A Curious Tractor x Australian Network for Art & Technology x Agriculture Industry #

Regional Arts Australia is delighted to announce Radical Scoops as the second project selected for our Industry Residencies Pilot Program, delivered in partnership with A Curious Tractor, the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) and the Agriculture Industry.

Set in Witta and across the Sunshine Coast Hinterland on Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Country, Radical Scoops brings together the agriculture industry and local collaborators to reimagine how creativity can strengthen community connection across regional supply chains.

About Radical Scoops #

Radical Scoops invites producers, processors, hospitality workers, designers, educators and community members to explore how food can become a joyful, intergenerational meeting point. Responding to contemporary regional challenges - including isolation, shifting economies and social fragmentation - the project focuses on low-barrier, creative pathways for connection rooted in local agriculture supply chains.

Drawing from the region’s layered industrial past — Timber → Dairy → Co-operative movements — the residency situates its work within a long history of community identity, enterprise and mutual aid. Through creative experimentation, Radical Scoops asks how today’s communities might continue these traditions of working together.

Program Pillars

The residency is built around five interconnected streams:

1. Industry-informed exchange

Collaboration with the host organisation and local food partners, grounded in practical standards of safety, viability, and industry knowledge.

2. Place-based immersion

Deep engagement with local landscapes and histories across Witta and the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, acknowledging Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Custodianship.

3. Community programming

A suite of creative, food-centred activities including co-making workshops, “taste sprints,” master sessions with visiting practitioners, and free shared-meal days.

4. Research and documentation

Capturing process, insights, and learnings to support broader sector understanding.

5. Circular hospitality pilots

Open, replicable systems designed to be adopted and adapted by communities long after the residency concludes.

At its heart, Radical Scoops positions food as a connector - a way of making, sharing, and storytelling that brings people together while strengthening local, organic, place-based systems.

About ANAT #

Over the past four decades since its incorporation in 1988, the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) has cultivated opportunities for artists to create experimental and collaborative work with science and technology partners. Through residencies, symposia, workshops and other professional activities, supported by robust national and international networks, ANAT plays a unique and critical role in Australia’s artistic and cultural ecosystem.

We recognise that humanity and our planet are amid a transformative era, facing some of the greatest ecological, social, cultural, economic and technological challenges in human history. The stories we bring to life in this decade will contribute to living beings and systems. ANAT’s artists play a critical role in this. We are being invited to consider whose stories bring life, and in what ways.

Collaboration is at the heart of ANAT. We forge relationships across industry, academia, community and government to create unique opportunities for artists. It is in this confluence that we imagine, research and invent new solutions and breakthroughs.

ANAT is a vast network comprising hundreds of artists, scientists and technologists who have participated in our art, science and technology programs. This network continues to influence Australia’s cultural and innovation landscapes, shaping conversations across disciplines and generations.

ANAT is a not-for-profit organisation supported by the South Australian Government through CreateSA and is a Creative Australia Service Delivery Partner.

https://www.anat.org.au/ 

About A Curious Tractor #

Founded by Nicholas Marchesi and Benjamin Knight, A Curious Tractor (ACT) is a regenerative innovation ecosystem working deeply with regional and remote communities. Through human-centred design, technology, and creative practice, ACT focuses on dismantling extractive systems and supporting community-led futures.

Nicholas Marchesi #

Nicholas Marchesi is a social innovator and co-founder of A Curious Tractor (ACT), dedicated to dismantling barriers through practical, human-centred design. Best known as the co-founder of Orange Sky, which revolutionised support for people experiencing homelessness through the world’s first free mobile laundry service, Nicholas brings a philosophy of deep listening and radical humility to his work. Within ACT, Nicholas operationalises the metaphor of the "power take-off" - ensuring that resources, knowledge, and capacity are effectively transferred to community hands. He works to bridge the gap between big ideas and on-the-ground reality, fostering environments where "wild ideas" can grow into sustainable, community-led solutions for justice and regeneration.

Benjamin Knight #

Benjamin Knight is a systems designer, creative strategist, and co-founder of A Curious Tractor (ACT). Working at the intersection of youth justice, regenerative economics, and community-led art, Benjamin’s practice focuses on "beautiful obsolescence" - designing systems that transfer power and capacity to communities until the designer is no longer needed. At ACT, Benjamin leads the development of platforms like the Empathy Ledger, a technology assisted tool for ethical storytelling and narrative sovereignty. His work treats creativity as a mechanism for justice, using art and technology to disrupt extractive patterns and cultivate ecosystems where communities own their stories, data, and economic futures.

A Curious Tractor: https://www.act.place  

About the Industry Residencies Pilot Program #

The Industry Residencies Pilot Program is an initiative of Regional Arts Australia, offering two fully funded, 12-month residencies for regional Creative Practitioners. The program connects artists, designers, and creative thinkers with regional industries to explore new ways of working together, address real-world challenges, and imagine sustainable futures.

By fostering collaboration between the arts, community, and industry, the program highlights the essential role creativity plays in building resilient, vibrant, and liveable regional Australia.

The future is regional. The future is creative.®

Industry Residencies is made possible through the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia.