FEBRUARY2007
AUSTRALIA AND THE ARTS
Information from http://www.fibreculture.org
FELENA ALACH - CURATOR
Felena Alach is a Perth-based artist,
writer and project manager with a specific 
interest
in new media and hybrid arts. As a writer, Felena
currently contributes to journals including RealTime
and Artlink and has recently been a project
development consultant for Reality Games, a
web-based creative forum for young people for the Artrage
Festival in Western Australia.
Felena is currently enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Internet Studies at Curtin University of Technology, WA. The diploma's main focus is new media technologies and their capacity to engage within a cultural context. Felena has also had experience in working with children and young people, for example with the Awesome Festival for Young People in Perth.
The organisation
International Art Space Kellerberrin, Australia (IASKA) is a non-profit arts organisation located in the small country town of Kellerberrin in rural Western Australia, 210km east of Perth.
IASKA assists local and international artists to develop art, education and community projects throughout the Western Australian wheat belt.
The organisation's program is the result of a unique integration of the different cultural perspectives of contemporary artists, from rural communities in Australia and overseas.
The project
IASKA will provide Felena with a managed and supervised internship program. This will include a one-year mentorship to develop the community and emerging-artist project, Open Space.
Felena will work with IASKA's Director and Community Liaison Manager to expand this successful program. Open Space aims to facilitate an interaction between artists, communities and young people and comprises three main strands:
- A mentor scheme featuring a series of workshops
and collaborative projects involving IASKA
international artists in residence and Australian
emerging artists
- An education program designed to foster a
knowledge of the contemporary arts in schools, as
well as provide information to the general
public. This takes place via a series of
workshops, floor talks and lectures
- Community access initiatives intended to increase the accessibility of IASKA's activities to the general public by presenting work outside the usual gallery context
The EPIC Initiative has been assisted by the Australian Government's Young and Emerging Artists Initiative.
http://www.anat.org.au/reskin/
THE BRAIN PROJECT
Stephen Jones New
Media Arts Fellow
Stephen Jones is an artist, electronics
engineer and theorist. Following a groundbreaking career
in video art, he embarked on a survey of the study of
consciousness in Western science and philosophy called
the Brain project.
In this work, Jones analyses and synthesises explorations
on the question of consciousness and how it arises.
Jones received a New Media Arts Board Fellowship in 1997. In that year, he built and exhibited The reading machine: Towards the realisation of Charles' and Ada's future at ArtSpace, Sydney, based on his research for Brain project.
The reading machine refers to the first computers, attributed to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace who in 19th-century industrial England dreamed of building a machine to take over the labour of thinking.
Babbage and his engineer Samuel Clement attempted to
build a machine for calculating mathematical tables,
called the Difference Engine. Babbage's protégé
Lovelace recognised that the technology of the Jacquard
card, a punched-card system used to control the weaving
loom, could be used to control the supply of instructions
and data to the Difference Engine and its offspring, the
Analytical Engine. But constructing these intricate
machines proved too difficult for the technology of the
time. 
They managed to build a model of Difference Engine No. 1, and test pieces for both the Difference Engine No. 2 and the Analytical Engine, some of which can be seen in the Universal machine exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
Of these computer pioneers, Jones comments:
'The reading machine installation was developed as a reflection on their dreams. The distance from Babbage's steam-driven arithmetical "mill" to the modern desktop computer is not so far. Although one must acknowledge the quantum leap from mechanical calculating devices to electronic calculating devices, the difference was largely a matter of technics rather than techniques.'The reading machine reached the finals of the 1999 National Digital Art Awards at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane.
Illustration from Project
Jones presented theoretical work based on the Brain project studies at the Consciousness Reframed conference at the University of Wales in 1998 and subsequent years. The work presents early and contemporary philosophies of mind, neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybernetics, produced on a website and CD-ROM. A variation is published in the book Reframing consciousness: Art, mind and technology (Roy Ascott ed, Intellect, UK, 1999).
EVENTS COMING UP
|
Mark is a descendant of the Yamijti people of Western
Australia and of Irish-Australian heritage. Not only is
he a master of the didgeridoo but also a storyteller,
song writer, drummer and visual artist. Mark is one of
the few players who is able to work across most styles of
music as a soloist and ensemble player.
He has performed around the world, working with musicians such as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Donal Lunney in Ireland, Peter Sculthorpe, James Morrison, Jenny Morris, Phillip Glass, Christine Anu, Tiddas, John Williamson and many more. Mark was featured with the London Philharmonic at a Festival Hall concert, London in 1996.
He is also a prolific instrument maker, making and painting didgeridoos from the logs he collects on trips into the bush north west of his hometown of Tamworth, New South Wales.
Mark was the founding member of 'Kooriwadjula' - (literally black man/ white man) - a contemporary/ traditional performance group that performed widely in festivals, rock venues, universities and schools, touring nationally and internationally.
He has also created, with Aboriginal artist Janawirri Yiparrka, the musical ensemble 'Ankala'. Mark and Janawirri play with a technique of circular breathing which they have developed to a fine art and which allows them to produce a multiplicity of tones - including calls and animal sounds - at several levels simultaneously and without interruption over a period of many, many minutes.
Mark has a long history of performances in Australia including the outdoor venues and major festivals. Internationally his accredited performances include the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, the Heidelberg Festival, Expo '92 Seville Spain, Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic and many shows in Europe including the '98 Rudolstat Tanz and Folk Festival.
In 1999 he was invited to WOMAD (Seattle USA) as visual artist and musician and in 2000 recorded and released Ankala & World Orchestra in Europe on the Network Label. Also in 2000 Mark was a featured artist at the Presentation of the Olympic Team in Belgium at the Memorial IVO-Van Danne.
In 1993 Mark joined the cross-artform, cross-cultural performance ensemble REM Theatre to help create the megamedia event ICON for the Sydney Opera House 20th Birthday Celebrations. He performed a body of original work with the SBS Youth Orchestra and The Sydney Philharmonic, as well as performing on the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
Subsequently he received a fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts and continued to work with REM Theatre Company as a musician, composer and music director on a number of productions including Story of the Firechild, Music Tree, Buralga and Kickin' Up the Dust.
In 1999 Mark toured Europe with a new music theatre creation by REM Theatre called toteMMusic which premiered at the prestigious Lucerne International Music Festival in Switzerland and showcased in Australia at the 2000 Performing Arts Market.
In 2000 Mark was featured with Charlie McMahon and Gondwana band at the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Sydney. In 2001 Mark has toured with ConSpiritOz (Musica Viva) to Malaysia and in Europe with music partner Daniel O'Shea.
In July he featured at an Australian Festival produced by the Seoul Arts Centre in Korea and world premiered his collaboration with Phillip Glass in Melbourne at the Melbourne Town Hall and in New York at the Lincoln Centre. He was invited to stay in New York and record as session musician on Godfrey Reggio's next Glass collaboration Nongysqatsi.
As an artist Mark has exhibited in Japan, Europe, and
USA both in contemporary and traditional styles.
Mark has numerous recordings and compositions to his
credit and is a regular on the QANTAS inflight
entertainment program. His awards and achievements
include the 'Golden Didgeridoo' for the Tamworth
Festival.
Mark is a father of five, grandfather of one and lives with his wife on a horse property in outback Australia.
To book Mark Atkins contact his agent Marguerite Pepper Productions Pty Ltd by email info@mpproductions.com.au