arting it up across platforms
The Art Playground of DMo is the itinerant practice of artist, writer, director Danielle M. Oke, focused on artistic and literary creation across film, art, music and other creative streams. Under this banner she works behind-the-scenes and dives beneath-the-surface to creatively interact with life across platforms, disciplines and existential spaces to create signature art and experiences internationally. Her practice is an art playground because it is a ‘sphere of creative activity’ where people from all walks of life gather to imagine, play and create connective stories and experiences that boldly engage and enrich with artistry, curiosity, verve and wit.
"I spent a lot of time in the water as a kid. I loved the full immersion, otherworldly feeling. This feeling moved into everyday life when I connected with creative inspiration. It was like living in a giant art playground, bringing diverse encounters and expressions. I allowed these energies to morph into what they wanted to be, and that’s how I started creating in a variety of platforms. While surface-level reality showed me contrast and division, reality below the surface showed me that everything is connected. This continues to inform my life and my creative practice."
DANIELLE M. OKE
Danni is a prolific creative seamlessly traversing the worlds of film, art and music. She is an award-winning scriptwriter and produced writer/director, an internationally exhibited artist of painting and video art, and a published songwriter and poet.
 
On her journey of unconventional pathways, Danni has brought her creative signature to projects with maverick creators and companies from indie obscure to acclaimed, both commercial and non-profit alike. She has collaborated with artists and communities around the world, highlighting, exploring, engaging and celebrating the creative influence we all have on life, believing this is where both our uniqueness and oneness shine. The Art Playground is where her wide-ranging endeavours come to light, and where she taps into the subtler realms of our existence to nurture human connection through creativity.
The undercurrent flowing through all of Danni's creative adventures is her unique connection with life as a living oceanic, energetic art playground, moving through interwoven seen and unseen spaces that bring vibrant, curious and essence-bound experiences. She draws upon her succession of incarnations from her tropical Australian upbringing on land and in water, through an interval in Melbourne’s rambunctious arts scene, to early adulthood as a drifting fixture in London’s pulsating indie vibe and cross-cultural experiences through Europe and beyond.
 
Both nature and inner and outer journeying allow Danni to dive beneath the surface where it's apparent that everything is connected. Her work hones in on inner technologies - our capacity to think, feel, connect - to remind and inspire her audience of their innate potential. All of this influences and breathes new life into her creation, experienced by film that is inside out storytelling, art that is vibrant simplicity and music that is ambient, conscious, experimental.
 
She produces work that encourages people to ‘see beyond’ - whether that's into an unseen realm, or past surface-level separations or differences - to connect and recognize connection. And consequentially to allow this connection to enhance our appreciation and enjoyment of the uniqueness around us, finding the beauty and wisdom in such difference and variety.
 
Danni's work has been sourced and presented across a wide range of contexts including gallery, theatre, urban screens and film festival, and has been awarded various accolades.
TAP L.I.F.E.
The art playground way of life brings into awareness the ongoing process of creation we all play a part in. Recognizing the creative pulse at the heart of all life running through its artistic creation, DMo delves deeper into this with public initiatives that aim to nurture human connection through creativity. DMo pays particular attention to creation's interconnected aspects of experiential learning, community gathering and creative documenting, exploring the opportunities they provide for cross-cultural exchanges, cross-disciplinary connections and the active pursuit of self-realization. As creation is a living process and life is constantly being created anew, creativity is key to advancing global understanding of not only the arts, but also humanity and the nature we exist in symbiosis with. DMo believes through active curiosity and vibrant interdisciplinary inquiry into creativity and its role in life functionality, we can discover new perspectives on artistic practice and innovative solutions to issues or problems we face, both as artists and people...and have fun with it in the process!
LEARNING
Experiential learning brings into consciousness the space and way we creatively interact with life, as life.  Through creative productions and labs that facilitate working with our nature in diverse capacities, space and tools are present to look at life from a creation perspective, facilitating learning from the inside out. When we are open, these experiences can bring greater embodied awareness of creation, along with whole being harmony and the opportunity to understand one’s nature and the relationship one has with the universe. They invite collaborators and participants to tap into the creative flow, find and express their voice, and hence shine their light in the world. They offer a valuable source of experiential knowledge-gathering, honouring the creative process by acknowledging the part we play in it, and by celebrating the unseen as well as the seen.
GATHERING
All creation is a gathering, on a multitude of scales. DMo loves bringing people together, for specific creative production, as well as gatherings that focus on either creatively engaging the public, or are artist-centric, sourcing from the sacredness of being a part of artistic creation. Production gatherings interweave collective energy for a unified vision. Public gatherings focus on creating a participatory space of creative wonder. Artist gatherings aim to empower artists’ sense of self and community, providing space to share creation stories, news and challenges. In sharing our stories, we can also keep the spirit and wisdom alive of those who have walked before us through the sharing of their stories. And by honouring our connection along our creative journeys, we afford ourselves a larger circle of support, replacing the need to compete with that of cooperation, knowing we never walk this journey alone.
DOCUMENTING
The continuing arc of DMo’s story can be seen across the mélange of its creative work, work that moves into tangible form in order to be shared. DMo is also interested in documenting the creative journey and its ongoing exploration of the creative process through its multidisciplinary practice. It does this through writings, reflections, recordings or projects dedicated to expanding creative consciousness in the public realm for self-exploration, dialogue, activation and play. DMo hopes all of these sharings will be a valuable resource to anyone travelling their own creative journey, in particular the creative journey we call L.I.F.E.
RESIDENCY
Artist residencies are opportunities for artists to explore and bring growth to their practice outside their usual environment, and hence bring to the forefront creativity's learning, gathering and documenting aspects. Danni has attended a number of artist residencies in Europe, as well as worked on community projects in various parts of the world. Each has allowed her to step out of her comfort zone, develop new and existing ideas, bring projects to completion, expand research into the creative process, and collaborate in diverse capacities with local communities. In the future DMo aims to host itinerant artist residencies for national and international creatives, as well as be a conduit for residency exchanges with international arts organizations and practitioners.