Selective Sights
A project by Justin Schmidt, David Short and Que Nguyen
This laneway commission will pull out one story from millions that make up a city, it will be told through a novel combination of projection and installation. Things happen in cities.
BY DAY
A blank, white polystyrene diorama of a city takes up a large section on a wall in Finlay Lane.
Streets, laneways, buildings, parks, sport stadiums, the yarra make up a recognizable but eerily colourless and lifeless city
BY NIGHT
Once it becomes dark projections provide colour / outline / contours of the Styrofoam diorama giving the city definition but the projection will also provide the hubub of a metropolis, movement:
- green parks, people throwing frisbees
- a blue river, boats crusing up and down
- people moving about the streets
- a full football stadium watching cricket
- helicopter with a search light flying overhead
- daytime / night time rhythm of the city
By Day By Night with Projected Detail
The viewer is presented with the colour, movement and definition of the city, some real, some stylised. The city has intrinsic interest with colour and movement but like life it’s a backdrop for the narrative.
THE NARRATIVE
There are 2 projectors used in this installtion, while the first projector maps out the city, the second projector presents a collage of video and stills: a narrative of a boy making his way through the city.
Entering the stylised diorama at the bottom of the projection/ installation we imagine he maybe lost, just new, or sensitive to the sites and sounds of the city.
Visually as the boy moves through the created metropolis there is a marked colour change in the surrounding environment: places / people / events. Colour leeches out becoming almost black and white, but certain events are highlighted and made bigger/ more colourful / different. This contrast with the unsaturated enviornment making them obvious and standing out. These super saturated / hyper real objects and events are what the boy (the narrator) is focusing on /seeing / thinking about. They represent his take on the city. His interpretation of things along the way maybe honest/ innocent / literal. What he sees are perhaps incidental trival things that most of us turn a blind eye / miss / ignore or just don’t see
There’s a million things going on in any city. Cities are sensory overload, all of us pick out and take in only certain select things while ignoring many things. It’s just not possible to see everything. This art piece is about the ideas of personal perspective, selectivity of senses and attention. We want viewers to be drawn into the boys world and ponder :
- There is so much happening in a city we would get ‘option fatigue’ if we weren’t so selective,
- Sifting our attention is a survival mechanism or else your brain would explode
- The link between persoanl perspective and the perceived environment.
- Perhaps this over stimulation and selective seeing contributes to our socities “dog eat dog world/each for their own” mentality.
Sound will be a small but important part of the installation. Ambient sound will reinforce key events like the:
- closing of a car door
- the knocking at a door
- the whir of a helicopter going past
- a distant police siren
- a snippet of conversation
Run time: approx 5 minutes 300 seconds
The installation is 6 metres across 4.5 high
Screen 1 (diorama) 2/3 : 4 metres wide
Screen 2 (close up) 1/3 : 2 metres wideA potential narrative:
Entry: A boy enters the city and walks down a street
Event 1
Cracks: He boy looks down and sees a crack in the pavement a hopscotch grid appears and the odd bug coming out of the crack
After this he sees cracks hopscotch and bugs everywhere, the city is taking over with his imaginings
Event 2
Rain: It starts to rain and the city fills with water, eventully flooding the streets (washing away the ants and chalk!) puddles remain
Puddles and reflections in puddles are everywhere, the city is taking over with his imaginings
Event 3
Car: A business man leans out of his car and abuses someone, is it another car, another pedestrian, a bike courier. it doesn’t really matter who the target is. After the incident the boy sees this hapenning everywhere it’s almost like the whole city is exposed as a seething mass of contorted drivers, the city is taking over with his imaginings
Viewers have the flexibility to follow the boy or just observe the hum drum of the city.
• an indication of your target audience and how you plan to engage them
Our target audience is anyone who enters the laneway and see the diorama, the installation will be at the entrance to Little Lonsdale Street so it will be seen by many people who commute along this street.
5 minute loops will see the story repeated through the night. The aesthetic of having the projection provide colour and outline on a model can be seen appreciated in a few seconds (for those in a rush) but we imagine people will be lured into the story and watch the complete loop. It will need to be viewed many times to appreciate the full narrative and catch all the detail.
Our audience is:
- randoms: people that are walking by and see the projection
- those aware of the installation through the CoM and other publicity
- the best sort: those who want to see it from word of mouth
- we also plan to promote and advertise the installation independently to attract peoplethrough our own art/personal social/ networks
We are confident he audience will be engaged through the novelty of the installation and then be drawn into the narrative.
• preliminary project drawings that indicate scope and spatial context of the work, including identification of the preferred site on a map
X marks the spot!
A digital mock up of the proposed installation
• details of proposed laneways and buildings
See Above for Laneway images
Finlay Lane is a dog legged laneway that already has a dense covering of permitted and illegal graffiti. it has a couple of sections where it’s enclosed making it suitable for outdoor projections without the threat of interferance from the weather and also ambient light
• in-principle agreement from relevant building owner(s)
Both the tennants and owner are extremely supportive of the idea. Geoff Kliger has a permit from the City of Melbourne to complete the entire Laneway with street art
• a brief description of how you intend to achieve the outcome
The polystyrene diarama will be planned and fabricated in our studio using a collection of new and recycled polystyrene. Easy to cut and mould we can quickly build a model of our city on a playboard stage. The layout and design of the city will take into account the planned narrative of the story.
The next stage is to digital draw over the model to create lines/ textures and contours. We will use a variety of technologies and equipment: photoshop, aftereffects, projectors, drawing tablets, computers
The callibration and alignment between the model and the projector (calibrating keystone zoom) will be fiddley and time consuming and we will build a specialised projector mount for fine adjustment
The projectors will be fed from a computer, power will be supplied by the building owner, as mentioned finlay lane has covered areas that make it fully protected form the weather and ambient light (good for projections!)
The sound design with be minimal but poignant, more like sounds effects from a play or radio show. As we’re playing the video back from a computer, the sound design can change for each loop adding an addition complexity and viewing nuance
Installation will be straight forward mounting the ply frame of the diorama on one wall and the projector mounts on the other. We will have the specification for the frame and fixings certified by an engineer. We already have existing Public Liability insurance
Once both are completed the diorama and projectors will be installed in the laneway for a period of three months (winter, early spring to make the most of the darkness)
Run time: approx 5 minutes 300 seconds (looped from dawn to dusk)
The intended scale is as large as practical, we can project 6 metres across and 2 metres high using 2 projectors
• details of proposed project team
David Short
David Short is a film maker who works with unseen spaces. His early sculptural works explored the dissection of the domestic environment by cutting household goods in half, exposing the unseen and the hidden. This theme was continued with the short experimental film Dissection in 2007, in which David was able to realise his dream by cutting an entire double story brick house in half. This film, funded by the Australian Film Commission, was co-directed and co-written by David under the banner of his production group and collective Isore, established in 2006.
Justin Schmidt
Justin is interested in ways of mixing art and technology, adding a sprinkling of social justice and a dash of commerce. He runs Horse Bazaar, a multi faceted business that has its fingers in lots of pies; producing Digital Fringe for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, hosting and developing a diverse range of art installations and developing new media delivery technologies. He is employed as an artist at the Artful dodgers Studios in Collingwood where he specialises in creating media art with young people using video compositing techniques (Green Screening and After Effects). He has a specific interest in outdoor projection and panoramic projection and loves dioramas having designed and built many over last ten years
Que Nguyen
Que Nguyen is a sound designer, composer and performer. She is interested in the use of voice within stereo/surround composition and live performance, with the intentions to playfully circumvent and subvert the usual associations voice has within music. As the co-founder of the Within Earshot collective and a member of West Space gallery’s “After Hours” committee, she has curated and organised numerous events such the “Tomorrow The World” festival, ‘Displacement’ for Liquid Architecture 9 and ‘Interplay’, showcasing collaborations between established and emerging sound artists. Various forms of her work ranging from solo, collaboration to sound design has been presented at Liquid Architecture, Next Wave Festival, ACMI, MIAF, MIFF, West Space Gallery and Conical Gallery.
All three artists have extensive contacts in all required professions and knowledge bases (or know how to get them)
• details of relevant recent work and curriculum vitae including highlights for key creative personnel
David Short
David’s early sculptural works explored the dissection of the domestic environment by cutting household goods in half, exposing the unseen and the hidden. This theme was continued with the short experimental film Dissection in 2007, in which David was able to realise his dream by cutting an entire double story brick house in half. This film, funded by the Australian Film Commission, was co-directed and co-written by David under the banner of his production group and collective Isore, established in 2006.
In May 2008 David embarked on a project “Land Inspection Now Open” for Next Wave Festival 2008. From 99 suburbs across Melbourne, David collected 99 samples of land, which were extracted, valued, individually packaged then sold. Land Inspection Now Open was an exhibition project that employed methods of sampling, land categorization and mapping to illuminate and dissect the concepts of land ownership and value.
In 2009 David ventured further into film by writing, directing and producing two short films; Left From Right and Unearthed. Both of these films dealt with concepts of magical realism the absurd and unseen spaces.
Film
October 09 Unearthed Short Film Melbourne Director/Writer
November 08 Left from Right Short Film Melbourne Director/ Writer
February 08 Dissection Short Film Melbourne AFC funded experimental short film. Co writer, production and design. MIFF 2008
Exhibition
June 09 Media militia, Group Screening, Horse Bazaar, Melbourne, Victoria
March 09 Trepidation: I Report concern, Group Screening, The Library Artspace, Fitzroy Vctoria
December 08 Lines of Travel, Group Exhibition, Noam Chompsky Lounge, Brisbane Queensland
May 08 Land Inspection Now Open, Solo Exhbition Next Wave Festival, Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy Victoria
Justin Schmidt
Justin has been working with immersive multiple screened projection environments for over 4 years. He has also co-created an open access digital arts festival, Digital Fringe, that promotes screen based art in public spaces. Through Horse Bazaar he is experienced in curating, producing and delivering large scale events, working in public space and managing teams of people. Justin has conceived, built and developed Horse Bazaar’s technical aesthetic and cultural direction and enjoys breaking the standard 4:3 video foramt. He is employed by the Artful Dodgers: Working with young artists to produce a website artfuldodgers.tv to promote their art practice and sell their works and well as working as a studio artist
2010
Screening a panoramic video piece on the Signal screens at Northbank (compiled and produced as a part of the Artful dodgers Studios)
2009
Digital Fringe: digitalfringe.com.au
Design and install exhibition at Signal Youth art space
Short Listed for the inaugural Signal Commission (City of Melbourne Commission)
2008
Mobile Projection Walk: Urban Screen Conference Melbourne 2008
MIFF queue projections
MPU : Mobile Projection Unit as a part of Digital Fringe
Horse Bazaar Screens: curating and content making
Graffiti Research Lab Masterclass – Adelaide International Arts Festival
Master Class Urban Screen Conference USM08 Melbourne
2007
Avatar, a VicHealth funded program put together by Victoria University as a part of a large project to look into young people’s interactions and communications with technology
ANAT: Still/Open workshop, Melbourne
Que Nguyen Sound CV
2010· Artstart Grant Recipient Australia Council
2009· Funding Panel Convener , RMIT Union Arts / Member of the ‘After Hours’ Committee , West Space Gallery / Director Within Earshot Collective (August onwards) /· Part-Organiser/Part-Curator/Performing Artist , “Tomorrow the World Festival” , West Space Gallery / Contributing Artist “10 Transforming Youths” Philip Brophy Installation , Melbourne International Arts Festival , Signal /· Organiser/Curator/Performing Artist , Solo 8-Channel Performance , “Audible Buffet”, Horse Bazaar / Performing Artist/Production Manager “Low Set” Solo Quad Performance Liquid Architecture 10, Eckersley Project Space / Contributing Artist “Math Anomaly” Surround Sound Listening Concert , Liquid Architecture 10 , Melbourne Planetarium
2008 Director Within Earshot Collective / Member of the ‘After Hours’ Committee, West Space / Organiser/Curator/Performing Artist “Interplay” Collaborative Quad Concert b/w emerging / acclaimed sound artists Duet with Natasha Anderson, Horti Hall / Organiser/Curator “Multiple Mono” ‘Multi’ amplified/acoustic concert, First Site Gallery / Organiser/Curator “Within Earshot Residency” Spatial-Sound Installations, First Site Gallery / Organiser/Curator/Performing Artist “Displacement” Solo Quadraphonic performance. Liquid Architecture 9 City Watch House, Old Melb Gaol / Sound Designer “Dissection” Directed by Callum Cooper & David Short. AFC Strand X funded short film MIFF Premier