What is your role in fAf?
I am fAf's Australian Editor. I was employed in May 2001, with funds from an Australia Council grant, to consolidate our Brisbane office as the ‘home base’ for fAf. My role was also to pick up some of the operational tasks so that Nisar Keshvani could be more ‘out there’. A second Australia Council grant has meant that I can continue working at fAf until May 2003.

What drew you to work for fAf?
I was interested in working for fAf because it intersects with my interests and activities. fAf also keeps me in direct contact with other practitioners and happenings in my field. First, as a Brisbane-based writer, I had an established practice as an arts writer and critic with special interest in new media arts, cultural theory and visual arts. Second, I had developed an artistic practice in hypertext and electronic writing over the past few years. Having worked variously in the arts – as manager, consultant, curator, editor, journalist and publicist – working for fAf seemed like a positive move for me. I also felt that I had something to contribute to fAf – during my initial interview with Paul Brown and Nisar Keshvani, it became apparent that fAf was on the cusp of a transition which has since been borne out through the LEA alliance and various projects we are pursuing. Not having really known a lot about fAf's history and position before my role was formalised, I realise I am rather privileged to be working here and that I am in very esteemed company. I had, of course, known Paul for a few years - not very well, just enough to greet - and have enormous respect for him. I was interested in working with Paul in this context.

You haven't been here for too long, has your role changed in that time?
I have been at fAf for just over 12 months and it’s been something of a steep learning curve. I have been defining my role over the past year. It was originally intended to be purely administrative, but I think I have elbowed some additional room for myself to take on more of a managing editor role. I work in partnership with Nisar and Paul, across all the operations of fAf, including content, management, staffing, strategic direction, funding and artistic direction.

In this second year, I would like to be more 'out there' - women all too often end up working behind the scenes in support roles and in the interests of cyber/feminism, gender equity, or whatever you want to call it, I feel it's important to be more active in my role. fAf, ASTN and LEA have had remarkable women - like Judy and Annick - working in and leading them.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the flexibility of my role but have to contend with the fact that, as with so many arts organisations in Australia, there is simply not enough funding in fAf to pay for the work that needs to be done. So, the volunteers and students rate a special mention and a very special thank you because without them there is no fAf.

What is it that you especially love about fAf?
Love is perhaps a difficult word to apply to my work with fAf without sounding info-fetishistic. However, there are many things I appreciate and enjoy about my work and there are many things I am passionate about which I either bring with me to fAf or which crop up in my fAf life.

I truly enjoy the flexibility and the potential of fAf: not just what fAf has achieved but what I think it will be achieving over the next few years. I think the core team of Nisar, Paul and I work well together considering that fAf is a small, predominantly volunteer, geographically-dispersed organisation. I am astounded by fAf’s longevity and the fact that we have been able to achieve so much with so little. One example of this is fAf's screening programme, fineArt in Motion. It’s a remarkable achievement. To date it has travelled to some 10 locales around the world – in Asia, Australia, Latin America – and the project was put together with a small amount of in kind support from our partners. I often feel like I am reaping the rewards of the effort that previous fAf editors have put in.

fAf is an innovator and very much a part of, if not a protagonist in, the new media arts community. It's important to be perceived and regarded as artists and writers rather than as media. Individually, Nisar, Paul and I are established in our own ways in the new media arts community and fAf has developed and grown in line with developments and growth in new media arts generally and globally. It’s apparent in my dealings with artists and theorists worldwide that fAf is very well regarded as a professional publication. It’s a reputation that has been built over years and I am so pleased that we have been able to sustain that professionalism and subsequent relevance to new media arts practitioners.

fAf is part of a noisy and ongoing dialogue in new media arts and, to this end, we have partnered with a variety of organisations. As an organisation and a publication, our ethos is that we'd rather work in partnership and collaborate, than compete with other organisations in the field. We are very much ensconced in the infrastructure of new media arts practice and I'd like to think that we share a kind of living history with other new media arts bodies. So, there is an experience and practice of connectivity and diversity which I especially love about fAf.

Another aspect of fAf’s operations I appreciate is the fact that we actively support emerging new media communities worldwide as well as actively encourage culturally diverse perspectives. Our publishing policies are about acknowledging and respecting diversity, be they cultural, geographic, technological or linguistic.

Being part of a new leadership team in fAf, what are your predictions for its future, and its role or place in the new media/art/technology community?
From what I understand of fAf’s history and development, it was set up specifically for the online environment. Since then, it has consistently been enabled by and has taken advantage of developments in online technology. fAf has a strong sense of its purpose as a news and information service and we will continue to use new technology to enhance our service delivery. For example, establishing a web presence meant that fAf could grow and provide more diverse information and content including a gallery, art resources, theoretical writing and reviews. We have been able to use the web in a canny way and as the next generation web and electronic devices make themselves known, we’ll need to be responding to that as well.

I was reading an essay by Johanna Drucker recently - she was writing about the journal M/E/A/N/I/N/G in an anthology of artist writings. I really loved the way she characterised this journal: "During its ten-year existence from 1986 to 1996, M/E/A/N/I/N/G effectively created a zone of critical discussion that was independent of academic or commercial art interests. The journal combined rigourous theoretical polemics and individual artists' voices, and gained respect and visibility that pushed it beyond a local audience of insiders. M/E/A/N/I/N/G's longevity was based on the fact that through dialogue and articulation it suceeded in producing a community for whom it served a vital purpose: [meaninful] exchange around personal and professional issues directly related to the experience of the artists who wrote and read its pages." I'd really love to have that kind of critical culture around fAf: I really want to be able to facilitate and participate in that for fAf.

There are, of course, political and contextual issues which need to be addressed and kept abreast of. If I could rattle off a modest wishlist for fAf, it would most obviously be to see us with appropriate funds, staffing and resources so that we can experiment and innovate with content, be more responsive to change, needs and the like. We will also be better placed to provide a comprehensive news and information service that is unique in the world, provide resources to artists and writers to develop new work, continue to develop collaborations and partnerships which benefit the field.

Biography
Since 1985, I have written as a journalist, essayist and critical writer. I am an experienced researcher having worked on a number of academic, media and community research projects, with special interest in arts and culture. I have worked in digital, print and broadcast media and my writings have also been published locally and internationally.

In 1997, I completed a Writer's Residency as part of the Australian Network for Art and Technology project, *Water Writes Always in *Plural, working collaboratively online with Josephine Wilson to produce a hypertext for the Web. This work was awarded the inaugural Salt Hill Award for Hypertext (University of Syracuse, NY) in 1998 and received an Honourable Mention in the trAce/AltX International Hypertext Competition. It is also required or suggested reading in approximately 20 university courses in the United States, Asia and Australia. I continue to produce hypertexts and my recent works have included: cipher (also with Josephine Wilson), speak: a hypertext essay and a work in progress, racconto.