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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Spatio-temporal Anomalies, Spatial Distortion and the Persistence of Vision

I recently worked with circuit bending artist Nick Wishart on a project for the Underbelly Arts Festival

http://underbellyarts.com.au/2011/artists/

Here is the blurb from the Underbelly site:


" Spatio-temporal Anomalies, Spatial Distortion and the Persistence of Vision will take your favourite household appliances and throw-away objects and turn them into something quite unexpected. In a collaborative first for the two artists, this project seeks to challenge our understanding of what it means to use an object and how its environment effects its use.

Nick Wishart is a Sydney-based installation and sound artist, and one third of electronic toy band Toydeath. Video, film and installation artist FMGrande likes to make work that focuses on fascination in the mundane. "

The project is an ongoing exploration of "objects and their relation to space"... this is an underlying theme of my current PhD studies at the College of Fine Arts Sydney... I am looking at the complexities of spatio-temporal relations... the way our perception - physical and formative/ educational - effect/affect the way we actually see / feel / hear / smell and understand the spaces we inhabit...

We are currently working on a website, its still under construction but will soon be online at:

http://spatio-temporal-anomalies.com/

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

A Film I Directed For My Masters Project in 2007

Thoughts and Public Spaces is an experimental documentary I made as the major project towards my MASTERS in Media Arts and Production at the University of Technology Sydney in 2007. It looks at the act of thinking and the places where this act occurs, focussing on public places associated with travel. The audio was cut back from hours of interviews and atmospheric sound recorded over a one year period, the soundtrack was recorded live at UTS using Pro Tools, featuring musicians Stefan Day, Benny Bongo and myself (see the credits of the film for a full list of credits) The interviews were recorded in the studio and in various locations around Sydney, Australia. The interviewees were mostly friends and family, but also a few random people on the street. They include interviews with people intended to reflect the diversity of cultures found in Australia. I asked people about their dreams and aspirations. Interestingly most peoples dreams (that they could remember anyway) were nightmares or anxiety dreams. A reflection on the modern condition, or maybe a common link amongst the 25-70 yr demographic? I hope to expand the project in the future to include interviews from different countries and cultures in different parts of the world. To this end I filmed a trip I made a few years ago with my partner to South America, the US, Spain and Japan. I will post new artworks using this footage soon.

I WILL UPLOAD THE FILM ASAP

Thoughts and Public Spaces from FMGrande on Vimeo.