So, this evening I went to DUST '07, an end-of-year project showcase for students at the Australian National University's new-media courses. On show were films, animations, visual-effects and VR showcases, interactive arts and sound pieces. It was held in the foyer of the National Museum, a nicely-designed space that made a good backdrop for an event like this.
As I suspect is often the case with student showcases, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The backbone of the night was a programme of short films, projected onto a big screen high up on one wall. The films showed off various types and/or animation, and some were very striking indeed. I responded best to the ones that showed a bit of story rather than the purely abstract displays of colour and sound (although there was a wonderful one of a range of different Canberra buildings animated to dance to the techno track). Of the story films, they pretty much all seemed to be dark and disturbing, modelled very much on recent horror films (in fact I remember thinking of the first one "ah, the Blair Witch versus Sadako"). But even when they were derivative they were usually carried off with assurance and a good eye for technique. I particularly liked "Subject 77", a nightmare piece about a lethal medical experiment, and "Alter", about a hideous metamorphosis that strikes two friends from out of nowhere. There was a third whose title I forget, about a young man who meets the Devil in his dreams but can't seem to wake up to escape from him, that I like more and more the more I think about it.
Some of the other stuff left me a little flatter. I didn't get to do much with the interactive art that was on computers ranged around the other wall - in fact I'm not even sure I found any of it. I looked at a few galleries of pictures, and hung out for the sound presentations, but someone hit a wrong button somewhere at the start of those and created a screaming static blast that literally repelled the audience back across the. I think that kind of demoralised people, to be honest. Some of the sound stuff sounded interesting, but in a rather cerebral "oh, I wouldn't have thought of creating Art that way" manner, and when nothing much seemed to be happening I slipped into one of the theatrettes.
That was interesting: I watched a demo film with a guy showing off his virtual modelling of a real streetscape, to wit the ANU Union Court, my old hangout. He'd created it as a VR environment that could be projected onto two floor-to-celing screns that sat at ninety degrees to one another, taking the image right out to the peripheral vision and increasing immersiveness. It was fun to watch him barrelling around the Court, jumping up and over balconies and throwing chairs through the windows of the Co-Op Bookshop or smashing tables aside in the Uni Bar like the psycho I used to see down there who used to flip out after he lost at Twin Cobra. The film after that was a rather less engaging home documentary about endurance riding - nothing wrong with it, but it was a little amateurish for an honours student, as its maker apparently was. It wasn't long after that that I left.
If you gauge the success of something like this by whether it makes you want to go away and do this stuff yourself, then it was a success. I came away wondering how I could go about making some kind of weird, trippy little short flick of my own. And maybe I will. Who knows?
As I suspect is often the case with student showcases, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The backbone of the night was a programme of short films, projected onto a big screen high up on one wall. The films showed off various types and/or animation, and some were very striking indeed. I responded best to the ones that showed a bit of story rather than the purely abstract displays of colour and sound (although there was a wonderful one of a range of different Canberra buildings animated to dance to the techno track). Of the story films, they pretty much all seemed to be dark and disturbing, modelled very much on recent horror films (in fact I remember thinking of the first one "ah, the Blair Witch versus Sadako"). But even when they were derivative they were usually carried off with assurance and a good eye for technique. I particularly liked "Subject 77", a nightmare piece about a lethal medical experiment, and "Alter", about a hideous metamorphosis that strikes two friends from out of nowhere. There was a third whose title I forget, about a young man who meets the Devil in his dreams but can't seem to wake up to escape from him, that I like more and more the more I think about it.
Some of the other stuff left me a little flatter. I didn't get to do much with the interactive art that was on computers ranged around the other wall - in fact I'm not even sure I found any of it. I looked at a few galleries of pictures, and hung out for the sound presentations, but someone hit a wrong button somewhere at the start of those and created a screaming static blast that literally repelled the audience back across the. I think that kind of demoralised people, to be honest. Some of the sound stuff sounded interesting, but in a rather cerebral "oh, I wouldn't have thought of creating Art that way" manner, and when nothing much seemed to be happening I slipped into one of the theatrettes.
That was interesting: I watched a demo film with a guy showing off his virtual modelling of a real streetscape, to wit the ANU Union Court, my old hangout. He'd created it as a VR environment that could be projected onto two floor-to-celing screns that sat at ninety degrees to one another, taking the image right out to the peripheral vision and increasing immersiveness. It was fun to watch him barrelling around the Court, jumping up and over balconies and throwing chairs through the windows of the Co-Op Bookshop or smashing tables aside in the Uni Bar like the psycho I used to see down there who used to flip out after he lost at Twin Cobra. The film after that was a rather less engaging home documentary about endurance riding - nothing wrong with it, but it was a little amateurish for an honours student, as its maker apparently was. It wasn't long after that that I left.
If you gauge the success of something like this by whether it makes you want to go away and do this stuff yourself, then it was a success. I came away wondering how I could go about making some kind of weird, trippy little short flick of my own. And maybe I will. Who knows?
If we were made to vote then maybe the lazy hippies would have gotten off there ass and voted and we all know they don't like bush.
Oh and our debates do have a lot of shit talking going on.