Signs
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
So I'm driving home on the freeway today and I see a sign on the South St. on-ramp that used to say "FORM 1 LANE", one word per line, but someone has cleverly added a letter to the beginning and end of the last line, so now it says "FORM 1 PLANET". I thought it was really cute.
Then, about 500m further up the freeway, I see a sign that says "LANE ENDS MERGE RIGHT", again, one word per line, and I instantly just thought, oh my god.. "PLANET MENDS, EMERGE RIGHTEOUS" because I'm kind of a tool that way. Anyway, I certainly have the skilzz from two years of professional signwriting, but I lack the time and money. Oh well.
Specious Dialogue
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Specious Dialogue is a work by Julie Freeman, shown at Cybersonica 07 in the Kinetica Museum in London.
Two moveable forms, one white one black, on castors. They can be pushed around, spoken to, listened to. White is the listener, black is the speaker. They capture audience dialogue, alter it, play it back, mix it with pre-recorded material.
They have moods - their behaviour alters based on what they hear, and on their physical distance from each other. They miss each other when apart, and grow hostile. When together, they are more active and excitable.
Julie is a practicing technology artist, and a graduate of the MA Digital Arts at the Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, London.
Click here.
I found it because I wanted to know exactly what specious meant. It means convincing but false. Common usage - making shit up to justify taking a certain position without adequate grounds.
Adelaide Festival
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
Gah. So I just got back from 76 hours at the Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Adelaide Fringe Festival with Joseph and Abbey.. This meant three evenings of some of the world's best contemporary dance theatre and days full of dozens of awesome visual arts exhibitions. So so so so so good....
We saw "Sacred Monsters", starring contemporary legend Akram Khan and ballet legend Silvie Guillem, which was an amazing and beautiful show about the humanity behind the heights of perfection and stardom. Watch. Second night was a preview of Australian Dance Theatre's work in progress "G", a raw and physical deconstruction of the characters and emotions of Giselle. The final night was "To Be Straight With You", by UK dance theatre company DV8, a brave and intelligent exploration of oppression and hatred against gays and lesbians in the UK. I was half expecting a preachy, one-sided rant, but was pleasantly surprised. The work was based entirely on interview dialogue of real people's experience, and left the audience to form their own opinions. They were extremely bold in the diversity of points of view represented, and the physical expressions of the content were very powerful and effective. Superb theatre, powerful and thought-provoking. Whoops, slipped into review mode. Wasn't going to do that.
Anyway, with both festivals on, Adelaide is an absolute goldmine of arts culture, but without the digging. There's just so much going on it's unbelievable, and the standard is brilliant. Best three days I've had for ages.
VIsible Dance
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Seriously, I don't know why I even HAVE a blog on this website, I never seem to update it. Too busy with real stuff.
Well, I'm now managing director of Visible Dance, a contemporary dance performance company. My fellow directors are Joseph Simons and Abbey Mitchell, who are the two most creative and brilliant dancers I've had the pleasure of working with.
I've finally completed our ArtsWA funding application for one of the things we're doing this year.. SUCH a relief. Now I can concentrate on the short term stuff.
Visible Dance has just joined forces with new Perth band She Selexx for 2008, which delights me more than I can say, cause they're awesome and so perfect for us. Check out their myspace here.
Oh and I'm hitting the Adelaide Festival next week. YAY...
And I have to say.. Knight Rider is BACK and it's wicked. KITT is a kickass Mustang now, and voiced by Val Kilmer. Fasten your Passive Laser Restraint Systems and hang on.