Meet the Toolkits: Digital Storytelling 2025 participants
A heroic hello to the creators joining us for Toolkits: Digital Storytelling 2025!
Facilitated by Aries Gacutan, this course explores the features and possibilities of digital, interactive, generative and online storytelling across 12 weeks of discussion, practical exercises and workshopping opportunities.
Congratulations to the cohort! We can’t wait to see what digital marvels they create.
Linda Chen
Linda Chen (she/they) is a writer-performer hailing from Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra). Her work spans across film, theatre, experimental performance and applied drama, including community building and simulated training contexts. As a theatremaker and performer, she has previously worked extensively with The Street Theatre, YouAreHere, Canberra Youth Theatre, national institutions such as National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Australian Democracy and the Australian Academy of Science, and independent artists such as Anna Breckon and Nat Randall.
Erin Coull
Erin Coull (she/her) studies, creates and works on palawa land, lutruwita/Tasmania. She’s an editor and journalist for the WhyNot platform, a guest poet at the 2025 Tasmanian Poety Festival, and a regular contributor for the student journal Togatus. Also published in The Trailblazer and Forty South, Erin is studying English and Economics at the University of Tasmania, majoring in Society and the Environment. Her nonfiction explores the impact of social and political happenings on young people, documents local activism, and laments the state of vegan cheese substitutes.
River Gammon
River Gammon (they/he) is an artist and writer living in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri land. He explores the intersection between queerness, faith and the internet, with a particular focus on digital and interactive mediums. Their work has been published in Voiceworks, Cordite Poetry Review, and has been featured in the Emerging Writers Festival.
Samantha Haran
Samantha Haran (she/her) is an Eelam Tamil writer, researcher, organiser and community radio maker based on unceded Dharug land. She is the Editorial Assistant at the community radio show Race Matters on fbi radio, and a current Masters candidate at UNSW Law & Justice. She has by-lines in Vogue India, Teen Vogue, Cordite Poetry Review and PAPER Magazine, amongst others.
Xin Lee
Xin Lee (李芯, she/her) grew up in Kuala Lumpur and writes from Melbourne. She likes making things and making sense of ways of being. Her works appear in Island, Voiceworks, and in warm personal correspondences.
Yan Ru Lee
Yan Ru Lee (she/her) is an emerging writer, filmmaker and creative producer who explores storytelling across print, screen and live performance. Her work has featured in Farrago Magazine, The Provocative Inklings, Brunswick Street Gallery, George Paton Gallery, 3 Shot Film Festival and the St Albans Community Centre. With a background in creative media and community care, Ru creates disruptive stories that confront social issues and empower communities.
Joella Marcus
Joella Marcus (she/her) is an independent creative based on Darramuragal Country/Sydney, who works across graphic design, publishing and broadcast media. She works with fbi radio, Demure Magazine and as JOELLA STUDIO and is interested in typography, design strategy and internet[ing], more specifically the ideas of digital intimacy and internet sobriety. On a more personal note, Joella has an unhealthy attachment to her laptop, enjoy fast paced walks, bang for your buck type meals and forever extending her to do list.
Lauren McNeil
Lauren McNeil (she/her) is a British Caribbean girl living in Melbourne as she navigates the world of creatives with nothing but a passion for morally grey circumstances and an endless flow of ideas.
Isla Moore
Isla Moore (she/her) is a non-fiction, fiction and multimedia writer and editor based on Ngunnawal Land (ACT). Coming from a theatre background, she is interested in the intersection between audience participation, audiovisual experience, and literary form.
About the facilitator:
Aries M. Gacutan is a poet and digital creator working on the traditional lands of the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation. They also do a bunch of other artsy things for money. They often write about space/place, migrant identity and digital ephemerality. In 2024, they were a recipient of the Emerging Poets Residency in 2024 with Red Room Poetry, and currently facilitate Toolkits: Digital Storytelling with Express Media. Read about their dastardly poetic escapades at "thearieszone.neocities.org".