We mix theatre and tech to enliven places for people.
We are a team of writers, coders, performers, designers, directors and tinkerers. We work with digital and theatrical tools such as locative media, live performance, augmented reality, virtual production, new writing and script development. We do this to foster social ties between people and place. We work from Burramattugal Country in Parramatta, Australia.
Background
Voxstep has grown from a series of projects and collaborations that began in 2021. Thanks to a Cultural Fellowship from the City of Parramatta, Nick Atkins instigated a series of small-scale digital performance experiments that explored trust and belonging. These experiments went on to attract additional support from the City of Paramatta, NSW and Commonwealth Governments. Voxstep (formally Operated Coin) debuted its first major work, Message Bank, in Parramatta Square for Sydney Festival 2023. Since then we’ve collaborated with students at a local school to adapt Message Bank to a new scavenger hunt, Green Thumb, for their school campus, FORM Dance to produce the audio installation, Lost. Stories. Found, to celebrate the reopening of Parramatta Town Hall and The Joan, Penrith to share a Ghost story in the arts center’s foyer. Voxstep also returned to Parramatta Square to explore conspiracies through a covert mobile media performance Dancing Bear stepping away from locative media work and shifting back towards real-time interactions and a synchronized audience networked via a WhatsApp call. This work has attracted critical recognition and support being featured at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (Brisbane, 2024), International Conference on Motion and Computing (Utrecht, 2024), SXSW (Sydney, 2024) and as part of Creative Australia’s ProtoX emerging company incubator.
Studio Team
Director: Nick Atkins
nick[at]operatedcoin.com | socials
About Nick
Nick has held senior artistic and advocacy roles within small to medium arts organisations. This includes as director, new work for Q Theatre, chair of Theatre Network NSW, member of Create NSW’s Artform Advisory Board (Theatre), co-artistic director of Crack Theatre Festival (TiNA) and board member of PACT. He has completed cultural fellowships for the City of Parramatta, Create NSW and has been an artist in residence with Bundanon, UNSW, Centre D’Art Marnay Sur-Seine (France) and NES Artist Residency (Iceland). He is currently completing a practice-based PhD program with the Creativity and Cognition Studios (UTS).
Creative Technologist: Robert Polmear
robert[at]operatedcoin.com
About Robert
Robert is a creative technologist with a decade of experience in design within media and startup sectors. He has worked on innovative projects such as ‘Message Bank’, showcased at the 2023 Sydney Festival, and ‘Wigram St’, a unique blending of location-based audio and augmented reality. His work continually explores the intersection of creativity and technology to deliver engaging digital experiences.
Associate Producer: Monikka Eliah
monikka[at]operatedcoin.com
About Monikka
Monikka Eliah is an Assyrian writer based in Fairfield. She has participated in various theatre and screenwriting programs including National Theatre of Parramatta’s Page to Stage program, CuriousWorks Breakthrough Screen Writing Program, Co-curious and Netflix’s On The Brightside Program and STC’s Rough Draft. She is currently a member of the STC Emerging Writers Group. Her work has been published in SBS Voices, Meanjin, Runway Journal, Southerly, Kill Your Darlings, The Lifted Brow, Roots Anthology and The Saturday Paper. She has received the Southlands Breakthrough Award 2018, Wheeler Centre Playwright Hot Desk Fellowship 2020, Australia Council Resilience Grant 2021 and Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Award 2022.
Photo Credit: Anna Kucera