This workshop introduces participants to Time Design, a creative methodology developed by Emele Ugavule that centres Indigenous Oceanic understandings of time, memory, and storytelling. Participants will explore how time can be shaped, stretched, layered, and disrupted within their creative practice and personal life for their wellbeing.
Through guided exercises, discussion, and reflective making, the session invites artists to move beyond linear narratives and engage with embodied and environmental modalities of time.
The workshop emphasises process over product, encouraging intuitive creation, deep listening, and relational thinking. It is both a practical and conceptual space for artists and arts workers to reimagine how time operates within their work.
The timing of this workshop is intentionally aligned with the July New Moon, and New Year across various Pacific Nations.
About the Artist
Emele Ugavule is a Tokelauan, Uvean, and Fijian storyteller. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), and Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School she has worked with various artists and organisations across the Pacific including Sydney Opera House, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Netflix and Mad Ones Films, ABC Australia, Creative Australia, Creative New Zealand and Sony Australia.
Her work centres on Indigenous Oceanic storytelling, exploring themes of temporality, memory, kinship, technology and knowledge transmission. She has tutored across performing arts and design technology at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School, WAAPA, NIDA and Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University (Miramar Creative Centre) and guest lectured at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
She isa founding member of Studio Kiin, an Indigenous-led creative studio and collective, serves as the Creative Director of Talanoa, a platform dedicated to Oceanic digital storytelling, the curator of Tok Talanoa and Tadra Vata, Melanesian and Oceanic event series, and co-founder of the Mataka Foundation, an Indigenous Futures focused social enterprise with her husband.
Emele is represented by Liberty Artist Management.
Key Details
What will you learn?
Participants will:
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Develop an understanding of Time Design as a creative framework
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Explore non-linear and Indigenous approaches to time
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Strengthen their ability to work intuitively with their bodies and environment
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Undertake a time audit, and gain tools to apply temporal experimentation and boundaries in their own practice
Who is this session for?
Artists and arts workers across disciplines (performance, writing, digital, interdisciplinary) who are interested in experimental approaches to time and creativity.
No formal experience required.
What should you bring?
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Notebook and pen
How to Get Here
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Train: Town Hall Station 2-minute walk.
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Light Rail: 2-5 minute walk from light rail platforms
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Metro: Gadigal Station is a 1 minute walk from the Bathurst Street exit/entrance
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Bus: 5 minute walk from Elizabeth Street, Stand C and D
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Car: Wilson Parking, 14 Wilmot St, Sydney or Meriton Suite Parking, 100 Bathurst St, Sydney
Register for a building tour:
Email [email protected] at least 4 days before the event to organise a tour of City of Sydney Creative Studios. We’ll meet you 30 minute before the session starts and show you our Performance, Music, Digital and Visual Arts spaces.
Accessibility
We welcome all visitors to City of Sydney Creative Studios.
If you have access requirements, please add your accessibility requirements during the booking process. This includes booking companion card tickets.
A Brand X team member may be in touch to ensure we understand your requirements. If you require an interpreter, or would like to contact someone about access, please email Dean Nash (Accessibility Coordinator) at [email protected].
Community tickets:
We offer free tickets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people experiencing financial hardship. To access these tickets please email [email protected] for a no questions asked spot (unless sold out).
Exchanges & Refunds
Want to cancel your ticket? Please email us at [email protected] no less than 24 hours prior to workshop commencement. We can refund your tickets minus transaction fees of 1.75% + 30c.
Header image: Photography by Bryony Jackson.
This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the City of Sydney Creative Studios.
For more information click here
