she sees red

in the forward to the fantastic book, technospaces: inside the new media, editor sally munt writes about the dynamic nature of culture, that is both binary and complex. And in it, she highlights the unanswered questions about what the future holds for culture in the so-called Information Age:

"what will be the new strategies, tactics or dispositions [in this Age]? What will happen to identity after Postmodern? Will cyberlife ensure further fratured forms of consciousness and social atomism?"

most of the 'spaces' discussed in the book are that of the public realm: online/institutional and traditional public spaces and the ways in which technology, or technological systems are changing/influencing dynamics in these areas.

I would be interested to see what the contributers to the book thought of the SLQ's new venture The Edge: Digital Culture Centre and whether it answers any of those questions.

It is a quasi-programmed public space, within a public institution, that is specifically geared towards investigating, researching and sharing new and traditional kinds of experiences within the culture of (digital) technology.



When i went to Brisbane last month, i happened to time it perfectly so I could attend the opening of the new space/program (note the forward slash. no rocket ships). i had previously applied (unsuccessfully) to the resident program, but was still very keen to check out the space, see for myself what kind of possibilities it held and to show my support in a way. plus i got to attend a low-key, but very exciting workshop on Fruity Loops.

My excitement, as it stands to date, is at the potential of The Edge.

The launch seemed like fun - a bit of music stuff, a few peeps sitting around, obligatory twitter hashtags (including a very cool twitter blimp) and some live streaming. The next day was super quiet - a lot of people still trying to figure out exactly what the crux of the space is about; mandatory technical difficulties (some matter with projectors and labelling - see, technology is really all about the labels) and a lot of touch screens.

I registered for an Edge Account and I've got myself a little project planned (even from Melbourne), but i can imagine that if I was in Brisbane, this is a space that would quickly ramp up in my usage. As far as I can tell, it's like the awesomest library/AV department you've ever seen, with a cafe, on the river. I'm not quite sure what some of the meeting spaces will be used for exactly, but if i was a film-maker, or musician, i think they'd be great project spaces to work in for development.

Given the size of the auditorium, i was kinda amused it wasn't fitted with surround sound, especially given the depth of amazing sound artists in Brisbane, who could probably benefit from a space that was geared more towards a particular array. But the availability of the space and its focus on multi-ness will be interesting to keep tabs on.



It is early days yet and i have no doubt that the esteemed David Cranswick (ex-d/Lux Media Arts) and his team will crank this into something amazing - their workshops alone are enviable. Although i can't wait until their blog is a little more social and a little less bulletin board. ahem. :)

Watch this space peeps.

via wooster

just to interrupt our flow of reviewing others' works. i have some works in a couple of group projects. both have produced beautiful posters, so i think i'll just save the words and post them instead [click to enlarge].

come and check 'em if you're in the hood.







UPDATE: here's the page from the ICH blog on my stuff: jack

a couple of days before leaving for my lightening fast sydney/brisbane escapade, lucas (the great connector) emailed me about tony birch/tom nicholson's work at artspace, which needed some [artist-as-]participants. i can't remember lucas' description exactly, but it mentioned a lecture, tom nicholson, a building in carlton and a spare spot on the 26th february.

lock me in!

i have been really interested in tom's work for a while and his sound/performance/list collaboration 'lines toward another century' with andrew byrne with had me hopping from side to side.

thanks to a bit of a crazy schedule, i didn't have time to do any research into the project, which worked in my favour i think. i just rocked up, said hello to the gals at artspace, got instructions and launched into it. no time for over-analysing - plenty of time for that during the performance.

the darkened room featured included 5 desks, with a desk lamp and a series of projections behind the 'stations'. each participant/artist read the lecture aloud and to themselves, according to the instructions, as we were giving a paper to a room of 30 students. easy. kinda.

the inbuilt difficulties (and points of interest) included reading at the same time as everyone else, the combination of reading internally and aloud whilst maintaining the same timing and the slight physical duress of sitting in the high-contrast environment for 40 minutes at a time. i always forget how quickly my body is affected by durational work.

despite having to concentrate quite heavily, i found myself thinking A LOT about the work in a variety of ways. so much so that it has taken me about a week to work out what the hell i need to say about it.

camp pell is based in and around royal park, melbourne, and the lectures are about a series of images from the state library of victoria. the idea behind tom's research of the imagery was to not just imagine the context for the photos in question, but to catalogue and corroborate the stories and history of the time/place. unsurprisingly, the complex relationship to imagery, history and colonialisation comes up very early in the piece.

the area in question is very "local" to me - i ride across, around, through there regularly and is a permanent fixture in my psychogeography. reading about this place and its history/image-history was instantly transportive. rather than imagining the events or the landscape of the images, it was like i was remembering those places. the works, for me, were quite different to enacting an arbitrary narrative. they were infused with a sense of my own experience. which, as any good installation artist knows, is the stuff you want people to take from a work.

the sound elements to the work were also interesting to me - the syncopation of vocal relay and the differing tones was amazing. not to mention the randomness of timing. having to share the soundscape with others at times was amusing - another aspect to the territorial nature of the work - but also the sense of authority with which we all projected our voices. in a way, it homogenised the pitch and weight of our ranges. in the way that i guess memory will desaturate imagery, a lecture format desaturated our vocal contrasts. i think this is an area that my vocologist friend tim noonan would have been fascinated by.



reading aloud is physically exausting too, and i think that this shared effort required to communicate the work is another interesting point of connection with other artists and the work itself. it became a visceral task, which has become physical memory, as well as a mental one. something infinitely bound with psychogeography and a relationship with the indigenous manner of remembering ones place.

as well as remembering and listening, i learned a lot. despite the line in my lecture about 'only the most demonstrative student could have gotten away with not hearing about this history of the ill-fated [burke and wills] trip' i actually knew hardly any detail about the crazy hair-brained voyage up the guts of the place. in history lessons i only ever remember wondering why the hell they started the trip in the first place and thought it was blatantly obvious to trust the local indigenous kids to help you survive. but i guess, at 15 i hadn't really discovered the true nature of the proud white colonial male.




as an aside, the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the burke and wills trip is on the 20th august this year and no doubt, there will be commemorations of some kind. it will be interesting to see what, exactly. given that its place as a valuable point in our history has become an uncomfortable indication of our true colonial history (ie bumbling idiots with too much money kill the only help they get and are survived by the only member of their trip who is humble enough to follow guidance from local aboriginal tribe). i'm almost intrigued enough to go along. almost.

other points of goodness in the work are the obvious conceptual links between art and text, art and language, language and meaning, text and meaning. not to mention tom's regular investigation into publication/archive/library/reading-as-political-action and the contemporary nature of artist-as-participant/audience-as-participant in performative works. i can't even begin to digest all that stuff today, i'm glad that i was able to participate - it gave me a burst of food for thought and reminded me why i make the kind of work i do, and to follow the lead of artists like these guys.


image credits:
artspace.org.au
tomn.net
burke wills.net