Curatorship

LAND: Ulf Langheinrich:15 September to 1 October 2009

In an Australian premiere, QUT presents Ulf Langheinrich's LAND.

LAND, which debuted at the 2008 Liverpool Biennial (UK), continues the German artist's exploration into sensory immersive environments, at the core of his recent artistic research into the nature of digital illusion. His work is characterised by pure, large scope spaces devoid of objects or gestures yet dense with matter.

LAND is a digital landscape rendered solely out of two algorithms that create pure noise; the work has no conceptual agenda, but it is intended to have hallucinatory effects. Through its sheer immensity and use of pulsing repetition it induces a changed state of consciousness, or, as the artist puts it, "an altered state of reality".

PRESENTED BY
QUT Creative Industries Precinct and FACT

IMAGE
Ulf Langheinrich, LAND, 2008, Stereoscopic-3D projection. Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial International 08 and FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology).

MELLIFERA’S LAUNCH HAS TO BE THE ONLY OCCASION THAT AN EXHIBITION HAS BEEN OPENED BY RELEASING BEES IN A CROWDED ROOM. WELL, ALMOST BEES. CREATORS TRISH ADAMS AND ANDREW BURRELL CALL THE VIRTUAL LIFEFORMS THEY HAVE CREATED “MELLIFERA”, AFTER APIS MELLIFERA, THE EUROPEAN HONEY BEE, BUT THE CREATURES THEMSELVES SHARE AT MOST A FAMILY RESEMBLANCE WITH THEIR PHYSICAL COUSINS. THEY ARE, IN FACT, JUST ONE SPECIES IN THE SYNTHETIC ECOSYSTEM OF TERRA.MELLIFERA SET UP BY THE ARTISTS IN THE MULTI-USER ONLINE WORLD, SECOND LIFE.

RealTime issue #91 June-July 2009 pg. 33

© Dan MacKinlay

Mellifera:18 August to 5 September

A mixed reality project by Andrew Burrell and Trish Adams.

Be a part of Mellifera in-world, details at mellifera.cc.

Mellifera is an on-line interactive environment in Second Life which is linked to a complimentary series of real-time exhibitions in gallery and museum spaces.

Central to this ecologically sensitive artwork is the artists' direct engagement with various aspects of bee behaviour at Queensland Brain Institute, where researchers are investigating cognition, navigation and communications in the honey bee.

The artists' poetic and scientific interactions with the bees has inspired the development of mellifera's experimental series of human / computer interfaces, which provide modes of sensory delivery for both virtual and real-world participant interactivity.

They are creating a space that allows the viewer to interact with artificial life created in virtual worlds through direct physical engagement with various interfaces - providing a platform for the investigation of posthuman technologies and modes of sensory delivery.

Melliferalaunched key artificial life organisms that are central to the developing virtual environment in mid-April, providing a taste of the real-world interactive interfaces due to premiere at The Block.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

IDAprojects presents Transverse: 23 July to 8 August

Digital artists from around the world feature in the annual international exhibition, IDAprojects reflecting on culture, language and environment through the 'visual language' of technology.

TRANSVERSE investigates ideas of the landscape around language, technology and culture that crossover boundaries in meaning, experimentation and psychological frameworks.

"Technology poses new questions about the way artists are exploring the landscape," IDAProjects Director Steve Danzig said.

"TRANSVERSE reshapes the ideas of traditional histories of landscape, painting and cinema," he said.

TRANSVERSE features a collaboration of animation art, computer art, digital poetry and interactive gaming focused on the merging of physical and virtual environments.

The exhibition features audiovisual performances by Pink Twins who incorporate live sound processing and on site improvisation to create and manipulate the senses into new, unrecognisable forms. The Pink Twins exploit sensations from daily life to transform perceptions of time and space.

IDAprojects features artists combining varying perspectives, opinions and values, aiming to provide a cross cultural understanding for participants, and assisting the breakdown of social barriers.

IDAprojects has been in partnership with QUT Creative Industries Precinct since 2000 and continues to build on works incorporating ultramodern interactive technologies developed parallel to new social conventions.

Director: Steve Danzig
Curator: Lubi Thomas

AUSTRALIA AND CANADA WERE ESTABLISHED AS COLONIES WHOSE FOUNDING FORCIBLY OCCUPIED TERRITORIES THAT HAD BELONGED TO ABORIGINAL PEOPLES FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS (40,000 IN THE CASE OF AUSTRALIA AND 12,000 IN CANADA). BOTH INDIGENOUS CULTURES SHARE A MUTUAL SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING OF TOTEMIC CONNECTIONS AND COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS, AS WELL AS BEING THE ONLY TWO FIRST NATION PEOPLES TO REFER TO THEMSELVES AS ABORIGINAL. THROUGH THE LENS OF ANIMATION, BIG EYE: ABORIGINAL ANIMATION FROM AUSTRALIA AND CANADA EXPLORES THE MANY SIGNIFICANT CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLES OF THESE TWO COUNTRIES......

RealTime issue #91 June-July 2009 pg. 26

© Danni Zuvela

image: The Boy Who Had the Magic Word and the Whispering Moth, 2005, Christine Peacock, Rebekah Pitt & John Graham

An exhibition of the moving image, including stop-motion, Machinima and other animation techniques, Big Eye showcases Aboriginal animations from Australia and Canada in a unique cross-tribal exchange of ideas and world views.

Aboriginal Australian artists Aroha Groves, Frank McLeod & Aboriginal Nations, the Gunbalanya Community & Gozer Media, Christine Peacock, Rebekah Pitt & John Graham and artist/curator Jenny Fraser, are joined by Aboriginal Canadian artists Dark Thunder Productions, Raven Tales, Skawennati Tricia Fragnito & Abtech, Rabbit and Bear Paws, and The Healthy Aboriginal Network.

Philosophically, this exhibition explores the shared heritage by Aboriginal Canadians and Aboriginal Australians through the intersection of Aboriginal aesthetics, culture, and a similar history of colonisation.

Curated by
Jenny Fraser and Lubi Thomas

Assistant Curators
Maggie McDade
Rennae Hopkins

Presented by
QUT and cyberTribe

2009 sees the start of a new ongoing project overseen and programmed by QUT curator Lubi Thomas and supported by QUT Interns Rose Feely and Michaela Hartland, Parer Place Project is an ongoing nightly curated screening program, dedicated to providing a digital canvas for emerging, established and experimental artists.

Screening: 16 to 31 May, dusk until 8pm
Big Eye: Aboriginal Animations
As a continuation on of the exhibition, Big Eye: Aboriginal Animation moves to the public screens.
Aboriginal Australian artists Aroha Groves, Frank McLeod & Aboriginal Nations, the Gunbalanya Community & Gozer Media, Christine Peacock, Rebekah Pitt & John Graham and artist/curator Jenny Fraser, are joined by Aboriginal Canadian artists Dark Thunder Productions, Raven Tales, Skawennati Tricia Fragnito & Abtech, Rabbit and Bear Paws, and The Healthy Aboriginal Network.

Philosophically, this exhibition explores the shared heritage by Aboriginal Canadians and Aboriginal Australians through the intersection of Aboriginal aesthetics, culture, and a similar history of colonisation.

Curated by
Jenny Fraser and Lubi Thomas
Assistant Curators
Maggie McDade
Rennae Hopkins
Presented by
QUT and cyberTribe

Screening: 15 to 17 April, dusk until 8pm
HOST is a layered exploration of distance and juxtaposition, of separation and proximity.

Created in response to observations made in a 'bee house' during a residency at the Queensland Brain Institute, it reflects the artist's developing rapport with the bees. Captured in detailed slow-motion image data this transitory allegiance between artist and bee is reinterpreted in the video installation artwork.

As part of the celebrations and Second Life launch of Mellifera by Trish Adams and Andrew Burrell, you are invited to participate by visiting the project in its virtual environment. For details and Second Life landmark links, please visit the project website at www.mellifera.cc.

Trish and Andrew's interest in interactive engagements between art and science continues in their latest show, Mellifera, showing at The Block from late August.


Screening: 6 April to 26 April, from dusk until 8pm
Sketch Pad is an exploration of the 'work in progress'. The following artists present a collection of video art that encompasses the underlying qualities of the sketch; either through content, process or aesthetic.

Artists
Erika Scott, Joseph Breikers, Louise Bennett, Danielle Woolbank, Elizabeth Willing, Kate Woodcroft, Jacina Leong, Sarah Byrne.
Curated by
Courtney Coombs
Assistant Curator
Brittney Ouston

Screening: 16 March to 5 April, from dusk until 8pm
Self Identity - Moving Image
Thirteen works investigating the construct of self identity through the use of popular culture, iconography, humor, and emotive reflection.
These works explore narrative structure, character and mass media influence, producing works that reflect a personal intuitive journey and focus on exploration of unknown visual modes and the conceptualization of self through imagery.
Created by Yr 10 New Imaging and Yr 11 and 12 Media students, 2006-2008. KGSC Visual Art Faculty, New Media Department, Kelvin Grove State College.
Curated by
Andrew Todd.

Narrative in conventional film is built through a combination of layers of film language; text, sound, performance, mise-en-scene and editing. A films success depends on the manipulation of these layers into a cohesive and powerful whole. Often the purpose of such wielding is to seduce the viewer into an unconsciousness that allows them to ‘get into’ the story and which consequently seeks to makes invisible the narrative structure used to do so. The emphasis on story, character, performance and making these as ‘real’ as possible are the hallmarks of what we can call ‘Hollywood’ cinema. Paradoxically much of Hollywood cinema is about the dream, the possibility that exists to change ones life or to save someone else’s. Most of what happens is highly unreal, but that is unimportant since the messages are clear; desire and consumption.

Author: Joanna Callaghan

VT2 forms part two of The Vernacular Terrain, an exhibition established in 2007 in conjunction with IDAprojects and the QUT Creative Industries Precincts. The exhibition continues to explore how artists engage with culture, language and local dialects, environment and technology. Over 25 artists are represented within this year’s VT2, including artists from Australia, China, Europe and the United States. VT2 will soon move beyond its initial showing at The Block, QUT to exhibit at both regional and national Australian gallery spaces and internationally in China and Japan.

This is the second year for this dual platform annual showcase which assembles highlights of the year's graduate shows from the design and visual arts disciplines at QUT.

Developed and supported by the Creative Industries Faculty Advisory Committee, the exhibition aims to inspire the newly enrolled art and design students and to build industry and community knowledge of QUT's art and design disciplines with a view to further strengthening industry/community/university partnerships and interaction