New Art now in creative development
06 September 2012
2011-12 Creative Australia New Art Creative Development projects underway
The first artists funded through the inaugural New Art Creative Development initiative are beginning their projects around Australia. These artistic teams are now starting creative experimentation and research to develop prototypes and partnerships for innovative new art works.
The Australia Council New Art initiative was launched in 2011 as part for the Creative Australia funding program for artists. New Art grants are for artists wishing to explore ambitious ideas, collaborations and to take creative risks to make major new art work.
As part of a five year initiative, both Creative Development and Production & Presentation grants will be offered between 2011-2015. See details of the first round of Creative Development grants and the strategic round with proposals nominated by the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA2013). The next round of the New Art Creative Development initaitive closes 1 August 2012.
Here is a brief overview of the first Creative Development grant recipients and their projects underway.
Dérive Survive
Lucas Abela and Keg de Souza are developing this new art work for the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA2013). The project continues Lucas' interest in using arcade game forms to create installations for musical play, and Kegs' work with inflatable art and architecture.
The artists are building a kinetic environment for audiences to explore their dérive through play. A dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, where the aesthetics of surroundings encountered subconsciously directs the traveler’s understanding of the space they are in. With collaborators Dan Stocks, Hirofumi Uchino and Alex Davies, they will develop prototypes incorporating spy cameras, lasers and a health status bar to engage with the gaming dimensions of the art work. Dérive Survive invites audiences at arcade consoles to drive hovercraft to explore an inflatable installation, and interact with the sound art, visuals and with other players. (NSW)
Video: Lucas Abela, 'Vinyl Rally' 2010, participatory sound and video installation. This project was supported by the Australia Council Digital Culture Fund and the Hopscotch live art touring initiative. Courtesy the artist.
Alex Davies
Exploring illusion within spatial narratives, Alex Davies is currently developing a large mixed reality installation. Drawing from cinema, magic and performance practices, he is prototyping an intricate built and virtual environment, and honing scripts for illusory characters to animate the space.
For this new project Alex aims to create an imaginary world where virtual characters influence the physical environment, and audience interaction transforms the virtual elements. He will construct this experience with illusions, each revealing alternate realities to prompt audiences to question what is real or virtual, fact or fiction. Alex’s collaborative team includes film writer/producer/director Andrew Trauki; animatronics/effects artist Damien Martin; dramaturg Lee Wilson; magician Adam Mada; and performer Annabel Lines. Together they will be working towards a showing in late 2012 and ultimately a tourable installation work for wide Australian and international audiences. (NSW)
FOREVER NOW
This is a cross-artform curatorial project responding to our cultural obsession with immortalising ourselves. In the footsteps of the Voyager records, curators Thea Baumann, Jeff Khan, Carli Leimbach, Brian Ritchie and Willoh S.Weiland will work with the international community to research and create a digital ‘golden’ data record of culture now on earth.
The FOREVER NOW participants are leading experimental curators, artists and producers engaging with contemporary culture. They plan to engage with key sociologists, environmentalists, musicians and artists to develop, network and stage this project across multiple national and international and intergalactic sites. The project will be launched into orbit aboard a Celestis Memorial Space Flight, Texas 2013.
Image credit: Willoh S.Weiland & Nicky Forster, Yelling at Stars website still, photograph by Andrew Fraser.
.Blush
Pierre Proske will be developing this public media arts work that responds to the energy performance of the built environment. This project re-imagines a sustainable building with a skin that ‘blushes’ and changes hue based on energy usage, with ‘freckles’ consisting of thermochomic and electrically activated discs.
Pierre will be working with Jodi Newcombe of Carbon Arts, in partnership with the City of Melbourne, Synergetics, FMSA Architects and Jason Bond of the Environment Shop to research the location, interpretation and to prototype the technological design for this project. Their vision is to realise the .Blush buildings in the City of Melbourne by the end of 2013, so that with the help of innovative visualisation of energy saving/consumption we can better preserve our resources and environment. See the .Blush blog for documentation of the project in development. (VIC)
Image credit: Pierre Proske, '.BLUSH' project diagram, 2011. Courtesy the artist.
I Think I Can
Sam Routledge will be developing this interactive live art installation in partnership with the Australian Model Railway Association (AMRA). He is devising ways to manipulate model railway figures as puppets, to engage audiences in Southern Cross Station and AMRA clubhouses nationally.
The work will link actual commuters at the train station with virtual commuters on AMRA’s model railway layouts nationally. Through an interactive process conducted live and online, participants will discover a 1:87 scale idealised version of themselves, and will become a resident of a model railway layout elsewhere. Sam is a puppeteer and performance artist, and will be collaborating with live art practitioners Martyn Coutts, media artist Matt Gingold, and theatre director Ian Pidd for this creative development. (VIC)
Video: 'I Think I Can', project in creative development, courtesy Sam Routledge, 2012.Stereopublic
Jason Sweeney will be investigating the cultural and social phenomena of ‘the crowd’ for this participatory performance and online project. Working with the public as performers, participants and audience, Jason and collaborators will be asking what future crowds will look and sound like.
The team includes creative producer, Martin Potter, choreographer Alison Currie, and interactive designers Nick Crowther and Amy Milhinch. They will develop interactive web and augmented reality prototypes; video and sound; public happenings, workshops and storyboards; remote communications and smartphone applications for networked community performance events. (SA)
Video: Jason Sweeney discusses his practice and audience engagement, 2011 artist profile.PARRANORMAL
Craig Walsh is developing this site-specific projection artwork driven by data and responsive to public waterways. The project will be developed in collaboration with the Australian Museum and software engineer/3D animator Steven Thomasson, to premier in the Parramatta River for ISEA2013.
PARRANORMAL interprets data collected from the river to present an algorithmic animated 3D river creature. Craig and collaborators will be researching data specific to the Parramatta River (such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, mercury, PH levels, water current flow), and develop 3D animations based on evolutionary processes of fish species. They will also explore approaches for community participation and contribution to the artwork. This projection will initially appear as an embryonic organism in the river, with physical and behavioral characteristics evolving into a complex life-form, based on data collected during the exhibition. (NSW)
Craig Walsh, 'Classification Pending', 2007-present, Permanent public commission in Ipswich Parklands, Brisbane, Australia. View 7pm – 11 pm 7 days. 4 channel digital video projection. Photo courtesy Marc Grimwade and the artist.
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