixed Reality Performance Lab, funded through Australia Council for the Arts Interarts. Establishing partnerships with Deakin University’s Motion Capture Lab to create 3D stereoscopic backgrounds and a motion capture operated avatar as a performer with live actors; and with the Centre for Intelligent Systems Research, Görkem oversaw the creation of a custom made robot that performed with live actors.
Skills
Digital Performance direction
Theatre/live and hybrid art
Curating and programming
Producing arts programs
Publications
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2023 FEATURE ARTICLE
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Uninvited to the Mainstage: The Unfortunate Consequence of Approaching Diversity Without Respect, Artshub, 31 July.
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2022 PAPER
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Shadows of the Australian Performing Arts Ecology, ADS (80): 72-92, 01 April
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2021 PAPER
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Recognising the Face of Australian Theatre: Authentic Diversity and the Case of Metanoia Theatre, Australasian Drama Studies (78):140-169, 01 April
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2014 CO-EDITOR
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Digital Performance, Australasian Drama Studies Journal.
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2014 PAPER
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Working with technology/making technology work: a round table discussion, Australasian drama studies (65):99-121, Dec
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2014 JOURNAL ARTICLE
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Cyborg presence in narrative theatre, Australasian Drama Studies (65):237-254, 01 Dec
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2013 PAPER
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All the World is a Screen: Exclusion of Projected Media in Dramatic Theatre, International Symposium of Electronic Arts -Sydney.
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2012 CONFERENCE PAPER
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The relationship between performing media and lives on stage, Somantics & Technology Conference 2012, West Sussex, England.
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2011 CO-CONVENOR
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Performing Aphasia: Counter Claiming the Transcultural Nation, 2011 Australasian Drama Studies Conference.
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2011 PRESENTER
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Digital Contamination of Dramatic Theatre: Subject Technology in Exception, International Symposium of Electronic Arts – Istanbul.
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2011 KEYNOTE
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The Oral The Written and other, Verbal Media Conference, Victoria University.
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2007 CONVENOR
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The C Word: Class in Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne
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