Australia as a land is so far from the European traditions and culture that permeates our life. Asia is our closest region and essentially I feel that we need more understanding and exchange culturally to make sense of ‘where we all are’.

Serial contemporary art projects as curator and cultural producer with gallery and television projects placed me in the ‘eye of the storm’ when the digital technological revolution was seeking content for new delivery systems. In the mid nineties, great interest in Asia from all sectors (government, corporate and education) were eager to engage with the Asian Tiger Economy that enabled support for the birth of MAAP-Multimedia Art Asia Pacific. MAAP is an organisation and festival that explores New Media Art across a range of art forms and practices emphasizing interactive multimedia, broadband content, Internet, digital media, animation and varied projects integrating new media.

MAAP was established to bring focus to the ‘unmapped’ cultural new media content emerging from Asia Pacific/ Australia regions and is now an Asia Pacific touring New Media Arts Festival and web site resource. MAAP partners with key organisations in our region creating new networks, creating exhibition opportunities, introducing the artists and their work to audiences, and increasing cultural contact and understanding through the experience of New Media Arts to a broader community.

MAAP's inaugural annual festival in 1998 was based in Brisbane and Online and continued annually till 2001 when commitment to regional partnerships had significantly matured to progress further engagement. MAAP stepped offshore to the China Millennium Monument Art Museum, Beijing in 2002, partnering to achieve major milestones for all involved. After the success of 'MAAP in Beijing' our next major festival followed. ‘MAAP in Singapore’ 2004, involving seven galleries (including the Singapore Art Museum) with curators invited from our region, public art works, live broadband events linked to Brisbane and a refereed conference hosted by Nanyang Technological University.

As a founding board member and Asia enthusiast, I stayed committed to the project - through the Asia financial crisis, SARS, The Iraq war, terrorism and Asian Bird Flu. My work as a facilitator to bring together the enormous creative talents of our region is one that is constantly challenging and always a most satisfying honor to work with such diverse and gifted people.

Citation
Instead of nominating an artist - an individual who work has overcome trans-cultural boundaries. I would like to nominate an individual whose work has facilitated numerous artists overcoming trans-cultural boundaries. My nominee is Kim Machan, Festival Director of the Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Festival.

Though an artist, Kim of late, has performed more of a curatorial/festival director role in the Asia Pacific region. She has played a tremendous role in moving the art and technology scene forward manyfold, in this region. Based in Brisbane, Australia, the annual MAAP festival humbly began in 1997. From its earliest days, the festival strived to identify and showcase young, emerging artists from the Asia Pacific. The festival featured a range of work from students to stalwarts like Stelarc, providing a diverse range of work - which would not normally be seen.  

In 2000-2002, the Festival was adopted by the Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre for Live Arts, where the Festival demonstrated its coming of age - with a single dedicated venue with the equipment and facilities it needed. About then, the Festival (Kim) realised that it had reached its peak and decided to turn it into a touring festival to:

- reach out and expand to new audiences
- overcome regional boundaries, reach out and identify new artists who do not always have access to technology
- provide countries with an opportunity to showcase local artists in the same platform as international artists (a common problem in the Asia Pacific)

Since then, the MAAP Festival has been housed in Beijing, China and then in Singapore this year. There are plans to tour to Seoul and other venues. I strongly recommend Kim as a candidate for the Global Crossings award as her work fits the Global Crossings initiative perfectly. Through the Festival, young new artists were seen, some of whom have gone on to international fame - Shilpa Gupta, Candy Factory (Japan), Gong Xi (China). It has overcome natural geographical barriers that prevent trans-cultural collaboration to give artists an opportunity work together and see new works.

On a personal note, Kim has boundless energy and almost always single-handedly manouevers often trying situations - developing and working with high level corporate and government bodies. In sum, she is an individual who has devoted the last 18 years and contributed to the progress of the asia pacific new media ethos and significantly assisted in helping artists have their work recognised and introduced to new audiences by succesfully overcoming traditional geographical boundaries.