Ian Corcoran,
born Dublin, Rep of Ireland 1975.
Lives & works in Melbourne.

Education:
Media Arts RMIT University 2000.
Cert IV in Workplace Training Victoria University 2002

Ian Corcoran emigrated to Australia in 1991 and enrolled in Media Studies at RMIT in 1993. Deferring by phone he traveled back to Ireland and the States in 94. Returning to study he quickly joined as many media collectives as possible volunteering time & skills. Elected Catalyst editor in 96 he suddenly found his course work not as interesting as actual media work and concentrated on his photographic folio for a year.

A visit to East Timor in early 98 came from contact with the Timorese community in Melbourne and a desire to deliver some medical equipment & to image the Timor experience.

Cross-cultural, cross art form and interdisciplinary practice.
Gaining admittance to Media Arts at RMIT he majored in Fine Art imaging & Video Installation, with special regard to analogue/digital techniques in each field. Ian’s video work Interruption #7 and the Safe Haven? images shown at Internationally Unknown Artists graduate show at CCP contained the elements that inform his work now.
Interruption #7 concerns the dislocation of the Irish family and the impact the northern troubles have had upon that family.
The Safe Haven? images stemmed from a desire to run image-making workshops for Timorese on TPV’s in Puckapunyal after the 99 referendum. This was not allowed so, posing as a didgeridoo player, Ian documented the life in the camp, allowing the subjects to photograph the photographer.

Since 2001 Ian has undertaken many projects with Melbourne Citymission in the Footscray area, working with marginalized youth from diverse cultural backgrounds with outcomes such as comic books, websites and more recently large-scale urban projection.

These projects, combined with working with Ian de Gruchy as a production assistant on the ACCA open day, the ABAF awards and as a collaborator on the Morning Star Concert for West Papua has seen Ian push the limits of digital and analogue photography, video processes, projection and other forms of communication.

More recently Ian has worked in theatre as well as pixel mashing/ vjing in clubs & dance events engaging in live video performance/ manipulation as co-performer in Idle:eyes
.
Ian's recent project, (Local Migration), a collaboration with Hoang Tran Nguyen is a site-specific art project set in real-estate property in and around Footscray and the vacated Kensington Commission flats. Involving interior and exterior video projection onto the front windows and walls of these sites. (Local Migration) addresses the duality of globalisation; the movements of people and everyday practices amongst the agendas of gentrification and multinational corporations.

Selected projections

Truck Art, Projections in a truck in 4 local sites, Maribyrnong City Council, June 2004.
Local Migrations, Projections in Houses on the real estate market in Footscray, Next Wave Festival, Lead Artist with Hoang Tran Nguyen, May 2004.
Colliding Worlds Projection, Federation Square, Pani & Video projections, 2004 Next Wave Festival, Lead Artist, May 2004.
Port Pirie Projections, Pani & Video projection onto grain silos, Technical Assistant, May 2004.
Knox outcome of Colliding Worlds, Pani projections onto Knox Shopping Centre, Consultant Artist, April 2004.
Launch of Melbourne Fashion Festival Arts program, Fitzroy Town Hall, Video & Slide, Projection Artist, March 2004.
Projections on Nicholson St, project artist for Colliding Worlds, Bigwest Festival, November 2003.
Citysnaps reprise, rear truck projection, Bigwest Festival,Principal Artist, November 2003.
Yarraville: Speed of Light, projection, Yarraville festival, November 2002
Camera 3:Projecting Space by Ian de Gruchy. ACCA open day, Production Assistant, September 2002.
ABAF Awards, Flemington Racecourse, Production Assistant to Ian de Gruchy, October 2002.
Refugee Rights are Human Rights Symposium at Melb Town Hall, 2 video pieces using images from the RAC bus tour round Australia. Principal Artist, May 2002

Life of the City.
Principal Artist & Secured funding.
A program of artist workshops with young people, channelling their creative energies into a productive image-making project. This culminated in a series of large-scale projections onto Trades Hall. With Simon Maidment. Part of the Next Wave festival, a partnership between Melbourne City Council and Melbourne Citymission. November 2001 - May 2002.

Lay of the Land.
A short program of artist workshops resulting in a large-scale projection onto Natimuk Grain Silos part of the Colony performance. Thanks to Yspace and Horsham Secondary College. What is Art? Horsham Fringe Festival, Natimuk, Principal Artist, March - April 2002.

Selected Projection for Performance

Two Tribes, Melbourne Park, Live video performance, Hardware Room, April 2004.
Morning Star Concert for West Papua Live video/slide performance at Melbourne Concert Hall, February 2003.
Fronteras Americanas, Blackbox Theatre, Video ops & installation, May 2003.
War of the Worlds 2039; 45 min vcd documentary of party & VJ, Sep 2003.
Beat Beat Beat, Fringe festival, Video ops & installation, September 2003.
Two Tribes, Melbourne Park, Live video performance, Hardware Room, April 2003.
Hardware Universe @ Kryal Castle, Live Video performance, March 2003.
Resident pixel masher at Dexploitation Hip Hop Night, various venues, 2002 – 2003.

Awards
Prime Minister Awards for Community Business Partnerships:
National Award winner: The Comic Book Project, 2002.
ACUMA Design Award, Best Orientation Handbook, 1997.

Works Published:

Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within, Vulgar Press, 2004.
Heartwork: great arts stories from regional Australia, Australia Council, 2004.

Interviews:
Radio National : The Deepend, You wash I Dry – interview about my practice.
Arts Alive – Nationally syndicated arts show – interview about EPIC.