Annalea Beattie

Age: 54 
Living in: Melbourne, Australia

Special interest/s while on the mission:

Human Factors
Artist, Educator

Contact:

annalea.beattie@rmit.edu.au

Profession:

Learning Skills Adviser, Study and Learning Centre, Student Services Group, RMIT University

Professional qualification/s:

Bachelor of Education, Diploma of Education, Diploma of Teaching, Bachelor of Fine Art, ( Painting) Master of Fine Art (Painting)

Passionate about Mars because:

My interest in Mars is an optimistic one - I believe the future of the human race relies on exploration of space and I also believe that art as a way of understanding and transforming experience, has a significant role to play;

Any other relevant detail/s:

I was born in the deep south of Tasmania, Australia. For the past twenty-five years I have worked as an artist and educator in Melbourne, Victoria. During that time I have exhibited widely and been well supported. After art school in the 1990s, I was granted a Hungarian government research scholarship and lived and worked in Budapest. On my return I received an Australia Council development grant and a studio at 200 Gertrude St. Contemporary Art Space. In 1998 I undertook a two-year art residency at the Victorian Trades Hall (Melbourne).  In 2000 I won an A.N.Z. Postgraduate Fellowship and in the same year was also awarded an Australia Council art residency in, Kyoto, Japan. For the past two years, my art practice has focused on a collaborative portrait exchange project with disabled artist Cam Noble at Arts Projects studios. My art has always been informed by an interest in the relationship between art and the human imagination. For several years now, I have taught doctoral writing to research art students at RMIT University, Melbourne.

My goal for this mission is to make some artwork that interprets my experiences at MDRS: I'd like to understand more about the role of astronauts, contained spaces and extreme environments. Its a field trip for me, and I will work to design an arts-based project which I hope to use to collaborate with cosmonauts / astronauts. My aim is to directly address the human factors in extended travel particularly sensory deprivation, boredom and isolation.