Monday 16 Class

Please remember to bring either the digital or hardcopy of your storyboard -- we will be scanning and compiling into an animatic in Flash tonight.

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Media Domocracy

An open-source project to make it easier to view & upload video to the Net. Developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation based in Worcester, Massachusetts: http://www.getdemocracy.com/

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Eness : The Light Garden

The Light Garden is a whimsical exploration of wireless connectivity in the most unwired locations, a place of goldfish pondcasts and trickling newsfeeds, video-chatting flora, and hyperlinked trees. ENESS and Unwired invite you to venture into a realm of virtual delights and bask in the glow of our projected future.

October 4th-14th 2006
10am - 6pm daily
GPO Melbourne,
Level 2 Cnr Bourke & Elizabeth St.
FREE Entry

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Optus Mobile TV / MTV and Sony Ericsson Competition

An initiative between Optus Mobile TV / MTV and Sony Ericsson launched 13 September inviting writers, directors and producers to create a 3minute script and pilot for mobile phones. Competition closes 24 November.

More info: http://www.one80project.com.au/

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BRIAN MAY SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE NOW AVAILABLE

The Brian May Scholarship is one of Australia's most generous academic scholarships assisting local film composers to study film scoring at the University of Southern California in the United States. The Brian May Scholarship will provide up to $80,000.00AUD every two years towards travel, tuition and accommodation costs for a promising Australian film composer to undertake the Graduate Certificate in Scoring for Motion Picture & Television at USC's Thornton School of Music.

The scholarship website is: http://www.brianmayscholarship.org/

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Melbourne Fringe ELECTRIC SHORTS launch

Melbourne Fringe ELECTRIC SHORTS 2006 Film Festival invites you to come along and enjoy twelve independant self-funded films, have a drink, mingle and support our future film makers. Entrance is free, to be held at the LOOP Bar, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne 3000 Wednesday October 11 2006 at 7.15 pm.

Hope to see you there!

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The Australian Writers' Foundation and Southern Star Children's Television Production Initiative - Industry Placement.

Applications Open, 18 September 2006

Applications for the Australian Writers' Foundation and Southern Star Children's Television Production Initiative are now open.

The successful candidate will receive an industry placement with Southern Star Entertainment allowing them to participate in script development meetings of a children's television production. Southern Star will also pay the writer $5,000 (which would include air fares and accommodation if based interstate).

This fantastic career opportunity, announced at the 2006 AWGIE Awards in August, aims to give a writer exposure to the requirements of writing for a children's audience and help develop an awareness of the disciplines peculiar to story telling for children.

Applications are invited from both new writers and those who have experience in other areas of performance writing, such as adult drama. What is required however is a genuine aspiration to want to write television stories for children, be it animated or live action, pre-school or "C" drama.

Applicants must be members of the Australian Writers' Guild and in their applications should state why they want to write for children's television; what visions or goals they have in this genre; and list any relevant writing credits.

Applications (2 pages maximum) should be sent to admin@awg.com.au with "Southern Star Placement" in the subject header. Applications close 20 October 2006 and the successful candidate will be announced on Friday 15 December 2006. The judges' decision will be final. Both full and associate members of the Guild are welcome to apply.

For information on joining the Australian Writers' Guild please visit www.awg.com.au or call 02 9281 1544 (ext.222).

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ABC makes user-generated high priority

It's not unusual for traditional television commissioners to spawn internet or mobile add-ons, but at Australia's ABC the 'new media' department is the one programming second-tier cabsat channel ABC2. Dan Fill, head of development for new media and digital services, tells David Jenkinson about the thinking behind this back-to-front approach.

Dan Fill (left) moved to ABC from Canadian producer Decode eight months ago. He's been at the heart of the interactive game for years, and now, as head of development for new media and digital services at Australia's public network, he's having some fun defining next-generation content that works on and off TV.

ABC's output divisions include television production, radio and ABC Enterprises, which manages books and merchandise and 60 retail stores across the country. The company relies on revenues from the latter division to be reinvested as it is a commercial-free network. Then there is new media and digital services, which primarily manages a 1.8 million page website that, among other things, is the biggest podcaster in Australia.

"We also have responsibility for the mobile strategy and interactive television," says Fill. "And also sitting within the new media division is broadcaster ABC2, a digital free-to-air channel the original programming for which is derived from the new media team."

The channel has just celebrated its first birthday, and Fill is now focused on developing new programming that can work on TV but also adds fuel to the new digital initiatives coming out of the department. "It's quite a nice option to know you have a television component that you can build into what may primarily be, for instance, a web proposition," says Fill.

ABC2 is focused on kids, youth and regional programming and has a lot of time-shifted shows from the main network. "Increasingly we are looking at innovative projects that are a bit riskier than you would see on the main network," says Fill. He is responsible for the original programming while Carol Saab, who came from Sky in the UK, is in charge of acquisitions.

In terms of new content, one of the things ABC has realised is that its radio station Triple J (TKTK) has a strong youth audience - which is something that can carry over into TV and onto the internet. "So we are producing a television series for the main network called JTV, and then for ABC2 we are making an extended two-hour version of it called JTVXL. It is focused on rock - and fairly inexpensive youth energy and interest," says Fill.

The show is in a magazine format featuring interviews and shorts (bought in) that are "quirky and different." Music videos will be played within the two-hour piece as well.

When it comes to acquisitions, ABC is looking for material like Atom Films' stuff or the Happy Tree Friends. But the main play for Fill will be looking at generating content from users, which is "a huge part of the interactive strategy."

"We are still considering the exact way to go about creating the user-generated content but we have a lot of infrastructure in place through the Triple J site and we have a lot of calls to action for the radio station, so it is just a matter of determining the exact kinds of content we want," he says.

"We realised that this youth audience wants the content when they want it, and they want it in depth. Once the show has finished there is an enormous amount of content on the web that flushes things out."

It has also become clear that kids want to get up on their own soapboxes and say what they think. "It is clear that they do want to see themselves reflected in the content of the show. We are totally open to that notion," says Fill. Many of the opportunities to do this will happen online.

Broadband penetration floats around 70% in Australia, and cable penetration - which is currently low - is about to rocket. "They have just cut the cable prices by 50% and subs are improving, so we are expecting a massive rise," says Fill.

There are two competing offerings: Optus and Foxtel. The full package has dropped to A$50 (US$38) a month.

Fill is buoyant about how the department will move forwards with user-generated content commissions. He says: "We've done some pretty interesting things in the past months. We didn't have the rights to the Commonwealth Games, so we invited people to send in images of their own Commonwealth Games - their own little parties and how they were taking things - through their mobile phones. We got a massive amount of response, things we would never have been able to pull off the wire, and it was very exciting for us."

In the kids arena, ABC is launching an application called Playground Radio that will harness the power of the user-generated trend. "The ABC has a very big library of preschool music, so this ap will allow kids to create their own playlists of songs - like Wiggles songs and Bananas in Pyjamas, some decent brands. In total they can listen to a library of around 1,500 songs," says Fill.

Playground Radio also has some special playlists from kids characters The Wiggles. "If you would like to download those songs to a mobile device and then take it off the computer then that goes through to an arrangement with Destra Publishing," he explains.

"We are trying to broaden our reach to the audience in preschool and have also just launched a parenting section online. We recognise parents surf with their kids."

ABC is also about to overhaul its news site, and while the focus is going to be on providing editorially sound news content it is also about allowing users to be able to participate in some way in terms of tagging content or being able to comment.

There are likely to be extensions of projects like Snapshots, in which the broadcaster sends out 100 cameras into regional Australia and has people take pictures of their lives. "Now we are entering the second season of Snapshots the media is likely to be more rich," says Fill. "And probably spill over from the website onto ABC2.

"We have another project called Video Lives in which we invited the audience to send in videos about them and their regions. Those went up on the ABC.net.au, and then the audience came online and voted for the best, which were broadcast on ABC2. In season two we have actually taken the five or six that were the most compelling of all and have now turned them into a weekly video diary that they do on a show called Australia Wide on TV."

However the network chooses to move forwards, it seems users will play a big part of ABC's future.

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LAMP calling for submissions - deadline September 25

The Laboratory of Advanced Media Production (LAMP) is calling for cross-media projects from creative teams in the Australian media industry for its fifth live-in-lab in Freycinet, Tasmania, October 29 to November 3, 2006. LAMP gratefully acknowledge the support of major sponsor Screen Tasmania.

LAMP is an initiative of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), funded by the Australian Government. The LAMP live-in-lab is a practical, production and market-focused prototyping lab specifically tailored for content creators. Project teams spend the week developing concepts and production prototypes for delivery on multiple devices.

In the last 10 months LAMP has run four major live-in-labs developing over 30 projects and transforming 92 people in the process. These have been run with ABC TV, South Australian Film Corporation in SA and general ones in WA and Sydney. It has also run seminars around the country in digital business and distribution.

LAMP Director Gary Hayes said that LAMP was designed to transform the participants and their projects.

“LAMP uses a proven development model adapted to suit the Australian emerging media landscape, similar to immersive labs in the US and Europe,” he said.

"The week is focused on producing a pitchable prototype and as such it is exhausting but very exhilarating process. It creates a real future for your cross-media property by making you relevant to the new audiences.

“The labs have attracted high profile teams from News Interactive, Project Greenlight Australia, Firelight Productions, Double the Fist, ABC TV, SBS TV, Bush TV and Penny Chapman Pictures.”

LAMP requires teams to be comprised of:
1 - Creator - executive producer, producer, director, writer etc
2 - Designer - broadcast, brand, visual identity
3 - Other craft - editor, writer, talent, sound, DOP etc:

Participants will be led by Australian and international mentors with specialist skills in design, writing, business, user experience and the technical aspects of cross media. The Lab will conclude with teams pitching their projects and showcasing their prototypes to VIP’s from the Australian media industries.

Peter Giles, Head of Digital Media at AFTRS said producers need to make the shift and follow audiences to embrace new delivery platforms such as broadband internet, IPTV, games and mobile devices.

“It's about building new partnerships and thinking outside the square to tailor a message that works across multiple platforms,” he said.

“We've found that the intensive workshop model is extremely effective in developing high-level skills for career professionals working in a dynamic global media environment.”

Interested people can apply at www.lamp.edu.au/apply to deliver concept on mobile devices, interactive television, broadband, games consoles and beyond. The submission deadline is September 25, 2006. For further information visit: www.lamp.edu.au or email lamp@aftrs.edu.au

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Bring your storyboards

Please remember to bring your storyboards on Monday. We will be starting to compile them into an animatic...

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AFTRS National Screening Tour

Each year AFTRS packages up a cross-section of its best work highlighting the country's most exciting new talent and tours across Australia.

In addition to the screenings, the program provides an opportunity to attend an information seminar on everything you need to know about applying to the country's finest film, television and radio school.

This event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there...

NOTE: Program and dates may be subject to change. Films are unclassified and recommended for viewing by audiences 15+ in every state. Seating is limited and no prior bookings will be available. Allocation is unreserved on a first come first serve basis.

Melbourne

Wednesday 23 August
4.00pm Recruitment Seminar
5.00pm Screening
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Cinema 1
Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000
Enquiries 03 9602 2300

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St Kilda Short Cuts Luanch and Screenings

Premiere Event Launch 30th August 2006 :: Take a Short Cut to St Kilda

The Directors of the infamous Fitzroy Shorts cross the river to bring you St Kilda SHORT CUTS, a new monthly short film festival that promises to be a spectacular addition to St Kilda's film landscape. Its home, the gorgeous first floor Lounge Bar at Big Mouth. The Short Cuts launch event will be held on 30 August 2006 and will give movie punters an awesome selection of short films that have won acclaim for the filmmakers or propelled them onto greater projects.

The SHORT CUTS ALLSTARS launch night, is a collection of rare, specially curated short films, never to be seen together again. Featuring the acclaimed short film Wilfred, directed by Tony Rogers, and soon to be a TV Series on SBS. Also featuring is Harvie Krumpet, the nude little man that we all love. See where it all started for the director of Wolf Creek, Greg Mclean featuring his rarely seen short film ICQ and finally the internationally award winning short film Cracker Bag, which took out the prestigious Cannes Palm d'Or for best short in 2003 for its director, Glendyn Ivin, which put the Australian short film circuit on the international map. Glendyn is part of this years prestigious accellerator program at MIFF.

Invite yourself to the launch of this monthly short film festival @ Big Mouth St Kilda. And then on the last Wednesday of each month for 2006 and into 2007.

Take a Short Cut to St Kilda and join us upstairs at Big Mouth for films, food, booze, rare funk grooves from DJ Mr B and door prizes to the value of $500.00.

For a screening calendar and full list of films screening on the launch night please visit www.shortcuts.net.au.

WHEN: Wednesday, 30 August 2006
WHERE: Big Mouth first floor lounge bar, St Kilda
TIME: Doors open 7pm, Screening at 8.30pm
COST: $10 Full, & $7 Conc. Tickets only available on the door!
WHY YOU NEED TO COME: Door Prizes to the value of $500.00

For further info simply email: info@shortcuts.net.au

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Canberra Short Film Festival

The Eleventh Canberra Short Film Festival is calling for entries. With its four competition categories, expanded out-of-competition screening program, filmmaking forums and hands-on workshops, this year's festival is looking to be a big one.

General Entry guidelines: Max 30 mins, made since Jan 2004, any genre. For full requirements, see the entry form on the website.

There are four competition categories:
* National. Entrants must be Australian residents. Prize is $2,000 cash and a trophy.
* Canberra Region. Entrants must be residents of the Canberra Region. Prize is $1,500 cash and a trophy.
* Youth. Entrants must be 25 or under at time of film's completion. Prize is $1,000 cash and a trophy.
* The University of Canberra Schools Competition. Entrants must have been Students in Grades 1 – 12 at time of film's completion. Prize is $750 and a trophy.

This year an expanded screening program will see films selected for screening in out-of-competition collections including:
* Animation,
* Horror,
* Experimental and
* Family Friendly

For more information and an entry form>>
DEADLINE: Friday September 1st 2006
p] 02 6297 0432
e] canberrashort@iinet.net.au
m] PO Box 5212 KINGSTON ACT 2604

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Flickerfest 16th International Australian Short Film Festival

Flickerfest, Australia’s only Academy Award accredited Short Film festival,
is delighted to announce that it is now accepting entries for the 2007 festival.

The FLICKERFEST International competition is open to any production available for screening on 35mm. BETACAM IS ALSO ACCEPTABLE FOR THE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION. All films must be under 30 minutes and must have been completed within 2 years of the closing date. Films must be in English or have English subtitles. Due to the competitive nature of the Festival, we favour Sydney premieres and films that have not been broadcast in Australia.

Application deadline for Australian Films is Friday 15 September 2006
Entry forms are downloadable from our website-
www.flickerfest.com.au
Office: Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach Sydney Australia
Mail: PO Box 7416 Bondi Beach Australia 2026
Ph +61 2 9365 6877
Fax +61 2 9365 6899

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Crossover Australia 2007

Following on from the success of Crossover Australia 2003, the South Australian Film Corporation, and the Adelaide Film Festival are calling for applications for Crossover Australia 2007.

Crossover Australia is a creative think tank that brings together independent artists, writers, filmmakers and new media producers with the aim of developing innovative digital and interactive projects. With the growth of broadband access and a plethora of emerging distribution platforms as a backdrop, Crossover Australia is a creative incubator devoted to building new forms of interactivity, such as true interactive television applications, IP and mobile TV content or even story-telling and programming inspired by RPGs (role playing games).

Over the course of five days, participants are immersed in a series of activities where the primary goal is the development of conceptual prototypes for groundbreaking interactive projects.
http://www.crossover.org.au/ >>

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For better and for worse – an insight into business blogging

5.30pm – 7.30pm, 22 August, 2006
Innovation House, Docklands, Melbourne

With US Judges declaring that bloggers have the same rights as journalists and companies fearing employees will make negative posts about them, it's time for every organisation to work out how to tackle this new beast.

Hear from a panel of Melbourne’s most experienced bloggers talk about what can go right and wrong in corporate blogging.

- Cameron Reilly, Co-founder, The Podcast Network
- Ben Barron, Co-founder, Feedcorp
- Darren Rowse, Problogger.com

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Cashing in on the Loose Change phenomenon

From: C21's Factual Week

9/11 conspiracy doc Loose Change 2nd Edition has attracted huge grassroots interest and a potential theatrical release, all thanks to the internet. With growing numbers of filmmakers parading their wares online, Antony Reeve-Crook asks if VoD and user-generated websites are now the ideal hunting ground for distributors seeking the next factual blockbuster.

Louder Than Words, the US indie prodco behind controversial 9/11 online factual smash Loose Change 2nd Edition, is in talks with four producers looking to make a final cut of the movie.

The 90-minute examination of the terror attacks, in which fledgling filmmakers Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery point the finger of blame at the Bush administration, is currently averaging more than 20,000 downloads a day on Google Video, and UK distributor Mercury Media is on board for the international, non-US rights.

Yet Loose Change failed to pull in a single interested party when Mercury initially pitched it to broadcasters in January.

But now, spurred into action by Vanity Fair magazine's recent claim that the doc would be one of the most popular - and incendiary - movies in the US right now as a theatrical release, the film's stock has skyrocketed.

"All it took for us to get noticed was one mainstream magazine coming out and doing an article on us," Rowe tells C21. "Beforehand we talked to movie companies and they said 'Oh it's good but you kind of hurt yourself by putting it online.' But things are not like that any more. If you want your media and your message to be heard, then online is the way to go."

His view is echoed by Mercury Media MD Tim Sparke (left). "I don't think it makes any difference if anyone sees something on the net," he says. "It isn't going to be an impediment to them watching it on TV, on DVD or on film. In many cases, they will go and see it at the cinema because they saw it on the internet."

In the case of a doc such as Loose Change, the internet certainly creates a furore that is difficult to emulate elsewhere.

The name Loose Change refers to the 200 or so pieces of video shot by broadcasters in the wake of the twin towers' collapse. Both Louder Than Words and Sparke argue that by freely distributing your investigative documentary, others with undiscovered material are prompted to come forward and add to it.

"The more information that comes to light, the more it gets out there," he says. "Other people have got different pieces of the puzzle to add. There's much more material in the final cut of Loose Change because these new pieces of information have come to light."

Loose Change began with a 1,000-DVD pressing made available over the internet in April 2005 and since then has been downloaded more than 10 million times on Google Video. Its online following has enabled Mercury to strike network deals with TV4 in Sweden, Planete Poland, Israel's Noga and MBC. Belgium's VRT will run some of the film's content for 9/11 fifth anniversary specials, as will Vara in Holland. Norway's TV2 is looking at it, as are Five and ITV4 in the UK.

"The internet is particularly suited to documentaries, and especially suited to docs that are not funded by a broadcaster," says Sparke. "There are literally hundreds of doc producers out there just doing it because they want to, but we're not in a position to put money into docs on the same basis."

Loose Change 2's success has also prompted Mercury to showcase its documentaries on a new website called Joining the Dots, launching in October. "We're going to have upwards of 100 documentaries in what is essentially a club," says Sparke. "It's out of the experience of Loose Change 2 that we've decided to set this up, because we feel that there's a massive audience out there that just isn't served - people who want to access all the one-off documentaries but can't get them."

In the US, Louder Than Words - still driven by its grassroots support - is deciding which of the four movie studios it will partner with to make Loose Change Final Edition. "If this film's as big as we think it could be then it could rival Fahrenheit 9/11 as a commercial property," says Sparke.

Not bad going for a factual film that cost just US$10,000 to produce and nothing to distribute.

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The ZTudio What IF? Competitions for Best Unproduced Screenplay

CLOSING FRIDAY 28th JULY The ZTudio What IF? Competition for Best Unproduced Screenplay Entries close in less than two weeks

This competition aims to discover a writer and script with enormous potential. We look for screenwriters who have been enthusiastic and proactive in getting their screenplay developed, but have not yet been successful in getting this work from script to screen. The winner is flown to a country of their choice to meet with agents and / or producers to pitch their script and themselves. More details at www.ifawards.com

CLOSING THURSDAY 31 AUGUST The ZTudio 3 Minute Opportunity

This unique opportunity aims to discover, develop and produce a feature film. Here’s the challenge ... do you have a feature script that you can express in 3 minutes of footage? If you are selected, ZTudio will develop, finance, produce and market a 10-20 minute short film with a view to producing the feature. More details at www.ztudio.com

Both of these initiatives are part of ZTudio’s commitment to develop independent opportunities for film, television and theatre for the global market.

ENQUIRIES – Emma Woolley, ZTudio T +613 9645 9181 E info@ztudio.com

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Assignment #4

You will find the details of your new assignment here >>

Note that you MUST have a proposal to me by class next week!

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Writing for interactivity

Terry Borst: Three Cheers for eTV >>
Enhanced television offers instant gratification to writers and viewers.(From the December 2005 issue of "Written By")

...in the future we might redefine screenwriting as something more immediate, far more of a real-time performance, akin to what an orchestra conductor does. Staff writers for Goldpocket Interactive programming already offer us a glimpse into this evolution, collaborating with networks and production companies to create “enhanced” television (eTV) programming.

Jack Feldstein, Interactive Scriptwriting Part 1 >>
Interactive scriptwriting (storytelling) is new and exciting. It's also challenging because not only does the writer have to write a good script - no easy feat - but it must also be interactively compelling.

Paul Saffo, Consumers and Interactive New Media: A Hierarchy of Desires >>
From the 1993 Ten-Year Forecast,Institute for the Future (c. December 1992)

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Pixar Art Director Presentation -Tia Kratter

Saturday 8th July . 3pm Victorian College of the Arts - FederationHall
Grant st Southbank.
entry is free but seats are limited- further info- 9685 9020 , r.stephenson@vca.unimelb.edu.au or p.fletcher@vca.unimelb.edu.au
Tia Kratter will talk about her experiences as a digital painter and art director at Pixar. Tia joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1993 as a Digital Painter during production of the studio's first feature film, Toy Story. She has subsequently held the Shader Art Director role on four other films, including the upcoming Disney presentation of a Pixar film Cars.

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Class Monday 19th June

Don’t forget: there is a class this Monday as per the outline. Please bring as much material as possible for your assignment. At a minimum, you should have

Site structure/site plan -- what kind of information you are going to have and how each relates to the others.

A name and some general ideas about content.

You should leave next Monday’s class with a template you can plug text and images into over the holidays.

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Lost in Transition: From Post-Network to Post-Television

A Lecture by Professor Roberta Pearson
7th June, 6.30pm, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Theatre A, University of Melbourne

The mega-global hit Lost emerged from the relatively stable industrial conditions of the post-network era of the last part of the 20th century, when television, even if no longer broadcasting to mass audiences, still retained its centrality as a domestic medium. But Lost also reflects the increasingly unstable industrial conditions of the post-television era of the early 21st century, when the continual convergence of platforms and fragmenting of audiences morphs the medium into something rich and strange. In exploring this new territory, Roberta Pearson likens the plight of media industry executives to that of Lost’s castaways, both faced with the uncertainties of unknown environments. Television studies scholars face similar uncertainties, as the post-television era transforms the well-known industrial landscapes of the network and post-network ages out of all recognition.

Roberta Pearson is Professor of Film and Television Studies & Director of the Institute of Film and Television Studies (School of American and Canadian Studies) at the University of Nottingham. Professor Pearson's research interests range from Batman to the American television drama, to cult or genre television, and her publications include Eloquent Gestures: The Transformation of Performance Style in the Griffith Biograph Films (University of California Press, 1992) and Reframing Culture: The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films (co written with William Uricchio, Princeton University Press, 1993). She is also co-editor of Cult Television (University of Minnesota Press, 2004), The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media (Routledge, 1991), American Cultural Studies: A Reader (Oxford UP, 2000) and the forthcoming book Small Screen, Big Universe: Star Trek as Television (California UP).

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Monday class

Show and Tell : Image series mini -site

Exercise #5: Good & Bad Sites

Writing for the Internet
Nielsen, Jakob, Be succinct! (Writing for the Web)
REF : http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html
Writing for the Web
REF : http://www.a-website.org/mnemosyne/advice/writing.html
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web by Mark Bernstein
REF : http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

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YOUR LIFE IS GRAND - Video Competition

Submit your 15 minute video (or shorter) of an average day in your life to be in the running to win...
1000BUCKS$$$

All entries will be shown at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) as part of the PAPER exhibition (6 July - 6 August) and we the public vote for our favourite - so beg/borrow a camera and start filming.
Entries close 6 June so make haste!
Drop/post your edited film (on mini dv tape) AND a photo of the star AND your name and contact details AND a brief description of what happens in the film AND ten dollars entry fee to PICA attention SIMON PERICICH (the coordinating artist)

Be there or be square!!

PAPER: Kate Cotching, Annabel Dixon, Matthew Gardiner, Nicholas Jones, Tom Muller, Simon Pericich, Koji Ryui, Sandra Selig
curated by Hannah Mathews
opening Wednesday 5 July, 6pm
exhibition Thursday 6 July - 6 August
www.pica.org.au

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Imaginary Country Assignment Resources

Assignment 3 Brief here >>

There are further links from the brief and the course outline to help with html, web design and writing for online. We will start working on the project from next week, so come along with some ideas.

Please note the due date is 10.07.06 -- first week of the new semester.

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing." Oscar Wilde

Bergonia

Bergonia is a complex and multi-faceted island-continent situated in the North Atlantic Ocean… a multi-party socialist utopia.

"We stand against the worship of things, money, and progress, against frenetic activity, against waste, against mammon," trumpeted the Harmony Alliance chairman Piesha Aziron in 1982, the year her party first attained a majority in Congress. Aziron became Speaker of Congress. "We celebrate a revolution of cabinet-makers and potters, people who earnestly pray, lazy people, hikers, people who enjoy beauty, people who want to take walks at the end of the day. This revolution opposes those who want to keep the bulldozers going day and night."

Bergonia’s name is borrowed from a 50s episode of Superman and has been developing over many years.

Bergonia >>

The Island of Ephemera
An island city whose leading industries are winemaking and bookbinding… Its attractions include a Vegetation Museum, the world's largest flea market, 'Pools of Certitude,' and a natural feature known as the Subterranean Honey Baths. 46% of its citizens are secular humanists. Residents believe that people who don’t read, can’tbe trusted. The description on the glossy travel brochure handed out at New York’s Central Station sounds too good to be true. It was too good to exist. In fact it was a school assignment.

"Can Design Touch Someone's Heart?" taught by the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister--assigned students to touch a community of people using design. While other students created murals and public-service posters, Spielman decided to bring a moment of levity to morning commuters and hit on the idea of a spoof travel brochure. Amanda Spielman’s project was deemed risky – but had unexpected results. More than 2 dozen people contacted her, wanting to know how they could buy tickets for a holiday on the island. "The best call was from this woman who said her husband is a big game hunter and he's looking for the largest moose he can find and does our island offer anything like that?"
Metropolis Magazine, The Ephemeral City >>
Via BLDGBlog >>
Download PDF brochure >>

Umbagollah
Umbagollah is written as a kind of travel diary / letters home / reference boook / non-linear fiction – the travels of a ypoung woman called Mariel Hatstand. Although not intended as a role-playing site, it has grown to become one.

The population of Umbagollah is quite small, and almost half of it lives in one of the two major cities. Ex is substantially more crowded than Gum Gooloo Gum Jublet, with the seaside port of Jail third and the underground town of Cumber Poidy running a distant fourth. Jail is Cumber Poidy's main point of contact with the mainland. An uncounted number of ferrypeople live on the River Fly. Most other Umbagollians live as farmers around Gum Gooloo or in the North-west Flatlands. Some make their homes in the forest, in the mountains or in the Falling Hills; many of these are mystics, hermits and outcasts.
The Great Big Book of Umbagollah," by Daens Resought, HG, Sc.Ast

Umbagollah >>
Imaginary Countries WebRing >>

Micronations
Micronations – sometimes also referred to as cybernations, fantasy countries, model countries, and new country projects – are entities that resemble independent nations or states, but which are unrecognized by them, and for the most part exist only on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators.

Micronations also differ from secession and self-determination movements in that they are largely viewed as being eccentric and ephemeral in nature, and are often created and maintained by a single person or family group.

Some micronations have managed to extend some of their operations into the physical world by issuing coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other items. Such trappings of "real" sovereign states are created as a way of seeking to legitimize the micronations that produce them.

The term "micronation" is a neologism originating in the 1990s to describe the many thousands of small, unrecognised state-like entities that have mostly arisen since that time. The term has since also come to be used retroactively to refer to earlier ephemeral unrecognised entities, some of which date as far back as the early 19th century.

The term "micropatrology" has been used to a limited extent since the 1970s to describe the study of both micronations and microstates. Micronational hobbyists sometimes refer to real sovereign nation-states as "macronations".

Micronations in Australia
Micronational activities were disproportionately common throughout Australia in the final three decades of the 20th century. The still-thriving Hutt River Province Principality was the first manifestation of the phenomenon; it was founded in 1970, when Leonard George Casley declared his farming property independent - and himself "Prince Leonard" - after a dispute over wheat quotas. 1976 witnessed the creation of the Province of Bumbunga on a rural property near Snowtown, South Australia, by an eccentric British monarchist named Alex Brackstone, while a German immigrant named Robert Neuman created the Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina in 1978 in a hamlet on the New South Wales north coast, before later relocating to a large rural property near Cooma. At around the same time an eccentric anti-taxation campaigner named John Charlton Rudge founded the Duchy of Avram in western Tasmania; "His Grace the Duke of Avram" later went on to become an elected member of the Tasmanian Parliament. In Victoria, a long-running dispute over flood damage to farm properties led to the creation of the Independent State of Rainbow Creek in the state's northeast by Tom Barnes in 1979, and mortgage foreclosure dispute led George and Stephanie Muirhead of Rockhampton, Queensland, to briefly and abortively secede as the Principality of Marlborough in 1993.

Another Australian secessionist state came into existence on 1 May 2003, when Peter Gillies declared the independence of his sixty-six-hectare northern New South Wales farm as the Principality of United Oceania after an unresolved year-long dispute with Port Stephens Council over Gillies's plans to construct a private residence on the property (see United Oceania).

The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands is a micronation established in 2004 as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in southeast Queensland Australia.

From Wikipedia on Micronations >>

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Experimenta New Visions Commissions 2006

Call for applications

For the 2007 exhibition Experimenta Play, Experimenta is commissioning new interactive works that allow the audience to play, and be played upon.

Up to $6,000 per project is available for emerging and mid-career Australian artists to create new interactive media art works for an exhibition of Australian and international media artworks to be launched in Melbourne in September 2007.

Extending ‘play’ beyond the realm of games, Experimenta is looking to commission works that have humorous and unexpected outcomes, involve an element of chance, toy with preconceptions and assumptions, provide a journey or an opportunity for discovery. Within this playfulness lies the potential for deviousness, trickery, teasing, surprise, humour, inversion/subversion and delight. What are the possibilities for playful new media artworks? How can we play with technology to create new experiences?

Sources of inspiration might come from traditional narratives, labyrinths, puzzles, everyday environments, re-imagined objects or activities, re-purposed toys. The commissions are for interactive media artworks that can be: audio/visual, installations that play with scale and perspective, immersive environments or small, intimate and object based.

Please visit www.experimenta.org to download the Guidelines and Application Form. Contact Emma McRae, Experimenta’s Curatorial and Project Coordinator to discuss your projects. emma@experimenta.org

There is no cost to apply and applicants need not be members of Experimenta Media Arts.

The closing date for applications is Friday 21 July 2006

www.experimenta.org

Experimenta is supported by the Australia Council, Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, Arts Victoria, The City of Melbourne and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory governments.

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