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Day of Contemporary Art
Digital Media Steps Out
Visiting Art/Design Program
Art & Design
COPYRIGHT © 2009 FACULTY OF ART & DESIGN, MONASH UNIVERSITY, THE WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ARTISTS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY OTHER MEANS, ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING OR OTHERWISE, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER. THIS MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE FACULTY OF ART & DESIGN, TO INFORM READERS OF NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE FACULTY, AS WELL AS THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ITS STAFF, STUDENTS AND ALUMNI.
EDITOR: YOUNA ANGEVIN-CASTRO, CASTRO COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN: SWEET DESIGN PRINTING: Erwins Printing COVER IMAGE: TRINH VU Sacred season, 2009 paper, 80cm x 80cm x 80cm
Issue/08 2009
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Day of Contemporary Art in Prato
Archive/Counter Archive
On the Move
News and Events
Design/Build
Digital Media Steps Out
Visiting Art/Design Program
Profile: Darren Sylvester
Welcome/ It has been a prolific year for the Faculty of Art &
Students have also been very successful. Industrial Design graduate Robert Dumaresq won the top prize at the Australian International Student Design Awards: The James Dyson Award for his ‘Switch’ Commuter Bike, a bike designed for easy handling on public transport. The James Dyson Award represents the highest achievement for industrial design students in Australia, and his win signals a bright future for the young graduate. Robert will now compete in the global James Dyson awards, and the Faculty wishes him every success in the competition. Now in its second year of operation, the Architecture program is going from strength to strength. The undergraduate program has again attracted outstanding applicants, while the PhD program has been equally successful, bringing five new candidates to the Faculty. The program also received funding from the Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation (VESKI) for a visiting Research Fellow and public lecture series, which funded lectures by visiting- architect Nader Tehrani from MIT and Office dA in Boston. The program has also attracted an endowment for a PhD scholarship in perpetuity, a major research grant from the Victorian Government for research into sustainable housing, as well as research projects for the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority and other organisations. The Visiting Artist and Designer Program continues to bring international art and design practice to the Faculty, and this year we will welcome Professor
Silvia Acosta from the Rhode Island School of Design and James Angus, an Australian-born artist with a significant international profile, now based in New York. The Faculty has also signed an artists’ residency exchange agreement with Tokyo Wonder Site, a leading centre for contemporary art, in conjunction with Monash University Museum of Art and Asia Link, which from 2010 will see some of Japan’s leading visual artists undertake a three month residency and exhibition with the Faculty. Finally I would like to welcome the Monash Museum of Modern Art (MUMA) to the Caulfield Campus. Galleries are being developed between the Fine Arts and Art & Design buildings in conjunction with the Sir Ian Potter Sculpture Court, to create a true ‘art precinct’ for the Campus. Designed by Kerstin Thomson Architects, the new galleries will enable MUMA to expand its exhibitions and public programs and increase its interaction with Faculty programs. Set to open in mid- 2010, it will be a major asset for the University, the Caulfield Campus and art in Australia.
Design, with a number of Faculty members recognised for their research excellence and creative practice through the award of many of the country’s top prizes and research grants. Two Australia Research Council (ARC) Linkage Projects were funded for commencement in 2009: Head of the Department of Design, Associate Professor Arthur de Bono, was successful in gaining funding for the research into design of underground coal mining vehicles; and Professor Anne Marsh, Dr Daniel Palmer and Dr Melissa Miles, from the Department of Theory of Art & Design, will investigate the changing nature of public photography. Professor Anne Marsh also won an ARC Discovery Grant to document performance art and video performance. In 2008, two of only four national Australia Council Fellowships were awarded to Marian Hosking, Co-ordinator of the Metals & Jewellery Studio and Kathy Temin, Department of Fine Arts. Fellow fine arts academics Lilly Hibberd and Dr Tom Nicholson were also awarded Australia Council grants for the development of new works, while Kathy Temin, Susan Purdy and Dr Brad Haylock received four Arts Victoria grants between them. Gene Bawden and Vince Dziekan were each awarded British Council Design Researcher Awards to undertake research projects in the UK, where they will be able to develop new links between research centres in the UK and Australia.
Professor John Redmond Foundation Dean Faculty of Art & Design
The Giornata del Contemporaneo (translated as Day of Contemporary Art) is an annual event coordinated by AMACI, the Italian Contemporary Art Museum Association. In its fifth year, the event attracts the involvement of approximately 1000 cultural institutions, with the ambition of introducing the general public to the vibrant world of contemporary art through a program of free exhibitions, workshops, events and conferences. Since 2007, Monash Art & Design students have been involved as part of the Day of Contemporary Art program through The Monash Centre in Prato. Members of the public are invited to see an exhibition of works created by students as part of the Fine Arts semester program offered by the Faculty.
Day of Contemporary Art in Prato
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Art & Design students will have the opportunity to be involved in a new study abroad program offered for the first time in 2009. Culturescape is a 5-week intensive residency program offered at The Monash Centre in Prato, developed in collaboration with the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art at University College, London. Led by Vince Dziekan, Head of the Department of Multimedia and Digital Arts, the program, which is scheduled for October, will focus on emerging location-based practices involving creative technology, locative media and site-specific art. “The program will give students the opportunity to move out of the computer lab, to an unfamiliar location, and explore the growing role of location and site-specificity through digital media,” Vince said. During their stay, students will have the opportunity to develop individual and collaborative projects that respond creatively to experiences of place, space and community. Through the integration of fieldwork in and around Prato, complemented by seminar critiques and studios, participants will be encouraged to explore emerging location-based practices.
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Artwork by Suzie Flucher-Meredith
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Artwork by Louise Coronel
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Artwork by Louis Patterson
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Archive/ Counter Archive
Art & Design hosts conference in Prato
The practice of drawing continues to hold a position of significance at Monash Art & Design, and was the special focus of an international conference co-hosted by the Faculty at The Monash Centre in Prato, Italy. The two-day conference, titled Archive/Counter Archive, was held on the 10th and 11th of July, and featured two days of vibrant discussion about the relationship between contemporary art and the archive. Presented in partnership with The Centre for Drawing, a research centre of the University of Arts, London, the conference explored the particular relationship of drawing and the archive through both the capacity and focus of contemporary artists using drawing to originate, locate, develop and interpret archival collections, and the reflection on the role of the archive in narrative, collective memory and identity. The conference featured a program of 12 speakers and discussion sessions. Keynote addresses included presentations by Professor Okwui Enwezor of the San Francisco Art Institute, and art historian, writer and curator Dr Charles Merewether. Presentations by Kit Wise and Tom Nicholson of the Department of Fine Arts were also included in the conference program. In addition to the main program, the conference included a number of satellite events held within the surrounds of The Prato Centre. The principal satellite project was a collaboration with Dryphoto, a widely-renowned contemporary art space directly opposite Palazzo Vaj. Funded by the Commune of Prato, the project comprised two workshops on the relationship between contemporary art and the archive, the first for a select group of young Italian curators, the second bringing together these young curators and a group of emerging Italian artists. The project culminated in an exhibition installed at Dryphoto, public spaces around Prato, and Palazzo Vaj itself, which opened on the evening prior to the conference. The conference was the initiative of CARGO, an independent association of artists, writers and curators based at Monash Art & Design. It was the second in a series of conferences co-organised by the faculty and The Centre for Drawing, the first being Drawn Encounters, Complex Identities, a conference discussing drawing and inter-cultural encounters, held at the British School in Rome in September 2008.
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On the move: designing for the commuter experience
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As demand for public transport services continue to grow throughout Australia, researchers in the Department of Design at Monash Art & Design are looking at new ways to improve the commuter experience. “Members of the design department are currently working on a number of research projects which address some of the issues associated with public transport design,” said Associate Professor Arthur de Bono, Head of the Department of Design. “These projects range from how to improve safety during train journeys, to improving service punctuality. They differ from much of the other public transport research being conducted by academic institutions by focusing on industrial design and how it can solve some of the problems encountered by commuters using public transport services,” he said. Tackling the cause of train delays has prompted Monash academic Selby Coxon to investigate the variables influencing station dwell times, and how these might be addressed by modifications to train carriage design. Dwell time refers to the amount of time a train remains stationary as passengers board and alight the train. As public transport services become a more popular way to travel, overcrowding and passenger discomfort become major contributors to lengthening dwell times, particularly during peak hours. According to Selby’s research, dwell time may be impacted by a variety of factors, including passenger characteristics and crowding effects. However, it is variables such as the layout of seating within carriages, the spatial distribution of platforms, and the size of doorways in relation to passenger numbers that could provide the solution to timetable delays, and improve the commuter experience. Commuter confidence is also the key to research being conducted by Masters student Jessica Diec. Her project is geared at understanding antisocial behaviour, and how it might be reduced through design. As a regular train user, Jessica says her research was somewhat prompted by her own experiences while travelling on trains.
“There have been occasions where I have witnessed behaviours that made me uncomfortable, and I would like to be able to change that by making travellers feel safer.” Jessica is currently investigating the causes of low-risk antisocial activities, such as graffiti, damage to property and littering, which are less threatening, but are also more common. Working closely with transport operator Connex, she has access to statistics relating to the incidence of such behaviours, and, as part of her project, aims to develop a design response for reducing the frequency of such activities. “I’m also investigating some of the issues surrounding off-peak travel. Night-time travel at present has quite a negative perception amongst train travellers, and I’d like to look at whether some design strategies could be implemented to improve commuter confidence during those off peak periods.” Jessica relates her interest in public transport design directly to her undergraduate experience at Monash. During the final year of her Bachelor of Industrial Design degree she undertook a project investigating safety on public transport, which prompted her to continue her research at a postgraduate level. “Although I had tackled the issue to an extent during my undergraduate degree, I felt there was still a lot more to learn about the topic. So when the opportunity to undertake a Masters came up, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to build on what I had already learned,” she said. According to Associate Professor de Bono, Monash’s strengths in public transport design are two-fold. “Monash Art & Design runs a very strong studio-based industrial design program, underpinned by solid research ethic. This results in tangible, working designs, which are strengthened by rigorous research methodologies. “Secondly, Monash Art & Design works hard at forging partnerships with key players in industry, government and other areas of the University, which means that the research we conduct in public transport design results in outcomes that a relevant to the broader community,” he said.
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Southern Cross Station, Melbourne
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Robert Dumaresq, Winner of the 2009 Gold Australian Design Award - James Dyson Award, with his winning entry, the Switch Commuter Bike
Travelling SMART Students in the Bachelor of Industrial Design have been working with the University’s Office of Environmental Sustainability to develop a unique bike design for use as part of the University’s new bike-sharing program. The SMART bike program has been developed for the Halls of Residence students at the Clayton campus to encourage the use of sustainable transport options. The scheme, which offers students the use of a pool of 70 bikes, allows students living in accommodation on campus to ride to classes. As part of the scheme, students from the industrial design program were briefed to develop a unique bike design from spare parts. The successful bike design, the ‘Uni-cycle’, was built from recycled plastic, and includes features such as a gas lift seat, photosensitive lights, and a drive shaft instead of a chain. The bikes have been fitted with a locking system similar to those used on shopping trolleys, and bike parking stations have been modified to allow bikes to be parked securely. A prototype bicycle has been built, and the ‘Uni-cycle’ could be in production within two years as part of the scheme. Industrial design lecturer Mark Richardson guided students through the project, and described the project as a fantastic opportunity for students to witness tangible outcomes. "As a lecturer, it has been extremely gratifying - I have never seen such enthusiasm from students as I witnessed on this project," he said.
Monash graduate wins Dyson Gold Industrial design graduate Robert Dumaresq was awarded the 2009 Gold Australian Design Award- James Dyson Award earlier this year for ‘Switch commuter bike’, a foldable bike designed for easy handling in crowded environments. The bike, developed as part of Robert’s final year project, was inspired by the controversial ban on the transport of bikes on trains during rush hours, implemented by the Victorian Government in 2008. The design allows the user to fold the bike to the footprint of just one wheel, and is constructed from carbon fibre and aluminium for lightweight transportation. Although the ban has since been lifted, the innovative solution to train overcrowding captured the imagination of the award judges, with Robert’s design winning out over a pool of 13 finalists. As winner of the Gold award – the highest national achievement for student industrial designers – Robert received a $10,000 prize package, including a return trip to the UK to meet James Dyson, plus $4000 cash. He will also be entered into the James Dyson Award international competition, where he will compete with students from more than 20 countries for a $20,000 prize. Fellow Bachelor of Industrial Design alumnus Daniel Molloy was also recognised in the awards, with his mobility aid ‘Boomer’ being highly commended in the competition.
The winner of the James Dyson Award international award will be announced in September.
News & Events
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John Denton to join Monash Art & Design
Dr John Denton, of Denton Corker Marshall Architects, has accepted an adjunct appointment as Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Art & Design. Faculty Dean, Professor John Redmond, said Dr Denton, who was appointed Victorian State Architect in 2006 and designed the Art & Design building at Monash’s Caulfield campus, came to the Faculty with an outstanding national and international reputation in architecture. Since forming Denton Corker Marshall in 1972 John Denton, with co-founders Bill Corker and Barrie Marshall, has shaped the character of the Melbourne CBD, designing landmark buildings such as the Melbourne Museum, the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and 101 Collins St. They have gone on to develop an international practice winning major awards for their work in the UK, Europe and Asia. With Denton Corker Marshall, Dr Denton was responsible for the design of the Australian embassies in Beijing and Tokyo and also the new Civil Justice Centre in Manchester (UK), which has won several prestigious UK awards including the 2008 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) National Award.
John Denton was a key member of the Advisory Group responsible for establishing architecture at Monash in 2008. He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Monash that year for his outstanding contribution to architecture. He said that the new architecture program at Monash “offers a fresh, distinctive vision of architecture education in Australia and is a significant step forward for both the University and the profession.” John Denton will continue his involvement in Architecture at Monash through research, industry engagement and oversight of the development of the program.
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DIA recognises achievements of Professor John Redmond
Faculty extends warm welcome to visual arts alumni Monash Art & Design has extended a warm welcome to Monash alumni at a social event hosted at the Caulfield campus in June, inviting all former visual arts students to become actively involved as part of the Faculty’s visual arts community. In 2005, the University transferred all teaching and research in art history and visual culture and theory to the Faculty of Art & Design from the Faculty of Arts. At that time, the Faculty also welcomed academics Professor Anne Marsh and Dr John Gregory to the Department of Theory of Art and Design. With guests in attendance who studied at Monash as far back as the late 1970’s, Professor John Redmond urged all visual arts graduates from across the University to consider the Faculty of Art & Design as their ‘home’, and expressed his hope to create many more opportunities for alumni to engage with the Faculty in the future. Following an address by Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) director Max Delany, himself a notable visual arts alumnus, outlining the imminent move of MUMA to the Caulfield campus, guests were then led on a tour to view the Faculty’s extensive studio facilities. Attendees included a number of alumni with past or present connections with art galleries and museums, including MUMA and the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as representatives from other art institutions. Dr Winsome Callister, donor of a special Monash prize for high achievers in the field (formerly housed in Arts, recently transferred to Art & Design) also attended the evening.
Monash academics awarded prestigious Australia Council Fellowships In 2008, Monash Art & Design celebrated the achievements of fine arts academics Marian Hosking and Kathy Temin who were both awarded Australia Council Fellowships. Each year, the Australia Council awards four fellowships to visual artists. The fellowships are worth $90,000 over two years, and allow the recipient to realise ambitious projects and develop their research practice. Kathy Temin has exhibited extensively over the past 20 years and the Fellowship is the latest achievement in a long line of awards. She was the recipient of an Australia Council residency at PS1 in New York in 1997 and, in 1999, won the prestigious Moet and Chandon Art Fellowship. In 1996 Kathy was a recipient of the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. Marian Hosking is one of Australia's foremost contemporary jewellers with almost 40 years professional experience working almost exclusively with silver. Her work is represented in numerous collections in Australia and overseas, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. She has exhibited in prestigious galleries in Japan, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom and South Korea. In 2007, Marian was named a Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft.
Professor John Redmond, Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design, has been inducted into the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) Hall of Fame. Recognised for his achievements and contributions to Australian and international design and education, Professor Redmond joins an esteemed list of recipients, including Alberto Alessi, automotive designer Phillip Zmood, graphic designer Ken Cato, theatre designer John Truscott, and industrial designer Carl Nielsen. Candidates are inducted into the DIA Hall of Fame based on their awards and external recognition, as well as their publications and involvement in developing the field of design. Inductees have served the design community through the DIA, as well as through other related organisations through government initiatives, advisory panels, as educators and through conferences. Professor Redmond said he was honoured to be included in the DIA Hall of Fame; “…the acknowledgement of one’s professional peers is particularly gratifying, and I was very pleased to accept the honour,” he said.
01/ Art & Design Building, Caulfield campus
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Transition program helps new students adjust to uni life In 2009, new students to the Faculty of Art & Design were supported in the transition to university life through a week of specially programmed activities designed to improve the student experience. Discovery Week replaced the first week of normal classes for first year students, instead offering students an opportunity to get to know their fellow students while familiarising themselves with the Art & Design environment. In what could be described as a miniature creative festival, students gathered in intimate groups with a program of tours to the city and environs, contemplating social and aesthetic organisation and responding to it through collaborative work. Ranging from local ecology to the treasures of the National Gallery of Victoria, the subject matter threw up stimulating responses and provoked reflective discussions. The purpose of Discovery Week was to ease students into the challenges of artistic ambition and critical culture, and to nourish creative ideas in architecture, art and design. The initiative also aims to build confidence in each student’s inner resources,
show rather than practical use like the front room, parlour, or “good” room.
by encouraging an outward orientation to the world, and fostering the link between experience and creative output. Monash Art & Design is committed to making the transition to university life a positive experience for new students, and has plans to build on the Discovery Week program in future years. Researchers win Gene Bawden and Vince Dziekan from the Faculty of Art & Design have both won British Council Design Researcher Awards. The awards allow early-career researchers to undertake short-term research projects in the UK in various areas of design. They also aim to develop new links between higher education institutions and research centres in the UK and Australia. British design scholarships Gene Bawden, Studio Coordinator and lecturer in visual communication, is investigating the many faceted, though often forgotten qualities of domestic interiors, in particular those that are constructed for
“These spaces harbour a multitude of political, social and personal histories,” Gene said.
“This award and subsequent visit to London will be a major boost to my research and will help develop relationships with a number of UK institutions including the London College of Communication.” Vince Dziekan, Head of Multimedia and Digital Arts, will develop his research association with the Foundation of Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool. “This award is an amazing opportunity to build on my research and focus on how the intersection of new technologies with exhibition space offers new possibilities for aesthetic experience. “Undertaking this research will enable me to gain significant insight into the intersections of art, design and media, establish international research collaborations and bring new critical and practice- based knowledge back to Australia,” he said.
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Installation view: The Ammonite Order, Or, Objectiles for an (Un) Natural History by Vince Dziekan
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Stereotypes by Pamela Paikopoulos, Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication), 2008
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Work by Cassie Collins, Bachelor of Interior Architecture, 2008
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Bobby neckpiece by Carole Moffat, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Metals & Jewellery), 2008
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Vale: Kate Derum (1943 – 2008)
The Faculty of Monash Art & Design was saddened by the death of tapestry artist and former Faculty member Kate Derum in August 2008. A renowned tapestry artist, Kate was a valued member of the Fine Arts program as the Coordinator of the Tapestry Studio for many years. Kate was recognised as one of the country’s leading tapestry practitioners, and played an active role in the success of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop as a member of the Board of Management. She also edited the International Tapestry Journal for several years, and is credited with transforming it into a thoughtful, scholarly publication. During her time at Monash, Kate was a constant source of support to her students, and was committed to the continuing development of young artists in tapestry traditions.
End-of-year exhibitions As part of their final year activities, students graduating from the Faculty of Art & Design showcase their artistic and design practice to the broader public through a group exhibition of student works displayed at the Caulfield campus. The end-of-year exhibitions represent the culmination of years of study and research by students in their chosen discipline, and reflect the dedication and commitment of both the students and staff to visual production. For many visual art students, the end-of-year exhibition will be the first of many opportunities to display their work as professional artists, while design students may use the exhibition as a launching pad for their design careers. The 2008 end-of-year shows were held in November, and attracted many visitors to the Faculty, including art and design professionals, family, students and academics from other universities, prospective employers and members of the broader Monash community.
Design/BUILD
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Translating an architectural design developed in the studio into a functional, working building can be a steep learning curve for students as they take the concepts learnt within the classroom, and apply them in the real world. For many architecture students, the opportunities to execute their designs are often limited, and generally happen post-graduation. Later this year, second-year architecture students at Monash Art & Design will undertake the ambitious project to design and construct a temporary structure in the township of Kinglake, which was devastated by bushfire in February 2009. Guided by visiting lecturers Professor Silvia Acosta and Adrienne Benz, both of the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, students will design and subsequently build a multipurpose, open-air pavilion within a two-month period. “Design execution plays a significant role in the architecture program offered at Monash Art & Design,” said Diego Ramirez-Lovering, senior lecturer and program coordinator for the Bachelor of Architectural Design program at Monash. “There is a tendency sometimes in architecture education to become quite disconnected from the building process. Students are often asked to design things, but rarely have the opportunity to learn and understand the full extent of the impact of their design on the construction of a building. Executing a design exposes
students to the challenges of architectural practice – the need to work with people, the logistics, and the sometimes unpredictable nature of the construction process. So this project presents a rare opportunity for the students to become involved in that side of things at a very early stage of their design careers.” The project forms part of the broader Kinglake Temporary Housing project being coordinated by Emergency Architects Australia through AR Group Architects, Architectus and the Antarctica Group, who jointly provided pro bono architectural expertise to rebuilding the disaster areas. The objective of the project is to create a temporary village located on private land in Kinglake to be inhabited by affected fire victims for a period of up to two years. The site will feature temporary housing units, the Monash temporary community building and recreational facilities that will be used by residents while the town of Kinglake is rebuilt. “The brief for our students is to create an outdoor facility for the residents of the temporary village while the reconstruction of the township takes place. We envision that it will be a multipurpose, open-air pavilion with tables and seating where residents can discuss the future rebuilding, as well as host social occasions, barbeques and community events. It also needs to be a low cost temporary structure, which can potentially be moved to another location after the temporary village is dismantled.”
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Adapting to bushfire The Victorian Government has released a catalogue of 19 home designs being made available to victims of the bushfires that ravaged homes in February this year. The pro bono designs have been developed by some of the state’s leading architects, and include a design developed by Monash University’s Professor Shane Murray, Head of Architecture, and Diego Ramirez-Lovering, in conjunction with Graham Crist of Melbourne architectural firm, Antarctica. Titled ‘The Adaptable House’, the design places a strong emphasis on the importance of achieving both social and environmental sustainability in contemporary housing. It also responds to bushfire risks by employing non-combustible materials throughout the design. The Adaptable House design will be available to bushfire-affected residents through the Bushfire Homes Service. Victorians who are interested in any of the designs provided through the service will be provided with one free consultation with its architect to discuss its suitability to the site, and make any necessary amendments to the design.
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With only two months (August to September) in which to design and build the structure, students will learn about the importance of deadlines, and the need to work as part of a building team. Onsite assistance from builders, surveyors and machinery operators is being provided through the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, and the structure is to be built out of donated materials. “We expect to have around two weeks to develop the design through intensive design workshops , and the remaining time will be devoted to fabricating and erecting the final structure. The students will prefabricate the building in components at the Caulfield campus, and then will travel out to Kinglake to install it on site,” Diego said.
within six- to eight-weeks. These projects are usually very successful, and students learn a lot from the experience. “We also have a fantastic group of teaching staff at Monash, in particular lecturer Ross Brewin, who will be co-teaching the studio with Silvia and Adrienne, and Alison Fairley, who is managing the lead-up to the project, both of whom are committed to making the project a success.” As well as learning about the building process, Diego hopes that students will learn the value of community-based work as a result of the project. “An important aspect of this project is to expose students to alternative pathways for architectural practice. A lot of architectural design in Australia revolves around commercially driven projects, but we also believe it is important to highlight the contribution that architectural design can make more broadly to society, especially in helping to improve the local and wider community,” Diego said.
Architecture students practise their building skills in the studio
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Front view of The Adaptable House design
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Ground floor plans and section of The Adaptable House
He believes that the key to the success of the project will be the people involved.
Silvia Acosta has been involved in similar projects around the world, where she has taken architecture students to a location of need to design and build structures within very short timeframes – usually
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Digital media steps out
Since the turn of the century, the realm of digital media has seen unprecedented growth. No longer trapped behind a computer desk to enjoy a digital experience, users today are presented with a multitude of opportunities, and a front seat role in determining how these virtual experiences may enhance their reality. And as the world embraces the growing capabilities of the technology supporting these experiences – as illustrated by the growing popularity of multifunctional tools such Apple’s iPhone - a new generation of media artists are challenging our perceptions of the role of digital technologies in our lives, and re-defining our cultural and social experiences in the virtual world. According to Vince Dziekan, Head of the Department of Multimedia and Digital Arts at Monash Art & Design, this shifting focus of digital media towards innovation with creative technologies is what makes the discipline an exciting area of study for students and researchers alike. “There’s definitely a place for IT-oriented multimedia courses, but I think the way that digital media has evolved within an art and design context makes the program at Monash quite unique. The connectivity of multimedia and digital arts, not only with other disciplines within the Faculty, but also within the broader community, makes it a really exciting space to be working in,” Vince said. It is within this cultural arena that the shift is best illustrated, with multimedia practitioners vying for public art commissions alongside more traditional
art forms, such as sculpture and painting. Public art installations such as ‘Colony’ at the Digital Harbour precinct at Docklands (see p15) and VOLUME, an installation by United Visual Artists as part of recent The Light In Winter festival at Federation Square, typify the evolution of the art form, and its embrace by the public. “People engage with digital media in everyday situations, and it has become part of the vernacular. Its therefore not surprising that the public responds to innovation in the field, whether in a professional, social or cultural context,” Vince said. For Monash Art & Design, this evolution has meant that students now enter the Faculty with wide ranging skills and ideas which make the undergraduate course a hotbed of creativity. “Students walking in the door now have a good solid set of software skills, which means we no longer have to spend as much time teaching the technical side of things, and we can concentrate on developing the ideas and concepts which take digital media to a new level.” Vince also believes the rapid advances in technology are creating new opportunities for digital artists and designers to explore the potential of their craft. “We’ve certainly seen an acceleration in the development of mobile technologies, which has opened up possibilities in media communication.
People are no longer confined to experiencing digital content from behind their desk, so artists and designers can now exploit the spatial features of specific sites and locations.” Vince’s own interests in the spatial context of digital media forms part of his current research. In 2008, he presented a paper at ISEA2008, the International Symposium on Electronic Art, discussing the spatial relationship between digital media and exhibition space. “One of the bigger issues in digital art research at the moment is how you negotiate around the issue of locatedness. How does digital media operate in specific environments such as public exhibition spaces? How can digital content be accessed in a more mobile way, and interacted with on portable devices?” This topic also forms the basis of a new study abroad program Vince will run in Prato, Italy later this year. “Students from across the Faculty will engage with concepts associated with locative media through exploring site specificity. Using a range of digital media, the participants will be producing creative content for mobile devices in order to move away from the computer lab to situate their projects in other environments.”
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Colony
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Colony is an art installation located within the Digital Harbour precinct at Melbourne’s Docklands. Created by digital artist and Monash academic Troy Innocent, Colony can be described as a network of sculptures, designed to interact as an ecosystem. “The work consists of 42 totems, about human height, that communicate with one another. They communicate by flashing orange green or blue light, or by making sounds.” Troy said. “The sculptures not only respond with one another, but they also react to human activity. As the number of people within the vicinity of the totems increases, the light and sound activity also increases.” Troy likens the interaction between the totems to an ecosystem, and says that part of the intent of the installation was to draw attention to the relationship between the natural and the artificial. “The idea of the artificial ecosystem in digital media has been around for 10 or 20 years, but it is usually experienced on screen. In this case, the ecosystem is embodied within the location of the installation site itself, and visitors to the space become part of the ecosystem.” The installation also allows visitors to manipulate the sculptures through the use of an iPhone app. In doing so, Colony has taken the title as the world’s first location-based game using the Apple iPhone.
“The iPhone app allows you to walk up to one of the sculptures and play it like an instrument. Since the launch we’ve staged a couple of performances at the site, in which we’ve gathered 20 or 30 people to play the totems in a group situation. This introduces another dynamic to the installation whereby it becomes a communal experience instead of just an individual experience,” Troy said.
More info at iconica.org/colony/
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Odyssey installation by UK artist Sheena Macrae
02/03/04
Colony, by Troy Innocent, is located in the Digital Harbour Precinct, Docklands
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Visiting Artist/ Designer Program
VIEWS from beyond our shores A significant part of learning at Monash Art & Design centres on the international experience. Not only are students able to study abroad, but the Faculty is also committed to bringing international practices and perspectives to the Caulfield campus. Part of this commitment includes the Faculty’s Visiting Artist and Designer program. Established since 1999, this residency program sees some of the world’s most innovative art and design practitioners spend up to three months with the Faculty, creating artworks and sharing their practical expertise with staff and students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Participants stay in the Faculty’s own residential apartments at the Caulfield campus, where they are physically and intellectually embedded within Art & Design’s creative community, and where they participate in a range of activities, from presenting lectures to research students through the Lunchtime Art Forum lecture series, to studio-based teaching, and exhibiting their works throughout the Faculty’s numerous gallery spaces.
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Jordan Baseman, UK artist
Based in the United Kingdom, Jordan Baseman has twice been invited to take part in the Visiting Artists’ program. His first visit, in 2005, culminated in the film work Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough. For the film, Jordan met, interviewed and filmed thirteen Michael Jackson impersonators based in and around Melbourne. He was invited back to the Faculty in 2007, where Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough, along with three other film works, were exhibited at the Faculty Gallery. “My visits to Monash differed in many ways – mainly due to the length. My first visit was for three months and my second visit was for twelve days. The first visit was an open-ended situation where I researched and developed a significant film work and the second visit was specifically to install a selection of film works within the Faculty Gallery. Both experiences were significant for me professionally.” Jordan describes the visiting artists’ program as a unique opportunity to concentrate on his art practice in a foreign city.
“The fact that I was located within an art school environment meant that I was amongst people who were like-minded and inquisitive. The environment at Monash was stimulating, positive and totally conducive to the production of art creation,” he said. During his stay, Jordan tackled the conceptual challenges of researching and developing his film project, and says he learned many things from his experience at Monash. “At that point I had never filmed anything within a studio context, nor had I worked with a crew prior to that shoot. Previously I had always worked alone and ‘within the field’. This was a significant development within my practice as I have worked in that manner on a number of occasions since then. “My experience at Monash was totally excellent. I really felt part of the campus and that anything was possible during my time living there. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to stay longer.”
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Sheena Macrae, UK digital artist
London-based digital artist Sheena Macrae was delighted to accept an invitation to participate in the Monash Visiting Artists’ program in 2008. The invitation came a year after a visit to Melbourne through Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, where she met with Monash academic Vince Dziekan, and the prospect of a Monash residency was discussed. “A few days before I left for the residency, I was in Soho after a friend’s film screening and chatting about the upcoming Monash residency. In a sort of ‘zero degrees of separation’ moment, Susan Collins from the Slade, who had recently completed the residency, overheard it; she had great things to say so passed the residency baton on, so to speak,” Sheena said. “The residency was attractive for a number of reasons. The University has a wide range of well-established art departments and staff, so intellectually, artistically and technically it was exemplary. The program was well resourced and funded, which is critical when travelling such a distance, being away from home for 3-4 months and producing new work. It was highly organised making it easy to fit into and have opportunities to be fruitful.” One of the highlights of Sheena’s visit included a seven-screen show and artist talk at the Horse Bazaar, a digital art bar in Melbourne’s Lonsdale Street. She believes that the success of her stay was directly related to the welcoming nature of the Monash community. “Everyone at Monash, staff and students, was friendly, engaging and inclusive – so the opportunity to give talks, tutorials and get to know people made it a particularly dynamic exchange,” she said.
Sheena says residency programs, such as the one run by Monash Art & Design, offer artists with an opportunity to challenge their comfort zones, and experience the effect of a new location on their art. “For me, residencies can have different flavours, ones where you are cloistered away quietly producing, others that are very social, engaged in meeting new artists, writers and curators. This was a very outgoing residency for me, there was no sense of ‘isolation’ – though that may be down to the vibrant art scene and Melbournites being amongst the most social creatures I have met. I spent time making work on the Projectionist series but also time engaging with classes, doing tutorials, visiting studios with curators and artists, and showing work. In that respect, the learning experience is about understanding how the work is seen, what the viewer picks up, how you frame or deliver it, then finding new ways that you can critically engage or further unfold the ideas. Showing and exhibiting is an equal part of the creative process, it is a circular step because you apply that knowledge to the next work’s inception,” she said. As a result of her visit to Monash, Sheena’s professional presence in Melbourne has flourished. She is now represented at Melbourne’s Arc One Gallery, who showed her work at the Melbourne Art Fair and Summer Show. She also made connections with staff at some of Melbourne’s major private and public galleries, including the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP), ACMI, and Heide. “Work that I produced at Monash has been shown in film festivals and galleries in Liverpool, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and London, and later this year in Vienna. In addition, Matthew Perkins [a photomedia lecturer at Monash] and I are working together on a group show that will tour in Australia and the UK. I also try to keep in touch with Monash staff as they come through London on their various travels.”
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Video stills from Jordan Baseman’s film work, Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough
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Dallas installation by Sheena Macrae
Student Profile
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Can a reproduction ever be as great as the original? This is the question occupying the thoughts of Master of Fine Art candidate Darren Sylvester, as he delves into his research degree with the Faculty of Art & Design to explore the definition of authenticity in fine art as a function of personal experience. “My research is about the re-creation of experience in fine art. It deals with how authentic something can be if it’s actually a re-creation,” he said. Darren’s work challenges the transient nature of objects by questioning whether the fastidious reconstruction of something that no longer exists can actually result in an authentic experience of that object, even if that object is merely a replica of the original. Many will know Darren as an accomplished photographic artist, however his research has taken him into a different world of cross-disciplinary practice. With strong references to popular culture, Darren’s work to date has included building a replica of the Simmons Suitcase Kit, the hand-made drum machine used by the 80’s band New Order in their video-clip Perfect Kiss, as well as a re-creation of the back garden in the Los Angeles home of Richard and Karen Carpenter. Although having never visited the garden, Darren explains how he meticulously recreated the site in one of the image capture studios at Monash’s Caulfield campus. “I’d never been to Los Angeles to see the garden myself, but I rebuilt it based on the collective memories of people who had visited the garden, from footage on YouTube, and photographs found online,” he said.
The 60-square-metre set took approximately three months to build, and once assembled in the studio at Monash, Darren proceeded to create a video work of himself walking through the replica garden. However, like the real garden, Darren’s work was dismantled the day after filming, and the only records of its existence are the video work I Was The Last In The Carpenters Garden (2009), and Darren’s own memories. In July, Darren travels to China to visit the Beijing World Park - one of the world’s largest theme parks boasting miniature replicas of scenic spots throughout the world, including more than 100 miniature landmark buildings from nearly 50 countries. “At the World Park you can visit the whole world in one day. The aim of the visit is to see how authentically these landmarks are recreated, and how that impacts my experience. I might hang out at the Eiffel Tower, and having never been to the Eiffel Tower in real life, it might be just as good as the real thing,” he said. With only six months to go before completing his Masters degree, Darren believes that the program has helped to add meaning and intent to his artistic practice. “In the past, my approach was a bit ad hoc – I would often create works without much thought for how they fit into my broader practice. By contrast, the work I’ve created as part of my Masters thesis has been created about a specific subject with a common theme. It feels great to have been able to devote two years to just exploring the focus of my work, and see where it takes me.”
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