Biography
Martin Potter researches and lectures in Screen and Design at Deakin University. In academia, he has worked with James Cook University, Monash University and the Centre for Communication and Social Change at University of Queensland.
Martin has an extensive publication record as a documentary producer including 20+ hours of commissioned broadcast television content in Australia and he founded and ran 2 media companies from startup to sale.
Since 2006 Martin has focussed on transmedia production - exploring how creative work and distribution across a range of media can foster community and drive social change. As creative director and producer of transmedia and media for development projects, he has been extremely successful in resourcing project funding for innovative participatory media, art and documentary projects. This work has been funded by an array of international funders including UN agencies such as UNICEF, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN-Habitat, the European Union Media Fund, US-AID, HIVOS (Netherlands) as well as Australian Federal Government agencies including Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Reserach Council, Screen Australia and the Australian Centre for Social Innovation and totals more than $10 million (AUD) in competitive grant funding.
As a creative practitioner, Martin has developed and produced the following acclaimed and internationally awarded transmedia projects:
Big Stories, Small Towns
The White Building
as well as the TED prize winning Stereopublic: crowdsourcing the quiet, Island Connect for ChildFund and US-Aid in Sri Lanka, the MediaLab for JCU and Science Stories for Monash University. Currently he is a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute, a fellow of the Deakin MotionLab and an Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage where he supports the storying and visualisation of the research across a range of media settings.
In 2012 he was Asialink Dunlop Fellow and Communication and Ian Potter Trust Fellow. In 2013 he was filmmaker in residence at the Bophana Centre in Cambodia, and finalist in the Communication for Social Change Award and in 2015 his PhD in participatory media won the Flinders University Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence. He is a board member of Engage Media, a non-profit media, technology and cuture organisation that uses video and open technologies to facilitate social and environmental change across the Asia Pacific.
Martin's focus is on non-traditional reserach outputs, however he has published extensively on a range of subjects. Recent articles explore the use of video essay in science based pedagogy, content manipulation on large scale online platforms and the development of local networks wthin his Big Stories, Small Towns transmedia project.
Read more on Martin's profileBiography summary
Martin Potter researches and lectures in Screen and Design at Deakin University. He has worked with James Cook University, Monash University and the Centre for Communication and Social Change at University of Queensland.
Martin is a multi-award winning creative director and producer of transmedia and media for development projects. He has produced work across Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Martin has an extensive track record as a transmedia and documentary producer and has received over $10 million in competitive funding to deliver this work.
Research interests
Participatory Media, Communication for Development, Participatory Art and Design Methods, Design Thinking, Visualising Research, Digital Storytelling, Documentary, Screen Studies
Knowledge areas
participatory media, communication for social change, documentary, media for development, design thinking, participatory art and design methods, digital storytelling, screen studies.
Awards
New York International Film Awards, Best Ethnographic Film, 2021
Flinders University Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, 2015
Ian Potter Trust Fellow, 2013
Britdoc, Puma Creative Catalyst Award, 2013 (The White Building)
Japan Prize for Innovation in Digital Media, 2013 (Big Stories, Small Towns)
SxSWi Community Champion, 2012 (Big Stories, Small Towns)
Asialink Dunlop Fellow, 2012
SA Screen Awards 2012, Innovation in Digital Media (Big Stories, Small Towns)
TED City 2.0 Prize (Stereopublic: crowdsourcing the quiet), 2012
Australian Post-Graduate Award, 3-year PhD Award, 2009-12.
South Australian Web Awards for Innovation, (Stereopublic: crowdsourcing the quiet), 2013
Independent Arts Foundation Awards for Innovation, (Stereopublic: crowdsourcing the quiet), 2013
International Digital Emmy Award, Best digital non-fiction program, (High Rise: Out My Window - Phnom Penh stories) 2010
UNICEF International Day of Children’s Broadcasting Award, Asia (Youth Today) 2009
Ruby Award, Community Impact, 2009 (Seniors on Screen)
The Australian Centre for Social Innovation Bold Ideas, Better Lives Challenge (Aged Care, Digital Lifestyles)
Publications
THE White Building: Creative resistance and the (re)production of space
Martin Potter, Jonathon Louth
(2023), Vol. 29.1, pp. 230-240, (IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S) : A Conference on design, cuture and technology - past, present and future, Kent, England, E1
M Potter
(2021), pp. 183-211, Transmedia in Asia and the Pacific: industry, practice and transcultural dialogues, Singapore, B1
MediaLab: video as a multi-valent tool for science teaching and learning
Martin Potter, Kellie Tuck, Andrea Robinson, Paul Richardson, Anna Grieve
(2021), Vol. 22, pp. 23-37, Media Practice and Education, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Bad actors never sleep: content manipulation on Reddit
M Potter
(2021), Vol. 35, pp. 706-718, Continuum, C1
Memories That Make Us: Stories of post World War 2 Italian migration to Australia
Martin Potter, Sean Redmond, Toija Cinque
(2021), Asti International Film Festival, JR1
Martin Potter
(2021), Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage: websites, social media, symposia and conference (see: https://epicaustralia.org.au/video/an-act-of-wonder-billy-griffiths/), JR1
Jonathon Louth, Veronica Coram, Martin Potter, Ian Goodwin
(2020), Adelaide, S.Aust., A6
Martin Potter
(2019), pp. 193-206, The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production, Berlin, Germany, B1
Positive deviance: Stories of regional social innovations from the Big Stories, Small Towns project
Martin Potter
(2019), pp. 294-310, Regional Cultures, Economies, and Creativity : Innovating Through Place in Australia and Beyond, London, Eng., B1
I Bohanna, M Fitts, K Bird, J Fleming, J Gilroy, A Clough, A Esterman, P Maruff, M Potter
(2019), Vol. 20, pp. 160-170, Brain Impairment, C1
Sounding obsession: a discussion on sounds from a garage film
John Cumming, Martin Potter
(2019), Vol. 10, pp. 107-126, The soundtrack, Bristol, Eng., C1
Big stories, small towns: Tura, Hungary
Martin Potter, Peter Hegedus
(2018), [Adelaide, S. Aust.], J2
The transition from hospital to home: Stories of Indigenous traumatic brain injury
Martin Potter, Michelle Fitts, India Bohanna, Myra Leong, Douglas Smallwood, Anonymous
(2018), Online, JR1
Big Stories, Small Towns: Coober Pedy, South Australia
Martin Potter, Anna Grieve, Jeni Lee, Sieh Mchawala
(2018), [Online], JR3
M Potter
(2017), pp. 156-174, On the network, within the network : Production, research, cultural and artistic communication in the internet era, Granada, Granada, B1
M Potter, Jonathon Louth
(2017), Vol. 10, pp. 1-23, Edges Of identity: the production of neoliberal subjectivities, Chester, Eng., B1
The production of neoliberal subjectivities: constellations of domination and resistance
Jonathon Louth, M Potter
(2017), Vol. 10, pp. 1-23, Edges Of identity: the production of neoliberal subjectivities, Chester, Eng., B1
M Potter
(2017), Vol. 164, pp. 117-127, Media International Australia, London, Eng., C1
Martin Potter
(2017), Vol. 16, pp. 112-124, eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, Townsville, Qld., C1
Big Stories Small Towns: Asia Pacific (Indonesia & West Papua)
Martin Potter, Enrico Aditjondro, Dodid Wijanarko
(2017), [Online], JR1
Big Stories Small Towns: Asia Pacific (Australia)
Martin Potter, Anna Grieve
(2017), Cowra Arts OutWest, 2014, JR1
Sonja Vivienne, Martin Potter, Pradip Thomas
(2014), pp. 1-21, ANZCA 2014 : The digital and the social: communication for inclusion and exchange : Proceedings of the 2014 Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Melbourne, Victoria, E1-1
Big Stories, Small Towns: Beaudesert
M Potter, Peter Hegedus, Samantha Ryan, Elijah Cavanagh
(2014), J1
British and Catholic? National and Religious Identity in the Work of David Jones, Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark
Martin Potter
(2013), Oxford, England, A1-1
Stereopublic: crowdsourcing the quiet
Jason Sweeney, Amy Milhinch, Dale Wright, M Potter
(2013), various (mobile, online, internet broadcast etc), J2
Big stories, small towns: Murray Bridge and Raukkan
M Potter, Anna Grieve, Jeni Lee, Sieh Mchawala
(2012), [Adelaide, S. Aust.], J1-1
The Floating Cinema: environmental education documentaries
Martin Potter
(2011), Tonle Sap, Cambodia, J1-1
Big stories, small towns: Banlung, Ratanakiri, Cambodia
M Potter, Chanrasmey Koam
(2011), [Adelaide, S. Aust.], J1-1
Big stories, small towns: Port Augusta, South Australia
M Potter, Anna Grieve, Sieh Mchawala, Jeni Lee
(2009), [Adelaide, S. Aust.], J1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
The transition from hospital to home: a longitudinal study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traumatic brain injury
Dr India Bohanna, Dr Martin Potter
NHMRC Project Grant
- 2018: $7,500
Project assocated with Centre of Excellence: THE EARTH ABOVE: Planetarium video for ARC Centre of Excellence of Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH)
Dr Martin Potter, Prof Stefan Greuter, Dr Rosemary Woodcock
ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH)
- 2023: $70,000
- 2022: $100,000
- 2021: $125,000
Other Public Sector Funding
Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide
Dr Leicha Bragg, Prof Russell Tytler, Dr Martin Potter, A/Prof Judith Mousley, Prof Chris Walsh, Prof Kim Beswick, Mr Peter Saffin, Dr Tracey Muir, Dr Greg Oates, Dr Carol Murphy
DETVic Grant - Research - Department of Education and Training Victoria
- 2018: $153,350
Development of a Suite of African Heritage Culturally Safe Resources to Support Victorian School Leaders Develop More Inclusive Schooling Environments.
A/Prof Tim Corcoran, Dr Tebeje Molla Mekonnen, Dr Kerri Garrard, Dr Martin Potter, Mr Simeon Taylor, Mrs Maria Bates
DETVic Grant - Research - Department of Education and Training Victoria
- 2022: $173,641
Industry and Other Funding
Memories that Make Us: Storying Italian Migration in Victoria.
Prof Sean Redmond, A/Prof Toija Cinque, Dr Martin Potter
Co.As.It - Italian Assistance Association
- 2022: $24,000
- 2021: $12,000
- 2020: $39,016
- 2019: $58,524
Supervisions
Soudhamini Soudhamini
Thesis entitled: Maya and the Virtual
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts