SEVEN Echo Issue# 35.11 August 26 – September 2, 2020
Editor: Mandy Nolan Editorial/gigs: gigs@echo.net.au Copy deadline: 5pm each Friday Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au/entertainment
SEVEN
NORTH COAST ENTERTAINMENT
N O RT H COAST E N T E RTA I N M E N T
MANDY NOLAN’S
SOAPBOX www.echo.net.au/soap-box
KEEPING YOUR GLASS HALF FULL I am one of those relentlessly optimistic people. In the bleakest times I have always remained hopeful. Things will get better. I have always known that. It’s tattooed in the core of my being. It’s the cornerstone of my resilience – how I survived a childhood marred by domestic violence. Even at it’s worst I chose to believe that things would change. And they did – my father died, and my life got better. That’s pretty fucking awesome confirmation from the universe of your mindset. Although part of me always wondered if my positive mindset killed my dad. In the mindset/beverage analogy, my glass is always half full (probably why I drink too much). Being a positive person in a COVID-19 affected world is quite a challenge because things keep going to shit and I think, oh well it won’t be that bad. And then it gets a bit more shit, and I think: it will be over soon. And then it’s not. For positively framed people like myself COVID threatens to disrupt my world view. Could my mindset be broken? Are we forsaken? Is all hope lost? Is the government really trying to control us? Is Bill Gates really trying to eliminate 15 per cent of the population with a vaccine? Is the vaccine just a 5G chip? Is the whole novel coronavirus thing just a scam to up the price on rescue dogs? And what breed exactly is a sheeple? Forget the conspiracies, and the health impacts, there’s something far worse! This corona thing is a major mojo disruptor. Until Mr Putin comes galloping forward to save the world, bare chested, with his vaccine. Or perhaps the Oxford October release will save us. Not that anyone around here will be lining up for the vaccine. We have a ‘whooping cough season’. Now, I guess, we are going to have a ‘coronavirus’ season as well. I don’t believe in unified elite evil forces out to destroy ‘us’. I just can’t live believing that deep down people are evil. It seems to me to be a darkly suspicious mindset that positions us as enemies of each other. I believe that even in the darkest times, in the worst of days, that eventually good will prevail. Naive? Perhaps. But why would you choose to think otherwise? Do you need some serious mindset reset? I suggest regular morning mojo injections. Also known as a sunrise. I don’t believe in god, but if I did, I would be very impressed by this daily re-imagining of hope. Every morning, when I walk the beach, I am greeted with the same show. It’s simple, but effective, and as a performer it reminds me that if you’ve got good schtick, then stick to it. This is what happens: It’s dark on arrival. The darkness for me symbolises the uncertainty – the sense of bleakness and loss. And then, we start to see a glimmer. A cloud will catch a little shimmer. Slowly, right before your eyes, things will change. The light is coming. In this show, the light is hope. It’s having another crack. It’s the potential for change. But it’s not there yet… it gathers momentum – and then pop, the sun bursts up from the sea – a bright burning orb! The clouds rejoice, and god, or Bill Gates, or whoever orchestrates that impressive morning show fucks off for another 24 hours. This is my favourite time of day. There’s this softness that exists between light and dark. If ever there was the potential for magic, this is where it would happen – in the changeover. This is where my belief is reborn. This very ordinary daily re-imagining. Every sunrise is like a thumbprint – it’s unique. Every new day, in its repetitive mundanity, has the potential to be different to the last. It’s that simple. That is the landscape of human hope. Optimism restored. Just don’t look at Facebook.
www.echo.net.au/byron-echo Byron Shire Echo archives
Arianna turns IN-SIDE-OUT for Ocean Shores creating new venues, in uncommon or unlikely places, and so here we are.
IN-SIDE-OUT IS A POP-UP EXHIBITION, A SHOPFRONT LIGHTBOX IN THE OCEAN SHORES VILLAGE CAR PARK,
For those who are unfamiliar, what exactly is a ‘lightbox’? Well a lightbox is just that – a box that glows with light. In our case, we are projecting onto the corner of the building, and filling it with projections, to give it a new surface and some depth. We are literally giving the shopping mall a lick of new light.
next to Target. The event, held over this coming weekend, is a public exhibition of digital art and screen culture. Seven spoke to Arianna Bosi from Dashboard Animals about the event.
Why is a site like this important to repatriate?
Arianna, why Ocean Shores? And why the carpark? Because it’s where I live, and because it’s where everybody at some point congregates, whether you live on, or off the grid.
Tell me a little about Dashboard Animals and the partnerships you have engaged to get art and culture into the public space?
I can’t help myself but to continuously imagine what I would do, with a storyline, a found object, a conversation, or an empty space. I read, even when I’m walking. Books, not my phone. I had begun to explore projection mapping with a real interest in mixed reality projects, so we (with my writing partner, Alison Bicknell) began to devise and collect second hand projectors. We wanted to start small. We weren’t interested in large scale architectural mapping, and as writers and filmmakers we are much more interested in story and narrative than just pretty lights. We also want to create works that are participatory, which the audience can get up close to and be immersed in, rather than stand back in awe. Shopping centres and car parks are full of those small spaces. My daughter and I would scooter through the Ocean Shores Village car park, and I would wonder at its ugliness. There was a good sized shopfront beside Target that had been empty for some time before COVID-19 hit. It’s big, all glass, and was still very empty. It seemed such a waste. Believe it or not Ocean Shores, like the whole of the area, is full of all kinds of artists and the idea to bring an element of surprise to a truly suburban car park was very exciting. I know I would stop and watch if someone else had put up something other than advertising, and I would have responded with ‘what would I have done… ’.
It’s all about access. Places like this are full of prompts to buy and consume, not to enjoy and engage in any sort of cultural or creative way, and yet they are always full of people. You’ll find that many, many more people walk through this car park, than who ever walk through a gallery. It’s not that the ‘gallery’ or ‘art’ experience, in some form, is unimportant to them, it’s just that it may either be out of their realm of experience or just lower on the needs list than pork chops and sushi. So take it to where the people are. Serve them a nice big dollop of colour and light and a new experience alongside the red-spot specials.
You could find these adorable lovebirds inside[out] the pop-up lightbox.
A Dashboard Animal is a shiny, but shy, hood ornament; a nodding dog with anger management issues; a melted plastic wildebeest that’s never been kissed; a Lotto scratch ticket that sings to you of untold riches. They’re the strange and beautiful things you want to take with you on a shared journey. The hitchhikers who tune your radio into something new. The odd stories that fill the car as the road rises ahead: odd people, sticky situations, madness, music, absurdity, and great images. It’s a trip, so buckle up.
Who can get involved… and how can they?
For now, Peter (Castaldi) and I had been developing a business around screen eventing, offering large screen opportunities for artists and filmmakers. Our strategy was to get artists and filmmakers ‘off the small screen’ and away from the ‘swipe’. Ironically, when COVID hit, the world was asked to pivot online, a complete turnaround from where we wanted to go. So when we all faced the dilemma of ‘what now’, Peter and I sat down with Sean and Dan from North Coast Events and chatted projection mapping and outdoor COVID-Safe screen eventing.
If you create digital art , or have an Instagram account where you share your ‘work’, whatever that may be – you can exhibit with us. Open Screen opportunities include open screen micro cinema (no longer 11 minutes). Outside projections for 2D and 3D creators, sound designers, hashtag hour is Friday night from 5.30pm – what’s your favourite Insta hashtag? Find out more online at facebook.com/ dashboardanimals and @dashboardanimals on Instagram, and get ready for three nights of light fantastic for all to enjoy, for free. You can watch In-Side-Out from the car park. This is a headphone (supplied) experience, and with social distancing. From sunset, Friday 28 August, to Sunday 30 August.
Peter and I come from an industry that has always been hamstrung by lack of access to points and places of exhibition. We wanted to change that by
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