MICHAEL COHEN is a site based performance/event director and Creative Producer of Events at Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), where he oversees the events / activations programme as a key component of SHFA’s placemaking strategy .  During his time in this job he has directed new events such as Santa Fest (Darling Harbour 2010-11) and Fire Water (Vivid Festival 2009 & 2010) and has also undertaken the significant re-direction of signature Foreshore Authority events such as The Village Bizarre, Aroma and Hoopla Circus and Street Theatre Festival.  Michael was Co Artistic Director of Theatre Kantanka (1996–2006), Co-Director of Sydney’s fringe festival, Live Bait 2004 (Bondi Pavilion) and Programme Director of Newcastle Live Sites (2004-8). Michael has a doctorate in Performance Studies (Sydney, 2002) and has published numerous articles about site-based and interpretive work, international spectacle and festival.  During 2009 – 11 he initiated several collaborative science-art projects bringing together diverse artists, scientists and environment workers at Bundanon Trust: a contemporary art centre in the Shoalhaven.  Michael recently convened a team of international collaborators to devise an on-water installation project that creatively interprets cities and their waterways and the historical resonance of WW1;  this project, Nomanslanding is being delivered in 3 cities around the world during 2015-16.