Martyn Coutts

Artist, Researcher, Educator

Introduction

Martyn Coutts is an artist, researcher and educator.

Martyn was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. His father is from Glasgow, Scotland and his mother was Cape Coloured from Cape Town, South Africa. Martyn grew up in nipaluna/Hobart in lutrawita/Tasmania on Palawa lands. He now lives and works on Wurundjeri lands of the Kulin nation in Melbourne.

Martyn’s creative work develops strategies to bring audiences and performance into relation with each other, beyond the traditional bounds of the theatre. These digital dramaturgies place the body at the centre of expansive, immersive experiences which aim to connect us to a greater understanding of our world and ourselves.

His projects have been shown extensively throughout Australia and internationally in Taiwan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Netherlands, UK, US and Canada.

Academic

Martyn holds a postgraduate diploma in Animateuring (Theatre Making) from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and won the Dean’s Award for Excellence for his Masters in Arts Management from RMIT in 2021. His Masters research was on cultural policy in Hong Kong and how it intersects with national identity and soft power.

Martyn is a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne. His supervision team is Professor Robert Hassan, Associate Professor Fran Martin and Dr Annisa Beta within the School of Media and Communications. The provisional PhD title is Creative Solidarities – An analysis of how digital media artworks inspired pro-democracy movements in the Asia-Pacific 2019 - 2021.

Martyn is Lecturer in Design and Production at the VCA (University of Melbourne). He is the founding Digital Media and Projection academic in the BFA course. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Tasmania and to the Masters of Dramaturgy and Masters of Directing students at VCA (University of Melbourne).

Solo Works

Martyn created Shell Game, a one-on-one performance work exploring tensions in the South China Sea that toured Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. The performance work Body Politic has been shown in Taipei, Adelaide and Singapore. He created and performed Sensitive Words, a 24-hour online vigil for the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th, 2019. New work The Fire Within, explored the intersection of public space democracy and technology in early 2020.  

Collaborative Projects

Martyn’s collaborative projects are site-responsive and use ubiquitous technologies in new and interesting ways. His Green Room-award-nominated work I Think I Can (with Sam Routledge) was presented ten times around Australia and toured internationally to the US, UK, Taiwan, Canada and the Netherlands. Other works include the Green Room nominated Operation, the Ars Electronica Pris shortlisted project Wayfarer and Computer Boy (shown at Performance Space, Sydney). He also co-directed (with Ian Pidd) a trilogy of festival opening events for The Unconformity in Tasmania - The Rumble (2016) Tectonica (2018) and Colosseum (2021).

Dramaturg

Martyn works as a dramaturg for dance, contemporary performance and interactive works.  He has worked with the following artists; Stompin Dance Company, Luke George, Brooke Stamp, Martin Del Amo, Tamara Saulwick, Paula Lay, Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, Tasdance, Tanya Voges and Kellie O’ Dempsey, Nicola Gunn, Thomas Quirk, Selena de Carvahalo, Jamie Lewis, Danielle Reynolds, Michael Smith and Chamber Made. Martyn has had a long working relationship as dramaturg with choreographer Liesel Zink, collaborating on her projects for over ten years. Martyn is a member of the Asian Dramaturgs Network.

Media Artist

As a video artist, Martyn’s designs have appeared in works that have been presented at Melbourne Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Ten Days on the Island, and Dance Massive. He has worked with the following companies and creators; Brian Lipson, James Saunders, Tasdance, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Arena Theatre Company, Is Theatre, Kelly Ryall, Luke George, Dancehouse, Stompin, Tania Bosak, Nicola Gunn, The Rabble, Paula Lay and Clovelly Fox.  He was the recipient of a Victorian Green Room Award for the video design on The Harry Harlow Project in 2009, a work undertook out a national Mobile States tour in 2011. He has been a mentor for artists on the Gertrude Street Projection Festival.

Companies

As a founding member of artist collective Field Theory, Martyn has been involved in all of their projects since 2009. Field Theory were named ‘Cultural Leaders’ in the field of Live Art in 2011 by the Australia Council. He was the founding editor of LALA (Live Art List Australia) a 4 year web document that tracked the rise of Live Art in Australia between 2009 and 2013. He was part of the team that produced the 2014 and 2015 mini-festival of site-specific works called Site Is Set. He was the co-project lead of The Stadium Broadcast in Christchurch, NZ in 2014, 9000 minutes at Queen Victoria Market 2016, Final Visions at ACCA in 2017, Delta Sierra Juliet, a commission by Kingston City Council in 2019 and The Keeper in Coolum and Nambour between 2020 and 2024.

Festivals

Martyn has worked as an artist and a producer on festivals throughout Australia. He was Director of the Melbourne Fringe keynote project for 2010, Visible City, Co-Director of the SAC35 festival in Hobart in 2012 and Co-Director of The Wheeler Centre Project 20 Questions presented at Brisbane Writers Festival and the Wheeler Centre Gala in Melbourne in 2014. Martyn was a key member of the Artistic Directorate of The Unconformity Festival in Queenstown, Tasmania between 2015 and 2018. He curated the performance programs of its first two festivals (2016 and 2018). He sat on the Next Wave Festival Board for four years, including one year as Deputy Chair.