Dr Caelli Brooker

Career Summary

Biography

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Newcastle
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), University of Newcastle

Fields of Research

Professional Experience

Academic appointment

Professional appointment

Awards

Award

Nomination

Scholarship

Invitations

Speaker

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Chapter (4 outputs)

Conference (11 outputs)

Creative Work (77 outputs)

Journal article (1 outputs)

Presentation (1 outputs)

Report (1 outputs)

Thesis / Dissertation (1 outputs)

Grants and Funding

Summary

Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.

20241 grants / $9,340

20221 grants / $20,000

20211 grants / $14,770

20202 grants / $10,085

20192 grants / $19,000

20172 grants / $82,884

20152 grants / $9,000

20091 grants / $67,500

Research Supervision

Current Supervision

Past Supervision

Research Projects

Six Seasons – Low Waste Slow Fashion Future 2019 - 2020

The Low Waste, Slow Fashion Future – Six Seasons Collection is supported by the University of Newcastle, School of Creative Industries RAPID program. RAPID is a series of research sprints that sees industry partners and research collaborators work together fast on problems that matter. The Six Seasons range is a collaboration between High Tea With Mrs Woo (a small-run clothing label by Rowena, Juliana & Angela Foong) and team of creative researchers from The University of Newcastle (Faye Neilson, Bernadette Drabsch, Giselle Penn, Brett McMahon, and Caelli Jo Brooker).


Six Seasons
The Six Seasons collection is grounded in the desire to create environmentally sustainable garments that inclusively fit a range of body shapes, are gender neutral, and flexibly adapt to changing climate conditions. 

The Low Waste, Slow Fashion Future team's fashion collection is inspired by a love of the environment and a desire to protect it – helping to solve fast fashion with low waste slow and sustainable alternatives. The team seeks to contribute to a local fashion industry that is sustainable and eco-friendly, using low and zero-waste pattern layout and customised, purposeful digital printing. We want to create designs that are free from gender, durable and timeless, and inspired by the seasonal colours and patterns of the Australian bush. We want to show respect to the Indigenous knowledge of these seasonal changes and create a collection that reflects their frugality and connection with the land. Our designs will be made specifically for the Australian environment, being cool, loose and protective in summer and cosy in winter. Our tags and labels will be made out of fabric scraps, with the labels embedded with local, endemic seeds, so they can be planted after purchase to help restore our local biodiversity. We want to design for the future, using smart, sustainable design choices to challenge the fast, disposable fashion ethos that currently exists.

Grants

Publications

Neilson F, Drabsch B, Brooker C, Penn G, McMahon B, Foong R, et al., Six Seasons (Low Waste, Slow Fashion Future), WE THE MAKERS Design Festival, National Wool Museum, Geelong, VIC, Australia, Designer Showcase, WE THE MAKERS Design Festival, Geelong, VIC Australia (2020)

Collaborators

Happily Ever After 2011 - 2013

Caelli Jo Booker and Helen Hopcroft

The Happily Ever After Project was conceived as an interdisciplinary collaboration between artists, writers and craftspeople invited to work together to create handmade books which explore female narratives within the fairytale genre.

While the classic fairytale ending ‘happily ever after’ envisages a single, finite destiny, the contemporary feminine experience encompasses a multiplicity of roles, expectations, endings, beginnings and relationships. Thus the project and exhibition theme is probably best conceptualised as a celebration of diversity within destiny, with the fairytale genre used as the narrative vehicle to explore this idea.

John Painter Gallery 10 – 26 June, 2011
Cox Rayner Gallery, Artspace Mackay 29 July – 28 October, 2011
Manly Library 03 December, 2011 – 29 January, 2012
The Auchmuty Library  21 November, 2012 – 07 April, 2013


This project was supported by a grant from the New South Wales Government - Arts NSW and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).

Grants

Publications

Brooker CJ, Hopcroft HF, Webb CE, Bird C, Wood D, 'Happily Ever After: Alternative Destinies in Contemporary Feminine Narrative' (2011) [J3]

Collaborators

DesignPool.org 2019 - 2023

The Design Pool is an ongoing project that embodies practice-based multidisciplinary research aiming to facilitate real-life design outcomes that enable students, emerging designers, professional practitioners and educators to participate in individuals' creative development and evolving projects online. At its core, the project characterises how speculative research methods can drive ideation and present beta products for students, practitioners and educators that capture visual content online and build rapport – decreasing the division between Education and Practice in Visual Communication Design. The website is a recording of creative content, facilitating Inter-relationships today's design students, aluminium, industry professionals and design educators. Its research significance is evident in its recognition as winner of a Digital Design at the Australian Graphic Design Association Student Awards in 2020, which is reviewed and judged by acclaimed industry professionals. 

Publications

Golledge L, Kenke R, Brooker C, Hodgson B, Thompson W, Morgan C, et al., Design Pool website, Newcastle, NSW (2020)

Collaborators

All Cultures Weave 2023 -

All Cultures Weave artwork is a collaborative artwork project that speaks to traditional cultural practices from all nations that has been designed using Australian First Nations knowledges around collective art-making and weaving. With guidance from cultural practitioners, and facilitated by the University Galleries, individual weavings were made by International students from 30+ countries who came together at the City of Newcastle International Student Welcome held in March 2023. Students created individual woven circles that reflect their home countries, and cultural heritages, as well as their experiences of Australia so far. The project has since been extended over the next three years. The International Student Welcome to the City, and the All Cultures Weave project are supported by Study NSW, the City of Newcastle, TAFE NSW, and the University of Newcastle.

Collaborators

All Cultures Weave 2023 -

All Cultures Weave artwork is a collaborative artwork project that speaks to traditional cultural practices from all nations that has been designed using Australian First Nations knowledges around collective art-making and weaving. With guidance from cultural practitioners, and facilitated by the University Galleries, individual weavings were made by International students from 30+ countries who came together at the City of Newcastle International Student Welcome held in March 2023. Students created individual woven circles that reflect their home countries, and cultural heritages, as well as their experiences of Australia so far. The project has since been extended over the next three years. The International Student Welcome to the City, and the All Cultures Weave project are supported by Study NSW, the City of Newcastle, TAFE NSW, and the University of Newcastle.

Collaborators

Marine Invaders 2024 - 2025

Marine Invaders – Saltwater Country is an new version of Marine Invaders created by researchers in a cross-institutional collaboration between the University of Waikato and the Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle. Marine Invaders is an educational card game developed by Elizabeth Copeland that highlights the impact of invasive marine species and ways we can support native species to thrive.  Featuring artwork by David Parsons (Worimi/Biripai) and Dr René Campbell, and design by Dr Caelli Jo Brooker, this edition of the game focuses on the protection of Saltwater Country on the East Coast of NSW. The game champions the role of transdisciplinary collaborations between science and art in offering solutions to the environmental challenges facing marine ecosystems and biosecurity in the island nations of Australia and New Zealand. Marine Invaders – Saltwater Country has been supported by the University of Newcastle and University of Waikato Partnership Seed Fund Project, Deadly Science, and the generosity of multiple contributors and communities. 

News

News • 30 May 2023

Australia-first research into First Nations and city planning

The Greater Cities Commission (the Commission), in partnership with University of Newcastle’s Wollotuka Institute and the Institute for Regional Futures, has today launched the Partnering with First Nations Communities in City and Regional Planning research report.

Dr Caelli Brooker