OFA


Field Rooms

  
An infrastructure for making things public and making public things. 







NEWS! 

Field Rooms launched! More +   

All of Us Artists
More +












A community + artist + architect led experiment in reframing public art within private development pre, during and post development.  




PLACEHOLDER RESIDENCY EOI



Contact

Country





Dharawal Knowledge Keeper Shannon Foster:

We acknowledge that the Country now known as Waterloo is Nadunga Gurad (sand dune Country) known for millennia for its nattai (sweetwater/freshwater) wetlands.

We pay our respect to all of the people connected to the kinship system of this Country including the Dharawal, the Dharug, the Eora, the Gaimaragal, the Gundungurra and the Guringai.

Ngeeyinee bulima nandiritah
(May you always see the beauty of this earth)




The Open Field Agency and MAPA Art and Architecture acknowledge that this research, design and creative work is happening on the unceded country of the Awabakal, Dharawal, Dharug, Eora, Gundungurra, Gadi,  Gaimaragal, Guringai and the Worimi people.

We respect the wisdom of the Elders past, present and emerging. This continent always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.









→   Field Rooms Launched!

On the 14th September 2025 we launched the Field Rooms with the opening of the Festival of Urbanism and an a picnic to celebrate the beginning of the Placeholder Residency program.

A huge thank you to all of you who joined us for a beautiful spring day on Gadi country. We loved sharing the story with you of how these spaces came about and the journey we have been on in the past nine years.

We are very grateful to all those who have contributed so far and excited for the future connections that will be made.

The Field Rooms dwell on unceded Aboriginal county - Nadunga Gurad. They are small spaces to dream big, to incrementally build publicness of a site long locked away.

Get in touch if you would like to make use of this space!














Whats On in the Field Rooms


Future


Pilot resident: Bek Conroy

October  2025 - February 2026
More here


Swamposium

Sunday 23 November 2025
More here 



Past



All of Us Artists
Local Clare Lewis is hosting a Sunday music jam and kissing booth. 
2- 5pm
Sunday 26 October  + Sunday 2 November 2025

Waterloo Spring Festival - Danks St District by DASCO
10am - 3pm
Sunday 19 October 2025 
Artists Keg De Souza, Heidi Axelsen and Bangawarra will be using the Field Rooms to have conversations about their developing work for the Danks Street South Precinct.  
Book here

Festival of Urbanism:  Open Field Agency

14 September 2025
Preview with Heidi and Hugo (MAPA) 



Want to use the space?  

Get in touch with Heidi Axelsen, Curator of the Placeholder Residency program 


Sign Up



Be the first to know about Open Field Agency events and residency call out! 


* indicates required

















Want to use the space?  

Get in touch with Heidi Axelsen, Curator of the Placeholder Residency program


→   2025 pilot residency

From November 2025 - February 2026 we are testing this brand new residency program with a dear collaborator of ours Bek Conroy who has agreed to be our pioneer! MAPA collaborated with Bek Conroy and other incredible artists, architects and academics on Yurt Empire many moons ago. More info on that here. +  







Artist in Resident - Bek Conroy
November 2025 - February 2026

In this residency, Bek Conroy will be researching and conducting a series of casual informal experiments using colouring in (yes, colouring in) as a methodology for slowing down and disrupting the increasing prevalence of predicative technologies on our bodies and logistical systems. Starting with assertion that The Body is a Sensory Apparatus, this residency will investigate the powerful capacities of the fascia, vagus nerve, interoception, and gut microbiome systems of the human body. These magnificent computational and predictive technologies of the flesh constantly ingest our environment and together with our past histories assist us in how to take action in the world.  More +



















→ Call out for 2026 + 2027 residents


Where.  921 Bourke St, Waterloo (entrance off Young Street - opposite Artbank )
Duration.  1 - 4 months
When. 24/7 access
Cost.  Free

Residents gain access to a 12 sqm private studio space and a  12 sqm openable workshop space designed for public programs.  

The residency takes place within the construction site of 921 Bourke Street, Waterloo, so residents should expect noise. Evenings and Sundays are construction free times. 

You can apply to use the space free of charge and there are a limited number of funded residencies available to apply for. 

More information on how to apply coming soon, register here

 to be the first to know!



 We are currently seeking contributions to the progam and waiting to find out about grant outcomes before announcing the call out. 


Criteria. 

• Regenerative practice
• Enacting care for public space and publics through creative practice.
• Socially and/or spatially engaged work

Each resident is to propose a process of open research by which they produce:

• An event or series of events (this could be a workshop, discussion, meal, tour, event or social happening). Events should be open in that they allow for input by participants and frame a process of mutual discovery. Further events related to the dissemination, culmination and celebration of this work are encouraged.

• An addition or additions to the Open Field Agency archive (this could be film, audio, photography, scientific analysis, an interview, a field recording, a flag, a map, a diagram, a song, a recipe etc.) These works should be produced through or in connection to the proposed events. 

About

→ 



Open Field Agency is an artist-led experiment in delivering public art over time within private development through durational residencies.  It is public art reframed as a slow, incremental process of making a place more public.

The Open Field Agency hosts artists, scientists, architects, carers, historians, performers, reserachers, students and others in a residency space. The task of Open Field Agents is to tend to the openness of this place. Its’ social and spatial openness through their own work, research, conversations and creations.  

We are an artist and an architect, finding our own agency in the context of city making. Since 2017 we have had many conversations with locals about their desires and fears for this place and these have been the catalyst for the Open Field Agency.  

The Open Field Agency is being delivered by  MAPA Art + Architecture (Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen)  and funded by developer contributions to public art for the Danks Street South Precinct in Waterloo, NSW, Australia.


→   THE MAKING OF THE FIELD ROOMS