VJ, author/artist, nerd.
Perth Area, Australia
- Current
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- Director at 78 Friends Pty Ltd
- Digital Content Developer at Kat Black
- VJ at VJzoo (Self-employed)
- Past
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- Artist-Author at Kunati Inc
- Festival Director at Byte Me! Festival (Self-employed)
- Web Developer at retrokat.com (Self-employed)
- Lecturer at Central TAFE
- Web Content Co-ordinator at Western Australian Telecentre Network
- Public Servant at Commonwealth Government of Australia
- Education
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- TAFE
- Metro Screen, Sydney
- TAFE
- Edith Cowan University
- Recommended
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14 people have recommended Kat - Connections
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300
connections
- Industry
- Computer Games
- Websites
Kat Black’s Summary
iPhone apps now out - see littlewhitebook.net and illumiQ.com
I've got my paws in many digital-content pies. Ideally, I just want to make a living from being a creative, but I seem to spend most of my time doing business-related stuff.
I'm a VJ, artist, author and digital media consultant. Married to Jasper Cook, the other half of VJzoo - we've performed in Spain, Singapore, the UK, France, NZ, New York, San Francisco and around Australia. I also ran the Byte Me! Festival of digital content in Perth, Western Australia in 2007 with speakers from Dreamworks, EA Games, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop as well as local animators and 3D companies with an international reputation.
Kat Black’s Specialties:
VJing, social networking, iPhone and web 2.0 content development, tarot, design, digital collage, casual games, festival co-ordination, business match-making, exhausting people with my bouncy enthusiasm, especially when in an overcaffeinated state (uh... that's most of the time)
Kat Black’s Experience
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Director
78 Friends Pty Ltd
(Internet industry)
June 2008 — Present (1 year 7 months)
78Friends.com is a social networking site with a tarot theme, using the Touchstone Tarot deck to provide online readings.
Little White Book is a Tarot App for iPhone featuring Touchstone Tarot. It is available in several languages. -
Digital Content Developer
Kat Black
(Publishing industry)
March 2004 — Present (5 years 10 months)
I am the creator of Golden Tarot, one of the world's most popular and critically acclaimed tarot decks.
My second deck, Touchstone Tarot, is aimed primarily at digital delivery - eg for Casual Games and Mobile markets. -
VJ
VJzoo (Self-employed)
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Entertainment industry)
February 2003 — Present (6 years 11 months)
I am half of VJzoo with spouse Jasper Cook. We have been VJing since 2003 and developed an international reputation through touring and our online presence and resources for newbie VJs. We’re probably one of Australia’s best-known VJ acts internationally, but since you probably don’t know the names of ANY VJ acts that’s probably not very impressive.
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Artist-Author
Kunati Inc
(Publishing industry)
May 2008 — September 2009 (1 year 5 months)
I am the artist-author of Touchstone Tarot, published by Kunati Inc in 2009. They went under in September 2009, but stocks will continue to be available until they run out, as I will be moving them to another distributor.
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Festival Director
Byte Me! Festival (Self-employed)
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Internet industry)
April 2007 — December 2007 (9 months)
Byte Me! was a Digital Content Festival, featuring a program of screenings, Show 'n Tells by international industry speakers from Dreamworks, EA Games, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop and more, live audiovisual performances and innovative cross-media events.
The Festival was held in Perth, Western Australia 1-9 December 2007, based in the CBD at the stunning, recently refurbished Perth Town Hall with some events at other venues in the City of Perth.
See http://ByteMe.net.au -
Web Developer
retrokat.com (Self-employed)
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Internet industry)
January 1997 — June 2007 (10 years 6 months)
Built and ran websites, including mass-traffic sites such as retrokat.com/medieval and fork-you.com and more. No longer build website for clients, but still run a few of my own. The traffic within my web empire is still about a million hits a month in total so it's great way to keep my toe in the water even though I don't really update the sites. One of my most popular sites was sorting-hat.com where people could do online 'Exams' about the Harry Potter books. I sold it for $30 on eBay to a GoogleAdWords peddler when I couldn't face doing another exam on the sixth book and got sick of the stupid emails from pedantic fans with comments like "Gryffindor colours are scarlet and gold, not RED and gold". Bleargh!
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Lecturer
Central TAFE
(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Higher Education industry)
February 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 11 months)
Web-dev lecturer in Graphic Design School
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Web Content Co-ordinator
Western Australian Telecentre Network
(Government Agency; 51-200 employees; E-Learning industry)
June 2001 — June 2002 (1 year 1 month)
I was contracted as the WA Telecentre's Web Content Co-ordinator for 12 months. Shortly after this, I completed a research report for a consortium of Telecentres from the SouthWest regarding the viability of Teleworking to increase employment opportunities for Rural and Regional communities. I presented this as a paper at the 2002 IT in Regional Areas Conference at the University of Central Queensland.
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Public Servant
Commonwealth Government of Australia
(Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Government Administration industry)
November 1982 — May 1996 (13 years 7 months)
Various governmental positions on and off since leaving school - eg Statistical Officer for ABS, Tax Auditor for ATO, Job Centre Manager for CES. Argh!
Kat Black’s Education
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TAFE
Dip Fine Art (New Media) , Arts, New Media , 2003 — 2003
Only did to Dip Fine Art level. Too much art-wank, decided I'd rather 'do' than 'talk about', so didn't do Advanced Dip. Best thing about Art School? Meeting Jasper, other half of VJzoo and now my spouse :)
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Metro Screen, Sydney
Video Production 1999 — 1999
Another really good, intensive, AFTRS-affiliated course covering many aspects of video production - even including early web-video delivery.
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TAFE
Multimedia 1998 — 1999
AFTRS-affiliated course at North Sydney TAFE. Excellent, intensive course. Graduated with Distinction.
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Edith Cowan University
BBus , Business , 1990 — 1992
Dropped out, yawn! Was learning much more at the Tax Officer Development Program at work.
Additional Information
Kat Black’s Websites:
Kat Black’s Interests:
VJing, Content Development for Casual Games and Mobile, Tarot
Kat Black’s Groups:
IGDA, PIGMI, ANAT, SIGGRAPH, ArtSource, WAnimate, Aeclectic Tarot, Byte Me! Festival, ByteMe Fest, EyeWash, Perth Norg, AbaF, X|Media|Lab, Xmedialab, WebJam, Silicon Beach House, PodCamp, Plug n Play
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Women 2.0 -
Women in Games International -
International Game Developers Association -
MobileMonday -
Women in Games Australia -
Australian New Media -
Friends of Australia -
AIMIA Mobile Industry Group Australia -
Animation, Media & Entertainment -
Casual Games -
Game Developers -
VJ -
IGDA Women in Games Special Interest Group -
Tarot Enthusiasts -
West Australian Game Developers
Kat Black’s Honors:
Golden Tarot, published in 2004, has been one of the world's top ten Tarot Decks every year since then, and retained an average rating of 5 stars on Amazon with over 60 user reviews.
Kat Black’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
