Melinda Rackham
I have always written... but mostly thought of it as a side hustle.
Angst teenage poems were burned before they could be discovered; and in my art school days, I secreted intimate text fragments into sensory sculptures to (may)be future found. Later my words reshaped into intimate hyperlinked tales on a fledgling internet and hand-coded floating texts in virtual reality worlds. I built, I wrote, I spoke, I travelled.
A PhD on virual reality worlds intertwined with art reviews, opinion pieces, commissioned essays and book chapters; my -empyre- media arts forum grew into a thriving global community of artists, writers and thinkers. My first book was the exquisite monograph Catherine Truman Touching Distance in 2016; then with 3 co-authors we self-published the ADOPTED anthology in 2018; and now CoUNTess: Spoiling Illusions since 2008, co-authored with Elvis Richardson, is published in 2023.
ACMI, ANAT, The Royal Institution of Australia, NGA, Australia Council for the Arts, MCA, Rhizome, ISEA, Ars Electronica, UniSA and RMIT are a few of the organisations and institutions who have engaged me as a writer, speaker, artist, curator, director, board member, consultant, juror, and mentor.
Life has taken me across the globe - exhibiting award winning networked art; speaking at major events, curating on public screens and immersed in art and writing residencies. From living in Darlinghurst squats to five-star Hong Kong hotels; nestled in networked seaside villages to the awe inspiring APY Lands, arises a curiosity and critique of art, artists, networks, feminisms, social justice and environmental issues.
The connective tissue through my work is introducing people to things they may never have seen, thought of or imagined. Whether I created it, curated it, produced it or wrote it is immaterial - it’s the potential to expand knowing and enable other experiences that drives me.