Hello. My name is Miki Oikawa. I'm Japanese with Australian Permanent Residency and have been here since 1980, which is a few decades ago.

I moved from the Arts to the IT industry 4 years ago and then recently back to the arts, hoping to find a place where I can combine my two interests in my career life, combining technology and arts.

For many years I enjoyed a varied career in the performing arts, starting off as a dancer then moving in to acting, performing with a range of companies and productions including the One Extra Dance company, Chamber Made Opera, Playbox, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company and Strange Fruit as well as roles in film and television. I also worked as a foreign correspondent for a Japanese radio station.

During this time I also worked in the arts management arena, managing collaborative theatre projects, producing and/or production managing films, and working with multimedia as Project Coordinator at Experimenta Media Arts. I have a wide range of knowledge and of contacts in various areas of the Arts including dance, theatre, music, film, television and new media.

Having reached a point in my life where I felt I needed to pursue a wider career field, I moved into the IT industry I have worked mainly on internet and intranet applications as a software developer. Within these projects I have taken on the roles entailing project management, graphic design, web content management, documentation, client software training, and QA testing of applications.

My personal emphasis in my IT work has been to create and maintain systems that are not only highly technical and functional, but also user-friendly and manageable. I would maintain these qualities in the online systems at the ABC. I feel that even though the Arts is an innate part of every society, it can also become very inaccessible and alienating to the general public if it is not presented correctly.

Having spent 4 years solidly behind the computer, I realised that I was missing something very dear to my life. I couldn't do without the Arts after all. SO, at this "old age" I decided to risk it all and plunge myself back into the Arts. Apart from the performing where I came from, I am interested in directing and producing projects in areas ranging from theatre to film and hybrid arts.

By nature, I have a tendency to be the "organiser" with everything I do. I have been very fortunate in having had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects, of very different scopes and flavours. I have been associate producer on a theatre project whereby Playbox Theatre and the Black Tent Theatre Company from Japan worked together in producing two plays related to the war, which were performed in both countries. I was associate producer on a VCA student film which was shot on location in South Africa, crewed by film students from all over the world (still doing the rounds of film festivals). I coordinated the technical aspects of multimedia projects, curated CD-ROM exhibitions and assisted in the revamping of the website at Experimenta Media Arts. I have been team leader of a project analysing the buying habits of the 1.5 million VIP customers of Spotlight Online. And in IT, I have been working on systems whereby businesses can confer and collaborate on projects through video, voice and data conferencing equipment and software, integrated with databases, WAP and SMS technologies, as well as manage themselves in the areas of board meetings and corporate governance.

My core strengths are my communication, research, analysis and organisational skills. Having been an actor where communication of ideas is essential; and also having had experience as a dance teacher and more recently liaising with and training clients on software development projects, I have the ability to communicate efficiently with clients, team members, stakeholders - anyone from business people and politicians to visual artists and street theatre performers. I also travelled a lot as a performer, which put me in touch with various cultures and developed my love of languages.

I believe that good project management is not just about planning and analysis, but also about having good channels of communication open between all stakeholders of the project. It is important for me that all team members feel that they are a worthy and contributing part of the project, which aids in productivity and reduces time and money wasted in mistakes, misinterpretations and re-work. At the same time, stakeholders or clients need to be kept in the loop so that they, too, can feel that they are part of the team and that their requirements are being fulfilled in the course of the project.

I enjoy organising and guiding others in their respective roles within a team, but at the same time, I like getting my "hands dirty" and working on the development and implementation of systems. I also enjoy imparting my knowledge on to others, and helping them when they need a hand.

On top of all of this, I have an artistic and creative flair that has always been with me from my days in pointe shoes to producing films, and to playing around with the latest technologies for websites.

So... I hope you'll find these pages of interest.