Libby charts a rough course to graduation

RECOVERING from a broken back and occasionally living out of a van didn’t stop Libby Clarke from completing her masters this year.

The RMIT University graduate also gained international recognition for her practice in location-based gaming or playable cartography.

Ms Clarke, who lives in the Otways, has been invited to show her work at major conferences, exhibitions and events around the globe.

Her passion for outdoor education and being a role model to her two younger sisters played a major role in shaping her path and motivated her to push through adversity.

After finishing a Fine Arts Degree at the Victorian College of the Arts majoring in animation, and a brief stint as a primary school teacher, she decided to pursue her passion and return to study a Masters of Animation, Gaming and Interactivity at RMIT.

“I’ve worked in outdoor education for years to support myself, including this past five years studying the masters part-time,” she said.

She acknowledged there had been tough times.

“When I was living a nomad lifestyle for a while, sleeping in a van along the Surf Coast, I’d go off to work and then also travel into the city for study.”

Following a car accident in late 2019 in which she broke her spine, Ms Clarke was hospitalised for a month and then found herself in and out of hospital for rehabilitation in early 2020.

She said she was now on the mend.

“I’m nearly there, and this whole experience has built my confidence in a way.

“In the past I’ve always been rushing here and there, so this has been good for slowing me down a little bit!

“It’s no good sitting around sulking. If there is a will, there’s a way. When one door closes, another opens and if not, break a window.”

Ms Clarke said she loved the vibrant and collaborative atmosphere in her course at RMIT.

“They create this environment in the studios where the students and lecturers work together on a lot of collaborative projects with ‘real world’ output.”

Under the moniker “Liberatas”, Ms Clarke is continuing her work on playable cartography, which she described as using maps, location-based games, and GPS information to capture experiential data or autobiographical narratives of local people in an area.

The practice investigates using digital interfaces to embed in the locations and connect people without them coming into contact.

Five of her classmates have now joined forces as a collective, Orcha, and successfully pitched their playable cartography projects to galleries and events for next year.

“We’ll be involved in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria during Melbourne Design Week,” Ms Clarke said.

“We’re also enjoying working on a very exciting app that is expected to exhibit in Brisbane next year – but I am not allowed to disclose exact event details yet! It is a very exciting project to be involved in.”