Projection Artist Spotlight: Amanda Morgan
Projection Site: Atherton Gardens and Radio, 79 Gertrude St.
Amanda Morgan started projecting in 1999 coming from a creative family of artists, designers and architects. She talks about herself as a 'submerged' artist with an idea that her "cultural practice is part of everyday life, with no defined begging or end."
Morgan is an installation and digital media artist who has exhibited internationally in public and commercial galleries. Morgan was a co‐founder and co‐director of Conical gallery, and a curatorial member from 2001 - 2004. She has won a number of esteemed art awards and scholarships including Bates New MediaArt Award New York, NAVA Janet Holmes à Court Award with Australia Council, City of Melbourne Laneways, and Australian Postgraduate Research Award.
You have a connection to a larger community - tell me a little bit about that
In terms of connection, have great respect for the knowledge and cultural practices from the Warlayirti Artists Centre in Wirrimanu (Balgo) WA, a remote community where I lived and worked. Learning from this country was life changing. Communities fostered by art schools and universities where I have worked have been profound and significant too.
You have worked with the festival for the last three years. Why did you decide to get involved in the festival?
I didn’t decide, I was drawn to it. The motivation to be part of it though, is to contribute and to learn... isn’t that what we should be driven by?
For your works in the festival how did you interpret the theme elements?
I have 2 works in the GSPF. One is with Nick Azidis + Ian de Gruchy, and it is curated by Nick Azidis – Projectionteknik.
The projection is a series of still transitions on the Atherton Gardens Estate Gertrude Street. Ephemeral Museum, incorporates images of iconographic galleries & architecture: The Acropolis, Le Corbusier’s Modulor Man Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim, Mies Van de Roh’s Farnsworth House, Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, Frank Gehry’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Antoni Gaudi’s La Pedrera & Anselm Reyle’s foil works.
The second work is Biosphere no. 1 & 2, (black mile). I photographed each building in Gertrude Street for a series of still transitions at Radio Bar - 79 Gertrude Street Fitzroy.
What sort of projection technique are you using?
For the Atherton Gardens Estate in Gertrude Street ,Nick Azidis - Projectionteknik is applying his ingenious skill, to drench the entire facade of the towering buildings with light.
For the video projection at Radio bar 79 Gertrude Street, Olaf Meyer - Projectionteknik has seamlessly installed a rear projection, in the shape of a circle. This corresponds to the masked optical viewing device in the video. When Kym Ortenburg saw my video, she brilliantly suggested this site, as it has a round window. The actual screen is made from architectural film, which is a coincidental bonus, conceptually I mean.
What future projects are you working on?
I have a couple of videos that are being projected during August. One is a public art commission for QVIEW at Albury’s Digital Art Gallery. It’s an outdoor projectionmade for the façade of the pavilion. Variable #1, (Dusk till dawn),and it runs from Thursday 30 -Saturday 1 August, 6pm – 10pm
The second is Variable no. 2, (hyper building), made for Anywhere but Here, a Video Festival at Blindside in Melbourne. This opens on Thursday 2 August, 6-8pm2-8 August.
Artist Spotlight - Kutcha Edwards
Performing at Maysar at the Gertrude Street Proejction Festival opening on Friday night is Aboriginal legend Kutcha Edwards!
Through his music he sings about his family and community reclaiming his identity. Also performing is cultural dance group the Maysar Dancers. These boys connect with their spirit ensuring the dance songline continue for generations. There will be Indigenous food sold and a fire and smoke pit to cleanse the soul and spirit. Everything kicks off at 7pm. See you there!
Organisation Profile - The Fitzroy Learning Network
Projection Site - Since Grey - 122 Gertrude Street
Tell me about your practice- Did you start in projections? What is your background in the arts? Did you start in the arts or somewhere else? Would you consider yourself established or emerging?
The Computer Clubhouse at the Fitzory Learning Network has been a part of the projection festival in previous years. Youth aged 10-18 use a variety of multi-media at the computer clubhouse including print design, photography, video and music. The Gertrude St Projection Festival has introduced the teenage members to a new medium and its biggest audience ever, which is very exciting. All the youth of the Computer Clubhouse are emerging artists.
Have you worked with the festival before? Why did you decide to get involved in the festival? How many years have you submitted works (if you have been for a while)?
This is our second time at the Gertrude st Festival. We decided to get involved because we love creating work for a larger audience and it is fun interpreting the themes each time.
For your work in the festival how did you interpret the theme elements?
We explored “Elements of Us” – the hobbies, interests and talents that make us who we are.
What future projects are you working on?
The Fitzroy Computer Clubhouse runs 5 days a week after school and is a free program open to all people aged 10-18. Our next project is preparing for our annual showcase of work the members have been creating.
Further Details about the organisation
The Fitzroy Computer Clubhouse is a project of the Fitzroy Learning Network and is the first and currently only one of two Computer Clubhouses in Australia. The Fitzroy Computer Clubhouse is part of a global Computer Clubhouse Network that spans over 100 Computer Clubhouses across the globe. We have 160 members at the Clubhouse from 17 different countries and numerous cultural backgrounds. Set up similar to a design studio, members choose what they want to work on and what mediums they would like to use.
Alumni from the Clubhouse have gone on to creative and academic success including emerging hip hop artists, aeronautical engineers and Computer Clubhouse volunteers.
Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2012 Opening Night! - With only ten days until the opening best you jot this into your diary!
Friday 20 July
6.00pm
Workers Club Hotel
Cnr Napier and Gertrude Streets
Performance by Vento, Agua, Fogo e Terra
'Abada Capoeira in collaboration with Womboyn Spirit present Vento, Agua, Fogo e Terra, a multimedia Brazilian/Australian fusion of rhythm, movement & life.'
Then the festival runs 6pm - 12pm each night until the 29th of July!
Make sure to check out our website and Facebook page as we release more details about associated events including Sensory Overload, the In Da Loop Animation night and the Media Lab Melbourne Workshops held during the festival!
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The Gertrude Association is excited to bring you the 2012 Gertrude Street Projection Festival — the 5th since we began in 2008.
Our not for profit — and volunteer run — Association presents the Festival to celebrate community and art. We showcase site-specific work by guest projection artists along with a range of works created by general entry artists and community groups.
This year’s theme Elements encapsulates all the things that make up our community and us. The physical, the ephemeral, the brave, the crazy inspired, the passionate and the four elements themselves. Our artists’ remarkable responses to the theme have been both literal and abstract. Their work brings out the many meanings of elements. You can explore this remarkably diverse and creative free street gallery, every night 6pm – midnight from 20 July to 29 July.
Thank you to our artists, to the Street’s traders, to our sponsors, to our volunteers, and to you the gallery goers.
Many thanks also to our Sponsors
The City of Yarra
Words and Beyond
Severe Studio
Nelson Alexander
Up & Up Creative
The Workers Club
La Trobe Uni
Bendigo Bank
Temple Brewery
Projection Artist Spotlight - Olaf Meyer
Projection Site - The Gertrude Hotel
Tell me about your practice- Did you start in projections? What is your background in the arts? Did you start in the arts or somewhere else? Would you consider yourself established or emerging?
I have been making interactive animation and multimedia projections since the mid 1990's so you could say that I am established, but with multimedia and digital projection is still emerging as an art-form in the community. One thing that I feel relieved about is that I bypassed the whole film era and began making my first moving images on a computer. This has allowed me a lot of creative freedom when combining images, the digital nature of my work has allowed my approach to be of a live and playful nature - like that of an improvising musician.
Have you worked with the festival before? Why did you decide to get involved in the festival? How many years have you submitted works (if you have been for a while)?
I was approached by the Gertrude Association in 1997 on referral through word of mouth, they were after projection Artists and I had the resources through my Multimedia production company to support the festival and get it off the ground by installing one large site-specific work and 10 or 20 other works.
For your work in the festival how did you interpret the theme elements?
At the Gertrude Hotel we will be using natural and imagined elements in reference to the architecture. This will be done using 3D projection mapping the Gertrude Hotel. This is done by creating a scale model of the building in 3d and projecting sections of that model onto the building using a combination of orthographically rendering and perspective correction.
Full Bio
Olaf Meyer is an interactive multimedia installation artist who uses video, sound, custom hardware and software to present multimedia content that physically engages its audience. Meyer has various academic awards including among others Master of Design in Multimedia by Research Project (MONASH), BA Multimedia (RMIT) and Advanced Diploma in Electronic Design and Interactive media (RMIT). To allow Meyer to take responsibility for the energy intensity of his multimedia work, Meyer completed in 2009, a Certificate iV in Renewable Energy at Swinbourne University of Technology.
Meyer has created interactive video installations at local major events and internationally including the Melbourne International Film, NextWave, ElectroFringe, Sydney International Arts festivals and the Rotterdam European Cultural Capital 2001. Meyer's projects have received support from private, State Government and Federal Government bodies including Film Victoria, City of Melbourne, FTO, AFC,Sydney Myer Foundation and the Australia Council for the Arts. Meyer has formal technical training in computer animation and video composition and he has been active in designing screen-based work with input from community groups and for the performing arts. Meyer was an artist in residence at the Melbourne Meat Market with the City of Melbourne through 2006 & in 2007 Meyer held a residency with Aphids at Federation Square.
Meyer works in tandem with his creative endeavors through his company Multimedia Events producing live visuals for events. He is currently designing a software interface to NaturalPoint’s Optitrack optical motion capture system for Garth Pain at the University of Western Sydney allowing artists to control sounds through live body movement. Meyer's experience in interactive multimedia design and engagement with the performing arts has inspired experimentation resulting in interdisciplinary artwork encompassing the body, a visual experience and electronic soundscapes. Meyer implements a modular approach in his treatment of multimedia, enabling a unique and flexible work method towards a design.
In 2010 Meyer worked for 6 weeks on an international collaboration between Terrapin Puppet Theatre (Tasmania) and the Children’s Art Theatre of China in Shanghai, providing projection designs and technical direction. Meyer engaged the theatre company in developing a prototype multimedia puppet that could be used to be pose animation onstage by live puppeteers. In 2009 Meyer performed with multimedia performance by media artist Stellarc, video mixing live video signals generated from brain wave and heart beat information, virtual reality and Steve Middleton’s autonomous prosthetic head for the show titled Explorations.
Meyer has designed and installed many outdoor projection campaigns including video projection mapping of buildings in Sydney and Melbourne for the Greater City of Moonee Valley, St Kilda Sea Baths Complex, National Australia Bank, Channel Ten and the Hobsons Bay City Council amongst others. Since 2007 Meyer has been the senior projectionist and technical director for the Gertrude Projection Festival, providing projector hire and projection design through his company Multimedia Events while also creating artwork for the festival.
In 2006 Meyer worked designed the multimedia projections and content presentation systems for Big Hart (Tasmania) for three shows that engaged at-risk communities in the production process Ngapartji Ngapartji, Junk Theory and Radio Holiday, all of which have received positive critical acclaim for their video projections components. In 2006 Meyer worked with Melbourne based media artist Sue McCauley as part of Screens and Screams a workshop at Art Play, which involved local primary school children in the content production process. In this project Meyer built a Crystal Ball, which used gesture sensing to interactively display the resulting stories in a contextual way.
What future projects are you working on? Maybe a solo show, a collaboration or some initiative you are involved in? Even if it is not projection based we can spread the word! We are about supporting our cultural community here so keep me posted.
The next projection work for me is Black Project One, it has been picked up by the Sydney Opera House for a second season this year. Black Project One features a projection show that I developed earlier this year with contemporary dance choreographer Anothy Hamilton. The work is a 3 screen projection blend that maps two very wide perpendicular surfaces. The projections become the only light source for the piece and are mapped to the dancer;s choreography and graphic designs that Hamilton came up with in Berlin during an earlier development. The abstract projected designs span the stage and are strictly black and white and synchronise to a distinct electronic rhythm.
Animation Screening and Schmoozing Event
Date: Thursday 26th July
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Venue: The Wilde Bar, 153 Gertrude Street
The Gertrude Street Projection Festival is all about collaborating with the community and other artistic forward-thinkers. During this years festival we will be offering many events in conjunction with creative groups working in Melbourne - such as the ever-talented monthly animation challenge Loopdeloop! All the looped animations you could want in an evening!
Loopdeloop began in the stead of the ever popular Secret Handshake animation nights and evolved into something even bigger and more cyclic! They are an animation challenge that cycles round every month; first submissions taken from around the world, then screenings on the last Tuesday of every month and a featured winner on their website whilst the new submissions come in!
These animated aerobatics are brought together by an amazing team who are all illustrators, animators and creators themselves including; Daniel Atkinson, Simone Bennett, Felix Colgrave, Andrew Evans, Megan Jo Narin, Adam Parton, Mel Sanders, Neil Sanders and Nathanael Scott. Along with their usual Tuesday screening, they have organised a satellite screening of the July submissions in conjunction with the Gertrude Street Projection Festival! It will be held on Thursday the 26th July from 6-8pm at Wilde Bar and challenge the worlds finest 'loopers' to animate under the banner 'Elements'!
The night promises to include drink specials, prizes and many friendly faces. For more details on how to enter your own loop into the screening, visit www.loopdeloop.org.
The countdown has officially begun for the Gertrude Street Projection Festival this year!
The artists are locked down, the App is being completed and the events are being finalised. It’s time to charge your camera batteries, buy a woolly coat and get yourself ready for the light-filled wonderment that will be the 20th-29th of July this year.
Along with seeing Fitzroy in whole new light during the week, you also get a chance to see the works of some exceptionally talented artists from the established to the emerging. Leading up to the festival we will be sharing articles and spotlighting artists on the blog, twitter and Facebook pages to get your eyes ready for the visual feast ahead.
To start us off check out this great piece by Time Out Melbourne on established artist Russell Goodman and his part in the Gertrude Street Projection Festival this year.
Gertrude Street Projection Festival returns to light up your winter’s night
In case you missed the exceptional performance of Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella this year – let me tell you a little about with Tupac has to do with the future of projection art.
If you caught a chance to see the performance they took an older performance of Tupac and Snoop Dogg and chopped it up, and had the still living Snoop dogg perform with a hologram version of Tupac.
The method to create such an effect as actually quite simple - you project an image from a computer, onto a mirror, and onto a layer of transparent film that is sightly stretched at a 45-degree angle, to give the effect of being 3D. So not quite the 3D hologram you may be similar with but still offers so many options for projection art as a whole.
This is also not the first time this hologram projection technology and music has been combined! If you keep up with the Japanese Pop scene you may have heard of Hatsune Miku, an entirely hologram pop star. Gone be the days of animation based bands that cannot play live show! Now, with the aid of projection, these digital performers tour around the world to literally thousands of audience members.
Maybe for a Gertrude Street Projection Festival in the future? Watch this space.
The Gertrude Association
PO Box 1680 Collingwood 3066
T 0414 893 075
Email:
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Aim Three
To present free outdoor art experiences - so we can all share and enjoy
Aim One
To produce and exhibit media art projects and encourage, develop and mentor local artists
Aim Two
To support the culture and community services of Gertrude St.
Copyright 2011 The Gertrude Association. All rights reserved.
