Captioners Collective

Is third post in too early to brag?? Nah. We’re super lucky to have worked as captioners for events for well over a year now >> their conversations are always inspiring and so important for the arts. We’re captioning again for them next week, will you be there?!

Not letting our expensive headshots go to waste >> the four original members of the Captioners Collective - Mana Ogawa, Marissa Saroca, Emily O’Connell, and Loclan Mackenzie-Spencer. Check out our page for their bios 👩🏽‍💻👨🏻‍💻

{image: Four headshots in a grid post of Mana wearing black singlet, dark hair, Marissa - light brown skin, wavy short brown hair and dark eyes, wearing fluffy white jumper, Emily - wearing blue top with blonde hair and blue eyes against a white background, Loclan - wearing a hoodie with dark hair and dark rimmed glasses in a park. Everyone looks professional and ready to type fast for you.}

The Captioners Collective are a group of artists across music, film, theatre and dance, who lost the majority of their work due to COVID-19 safety measures. As fast typers (with an artist’s penchant for throwing themselves out of their comfort zone), they answered a call out by ArtsFront to live caption daily Little Lunch Online conversations and were soon employed by other arts organisations such as the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM), Photo Australia and Creatives of Colour. Despite live captioning being a relatively new field for most of the Collective, the team has had individual experiences in transcribing, professional note taking, translation, and copywriting, as well as their regular artistic practices. We are proud to offer this service and be part of a sector that works towards inclusivity and accessibility.

As a group of individuals who live and work across Australia, we pay our respects to the traditional custodians of the land and acknowledge that this is stolen land and sovereignty has never been ceded. Always was, always will be; Aboriginal Land.

{image: Shot from above of a person wearing a long sleeved red top, bangles and rings, using their laptop, with earphones, coffee, pencils and their phone on the wooden desk with them}

Cringing but lol’ing at this >> can’t say we’ve never had moments of 🙈

Mitch made an innocuous typo at work. From it, a legend was born Mitch Bowey works as a captioner, and is the man responsible for the typo that has taken Canberra by storm and created a new COVID-19 hero.

Here is Mana and Marissa with the beautiful people of the latest Creatives of Colour AU workshop >> Moving Through Imposter Syndrome 🖤

[image description: 22 small boxes from a zoom meeting with smiling faces and holding up fingers in peace signs]

Marissa and Mana are still buzzing from APAM - Australian Performing Arts Market Live Exchange Festival of Experimental Art with pvi collective’s Tiny Revolutions >> incredible!! Still another week of online events 🎟

Mana and Marissa are captioning this event for APAM - Australian Performing Arts Market tomorrow morning >> it’s not too late to register!

Don't forget to register for APAM's WIRE #9: Adaptations and Innovations in North American Performing Arts Markets. Happening next week, Wed 19 August, 10:00-11:30am AEST.

We'll be hearing from Krista Bradley (APAP Conference NYC), Boomer Stacey (IPAY/PACT), Ruth Wikler (TOHU/MICC) and Tim Wilson (Western Arts Alliance), and host Collette Brennan (Abbotsford Convent), discussing innovative ways to sustain international engagement in this time of significant and rapid change.

https://apam.org.au/news/wire-9-adaptations-and-innovations-in-north-american-performing-arts-markets/



(Clockwise from top left: Ruth, Krista, Collette, Tim and Boomer.)

We got our first review and it's awesome! Not that we were worried 😉

Thanks so much to Melanie and APAM - Australian Performing Arts Market >> you should really check out their monthly WIRE Series, always such inspiring and important conversation. Plus, you'll get to see us in action! 👩🏽‍💻🧑🏻‍💻