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

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

During September in select cinemas around Australia, Madman presents REEL ANIME 2010, showcasing five of the freshest anime feature films this side of Tokyo.

Following the sold-out success of the 2008 Showcase, which featured ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’ and ‘Appleseed: Ex Machina’, this latest crop of films has something for everyone: from the rebuild of the Evangelion universe, ‘Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance’ and ‘Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone’; the masterful storytelling of ‘Summer Wars’ (from the director of ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’); the adrenaline fueled ‘Redline’; and the thrilling ‘King Of Thorn’.

Summer Wars, Reel Anime 2010

Redline, Reel Anime 2010

King Thorn, Reel Anime 2010

Evangelion: You Can [Not] Advance, Reel Anime 2010

See more at Madman

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, in association with the Goethe-Institut, presents - Berlin on Film
Thursday 4 November – Monday 8 November 2010

To coincide with the Berlin Dayz cultural festival and the twentieth anniversary of the reunification of Germany, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) presents a program of films devoted to the country’s capital in Berlin on Film this November.

Berlin has a unique rhythm which infuses its architecture, its culture and its citizens. This filmic celebration of the historical city brings together six documentaries; from the challenges of a country divided, to the process of reunification and the infinite possibilities of a Berlin without borders.

ACMI Film Programmer Kristy Matheson, with the assistance of the Goethe-Institut, has composed a program which reminds us of the challenges Berliners overcame and the sense of euphoria of reunification. “With a remarkable and catastrophic history, Berlin has played many roles throughout the 20th century, emerging in the new millennium as one of the world’s most fascinating and enduring cities,” she said.

The program opens with Rhythm Is It (2004), directed by Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch, which intertwines music and contemporary dance in an ambitious project by Conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic, choreographer Royston Maldoom and 250 young Berliners from disparate ages and backgrounds. Their performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is a joyous and inspired tale of triumph over adversity. The screening precedes the Berlin Philharmonic’s visit to Australia this November.

Rhythm Is It (2004), ACMI: Berlin on Film 2010

Former East German model turned director Marco Wilms presents an exciting portrait of youth in revolt and subversive creativity in East Berlin in Comrade Couture (2009). Inspired by new wave and punk fashions from the West, East Berliners took to crafting their own fashions – turning their limited materials to an advantage and parading avant-garde creations made from plastic, bed sheets and disused medical supplies. As one of East Germany’s most daring stylists, Frank Schäfer, puts it in the film; “A tiger in a cage is much wilder than a tiger that is free to roam.” Drawing on personal memories, interviews and extensive archival research, Wilms offers a unique view of this heady artistic outpouring under ever watchful Stasi eyes.

Wilms’ earlier Berlin Vortex (2003) taps into the wave of euphoria among youth in the Eastern block prompted by the reunification of Germany in 1989. With the wall down and capitalism still at bay, young Berliners occupied empty residences and began preparing for their futures bringing change through art and social programs. Featuring celebrated choreographer Sasha Waltz, Jochen Sandig, Christian Lorenz of ‘Rammstein’ fame, social workers and still struggling artists, Wilms’ discovery of what became of five citizens and their utopian dreams for the new Berlin is as fascinating and diverse as the city itself.

The director of Comrade Couture and Berlin Vortex, Wilms will be in Melbourne for the season.

Scored by Einstürzende Neubauten and featuring internationally acclaimed architects, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and I.M. Pei, Berlin Babylon (2001) offers a rare glimpse into an international city, under construction. In a post-wall era, Berlin found itself as a metropolis in great need of physical change to fully realise the promise of reunification and to repair the destruction the 20th century had wreaked upon it. With its astonishing aerial photography and subtle verite style, Hubertus Siegert’s film has a dreamlike quality that allows the viewer to float above and wander through of one of the world’s great cities as it transitions into the future.

A heartfelt declaration of love to a city and its people, In Berlin (2009) traces the changes that have taken place in the twenty years since the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Featuring a vast array of Berliners including, actor Angela Winkler, Alex Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten, architects, fashion designers, performers and store owners, long term Scorsese cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and co-director Ciro Cappellari have crafted a visually stunning and engaging portrait of one of the world’s most lively and creative hubs.

In Berlin, Rhythm Is It, Berlin Babylon and special guest director Wilms’ films Comrade Couture and Berlin Vortex, will all be introduced by Berlin-based film critic and radio journalist, Carsten Beyer.

The bustling streets of 1920’s Berlin are writ-large in the entrancing Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt) (1927). Like other famous ‘city films’ such as Man With the Movie Camera, director Walter Ruttmann’s portrait of Berlin is a dynamic mix of man and machine, social norms and daily life, a captivating vision of Berlin between the wars. This black and white silent treasure will enjoy a free screening on the big screen in Melbourne’s Federation Square.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt) (1927), ACMI: Berlin on Film 2010

Berlin on Film is programmed as part of Berlin Dayz, the German-Australian Festival coordinated by the Goethe-Insitut in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Germany’s reunification. Berlin Dayz events will be held across Australia throughout October and November to coincide with the official Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) on 3 October, this year being hosted by Bremen in the country’s North West. Operating from its Melbourne base, Berlin Dayz events are designed as a dialogue between two cultural capitals: Berlin and Melbourne.

Berlin on Film will screen at ACMI from Thursday 4 to Monday 8 November, 2010
More here

Semi‐Permanent a celebration of all things art and design is back in 2010 to inspire Melbourne’s thriving creative community yet again. While some may think it’s the forum where design nerds gather to fight against the evils of Comic Sans, Semi‐Permanent offers an eye‐opening insight into the broad streams of design, and where those varying crafts can take you.
Designed to inspire and educate, renowned artists and specialists in their field will come together at the Melbourne Convention Centre on Friday 17 September and Saturday 18 September to share their knowledge and passion for their work. Semi‐Permanent Melbourne 2010 boasts a line‐up of 12 speakers including newly announced Simon Allen from Academy Award winning animators Pixar, photographer Claire Martin, Art Director for Girl Skateboards Andy Jenkins, UK post production house Framestore, Melbourne based visual artist Leif Podhajsky and creative agency and artists representatives Big Active.

Buck, Semi-Permanent 2010

Brought to life by Sydney’s Design is Kinky, Semi‐Permanent is a conference which unites exceptionally talented artists and designers to speak at a conference which sits within a broader program of side events including exhibitions, workshops and parties. “It’s not only our speakers that make the event special. It’s the atmosphere and spirit that the audience brings with them,” said Design is Kinky’s Andrew Johnstone. “It’s a casual atmosphere where new friends are made and new colleagues discovered. It’s this that sets Semi‐Permanent apart from other conferences, a shared feeling that you belong to a community.”

Now in its eighth year and with 22 conferences under it’s designer belt, Semi‐Permanent is the internationally acclaimed conference of its kind, year on year, proving an exciting line‐up of talented speakers spanning the art, film, motion graphics, illustration, photography, and visual effects disciplines.

Framestore, Semi-Permanent 2010

Semi‐Permanent is on at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday 17 September and Saturday 18 September 2010. The official program is yet to be released but for regular updates and tickets check here

Video for Björk‘s Wanderlust (directed by Encyclopedia Pictura), even more spectacular in 3D. Watch it here.

New interactive music video for ‘Neon Bible’ by Canadian band Arcade Fire, directed by Vincent Morisset. Users can click and drag images to control the movement of singer Win Butler’s head and hands, as well as discover other ‘Easter Egg’ like clickable hidden features. http://www.beonlineb.com

Emily Gobeille is an art director and designer currently working in the motion graphics industry. Her recent project, ‘Funky Forest’ is a immediately engaging, interactive and brightly-coloured experience.

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Body Language – still frame

Emily Gobeille is an art director and designer currently working in the motion graphics industry. Her recent project, ‘Funky Forest’ is a immediately engaging, interactive and brightly-coloured experience. Kate McCurdy spoke with Emily to learn about the artist’s drive and passion for designing for children.

Autumnal beginnings
Emily grew up in a small town in Connecticut, among lots of cows, cornfields and apple orchards. She recalls that ‘growing up in New England where the seasons change in a very definite and visual way fostered my love for every bit of design in nature – and also my love of cranberry juice.’
In 1996 Emily moved to Boston where she received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in graphic and interaction design. At MassArt, an institution known for their solid design program, she learned the fundamentals such as design principles, colour theory, and typography. After graduating she worked for three years as a print and interactive designer with companies including Razorfish and Big Blue Dot, a studio specialising in design for children. Keen to work on her own projects again, Emily moved to New York to attend the Design and Technology MFA program at Parson’s School of Design. At Parsons she was able to focus on designing interactive systems within a narrative context and also found a love for motion graphics.

Thesis project – Walking sequence board

Thesis project
As part of her MFA, Emily completed a thesis project using the DVD as a medium for interactivity in order to make education for children fun.
The goal of her thesis project was to create a narrative experience for children aged 3-5 that was entertaining, provided an opportunity for autonomous choice-making and was a platform for learning.
‘I developed an interactive DVD fable called The Best Fort Ever. The overarching story is about the character’s quest to find the Great Inventor. The project’s main story is broken down into smaller sub-story sequences, each containing its own lesson, connected by the branching narrative thread. These smaller chunks were more manageable for young children’s attention span and also allow for changes in tempo, interaction and style.’
For this project Emily wrote a branching narrative, built the puppet characters, shot them on greenscreen and then composited them into her animated designs.
The illustrations in children’s literature were a major inspiration for this project.
‘I wanted to create visual worlds that were memorable and captivating. The variety of visual treatments also function as cues for the user in the story and for pacing purposes.’
In this sense, the DVD seemed the perfect medium for Emily’s thesis project. She felt that its potential for interactivity had not yet been exploited. The greatest advantages of the DVD were that as a medium it is familiar and accessible to children without requiring adult supervision, as well as being able to support rich audio and graphics without any load time.

Funky Forest
The ‘Funky Forest’ was produced as a collaborative project with Theodore Watson. Emily and Theodore created an immersive, interactive ecosystem where children manage a virtual forest by creating trees with their bodies, and then divert and dam water flowing from the digital waterfall to feed the forest. The types of sounds and creatures that inhabit the forest depend on the amount of water the forest receives. Their goal was to create an open system that would allow children to play and see how their actions affect the ecosystem.
‘Funky Forest’ made its debut at the 2007 Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam. After working on the project for two weeks straight, they were astonished at the positive reaction from the kids when they first entered the space.
‘[The children] loved it. They even realised that the creatures would fly away when they got too close and spent hours trying to trap them.’

Funky Forest – trees take the shape of your body

‘Funky Forest’ has been Emily’s favourite project so far, as she was able to experience seeing the first-hand the children’s reactions to their project.
‘It was incredibly rewarding to see kids really playing – and in ways that we could not have imagined. For some it was quiet exploration and at other times there were 18-20 frantic kids in the space with a team managing the water, a team creating trees and a few “managers” telling the teams where trees and water were needed.’
Being able to accomplish this project from what Theodore and Emily had imagined together has been very satisfying for them both, as well as inspirational, and Version 2.0 is now in the works! A video of ‘Funky Forest’ in action can be viewed on Emily’s website, zanyparade.com.

Funky Forest

An ongoing creative collaboration
Emily continues to foster her drive to develop fun teaching tools for children, as is shown by her recent collaborative project – again with Theodore Watson – an experimental poster series entitled ‘Here to There’. ‘Jungle’ and ‘City’ are the first two in the series for children that combine science, nature, algorithm and design to feed their imagination and curiosity.
Emily’s motivation for the series stems from her own childhood memories.
‘We remember in detail the pictures, paintings and patterns that were on the walls around us as we grew up. We realised that this long-term access to a child’s attention is a great opportunity to introduce concepts of mathematics, design and narrative in a fun, intuitive and visual way.’
Emily and Theodore developed a suite of software tools to programmatically build elements based around concepts of algorithm, permutation, cause and effect, and topology. These elements are the building blocks for the different worlds and become a part of the stories being told. The programmatic-designed elements are mixed with hand-illustrated forms and quirky creatures to create a bizarre hybrid world that talks to both hemispheres of the brain.

‘Theodore and I really enjoy working together and I think we learn a lot from one another’, Emily says. ‘We share a similar enthusiasm and excitement when it comes to seeing an idea through to its solution. Because our approaches to problems and strengths are different, we’re able to bounce off each other and end up somewhere where we could not have gotten on our own. We have some awesome brainstorming sessions and just need to find the time to make all of our ideas.’

Inspiration
When asked whose work inspires her own projects, and whom she aspires to, Emily acknowledges two artists in particular.
‘The kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson has always been an inspiration to me. There is a quality to his work that I love. It is whimsical, mechanical, intricate, delicate, graceful and often quite funny. And of course Jim Henson has been a huge influence on me. I would love for my work to create a similar feeling of wonder and delight for people.’ As well as artists, Emily cannot ignore the influence of her growing up on her work.
‘I’m definitely inspired by nature and I love warm colours and texture. I’ve tried not to have a distinct style, but as much as I try to avoid it, there are some recurring themes and elements that keep popping up in my work: trees, birds, bicycles, sneakers, weather – all of the things I’m obsessed with. Maybe I should embrace it and see what happens.’

The process – from paper to the screen
Emily is very much a ‘paper person’, and she always starts designing on paper, rather than going straight to the computer. She keeps a lot of sketchbooks and paper around her so that she can jot down ideas and working things out throughout the design process.
‘I find it easier to get ideas down quickly without getting too caught up in the details,’ she says. ‘For me it’s important to get away from the computer screen, especially during the early design stages.’
Emily explains how the story behind each project develops with the design process.
‘While I’m working on a project I tend to make up stories about the design. It makes it fun for me and helps when I know I’ll be sitting in front of the computer for the next ten hours. I think that’s when all of the quirky details come out – because they are part of the story.’

Here to There – Jungle – poster series for children.

Up ahead
Emily has three new projects in the works. The first is another collaborative project with Theodore, which explores the way that people communicate with nature, and will make its debut mid-year at the Riviera Gallery in Brooklyn. Emily also has two projects of her own which both contain themes of the body, what it’s made up of and how it moves. ‘Inside Out’ investigates the human body, while ‘Body Language’ is a short film about a journey and mood and communication through body language.

Foremost in her work is Emily’s passion for children and seeking to engage them in an entertaining and educational way, and this is sure to continue to inform her work into the future.
‘I love the way that children approach the world,’ she says. ‘There is something amazing about the way their imagination flows between fantasy and their perception of reality. There is little hesitation when approaching something new or tackling a problem. What I love about designing for children is that opportunity to tell a story and provide a space for learning where they can create their own rules and logic. I also find it to be the most rewarding.’

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