https://makeorbreakart.com Make or Break Mon, 23 Jun 2025 03:57:14 +0000 https://makeorbreakart.com en https://makeorbreakart.com/Home Thu, 19 Aug 2021 02:37:33 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/Home PROJECTS by MAKE OR BREAK <img width="1800" height="1281" width_o="1800" height_o="1281" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31fc81b6b21f4b8d6cc114601aba2494dff5b1cb9ade047db7ca7fb377c31d0a/MorB_brandx_Photographer_Seiya-Taguchi-1.png" data-mid="234876556" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31fc81b6b21f4b8d6cc114601aba2494dff5b1cb9ade047db7ca7fb377c31d0a/MorB_brandx_Photographer_Seiya-Taguchi-1.png" /> Image: Make or Break, Terms of Engagement workshop at Brand X, Gadigal Country, December 2024. Photo by Seiya Taguchi. TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT is a resource for artist self-advocacy and building better, more equitable relationships between artists and institutions. It is a document, a workshop, and an open-source tool. It is how Make or Break starts conversations with people who want to work with us. Make or Break’s own Terms of Engagement is a living document that can be found online here. Artists and collectives are invited to adapt and use this as the basis for their own terms of engagement. Read more... Started: 2021Time/labour: ︎ Workshop partners: Accessible Arts, Brand X, CuriousWorks, Inner West Council, Utpadvocacy // relational // institutional critique // workshop // open source︎ <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/67524ba5a7a9bda686004ccaba591f07c37ca4a4e73c8f56c283a9df0cc60176/MorB_TimeOutside_HIAP_SheungYiu.jpg" data-mid="191775883" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/67524ba5a7a9bda686004ccaba591f07c37ca4a4e73c8f56c283a9df0cc60176/MorB_TimeOutside_HIAP_SheungYiu.jpg" /> Image: Make or Break, TIME OUTSIDE, 2023. HIAP Open Studios / Spring 2023. Photo by Sheung Yiu. TIME OUTSIDE TIME OUTSIDE is a long-term research project: a shelter for art collectives, critical thinkers and institutions to radically rethink how artists contribute to social, environmental and political change. As part of Make or Break’s residency at Helsinki International Artist Programme on Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki, Finland, the public is invited into the beginnings of this research. Visitors to the studio can select an object, leave their phone in its place, and respond to a prompt with writing, drawing or diagramming. Read more... Started: 2023Time/labour: ︎ Thanks to: Helsinki International Art Program &amp; Creative Australia (HIAP Residency for collectives) observation // object // speculative fiction // text // drawing // translation // non-human︎ <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/72f2bad0280d2e14b0f47ab6604eff80158cf381d5b5ef5707da1f5ad255e79b/MorB_FirstSentences.jpg" data-mid="191776406" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/72f2bad0280d2e14b0f47ab6604eff80158cf381d5b5ef5707da1f5ad255e79b/MorB_FirstSentences.jpg" /> Image: Sigrid Macdonald and Make or Break, First Sentences, 2023, photo by Make or Break. FIRST SENTENCES (in collaboration with Sigrid Macdonald) First Sentences is a collaborative book and video series that asks you to get curious about Deaf culture and the importance of accessibility. It contains a selection of first sentences written and signed by people from Lismore, generated in response to a creative writing prompt that Make or Break devised for their&nbsp;Department of Non-Human Resources (DONHR) project.First Sentences highlights conceptual and linguistic differences between Auslan and English as a way to encourage curiosity about languages and to share the theatre and poetry of Auslan, an image-based language with no written equivalent. Read more... Started: 2023Time/labour: ︎︎︎Thanks to:Writers: Sigrid Macdonald, Make or Break, visitors to DONHR project at Lismore Regional GalleryTranslator/Glosser: Sigrid MacdonaldDesigner: Ella CutlerIllustrators: Sigrid Macdonald, Ella CutlerAuslan translator and performer: Janelle WhalanVideo editor: Miška MandićVenue partner: Lismore Regional GalleryAuslan // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // translation︎ <img width="3001" height="2029" width_o="3001" height_o="2029" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6c9de6965557748b5771a5b0b7d318a0252687305b90017a4127b421e260e993/credit_Wild_Hardt-07535.jpg" data-mid="149275278" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6c9de6965557748b5771a5b0b7d318a0252687305b90017a4127b421e260e993/credit_Wild_Hardt-07535.jpg" /> Image: Make or Break, Hyperlocal Headlines, 2022. Photo by Wild Hardt. HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES Hyperlocal Headlines takes place as a series of artist-facilitated creative conversations and collective storytelling and writing sessions that imagine the future of news. Participants become citizen journalists for a day, learning to collaborate with AI technologies, understand media bias and language, and explore how the ways we tell stories can impact collective futures. Participants’ narrative and poetic speculations are broadcast as website interventions and across large scale digital news tickers, to answer questions like: how does language influence our world view, or reveal our biases? Will the future of news be hyperlocal or distributed? Who writes it, how is it accessed, and who controls it? Read more... Started: 2022 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Writers: Maria, Lena, Flor, Liliana, Coni, Lelia, Hasib, Fi, Esther, Anna, Shalome, Amy, Jessica, Michelle, Luke, Miska, Tess, Shian, Ju, Ursula, Alex, AI text generator (GPT3) Producers: Tess Maunder, Hasib Hourani Tech assists: Ben Barnes, Wilson Wu Photographers: Wild Hardt, Aaron Claringbold Venue partners: Siteworks, Twosixty and Queen Victoria Women’s Centre public broadcast // community // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I. ︎ <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c862f20daa3cd33a9c4e12af0a8b83b24efcf285eeb12dbc805cf6879cd2d75c/MoB_AAE_Joe-Ruckli_51.jpg" data-mid="148089569" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c862f20daa3cd33a9c4e12af0a8b83b24efcf285eeb12dbc805cf6879cd2d75c/MoB_AAE_Joe-Ruckli_51.jpg" /> Image: Make or Break, Institutional Waste #2, 2022. Photo by Joe Ruckli. INSTITUTIONAL WASTE #2 Institutional Waste #2 is a commission for the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane that undertakes a deep material investigation into the fabric of the gallery’s walls, seeking to find alternative pathways for the gyprock, timber and MDF that are cyclically sacrificed when temporary infrastructure is replaced. Visitors are invited to engage deeply with this material through participating in the recycling process; to handle gypsum it and work with it, to imagine the long geological processes that create the mineral, and to appreciate the time embedded within it. Read more... Started: 2022 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎ Thanks to: Carolyn McKenzie-Craig for assistance with screen printing Dr Monzur Imteaz at Swinburne for discussing his team’s research into plasterboard recycling Sam at REGYP for material safety data and advice The generous staff at IMA for their input and assistance environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // gypsum // installation // labour ︎ <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd3b27201fea441ee98052e37ed581317948025299948b0f609ecea97c0b34ad/UTS_MakeOrBreakWorkshop_230222_credit_JacquieManning-71.jpg" data-mid="148089558" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd3b27201fea441ee98052e37ed581317948025299948b0f609ecea97c0b34ad/UTS_MakeOrBreakWorkshop_230222_credit_JacquieManning-71.jpg" /> Image: Make or Break, Citizen J, 2022,&nbsp;worksession in progress at UTS. Photo by Jacqui Manning. CITIZEN J Citizen J is a collaboration between art collective Make or Break and tertiary students who are interested in understanding media subjectivity and the tools being developed and used by media empires, corporations and nation states to influence our understanding of truth. This project enables students to play with a series of critical and creative tools – including media analysis, language shaping, news scraping, futuring, speculative writing and machine learning – to generate a series of future newsfeeds. Read more... Started: 2022 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: UTS students Abbie, Amy, Annie, Diego, Eleanor, Helen, Jack, James, Jay, Jessie, Joseph, Julien, Kent, Kimberley, Lucy, Rahul, Sean, Seja, Solei, Sophie, Rodger and Timi, and anonymous AIs citizen journalism // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I. ︎ <img width="2000" height="1128" width_o="2000" height_o="1128" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29e621476304247e752964cd0708ecd32f7ed72a9a16fb9ad70ead9b58fae65f/runway_ritualgift.jpg" data-mid="149276204" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/29e621476304247e752964cd0708ecd32f7ed72a9a16fb9ad70ead9b58fae65f/runway_ritualgift.jpg" /> Image: Nicole Monks and Make or Break, wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), 2021, video still courtesy the artists. wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (RITUAL / GIFT) IN COLLABORATION WITH NICOLE MONKS wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift) is a close-captioned listening and observation ritual developed by Nicole Monks and Make or Break for Runway Journal (Issue #44 TIME, edited by Joel Spring). Over a period of weeks, Nicole, Bec and Connie exchanged ideas cross-Country between Wajarri, Burramattagal and Gadigal lands on the West and East coasts of so-called Australia. In wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), we collectively offer a distillation of the thinking, touching, listening and looking that we did together. What made us feel slowed, connected and held by place. Read more... Started: 2022 Time/Labour: ︎︎ Thanks to: The Wajarri language version and captioning were developed in close collaboration between Kylie Simpson, a mother, nana and Wajarri speaker and teacher, and Nicole Monks. Kylie's generosity and voice are shared with you here. Sound editing: Josh Kirkman (Wajarri), Rebecca Gallo (English) Video editing and close captioning: Rebecca Gallo sound // listening // time // instruction // ritual // gift // body // environment ︎ <img width="1280" height="898" width_o="1280" height_o="898" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/23e2ea2acd81c3ad7e924ae0245bcd6b5d9e6feb71faee2a1591b414d57cb914/mob_resthouse.png" data-mid="148089064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/23e2ea2acd81c3ad7e924ae0245bcd6b5d9e6feb71faee2a1591b414d57cb914/mob_resthouse.png" /> Image: Make or Break, Translation project (rest house), 2021. TRANSLATION PROJECT (REST HOUSE) Translation project (rest house) is the result of an experimental process of translation and exchange between Make or Break and a group of architects, craftspeople, fabricators and researchers. It began as a series of translated texts describing a piece of Australian vernacular architecture.The original ‘bus stop’ on which this structure is based is a 1970s Brutalist design, reproduced across Australia’s capital city of Canberra on Ngunnawal Country. The shelter in the Thai iteration&nbsp; occupies a parallel position to the Khmer ‘rest houses’ that once dotted the Royal Road between Angkor Wat and Phimai. Simultaneously sites of hospitality and care, and also historical monuments to colonial power, the tensions embedded in these structures are played out again through the cultural and linguistic processes of translation (and what cannot be translated). Read more... Started: 2021 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Phimai Heritage Trust, Khon Kaen University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan.Architects: Sitta Kongsasana, Sininart Kotruchin, Benjawan Thatsanaleelaporn, Mongkol Wongkittiwimol.Architectural Production: Narathip Sonthisumphun, Nitwipha Jaiplaeng.Construction Team: Thanasit Chantaree, Arnuchit Booskarm.Rattan Crafters: Somkoun Ngoophimai, Puckjiravarin Kaewdonree.Translators: Rungsima Kullapat, Thailand Biennale translation // power // colonial // conversation // vernacular // material // text // futures ︎ <img width="5906" height="3943" width_o="5906" height_o="3943" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae5a176994d027bea82e7092268f55c8644f2ba48d3d2b20640a0570a2ec9f90/_DSC2574.jpg" data-mid="117982154" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae5a176994d027bea82e7092268f55c8644f2ba48d3d2b20640a0570a2ec9f90/_DSC2574.jpg" /> Image: Make or Break, The Department of Non-Human Resources: River Procession, 2021, photo by Lucy Parakhina. DEPARTMENT OF NON-HUMAN RESOURCES (DONHR) DONHR subjects the gallery space to a collective rethinking, examining its relationship to consumption, waste, knowledge production, cycles of nature and community needs. This participatory project invites speculation and observation from non-human perspectives — such as a river, soil, plant or insect — in order to learn from systems and materials and establish new ways of thinking and being together. We ask (and attempt to answer) questions of sustainability and sustainment for uncertain futures. In its first iteration, Make or Break worked on Bundjalung Country in Lismore with local communities, creating collective moments of future speculation, manifested through writing, planting, prototyping, reading together, walking and storytelling. Read more... Started: 2021 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Gabrielle Chantiri, Sigrid Macdonald, Mark Dunphy, Kylie Caldwell, Holly Ahern, Max Nimmo, Asphyxia, Dr Hanabeth Luke, Sara Schmude environment // waste // critique // community // non-human // observation // systems // futures ︎ <img width="1369" height="953" width_o="1369" height_o="953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6282c59e21cb838b9707c1a90b47fe3d10de0f15693d9e5501aa88fc75a4c4e0/FCMG_Extra-Ordinary_Oct_21-Web-1.jpg" data-mid="123340664" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6282c59e21cb838b9707c1a90b47fe3d10de0f15693d9e5501aa88fc75a4c4e0/FCMG_Extra-Ordinary_Oct_21-Web-1.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Ghost Notes, 2021, installation with text, algorithms, LED tickers, controller boards, and unidentified wrapped archival objects from the Fairfield City Heritage Collection. Dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Document Photography. GHOST NOTES When an object or record enters a collection, it is catalogued, and removed from context and use. We are left with a series of textual stand-ins: lists of numbers and words that are supposed to correspond to or encapsulate the category, location, content and cultural value of an archive or object. In musical notation, a ghost note occupies space within a score, but its details are stripped away to the point of near silence. Ghost Notes responds to museum and other institutional digital archives. Mimicking the action of time on this particular museum collection, and exposing the role of language in erasing the objects they seek to preserve. Read more... Started: 2021&nbsp; Time/Labour: ︎︎ Thanks to: Julian Berengut (programming), Wilson Wu (LED tech) time // text // collection // critique // memory // erasure ︎ <img width="1992" height="1269" width_o="1992" height_o="1269" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6132093dac96ba8e8291ec349385572e386223ad5c5ff2c68ae1d49b74ff0b7/PerformanceSpace_Liveworks2020_credit_JacquieManning-131.jpg" data-mid="117982174" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b6132093dac96ba8e8291ec349385572e386223ad5c5ff2c68ae1d49b74ff0b7/PerformanceSpace_Liveworks2020_credit_JacquieManning-131.jpg" />Image: Nicole Monks and Make or Break, nganggurnmanha : sound dust, 2020, performance image featuring Ivey Wawn, photo by Jacquie Manning. nganggurnmanha : sound dust (IN COLLABORATION WITH NICOLE MONKS) nganggurnmanha : sound dust challenges audiences to listen deeply to the natural world and find ways to inhabit time differently. Responding to First Nations and Western concepts of time, nganggurnmanha : sound dust is an exploration of how time intertwines with nature, the body and seasonal shifts; and how our time is valued. nganggurnmanha : sound dust activates ‘deep time’ and reawakens body memories carried across generations, like tree roots pushing and stretching through strata, or rocks compressing over millennia. The artists collected ‘sound dust’ fragments: field recordings contributed by local audiences in response to instructions for a ritual of listening, forming an alternate archive of now. &nbsp; Read more... Started: 2020 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎ Collaborators: Nicole Monks (co-lead), Gwen Taualai (sound technologist), Ndidi Alaneme (programming), Yolanda Lowatta &amp; Ivey Wawn (performers), James King (costumes) sound // listening // time // archive // instruction // moment // performance // instrument // body // space ︎ <img width="2000" height="1328" width_o="2000" height_o="1328" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a8418591437dec9613483ca2f93a1dd757f5c70fb817b711a6e8e257e38dce8/DSC_0084-sml.jpg" data-mid="117629228" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a8418591437dec9613483ca2f93a1dd757f5c70fb817b711a6e8e257e38dce8/DSC_0084-sml.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Care for Bridges, 2020, image courtesy of Make or Break. CARE FOR BRIDGES Care for Bridges proposes acts of care for infrastructure in shared, civic space. The public is invited to gather in small groups on public bridges, where bodies and vehicles pass over roads, valleys or bodies of water, and closely observe what kinds of care, maintenance or attention these structures might need. Through undertaking acts of care, we reshape — gradually and incrementally — the relations of bodies and worlds, and the water that passes between, beneath and through. Writers are commissioned to produce short speculative fictions that act as portals through which the work can be entered. Each story becomes a lens to see a place in a new way; a gentle prompt; a mental warm up for an action audiences are asked to perform.&nbsp; Read more... Started: 2020 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎ Writers and translators: Sarah Rodigari, Sarah Goffman, Sophea Lerner, Tom Gill, ArtLabOva, Make or Break, Masayuki Kawai, Sumi Hayashi, with special thanks to Aki Hoashi. bridge // care // time // archive // water // salt // labour // instruction // digital // sculpture // infrastructure ︎ <img width="5257" height="3505" width_o="5257" height_o="3505" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0b99e77ca69d2083557146fad784a70d82c8e4a9fd9f085baa797df3f465a02/MoB_Billboard_ImageEllaSowinska2020.2.jpg" data-mid="117982170" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a0b99e77ca69d2083557146fad784a70d82c8e4a9fd9f085baa797df3f465a02/MoB_Billboard_ImageEllaSowinska2020.2.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Every Thing You Think You Know, 2020, billboard erasure project, photo by Ella Sowinska. EVERY THING YOU THINK YOU KNOW Every Thing You Think You Know is a public billboard erasure project. An unbranded billboard message is slowly redacted, with a letter removed daily over a period of weeks, creating a range of readings and meanings. This unidentified message was designed to be experienced incidentally, to create a moment of confusion or curiosity; a small intensity. This project first unfolded in Naarm/Melbourne in May 2020 as part of Next Wave Festival's Assemble! Program. During Covid-19 lockdowns, Make or Break commissioned local artist, DJ and performer Niveen Abdelatty to visit the billboard daily and paste over its message one letter at a time. Read more... Started: 2020 Time/Labour: ︎&nbsp; Thanks to: Niveen Abdelatty billboard // erasure // text // knowledge // instruction ︎ <img width="1629" height="1094" width_o="1629" height_o="1094" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/daaf326eb961b18390d619b7d2cb4167ebb4bc049dc0ab78dc0608d194ae6295/Screen-Shot-2021-09-01-at-1.42.56-pm.jpg" data-mid="117982176" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/daaf326eb961b18390d619b7d2cb4167ebb4bc049dc0ab78dc0608d194ae6295/Screen-Shot-2021-09-01-at-1.42.56-pm.jpg" />Image: Screenshot of Make or Break’s contribution to Rituals for Renewal. RITUALS FOR RENEWAL An online project curated by Tian Zhang, Rituals for Renewal asks artists to create responses to a period of isolation, and the introspection and reflection that this may bring. As the world begins to re-open (and re-close and re-open), and the old ways are called into question, how might rituals help us to re-imagine ourselves, our communities and our world, and ground these imaginings into practice? Make or Break shared a collection of textual and video reflections on the idea of bridges.&nbsp; Read more... Started: 2020 Time/Labour:︎ time // slow // observation // video // text // portal ︎ <img width="3013" height="1856" width_o="3013" height_o="1856" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/38e62baca3b366ab4965783ecaf3eda7ff6337de2dd183c36aeee7cb26ddce8a/Screen-Shot-2021-08-26-at-11.26.33-am.jpg" data-mid="117982175" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/38e62baca3b366ab4965783ecaf3eda7ff6337de2dd183c36aeee7cb26ddce8a/Screen-Shot-2021-08-26-at-11.26.33-am.jpg" />Image: Screenshot of the Next Wave Festival 2020 launch, with Make or Break’s Hyperlocal Headlines ticker, picturing speaker Libby Harward. HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES Hyperlocal Headlines are sourced from the personal and daily domestic observations and revelations of the general public, and uploaded to a series of digital news tickers or billboards in prominent public spaces. Contributors are invited via a targeted invitation or standalone website to submit observations from their front windows, bedroom, backyard or local street in the form of news-style headlines, that when combination build a delightfully detailed and offbeat picture of the hyperlocal. Read more... Started: 2020&nbsp; Time/Labour:︎︎ time // text // crowdsource // observation // media // local // citizen // journalism ︎︎︎ <img width="1942" height="1287" width_o="1942" height_o="1287" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/723e442501fb872f8795b6525d251fdd6b1a0eba254d7ea21ded29cb26c4cf2d/WTFI_screenshot.jpg" data-mid="117982178" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/723e442501fb872f8795b6525d251fdd6b1a0eba254d7ea21ded29cb26c4cf2d/WTFI_screenshot.jpg" />Image: courtesy of Make or Break and Despoinas Coven. WRITING THE FEMINIST INTERNET (IN COLLABORATION WITH DESPOINAS COVEN) Writing the Feminist Internet is a collaborative, generative, online ‘writing with’ session, where contributors respond — collaboratively and in real-time — to a text drafted by artist and academic Nancy Mauro-Flude in 2018. This text suggests a series of principles and lores for a Feminist Internet within ten working points. Participants meet online to write their own version of this manifesto, riffing off, reimagining, rejecting or rephrasing the original text live in a single open document. Read more... Started: 2020 Time/Labour: ︎ Collaborators: Despoinas Coven (Nancy Mauro-Flude, Nicole Brimmer) feminist // text // digital // open // source // internet // manifesto ︎ <img width="1254" height="922" width_o="1254" height_o="922" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a878932b4e50761bc229f76e00c5f709e05d6a2d463842435cb39349772b06b3/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-12.25.17-pm.jpg" data-mid="117982177" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a878932b4e50761bc229f76e00c5f709e05d6a2d463842435cb39349772b06b3/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-12.25.17-pm.jpg" />Image: Courtesy of Make or Break. LOVE LETTERS Make or Break often writes with, to and about its projects. Mostly this is for their own process and thinking-through. In May 2020, a series of speculative letters to a project were published on Witness, a forum for independent critique and debate about the Australian performing arts that operated from 2017 - June 2021. Make or Break had planned to debut an ambitious project as part of Naarm/Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival 2020. When the project was cancelled due to Covid-19, the artists began writing speculative letters between themselves and the project as a kind of grief therapy for an unrealised and unrealisable project. Read more... Started: 2020&nbsp; Time/Labour:︎ writing // thinking // grief // love // letter ︎ <img width="3543" height="2362" width_o="3543" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd1919e3ad2f057366e1020cbe31f875f33688641063304f1b1a8223f859635e/CAC-Install-May-19-54.jpg" data-mid="117982157" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bd1919e3ad2f057366e1020cbe31f875f33688641063304f1b1a8223f859635e/CAC-Install-May-19-54.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Influence Operation, 2019, installation view at Campbelltown Art Centre, photo by Document Photography. INFLUENCE OPERATION Information operations and warfare, also known as 'influence operations', describes the collection of tactical information about an adversary as well as the dissemination of propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is now broadly associated with the use of (mis)information to achieve strategic, financial, cultural or political influence and, in some cases, change the outcomes of elections, policy and public perceptions. How might artists and citizens participate in and ‘hack’ how information is gathered and broadcast, in the same ways that corporations and governments are already (legally) doing? Read More... Started: 2019 Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Benjamin Foster, Chris Nash, Gwen Taualai, Ian Milliss, Ben Barnes, Luke Bacon influence // operation // media // news // cycle // citizen // journalism // subversive // power // technology ︎ <img width="3543" height="2362" width_o="3543" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51375d9883158a2516b536def120820080e2c632490d1dd6d0313c851ae2a7c3/Institutional-Waste-1_Zan-Wimberley-1.jpg" data-mid="117982286" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/51375d9883158a2516b536def120820080e2c632490d1dd6d0313c851ae2a7c3/Institutional-Waste-1_Zan-Wimberley-1.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Institutional Waste #1, 2020, installation view at Artspace, photo by Zan Wimberley. INSTITUTIONAL WASTE Institutional Waste is an ongoing investigation into waste processes in cultural institutions, and how this intersects with their complicated relationship with waged labour. The arts sector is often described as an ecosystem, suggesting that there are material and immaterial flows between institutions. Waste management is one way that these flows — or lack thereof — can be considered and critiqued.&nbsp; Rehoming exhibition waste with smaller institutions or artist-run initiatives is one way to ‘reorganise the spreadsheet’ and support the rest of the sector, free up funds to pay artists a living wage and reduce landfill at a time of intensifying climate crisis.&nbsp; Read More... Started: 2019 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎ Thanks to: Luke Bacon, Miška Mandić, Del Lumanta environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // letters // installation // video ︎ <img width="4060" height="2848" width_o="4060" height_o="2848" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42324a7914e3c6b9bebf8981c28801592cd6cbaf92df4ca0ac3677e7ba0b766d/DSC_0441.JPG" data-mid="117982160" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42324a7914e3c6b9bebf8981c28801592cd6cbaf92df4ca0ac3677e7ba0b766d/DSC_0441.JPG" />Image courtesy of Make or Break and Ruin Press. TO ALL THE WOMEN OF KYNETON [BOOK] This book brings together more than 60 community responses to Make or Break’s monuments survey as part of Unveilings for the inaugural Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial. For ten days in 2018, Make or Break asked female-identifying people in the Victorian town of Kyneton to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for the town via an anonymous paper survey. The surveys were collected and displayed in a main street shop window, together with a series of live ‘unveiling' performances at secret locations around the town. Read More... Published 2019 Printed in Australia.ISBN 978-0-6485808-0-5 First edition limited to 150 copies. 88 pages perfect bound. Order online at Ruin Press $25.00 + shipping Thanks to: Angela Garrick (Ruin Press), Katy B. Plummer and Sarah Rodigari (for their beautiful performances at the Sydney book launch), and everyone who filled out a survey. book // publish // survey ︎ <img width="4279" height="2834" width_o="4279" height_o="2834" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d6fef8929524ca3189fc4f7fc6368c28e2b8006a8db17c51ec9ef6b457ec757/MoB_Unveilings_Susan-Gould.jpg" data-mid="117982172" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d6fef8929524ca3189fc4f7fc6368c28e2b8006a8db17c51ec9ef6b457ec757/MoB_Unveilings_Susan-Gould.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Unveilings, 2018, performance still at Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial, photo by Susan Gould. UNVEILINGS In Australia, there are more statues of animals and oversized fruit than there are memorials to (or about) women, and only a tiny fraction of public statues in Australia honour non-fictional, non-royal women: the vast majority honour dead, white men. Unveilings attempts to reverse this imbalance. First commissioned in the rural town of Kyneton, Victoria, Make or Break survey female-identifying people to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for their town. Anonymous paper surveys are collected and displayed in a main street shop window, and several are selected for further research by the artists, culminating in a series of walks and live performances at nearby sites of importance. Read More... Started: 2018 Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎Thanks to: Michael Needham &amp; Jud Wimhurst (roadies), Damien Butler (fabrication), Clare Heuston, Laurence Rosier Staines &amp; Roslyn Helper (dramaturgy), Flophouse Kyneton and Dad &amp; Dave (accommodation), Jason Waterhouse (The Caddy), and the whole KCAT team. residency // monument // women // memory // civic // unveiling // survey // stories ︎ <img width="2666" height="1842" width_o="2666" height_o="1842" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/823e988d141f07faeb184ac5237714eccfb9ac87bb3b6a918f19fdd6031412db/Labour-Talks-5.jpg" data-mid="117982166" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/823e988d141f07faeb184ac5237714eccfb9ac87bb3b6a918f19fdd6031412db/Labour-Talks-5.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Labour Talks, 2019, archive image courtesy of Make or Break. LABOUR TALKS Labour Talks asks the public to reflect on the ways that their labour is valued. Make or Break conducts a series of one-on-two interviews, where people are asked to share their views concerning labour and value creation. Each interview is documented with a handwritten set of short notes, first name, age, occupation and a photograph of the person’s hands (labour symbols), slowly building an archive of labour relations. Read More... Started: 2019 Time/Labour:︎ labour // love // money // value // interview // archive ︎ <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2cc6f02f6748dc3fca305af5e9e6ebc9e5c2883bf89eeb76a8318a55dd57bca/DSC04277.JPG" data-mid="117982163" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2cc6f02f6748dc3fca305af5e9e6ebc9e5c2883bf89eeb76a8318a55dd57bca/DSC04277.JPG" />Image: Make or Break at Verge Gallery for The Failure Debate, 2018, image courtesy of Make or Break. MILLSTONE MEDALLIONS Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments. The Failure Debate at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney was part of the group exhibition Personal Best. Two teams of professionals from various fields explored the value of hard work and the joys of losing, to answer the question: “is it good to fail?”. Make or Break selected zingers and non-sequiturs from each speaker as they competed, and engraved live on personalised millstone medallions, presented to each speaker at the conclusion of the debate. Read more... Started: 2018&nbsp; Time/Labour:︎ Thanks to: Marcus White (Craft Metalwork) labour // care // failure // debate // award // medal ︎ <img width="4288" height="2848" width_o="4288" height_o="2848" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c884257384f7b68d871c6ea1af10210723f20f2c415632fb36bcb1217574ae00/MoB_ASMR_2.JPG" data-mid="117982169" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c884257384f7b68d871c6ea1af10210723f20f2c415632fb36bcb1217574ae00/MoB_ASMR_2.JPG" />Image: Make or Break, ASMR Recovery Room, 2018, video still, image courtesy of Make or Break. ASMR RECOVERY ROOM ASMR Recovery Room is a one-person immersive experience of darkness, moving image, sound, smell and texture. It is an invitation to step into a different experience of time and space, and reconnect with the natural world through slow, sensory stimulus. This work was first presented in a transformed soccer-mom car for one night only, in an underground carpark as part of an artist-run carboot sale. Read More... Started: 2018 Time/Labour:︎ immersive // experience // video // audio // sound // scent // nature // ASMR ︎ <img width="2048" height="1367" width_o="2048" height_o="1367" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60ad242c4439dad5b108754dc63e78e2f1ca3951a4e4fabf78d73d396c4f3081/2017-05-03---After-pArty-Freda---055-of-230---_DSC0648---2-stars.jpg" data-mid="117982155" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60ad242c4439dad5b108754dc63e78e2f1ca3951a4e4fabf78d73d396c4f3081/2017-05-03---After-pArty-Freda---055-of-230---_DSC0648---2-stars.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Invisible Labours of Love, 2017, process image at Freda’s for after pARTY, photo by Tim da-Rin. INVISIBLE LABOURS OF LOVE Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments. The first iteration of this project was for after pARTY, a themed club night at Freda’s curated by Anna May Kirk and Nerida Ross. Make or Break circulated forms for people to nominate loved ones’ invisible labours of love. Trophies were custom engraved live on stage, and presented during a continuous joyous ceremony on the night. Read More... Started: 2017&nbsp; Time/Labour:︎ labour // care // celebration // awards // engraving ︎ <img width="2734" height="1842" width_o="2734" height_o="1842" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a016fccc32bb13fd9b4c006eb73abfdd7b8f49ed8c9bccb545e0b2559eb484ae/Merch-Stand_Tim-da-Rin-1.jpg" data-mid="117982168" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a016fccc32bb13fd9b4c006eb73abfdd7b8f49ed8c9bccb545e0b2559eb484ae/Merch-Stand_Tim-da-Rin-1.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Merch Stand, 2017, image of bicycle cart during Underbelly Arts Festival, photo by Tim da-Rin. MERCH STAND Merch Stand creates a speculative economy and collective income stream within an experimental arts festival. It is a framework for providing direct financial support to artists, while critiquing the arts festival model and its underpaying of artists working in performance, experiential and ephemeral practices. It is also a platform for hosting difficult conversations around value, labour and privilege. Merch Stand was first commissioned for Underbelly Arts Lab &amp; Festival in 2017. Make or Break collaborated with each of the 21 Festival artists and collectives to produce custom merchandise. The merch was produced and packaged in an on-site “factory” staffed by the artists and volunteers, and sold live at the festival via a bicycle-powered cart, and online via a hacked Shopify platform. Read More... Started: 2017 Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Andrew Christie (casting, 3D printing/scanning), Josh Gilchrist (screenprinting), Kirtika Kain (factory), Love Police (merch supplies), Benjamin Forster (hacked Shopify platform), Jane Wolfers (sewing), Underbelly artists + everyone who bought merch economy // merchandise // patronage // privilege // support // labour // conversations // online &nbsp; ︎ <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6282df8416a4e83fbb2a735a2a62d78fb3a5692fc7026a0573e65f1b4339000/DSC04090.JPG" data-mid="117982162" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6282df8416a4e83fbb2a735a2a62d78fb3a5692fc7026a0573e65f1b4339000/DSC04090.JPG" />Image: Make or Break, Valuation 2, 2018, performed by Beth Dillon at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, photo by Rebecca Gallo. VALUATION Valuation is an iterative series of online and physical works. It is a process through which Make or Break attempts to understand the way that art market value — of both artworks and art work — is determined and upheld, especially for works that have little or no physical trace. This series critiques the subjectivity of value generation and the fragility of currencies, and exposes the complex combination of labour, care and power that exists in relationships between artists and curators. In September 2016, Make or Break first commissioned an accredited valuer under the Australian Cultural Gifts Program to place a dollar value on Make or Break Studio, the collective’s first work, to be accompanied by a written report. Read More... Started: 2016 Time/Labour:︎︎ Collaborators: Noica Omero (costume), Rhiannon Newton (choreographer/performer), Beth Dillon (choreographer/performer), Lisa Corsi (valuer), Anna Waldmann (valuer) value // labour // valuation // report // performance // video // instruction // wallpaper // currency ︎ <img width="3648" height="2520" width_o="3648" height_o="2520" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a9d736487a8c52bed6f29fd6c6d8a414ed8d6240ff04f53f9c439f136ce80948/One-Day-Currency.jpg" data-mid="117982173" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a9d736487a8c52bed6f29fd6c6d8a414ed8d6240ff04f53f9c439f136ce80948/One-Day-Currency.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, One Day Currency, 2016, promotional image courtesy of Make or Break. ONE DAY CURRENCY This project asks: what unexpected modes of exchange can emerge in the space of a single day? Are there different ways to do economy? What privileges or systemic inequalities are exposed through the circulation (or not) of currency? This live project circulates temporary 'currencies’ at art events, giving access to exclusive experiences and consumables. People might choose to retain their currency, give it away or trade it. It is these decisions — the way that a currency is shared, circulated or hoarded — that provoke uncomfortable questions, provide insights into the links between economic systems, personal relationships and privilege, and give this project its meaning. Read more... Started: 2016 Time/Labour:︎︎ economy // experiment // currency // exchange // wearable ︎ <img width="2448" height="1693" width_o="2448" height_o="1693" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e78f0e808e23e1cb02d8566d9dbcfe7e9d714d998e210b833764a23ae157a720/IMG_2881.JPG" data-mid="117982164" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e78f0e808e23e1cb02d8566d9dbcfe7e9d714d998e210b833764a23ae157a720/IMG_2881.JPG" />Image: Make or Break, Radicalising the Artist’s Biography, 2016, workshop session at the Queen Victoria Market, photo courtesy of Sanné Mestrom and Jamie Hall. RADICALISING THE ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY In this practical, collaborative workshop, we re-think how to write (or draw, diagram, film, talk) about ourselves as artists. Who benefits from the formulas and hierarchies artists use to represent artists and art work? Can the artist bio become a starting point for reframing how artists' labour is valued and understood? Read more... Started: 2016 Time/Labour:︎ biography // experiment // culture // capital // language&nbsp; ︎ <img width="4288" height="2848" width_o="4288" height_o="2848" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2159166de7b9804f8e74b01dec69e5b3ca7aca212f4efbbb576c7a97bf249578/DSC_0112.jpg" data-mid="117982159" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2159166de7b9804f8e74b01dec69e5b3ca7aca212f4efbbb576c7a97bf249578/DSC_0112.jpg" />Image: Courtesy of Make or Break. LIFE ADMIN In return for an artist fee, Make or Break shares their life admin process for a predetermined period of time. Dressed in gold lamé onesies, the artists stand at their laptops at a gold table, with both of their screens live-projected onto the wall behind them. They do not communicate, other than through their computers. This work makes visible the unpaid labour of artists, and exposes conversations, disagreements, banalities and other activities in the life of an artist. Audiences witness the reading and sending of private emails, applying for grants, paying utility bills and studio rent, and whatever arrives in the artists’ inboxes at that particular time. Read more... Started: 2016 Time/Labour:︎ Thanks to: Noica Omero (costumes) economy // currency // labour // privacy // gold ︎ <img width="2586" height="1884" width_o="2586" height_o="1884" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e29880dd7a364d7160313f0fae6d39a41c5615fd7b4ac1d7e65ae3b0b09dadcf/MoB_biography.jpg" data-mid="117629063" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e29880dd7a364d7160313f0fae6d39a41c5615fd7b4ac1d7e65ae3b0b09dadcf/MoB_biography.jpg" />Image: Make or Break, Biography, 2016, 2 x risograph prints in blue ink on pink 90gsm copy paper, A4 size (21 x 29.7 cm x 2 prints), edition of 25 + 2AP, install image courtesy of Make or Break. BIOGRAPHY Biography is a visual accumulation of artist labour, and the often-inadequate methods we use to qualify and quantify it. These limited edition risograph prints contain all of Make or Break, Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes’ published artist biographies to date, printed one on top of the other, from oldest to most recent. This work was first made in 2016. Print pairs (Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes / ed. 25 + 2AP) or singles (Make or Break / ed. unlimited) can be purchased for $300 (unframed) or $500 (framed), contact makeorbreakart [at] gmail [dot] com Read more... Started: 2016 Time/Labour:︎ labour // overwriting // biography // time ︎ <img width="4131" height="2848" width_o="4131" height_o="2848" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b0d7cc4cc2410af3719122f1cff67a3576b1506f4b759ccf1825a88031087dd/DSC_0447.JPG" data-mid="117982161" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3b0d7cc4cc2410af3719122f1cff67a3576b1506f4b759ccf1825a88031087dd/DSC_0447.JPG" />Image: Make or Break book, by Connie Anthes &amp; Rebecca Gallo, pub. 2016, image courtesy of Make or Break. MAKE OR BREAK [BOOK] This book is both a reflection and extension of Make or Break’s first project, Make or Break Studio. It features critical essays by David Eastwood, Bek Conroy, Connie Anthes and Rebecca Gallo, exploring the value of artist labour, collaboration and the histories and politics of the artist studio. The first edition was vacuum-sealed in plastic, along with a sprinkling of artist studio rubble. Make or Break book was self-published following the first iteration of Make or Break Studio, which took place in December 2015 at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney. Read more... Published 2016ISBN 9781367657243 270 pages, soft cover, perfect bound. Order Make or Break book writing // thinking // labour // studio // artist // audience ︎ <img width="3543" height="2362" width_o="3543" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25741a10b23974e01198793f74508b4c8a82ab26acebf54195dcda2d2582baa0/Make-or-Break-Studio_Document-Photography-2.jpg" data-mid="117982167" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25741a10b23974e01198793f74508b4c8a82ab26acebf54195dcda2d2582baa0/Make-or-Break-Studio_Document-Photography-2.jpg" />Image: Make or Break Studio, 2015, documentation at Firstdraft, NSW, photo by Document Photography. MAKE OR BREAK STUDIO Make or Break Studio is an open examination of art-making as a kind of performance, and an opportunity to challenge the value of art objects and artist labour. It is a repurposing of valuable inner city real estate (a gallery) as a space for experimenting, thinking and doing (a studio). It acknowledges and makes visible the flows of influence, ideas and materials between artists, audiences and other stakeholders. Starting on opening night and continuing for the duration of the exhibition, two artists engage in a daily art-making relay, continuing or destroying the work that the other had made during their previous session, as if it were their own.&nbsp; Read more... Started: 2015&nbsp; Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Third Chair contributors Clare Cooper, Bek Conroy, David Eastwood, David Greenhalgh, Ele Jansen, Ian Milliss, and everyone who visited and donated materials to Make or Break Studio labour // value // studio // collaboration // build // repurpose // time // space // library // conversation ︎ https://makeorbreakart.com/TERMS-OF-ENGAGEMENT Mon, 23 Jun 2025 03:57:14 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/TERMS-OF-ENGAGEMENT MAKE OR BREAK: TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT <img width="2000" height="1423" width_o="2000" height_o="1423" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e05f38f2f275f753bd8512b124f798645620c71e7e19d365fa96c7ea68ce67da/MorB_brandx_Photographer_Seiya-Taguchi-1.png" data-mid="234876176" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e05f38f2f275f753bd8512b124f798645620c71e7e19d365fa96c7ea68ce67da/MorB_brandx_Photographer_Seiya-Taguchi-1.png" /> Started: 2021 ~ Time/labour: ︎ Thanks to: Workshop partners Accessible Arts, Brand X, CuriousWorks, Inner West Council, Utp advocacy // relational // institutional critique // workshop // open source ~ Image: Make or Break, Terms of Engagement workshop at Brand X, Gadigal Country, December 2024. Photo by Seiya Taguchi. TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT is a resource for artist self-advocacy and building better, more equitable relationships between artists and institutions. It is a document, a workshop, and an open-source tool. It is how Make or Break starts conversations with people who want to work with us.&nbsp; Make or Break’s own Terms of Engagement is a living document that can be found online here. Artists and collectives are invited to adapt and use this as the basis for their own terms of engagement. We are developing an open glossary of terms, where artists can add their own to a growing list for anyone to draw from. ~ Since 2024, Terms of Engagement workshops have been devised for Accessible Arts, Brand X, CuriousWorks, Inner West Council, and Utp. For workshops, contact makeorbreakart@gmail.com. V1.0 of Make or Break’s Terms of Engagement was devised following a series of Thinking in Fours conversations in 2021 with Ju Bavyka, Lauren Carroll Harris, Clare Cooper, Jamie Lewis, and Emily Sexton. Thank you for sharing time, frustrations, energy, and ideas. https://makeorbreakart.com/TIME-OUTSIDE Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:13:56 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/TIME-OUTSIDE MAKE OR BREAK: TIME OUTSIDE <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/67524ba5a7a9bda686004ccaba591f07c37ca4a4e73c8f56c283a9df0cc60176/MorB_TimeOutside_HIAP_SheungYiu.jpg" data-mid="191772160" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/67524ba5a7a9bda686004ccaba591f07c37ca4a4e73c8f56c283a9df0cc60176/MorB_TimeOutside_HIAP_SheungYiu.jpg" /> Started: 2023 Time/labour: ︎ Thanks to: Helsinki International Art Program &amp; Creative Australia (HIAP Residency for collectives) observation // object // speculative fiction // text // drawing // translation // non-human ~ Image: Make or Break, TIME OUTSIDE, 2023. HIAP Open Studios / Spring 2023. Photo by Sheung Yiu. TIME OUTSIDE is a long-term research project: a shelter for art collectives, critical thinkers and institutions to radically rethink how artists contribute to social, environmental and political change. As part of Make or Break’s residency at Helsinki International Artist Programme on Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki, Finland, the public is invited into the beginnings of this research. Visitors to the studio can select an object, leave their phone in its place, and respond to a prompt with writing, drawing or diagramming. As an early experiment for TIME OUTSIDE, Make or Break share methods for writing and thinking collectively. These are prompts for ways to think, sense and act differently; a beginning in turning away from human-centred timescales and orientations to the world. The invitation starts here: ~ ‘We’ve been collecting materials on and off the island. Human-made things that roll in with the sea, fall out of pockets or drift away from picnics. Weeds that grow prolifically and without permission; other weathered flotsam. And the occasional gift from a tree or bird. Think of these as tools for thinking with. We are turning our attention towards critters, plants, materials, and other rhythms and things happening in this place, to learn with them. Hold the object you have selected in your hand. Spend some time with it… feel the textures of its different surfaces, edges, materials. Try to imagine its relationship to this place and record your response.’&nbsp; ~ This residency was supported by Creative Australia and HIAP. https://makeorbreakart.com/FIRST-SENTENCES Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:00:59 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/FIRST-SENTENCES MAKE OR BREAK: FIRST SENTENCES (IN COLLABORATION WITH SIGRID MACDONALD) <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/72f2bad0280d2e14b0f47ab6604eff80158cf381d5b5ef5707da1f5ad255e79b/MorB_FirstSentences.jpg" data-mid="191773802" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/72f2bad0280d2e14b0f47ab6604eff80158cf381d5b5ef5707da1f5ad255e79b/MorB_FirstSentences.jpg" /> Started: 2023 Time/labour: ︎︎︎ Thanks to: Writers: Sigrid Macdonald, Make or Break, visitors to DONHR project at Lismore Regional GalleryTranslator/Glosser: Sigrid MacdonaldDesigner: Ella CutlerIllustrators: Sigrid Macdonald, Ella CutlerAuslan translator and performer: Janelle WhalanVideo editor: Miška MandićVenue partner: Lismore Regional GalleryAuslan // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // translation ~ Image: Sigrid Macdonald and Make or Break, First Sentences, 2023, photo by Make or Break. FIRST SENTENCES is a collaborative book and video series that asks you to get curious about Deaf culture and the importance of accessibility. It contains a selection of first sentences written and signed by people from Lismore, generated in response to a creative writing prompt that Make or Break devised for their&nbsp;Department of Non-Human Resources (DONHR) project. In the book, each original English sentence has been interpreted in Auslan and recorded as a video, and then translated back into English. First Sentences highlights conceptual and linguistic differences between Auslan and English as a way to encourage curiosity about languages and to share the theatre and poetry of Auslan, an image-based language with no written equivalent. The book design allows the book to be unbound and remixed, and there will be releasing a free, accessible ebook in the near future, with image descriptions and an introduction to the design of the book. This project was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW, Arts Northern Rivers and Lismore Regional Gallery. https://makeorbreakart.com/HYPERLOCAL-HEADLINES-1 Mon, 01 Aug 2022 10:02:17 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/HYPERLOCAL-HEADLINES-1 MAKE OR BREAK: HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES <img width="3001" height="2029" width_o="3001" height_o="2029" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6c9de6965557748b5771a5b0b7d318a0252687305b90017a4127b421e260e993/credit_Wild_Hardt-07535.jpg" data-mid="149275322" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6c9de6965557748b5771a5b0b7d318a0252687305b90017a4127b421e260e993/credit_Wild_Hardt-07535.jpg" /> Started: 2022 Time/labour: ︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Writers: Maria, Lena, Flor, Liliana, Coni, Lelia, Hasib, Fi, Esther, Anna, Shalome, Amy, Jessica, Michelle, Luke, Miska, Tess, Shian, Ju, Ursula, Alex &amp; AI text generator (GPT3) Producers: Tess Maunder, Hasib Hourani Tech assists: Ben Barnes, Wilson Wu Photographers: Wild Hardt, Aaron Claringbold Venue partners: Siteworks, Twosixty and Queen Victoria Women’s Centre public broadcast // citizen journalism // community // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I. ~ Image: Make or Break, Hyperlocal Headlines, 2022, installation view at Twosixty, Brunswick, Victoria. Photo by Wild Hardt. &nbsp; HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES&nbsp;takes place as a series of artist-facilitated creative conversations and collective storytelling and writing sessions that imagine the future of news. Participants become citizen journalists for a day, learning to collaborate with AI technologies, understand media bias and language, and explore how the ways we tell stories can impact collective futures. Participants’ narrative and poetic speculations are broadcast as website interventions and across large scale digital news tickers, to answer questions like: how does language influence our world view, or reveal our biases? Will the future of news be hyperlocal or distributed? Who writes it, how is it accessed, and who controls it? Hyperlocal Headlines is an iteration of Make or Break’s ongoing project Influence Operation (2019-) which to date has invited citizens to join a series of focused workshops to adopt strategies of power in pursuit of questions around truth, influence and subjectivity. Influence Operation was first commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre. Hyperlocal Headlines was commissioned by Next Wave for Next Wave Festival through Kickstart. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program. https://makeorbreakart.com/CITIZEN-J Fri, 17 Dec 2021 04:58:31 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/CITIZEN-J MAKE OR BREAK: CITIZEN J <img width="3000" height="2002" width_o="3000" height_o="2002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd3b27201fea441ee98052e37ed581317948025299948b0f609ecea97c0b34ad/UTS_MakeOrBreakWorkshop_230222_credit_JacquieManning-71.jpg" data-mid="148089509" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd3b27201fea441ee98052e37ed581317948025299948b0f609ecea97c0b34ad/UTS_MakeOrBreakWorkshop_230222_credit_JacquieManning-71.jpg" /> Started: 2022 Time/labour: ︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: UTS students Abbie, Amy, Annie, Diego, Eleanor, Helen, Jack, James, Jay, Jessie, Joseph, Julien, Kent, Kimberley, Lucy, Rahul, Sean, Seja, Solei, Sophie, Rodger and Timi, and anonymous AIs citizen journalism // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I. ~ Image: Make or Break, Citizen J, 2022, worksession in progress at UTS. Photo by Jacquie Manning. &nbsp; CITIZEN J is a collaboration between art collective Make or Break and tertiary students who are interested in understanding media subjectivity and the tools being developed and used by media empires, corporations and nation states to influence our understanding of truth. This project enables students to play with a series of critical and creative tools – including media analysis, language shaping, news scraping, futuring, speculative writing and machine learning – to generate a series of future newsfeeds. Citizen J manifests for audiences as a continuous stream of speculative headlines and stories displayed live on LED news tickers at the university and online via a digital intervention on the university website. These headlines and stories are updated as the project unfolds, and are generated through a range of processes: “personalised” headlines devised using collaborators’ social media and search histories; current headlines scraped from news sites and re-imagined through machine learning; headlines and stories from imagined futures developed in collaboration with AI. Citizen J is an offshoot of Make or Break’s ongoing project Influence Operation (2019-) which to date has invited citizens to join a series of focused workshops to adopt strategies of power in pursuit of questions around truth, influence and subjectivity. This project is supported by Create NSW’s Audience Development Fund, a devolved funding program administered by Museums &amp; Galleries of NSW on behalf of the NSW Government. Influence Operation was first commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre &amp; Next Wave Festival, with support from the Australia Council of the Arts. https://makeorbreakart.com/wirnda-mara-ganjarnmanha-Ritual-Gift Mon, 01 Aug 2022 10:18:53 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/wirnda-mara-ganjarnmanha-Ritual-Gift MAKE OR BREAK: wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (IN COLLABORATION WITH NICOLE MONKS) <img width="2000" height="1128" width_o="2000" height_o="1128" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29e621476304247e752964cd0708ecd32f7ed72a9a16fb9ad70ead9b58fae65f/runway_ritualgift.jpg" data-mid="149276524" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/29e621476304247e752964cd0708ecd32f7ed72a9a16fb9ad70ead9b58fae65f/runway_ritualgift.jpg" /> Started: 2021 Time/labour: ︎︎ The Wajarri language version and captioning were developed in close collaboration between Kylie Simpson, a mother, nana and Wajarri speaker and teacher, and Nicole Monks. Kylie's generosity and voice are shared with you here. Thanks to: Sound editing: Josh Kirkman (Wajarri), Rebecca Gallo (English) Video editing and close captioning: Rebecca Gallo sound // listening // time // instruction // ritual // gift // body // environment ~ Image: Nicole Monks and Make or Break, wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), 2021, video still courtesy the artists. &nbsp; wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (RITUAL / GIFT) is a close-captioned listening and observation ritual developed by Nicole Monks and Make or Break for Runway Journal of Experimental Art (Issue #44 TIME, edited by Joel Spring). Over a period of weeks, Nicole, Bec and Connie exchanged ideas cross-Country between Wajarri, Burramattagal and Gadigal lands on the West and East coasts of so-called Australia. In wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), we collectively offer a distillation of the thinking, touching, listening and looking that we did together. What made us feel slowed, connected and held by place. We offer you this experience, in close-captioned Wajarri or English, to try for yourself wherever you are. Give as much or as little time to this as you wish.http://runway.org.au/nicole-monks-make-or-break/ This project was commissioned by http://runway.org.au https://makeorbreakart.com/TRANSLATION-PROJECT-REST-HOUSE Mon, 18 Jul 2022 03:48:16 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/TRANSLATION-PROJECT-REST-HOUSE MAKE OR BREAK: TRANSLATION PROJECT (REST HOUSE) <img width="1280" height="898" width_o="1280" height_o="898" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e659a45ab50501928c77c4d6409683ed596d88400994bb357364f33fee1de31/mob_resthouse.png" data-mid="148087344" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e659a45ab50501928c77c4d6409683ed596d88400994bb357364f33fee1de31/mob_resthouse.png" /> Started: 2021 Time/labour:&nbsp;︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Phimai Heritage Trust, Khon Kaen University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan. Architects: Sitta Kongsasana, Sininart Kotruchin, Benjawan Thatsanaleelaporn, Mongkol Wongkittiwimol. Architectural Production: Narathip Sonthisumphun, Nitwipha Jaiplaeng. Construction Team: Thanasit Chantaree, Arnuchit Booskarm. Rattan Crafters: Somkoun Ngoophimai, Puckjiravarin Kaewdonree. Translators: Rungsima Kullapat, Thailand Biennale translation // power // colonial // conversation // vernacular // material // text // futures ~ Image: Make or Break, Translation project (rest house), 2021. Installation view at&nbsp; Meru Bhrommathat, Phimai for Thailand Biennale Korat 2021. Image by Make or Break. แปลไทยด้านล่าง TRANSLATION PROJECT (REST HOUSE) is the result of an experimental process of translation and exchange between Make or Break and a group of architects, craftspeople, fabricators and researchers. It began as a series of translated texts describing a piece of Australian vernacular architecture. The original ‘bus stop’ on which this structure is based is a 1970s Brutalist design, reproduced across Australia’s capital city of Canberra on Ngunnawal Country. The shelter in the Thai iteration&nbsp; occupies a parallel position to the Khmer ‘rest houses’ that once dotted the Royal Road between Angkor Wat and Phimai. Simultaneously sites of hospitality and care, and also historical monuments to colonial power, the tensions embedded in these structures are played out again through the cultural and linguistic processes of translation (and what cannot be translated). The rest house is now a space for contemplation and pause, and for open use by the community. At other times, the site will become a space for critical cross-cultural conversation and programs.&nbsp; This project was first commissioned by Thailand Biennale Korat 2021, curated by Yuko Hasegawa, with support from OCAC,&nbsp;Phimai Heritage Trust, Khon Kaen University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan.Media:Thailand Biennale website งานศิลปะชิ้นนี้สร้างสรรค์ โดย ศิลปิ นชาวออสเตรเลีย “เมคออร์เบรค” เพื่องาน “ ไทยแลนด์เบียน าเล่ โคราช 2021” โครงการ “การถอดความ”หรือ (ที่พักคนเดินทาง) ของศิลปิ นเมคออร์เบรค ในปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๔ นี้ ประกอบ ด้วย ผลงานศิลปะแบบติดตั้งเฉพาะที่ พร้อมด้วยตัวบท รูปแบบการสร้าง วัตถุจัดแสดง เอกสารออนไลน์ และบทสนทนา โครงการการถอดความ (ที่พักคนเดินทาง) เป็ นผลของกระบวนการทดลองของการถอดความและการแลก เปลี่ยน ระหว่างศิลปิ น เมคออร์เบรก และกลุ่มสถาปนิกชาวไทย ช่างหัตถกรรม ช่างก่อสร้าง และนักวิจัย โดยมีจุดเริ่มต้นจากงานตัวบทแปลที่อธิบายถึงสถาปัตยกรรมพื้นถิ่นของออสเตรเลียชิ้นหนึ่ง จุดกำาเนิดของ “ป้ ายรถเมล์” (ที่พักคนเดินทาง) เป็ นโครงสร้างของงานศิลปะชิ้นนี้ มีรากฐานมาจากการ ออกแบบแบบบรูทัลลิสต์ ในช่วงทศวรรษ 1970 (๒๕๑๙) ซึ่งมีการนำามาจัดสร้างขึ้นใหม่ เพื่อใช้งานทั่วกรุง แคนเบอร่าเมืองหลวงของประเทศออสเตรเลีย หรือที่รู้จักกันดี ในนามเมืองของชาวพื้นเมือง นงันนาวัล (ชาวอะบอริจินิสกลุ่มแรกของประเทศออสเตรเลีย: ผู้แปล) ที่พักคนเดินทางแห่งนี้ตั้งอยู่คู่ขนานกับที่พัก คนเดินทาง หรือ บ้านมี ไฟ สมัยเขมร ที่ตั้งอยู่ตามเส้นทางราชมรรคา ระหว่างนครวัดและเมืองพิมาย ซึ่งใน ขณะเดียวกันกับการทำาหน้าที่ดูแลคนที่สัญจรไปมา ยังทำาหน้าที่เป็ นอาคารทางประวัติศาสตร์ที่สะท้อนให้ เห็นอำานาจของความเป็ นอาณานิคม ความหมายเหล่านี้ได้ถูกนำามาแสดงให้เห็นโดยผ่านกระบวนการทาง วัฒนธรรมและภาษาศาสตร์ของการถอดความ (และยังคงมีความหมายบางอย่างที่ไม่สามารถถอดความออก มาได้) ที่พักคนเดินทางแห่งนี้ ได้กลายเป็ นพื้นที่พักกายและใจให้แก่คนทั่วไป และยังเป็ นพื้นที่สาธารณะให้แก่ ชุมชน เมื่องานเบียนนาเล่เสร็จสิ้นแล้ว ที่พักคนเดินทางแห่งนี้จะกลายเป็ นพื้นที่สำาหรับการใช้งานในการ พบปะพูดคุยและทำากิจกรรมต่างๆแบบข้ามวัฒนธรรมในเชิงวิเคราะห์ ต่อไป ศิลปิ น: เมคออร์เบรก&nbsp; สนับสนุนโดย : กลุ่มภาคีอนุรักษ์เมืองพิมาย, มหาวิทยาลัยขอนแก่น และมหาวิทยาลัยเทคโนโลยีราชมงคล อีสาน ทีมสถาปนิก : สิทธา กองสาสนะ , สินินาถ โคตรุฉิน, เบญจวรรณ์ ทัศนลีลพร, มงคล วงศ์กิตติวิมล ทีมสร้างงานด้านสถาปัตยกรรม : นราธิป สนธิสัมพันธ์, นิจวิภา ใจแปลง ทีมโซลาร์เซล : อรรถ ชมาฤกษ์, วิทวัส โคตรบุรี, มงคล วงศ์กิตติวิมล ทีมก่อสร้าง : ธนสิทธิ์ จันทะรี, อานุชิต บุตรคาม, เกริกกำาพล สำาเริง ช่างฝี มือจักสาน : สมควร งูพิมาย, ภัคจิรวรินทร์ แก้วดอนรี ผู้แปล : รังสิมา กุลพัฒน์ ล่ามแปลภาษาไทย: ติรชา เคนวิเศษ https://makeorbreakart.com/DONHR Mon, 30 Aug 2021 05:45:27 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/DONHR MAKE OR BREAK: DEPARTMENT OF NON-HUMAN RESOURCES (DONHR) <img width="5906" height="3943" width_o="5906" height_o="3943" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae5a176994d027bea82e7092268f55c8644f2ba48d3d2b20640a0570a2ec9f90/_DSC2574.jpg" data-mid="118761491" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae5a176994d027bea82e7092268f55c8644f2ba48d3d2b20640a0570a2ec9f90/_DSC2574.jpg" /> Started: 2021 Time/labour:&nbsp;︎︎︎︎︎ Thanks to: Gabrielle Chantiri, Sigrid Macdonald, Mark Dunphy, Kylie Caldwell, Holly Ahern, Max Nimmo, Asphyxia, Dr Hanabeth Luke, Sara Schmude environment // waste // critique // community // non-human // observation // systems // futures ~ Image: Make or Break, The Department of Non-Human Resources: River Procession, 2021, photo by Lucy Parakhina. THE DEPARTMENT OF NON-HUMAN RESOURCES&nbsp;subjects the gallery space to a collective rethinking, examining its relationship to consumption, waste, knowledge production, cycles of nature and community needs. This participatory project invites speculation and observation from non-human perspectives — such as a river, soil, plant or insect — in order to learn from systems and materials and establish new ways of thinking and being together. We ask (and attempt to answer) questions of sustainability and sustainment for uncertain futures. This project was first commissioned by Lismore Regional Gallery, in Bundjalung/Northern Rivers NSW. Make or Break worked with the local community, creating collective moments of future speculation, manifested through writing, planting, prototyping, reading together, walking and storytelling. Beginning in a “packed state”, the exhibition was assembled with input from the public, making use of borrowed or rescued materials, which could be sat upon, moved, edited, archived and re-organised throughout the project. Some of the exhibition elements at Lismore included a library of borrowed texts, a river snake cushion that referred to both gallery dimensions and the confluence of two rivers in the town, an explanatory wall text that the public could live edit and question, moveable walls of first sentences for stories that have not been written, and palm-sized brass objects to “think with”. This project was first commissioned by Lismore Regional Gallery, with support from the Australia Council of the Arts, Create NSW and Arts Northern Rivers. DONHR Reading Group with AsphyxiaMedia:Eastside Radio: ‘Sympoiesis’ interviews Make or Break Artlink: Transformative communities: Curation and care https://makeorbreakart.com/GHOST-NOTES Fri, 17 Sep 2021 04:12:53 +0000 Make or Break https://makeorbreakart.com/GHOST-NOTES MAKE OR BREAK: GHOST NOTES <img width="1369" height="953" width_o="1369" height_o="953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6282c59e21cb838b9707c1a90b47fe3d10de0f15693d9e5501aa88fc75a4c4e0/FCMG_Extra-Ordinary_Oct_21-Web-1.jpg" data-mid="123340689" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6282c59e21cb838b9707c1a90b47fe3d10de0f15693d9e5501aa88fc75a4c4e0/FCMG_Extra-Ordinary_Oct_21-Web-1.jpg" />Started: 2021 Time/labour: ︎︎ Thanks to: Julian Berengut (programming), Wilson Wu (LED tech) Keywords: time // text // collection // critique // memory // erasure ~ Image: Make or Break, Ghost Notes, 2021, installation with text, algorithms, LED tickers, controller boards, and unnamed wrapped archival objects from the Fairfield City Heritage Collection. Dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Document Photography.When an object or record enters a collection, it is catalogued, and removed from context and use. We are left with a series of textual stand-ins: lists of numbers and words that are supposed to correspond to or encapsulate the category, location, content and cultural value of an archive or object. In musical notation, a ghost note occupies space within a score, but its details are stripped away to the point of near silence. Make or Break’s work GHOST NOTES responds to museum and other institutional digital archives. Mimicking the action of time on this particular museum collection, and exposing the role of language in erasing the objects they seek to preserve. A digital stream of text describing every object in the collection slowly suffers the degradations of glitches, lost names, locations and other contextual connections, introducing confusions and alterations to their properties and meaning. Ghost Notes was first commissioned by Fairfield City Museum &amp; Gallery for Extra/Ordinary, curated by Alinde Bierhuizen in 2021. It took as its source material the Fairfield City Heritage Collection.