STEPHEN PAVLOVIC UNVEILS HIS PROGRAM FOR VIVID LIVE  AT SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 2011 MAY 27 – JUNE 5

2manydjs  / ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI /  THE AVALANCHES DJs /  AZARI & III / BAT FOR LASHES / CHRIS CUNNINGHAM /  CLUB KOOKY  / THE CRYSTAL ARK /  CUT COPY /  DOM / HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE /  LEAVE THEM ALL BEHIND /  OFWGKTA /  SNEAKY SUNDAY / SONNY ROLLINS  SPIRITUALIZED: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE ARE FLOATING IN SPACE /  TAME IMPALA / TOM KUNTZ  / WU LYF /  YO GABBA GABBA! /  CANYONS / THE SWISS / BENI / VAN SHE / FLIGHT FACILITIES / SOFTWAR /  BAMBOO MUSIK / CHANGES / BAG RAIDERS

Sydney Opera House today announced the program for Vivid LIVE 2011, curated by Stephen Pavlovic of Modular.
Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House (May 27 – June 5) is part of Vivid Sydney (May 27 – June 13), the city’s annual festival of light, music and ideas.  Vivid LIVE celebrates Sydney as a leader in the field of the creative and cultural industries both nationally and throughout the region.

Each year, Vivid LIVE asks a different artist or individual to curate a program of events in and around the world’s most iconic venue.
Following Brian Eno’s debut festival in 2009, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson brought their unforgettable downtown New York vibe to Sydney in 2010.  This year local music industry legend Stephen ‘Pav’ Pavlovic, founder of the hugely successful Sydney-based record label, touring company and international brand Modular, brings fresh Australian eyes to this growing international festival.

Sydney Opera House Head of Music, Fergus Linehan says, “Working to realise Stephen Pavlovic’s Vivid LIVE program has been an exhilarating ride for all of us at Sydney Opera House.  Pav is meticulous, tenacious and fearless in his approach and while his season is host to countless artists who are outstanding in their own right, this is a festival that can only be fully understood in its entirety.  It has also been an honour to work with our colleagues at Events NSW to build a festival which we hope will have real meaning for the people of NSW, draw visitors to the city and celebrate the creative powerhouse that our state has become.”

See the full program here

Images R-L: Karim Rashid designs at the RG Madden stand, Modula fir treet at the Büro North stand, Glow in the dark Zip Zips at the Zip Zips stand.

Melbourne’s original pop up design market continues to be the place for style hunters to gather, be inspired and shop.

Since 2005 the Melbourne Design Market has been popping up twice a year for ONE DAY ONLY and transforming Fed Square’s underground car park into designland.

On Sunday December 5, 2010 there’ll again be a diverse collection of over 50 exhibitors from small design brands just launching to well-known and much-loved brands all showcasing their latest and greatest. Plus the cool sounds of DJ Madee River, fine fair-trade barista coffee from Bean Ground and Drunk and fantastic paella from the Beer de Luxe on-site kitchen all add to the party atmosphere.

So come along, experience Melbourne’s best design market and you can even knock over your Christmas gift buying in just one day.

MELBOURNE DESIGN MARKET 10am-5pm, Sunday December 5 at Federation Square undercover car park.

Enter via Russell Street extension or Riverside Walk.
Disabled parking and facilities nearby.
Entry is free.

More info here

Just a couple of our favourite acts were…

Tomorrow, In A Year

Tomorrow, In a Year, Photography by Claudi Thyrrestrup

The beauty of Hotel Pro Forma’s striking visuals accompanied by Scandinavian electro-pop masters The Knife’s extravagent soundtrack provided a modern exploration of what opera can be pushed to be. The use of lasers, smoke machines and video all added to the exciting and unique atmosphere of which consumed the audience throughout the performance.
Directed by Ralf Richardt Strøbech and Kirsten Dehlholm, the performance creates an experience of Charles Darwin’s travels, inspired by his perception of nature and time. We are shown “our image of the world as a place of incredible variation, similarity and unity is re-discovered in this revolutionary electronic feast for the senses”.

John Cale – Noises in My Head

To spend an evening with John Cale to hear him speak about his musical career in a youth orchestra in Wales; writing his first composition in primary school; developing a penchant for avantgarde at a London art college; being guided to New York by the hand of Aaron Copland and John Cage; honing in his signature drone palate at the feet of LaMonte Young and then begin his underground noise bending attack on rock and roll from The Velvet Underground to his current genre-bending music: we felt more than privileged. Of course, by the end we wished there was much more time sit and listen to the man who has created some of the most beautiful chaos in music.

Boredoms – BOARDRUM

Boredoms (Japan), have become known for their “noice, chaos, tribal experimentation, remixing, trance-inducing feats of rythmic intensity, line-up changes, collaborations, and doing whatever they want regardless of trends and fashion”. Since 2007, Boredoms have performed their BOARDRUM set annualy. On the 7/7/2007 they had 77 drummers play together, on the 8/8/2008 it was 88 and last year on the 9/9/2009 it was 9. Boredoms featured 10 drummers for the 10/10/10 show, plus a guitarist and Bordeoms’ ringleader EYE playing two seven-necked guitar mutations.

More information on the Melbourne International Arts Festival 2010 here

The Melbourne Design Market is a one of its kind event that continues to be the place to be and be seen. For stallholders it provides the opportunity to get your new products and ideas out to over 10,000 stylehunters in just one day. Since 2005 the Melbourne Design Market has been popping up twice a year and transforming the Federation Square Car Park into a design show presenting some of this country’s greatest creative enterprises.

For shoppers the Melbourne Design Market is the place to see a fantastic array of merchandise, acquire the latest must-have pieces and enjoy the party-like atmosphere. For successful stallholders it’s a day of sales, orders, and most of all, meeting new clients and receiving valuable feedback on your business.

Do you have a new product or idea that you want to get to the people who’ll appreciate it? Then go to www.melbournedesignmarket.com.au now to look through the FAQs and make your application.

Distinguishing the Melbourne Design Market from all others is a rigorous selection procedure for prospective stallholders to ensure the quality and diversity of the products on offer. Given that it’s such a successful forum to launch new products, the market receives many more applications than can possibly be accepted.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE 5PM FRIDAY October 15, 2010

More information here

Sinead O’Connor, John Cale, Robert Lepage, Jack Charles, Hotel Pro Forma, Michael Clark Company, Thomas Adès, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Akram Khan Company, The Black Arm Band & Beck’s Festival Bar

The 25th Melbourne Festival, and the second under the artistic direction of Brett Sheehy, announces a dynamic and emotive program of work from some of the finest creative minds of our times. Over 16 days, from 8 to 23 October, the Festival presents an unparalleled feast of music, dance, theatre, opera, visual arts, multimedia and outdoor events from renowned and upcoming Australian and international companies and artists.

Festival highlights this year include free outdoor aerial spectacular K@osmos; Hotel Pro Forma’s awe inspiring, large-scale operatic spectacle, Tomorrow, in a year, featuring the groundbreaking music of electro-pop masters The Knife; world renowned recording artists Sinead O’Connor (in her exclusive Australian performance), John Cale and Meshell Ndegeocello; one of Australia’s most highly regarded performers in his one-man show, Jack Charles V The Crown; the residency of British composer, Thomas Adès, the most inventive contemporary composer of his generation. As part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival: Beck’s Festival Bar at the Forum Theatre, will be featuring some intriguing acts: Boredoms (Japan), Low (USA), Ponzu Island (Australia), The Drones (Australia), Dead Meadow (USA) and more.

Boredoms

Ponzu Island

The Festival features two Australian premieres. come, been and gone, the bold new dance work from the world renowned Michael Clark Company featuring the music of the legendary David Bowie with Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Brian Eno and internationally revered director, film maker and actor Robert Lepage’s  magical journey to modern China with The Blue Dragon, a heart-wrenching love story told with Lepage’s trademark striking theatrical vision.

Come, Been and Gone, Simon Williams, Photography: Jake Walters

The Festival closes with a one-off spectacular finale, Seven Songs to Leave Behind, a unique concert featuring international music legends Sinead O’Connor, John Cale, Meshell Ndegeocello and Rickie Lee Jones, with award winning Indigenous artist Gurrumul Yunupingu and festival favourites Black Arm Band and Orchestra Victoria at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Oct 23.

For more info see the festival site here

Disco Chair by KIWI&POM – Photography: Jon Tonks

Commissioned by Wallpaper* Magazine, the ‘Disco Chair’ is a bespoke one-off illuminated furniture concept. Constructed from 200 linear metres of illuminated wire, the chair transforms into a neon rainbow when powered. A pulse setting enables the chair to flash on and off creating an instant disco installation making it the perfect accessory to any home disco.

The concept behind the Disco Chair was to create a dual function object - an item that would look normal in the domestic setting by but come to life at night. The wire bands of colour are reminiscent of a 1970s disco typeface made up of continuous offset lines.

The chair is constructed from a steel frame with an Electroluminescent wire (EL wire) woven seat. EL wire is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an current is applied. Because EL wire is incredibly energy efficiency and produces no heat, KIWI&POM chose it as the perfect lighting medium.

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KIWI&POM are a London based design consultancy, who formed in 2008. From products to furniture and interior architecture, they believe the value of design is the ‘human experience’ it provokes.

See more of their work here

Solar Equation, The Light in Winter, by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

The Light in Winter program was launched on 4th June with the spectacular unveiling of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s world premiere large–scale commission, Solar Equation. A large crowd witnessed the emergence of a new public artwork as five-year-old Tehani Cross from the local Tuvalu and Kiribati community switched on the installation to have the sun rise in an uncanny spectacle.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work is respected by art cognoscenti from all corners of the globe and his first major work in Australia, which was specially commissioned for The Light in Winter, proved a stunning accomplishment that is set to hover over Fed Square until 4 July.

A faithful three dimensional simulation of the sun roughly the size of the Flinders Street Station dome yet 100 million times smaller than the real thing, Solar Equation highlights the beauty and complexity of solar behaviour as recorded by recent astronomical observations. This project seeks to provide a platform for discussion about environmental issues such as drought, conservation and global warming, while presenting a poetic and mysterious backdrop. Solar Equation features solar animations projected on to the world’s largest custom-built spherical balloon
generated by live mathematical equations that simulate the turbulence, flares and sunspots on the sun’s surface. These animations produce a constantly changing display that never repeats itself and can be manipulated with a free downloadable application that can be used on iphones, ipads and the ipod touch to control movements in real time.

Directed by Robyn Archer, The Light in Winter is a month-long celebration of light, enlightenment and shared cultural experiences, with a free program of concerts, film screenings, light-based artworks, exhibitions, forums and the much-loved Solstice Celebration on 19 June.

The Light in Winter
4 June – 4 July
Federation Square, Melbourne
Free
Visit here for more

Maxims of Behaviour - Alexander Knox

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Illuminating Melbourne
The Royal Mail House is very 1960s style architecture. By day, its design seems strongly prescriptive of sixties’ architectural maxims. But from dusk till late during winter 2008 until 15 September, the Royal Mail changes its colours, literally. The Royal Mail’s facade ‘comes alive’ with Alexander Knox’s kinetic light design entitled Maxims of Behaviour. Mounted upon protruding ledges, each light acts as a pixel. The imagery which moves across the face of the building is produced from abstracted video footage of the city’s light, colour and movement.

Phantasmagoria
Knox is particularly interested in mythical and spiritual values. Knox also found further inspiration for the title of this work from the poem, Phantasmagoria by Lewis Carroll, where a male human is visited by a little phantom. A conversation ensues, and the little ghost explains to his human acquaintance ‘The Five Rules of Etiquette’. Like humans, ghosts apparently respect a heirarchical pecking order, and observe strict rules of etiquette. The little ghost also comments insightfully about common ground with humans:

‘ …Ghosts have just as good a right
In every way, to fear the light,
As Men to fear the dark. ‘

from Phantasmagoria, Canto 1, The Trystyng, Verse 7, in Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll

The artist
Alexander Knox’s huge kinetic light work contains 88 multi-coloured LED lights which run on green power, have a life span of 100,000 hours, and are very low maintenance. Each night, the average energy consumption is equivalent to running a 2400W small electric heater.

Alexander Knox studied Public Art at RMIT. He is a Melbourne-based artist who uses a combination of lighting, optics, audio, kinetic and formal elements in his work. He has a background in film and industrial design. Winner of the 2006 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award at Werribee Park, he has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. His residency in Bangkok’s New Multi-Disciplinary Art Venue produced a large sound and light work entitled ‘Little God’, based on ancient geometries. He has recently been commissioned to design two major works for Melbourne’s Docklands.

- Anne Paterson

The City of Melbourne: Illuminating Melbourne
Maxims of behaviour, a kinetic light work, 1030m2
Alexander Knox
Where: The Royal Mail House building on the eastern corner of the Bourke and Swanston Streets intersection
When: Visible every night from dusk till late, during winter every year until 2012.

This artwork is visible Monday-Thursday, sunset till 12 midnight, and Friday-Sunday, sunset till approximately 2am, closing 15 September 2008.

Further information: The City of Melbourne website

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Lighting Design
Associate Lighting Designer, Richard Pacholski, began his career in lighting at the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust and toured with the Australian Ballet. He then joined Cameron Mackintosh Australia in late eighties and over the next decade toured extensively on their productions of Les Miserables, Rent, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Five Guys Named Moe, and Miss Saigon. Pacholski now operates his own company r2 design + production, and works freelance for productions staged all over the world. He explains to DGDN how he produced the lighting design for the new production of Miss Saigon in Australia after being handed the creative reins by original lighting designer David Hersey.

DGDN: You’ve worked on a number of significant productions in (especially) Australia and South Korea. It must be a huge job to design and organise the lighting for such big shows. What does the process involve and how do you go about beginning such a task?

Pacholski: Most of my work requires me to take the role of associate designer of these shows. The original lighting designer – in Miss Saigon’s case David Hersey from London ¬- does his work on the first few productions and then hands things over to an associate. David would then move on to light other shows while associates carry on with the previous show. This needs to happen as the one show might multiply across the world quickly and he cannot be everywhere.
It is a huge undertaking to design and organise a show like Miss Saigon. A large amount of time is consumed in the pre-production period before we even set foot on stage. Then it’s a long haul once we are in the theatre. 14-hour days are the norm and days off are rare.

The process normally starts with much collaboration between lighting designer, director and set designer and often the producer as well. These meetings will normally give the show its direction in the form of scene structure, a set design, and the beginnings of a lighting design. Following from that, a set design might get signed off on and that then gives the lighting designer a clearer set of constraints to work within. The lighting designer would then draw up a design based on types of lights and their placement in the theatre. Then comes the creation of a cue synopsis, which is a written guide to cue points and “looks” of the lighting. The designer normally builds on this process by observing rehearsals of the production with the director. From the final design, a list of equipment is sourced and into the theatre we go. Once rigged, we then focus each light individually and then start lighting scene by scene. Each scene consists of a series of cues or “looks” which we store in a computerised lighting console. Next, the cast arrive and rehearsals start onstage. We continue to use this time to build on the all the cues. All this continues until 2 minutes before opening night when we all nervously sit and hope all looks good and nothing goes wrong!

DGDN: Of the members in the crew, who would you work most closely with in terms of direction? When does the lighting aspect fit within the whole process?

Pacholski: Well, in terms of direction, the director is the most important person on the team without doubt. You need to converse constantly with him in terms of the style and look of the show. Other people in the crew whom are important to work with are the Technical Director and the Head Electrician, so [that] I can get what I want.

DGDN: For this particular production of Miss Saigon, which is set in both Saigon (Vietnam) and Bangkok (Thailand), what aspects come into play when designing the lighting needs? What sort of effects did you design to convey the different physical and cultural aspects of these cities?

Pacholski: The aspects that come into play with lighting this production are a feel of the location, whether that’s based on landscape, elements of the environment or just that “feel” you get from being somewhere different. Somehow you need to help convey that. That might be through the angle of the lighting, the colors you use, or special lighting effects. The array of lights on the market now is vast and you choose each one based on its features. By using those features you create that feel. For the Bangkok scenes for instance we recreate a sleazy street scene: lots of color, shafts of light, smoke, festoons, [and] lit-up sign boxes. Other times it might be an intimate indoor scene, [with] low light levels, warm skin tones [and] maybe a slow sunrise in the background.

DGDN: As an overall effect, what sorts of features need to be considered in terms of lighting?

Pacholski: The most important effect or feel, is to convey to the audience the emotion of the scene: the combination of actors, set, costumes, music & lighting all add to that. For some scenes the lighting might have the strongest influence on the emotion, at others times it might be another department, but we all combine to take the audience there.

DGDN: What sorts of budgeting requirements need to be considered for a commercial production such as Miss Saigon?

Pacholski: Budget plays a huge role these days in commercial productions like Miss Saigon. It’s an expensive show to stage and it takes a successful tour for it to be become financially viable. The show has a large cast & crew, lots of scenery and costumes and many trucks to move from city to city. Not only do we need to get the lighting equipment on budget, we also need to tour efficiently. That might be in the way we pack the equipment and how quickly we can move and set up in a new city. Any wasted time means wasted money.

DGDN: How does Miss Saigon compare to other productions you have worked on in terms of difficulty?

Pacholski: This one is complicated as the mood and location shifts many times during the whole show. We need a large mixed amount of lighting tools to deal with it. We have vast array of quite different fixtures in the lighting rig. The workhorses of the rig are the automated lights and each type we use has quite different features. This helps give us a large array of ways to light a scene: it may be the look of the beam of light, what we can do with that beam, the saturation of the color in the beam, and the effect we can introduce to the beam. All the different types combine to create the lighting for a scene.

Sound Design
Peter Grubb is one of a select few of sound designers internationally who are commissioned to provide sound designs for productions with the Cameron Mackintosh Organisation, the most recent of which is the Australian production of Miss Saigon. He joined System Sound as an operator in 1981, and now as Sound Supervisor for the company his credits include We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!, Cats, Les Miserables, Rent, and the original Sydney production of Miss Saigon in 1995. In 2001 Grubb received the Victorian Green Room Association’s Award for Technical Achievement. He tells DGDN how he meets the challenges of designing sound for a touring production such as Miss Saigon.

DGDN: You have designed the sound for touring productions around the USA, as well as productions in Japan, South Africa, Beirut, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, New Zealand and Australia. What does sound design entail and how does the process begin?

Grubb: To me, the first and most important area of a sound design for musical theatre is to make the vocal quality as natural as possible so that the audience does not notice the sound system. I want them to feel that all voice is coming from the performer; with the amount of “live” voice heard, the equalisation and balance of the speakers must be spot on! In a venue of over two thousand seats with speakers placed at least 6 metres from centre stage this can be quite a juggle.

Next I will look at how best to place speakers to enable an even coverage of the entire theatre. This must be in conjunction with the set designers to ensure the required “look” of the show is maintained.

With most productions I will attend meetings with the Director, Musical Director, Producers and at times Writers to discuss aspects of the piece that will include cast size, orchestra size, sound effects and style of the piece. This will enable me to provide a system with enough power and coverage for the job.

DGDN: What does ‘sound’ incorporate, and when is ‘sound’ taken into account in the overall scheme of putting on a production?

Grubb: Very early on in the design process I will spend time with the set designers to try and incorporate the main speaker and effects speaker systems into the Proscenium design elements. This enables us to “hide” speakers, [which is] something I will always attempt. I personally prefer not to have the speakers in view for the audience; I like the idea of them looking at the set and the performers, not a bunch of speakers and lights!

DGDN: What is involved in the process of designing sound for a production such as Miss Saigon? What sorts of factors need to be taken into consideration?

Grubb: The main difference for Miss Saigon is that there is a huge percussion set-up with lots of very loud Asian cymbals and gongs. Because these instruments need to be played hard to get their full sound they can be deafening to [the players] themselves, other orchestra members and the audience. For this reason we have placed them under the stage and carefully placed microphones on each instrument. The players [even] wear protective headphones!

We also spend a lot of time placing sound effects speakers in the auditorium for Miss Saigon’s famous helicopter scene. These speakers must be placed and programmed to give the audience the feel of a Huey flying in low over their heads. Actually one of the helicopter sound effects opens the show.

DGDN: How are you affected by budgeting requirements for a production of this kind?

Grubb: With any large scale production you could really go over the top with the sound system, but alas there are always budget constraints. Too big a system also means that it can be too slow to set up and pack down. One big issue with budgets is the number and quality of performer radio microphone system we use. As we are always attempting [to have] perfect sound and every line as clear as possible we often use over a quarter of the budget on these items.

DGDN: Are there different sound requirements for different venues? How is this considered when undertaking a touring production such as Miss Saigon?

Grubb: With the different size venues we will perform in during the Saigon tour consideration must be given to the number of speakers used and their placement, which at times can lead to hot debate between the sound, lighting and set departments for the best positions. Luckily the team we have on Miss Saigon are all good friends.

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