iancorcoran.com

June 29th
So a quick visit to Edinburgh to deliver a talk at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW).

I had a bit of hassle coming through the airport due to G8 coming into town & my beard methinks. Hooked up with Jaqui MacNamee who I met at the Res Artis conference last year.

Nice city Edinburgh, if it wasn’t for the security due to the rally this weekend.

They have a Camera Obscura, which was deemed too touristy for me - mabe next time - it was quite pricey also - over a tenner.

Had dinner with Irene Kernan, the Director of ESW and her partner, both of which are from Ireland working in the theatre area. The new building at ESW will have a projection wall

June 30th

Spent the day checking out the Museum & geting ready for my talk.
About 25 - 30 people turned up, nice numbers and over half hung back for a more detailed background into projection and how i incorporate it into my ccd practice.
There is talk of getting me back to do some workshops with ESW with the resident artists and doing some projections for the Leith festival.

Many thanks to Jackie & Irene and all who came to the talk - hope to see you soon.

July 1st

Back to london today, on a stupid flight as I couldn’t book an overnite train from edinburgh to london without being in edinburgh two weeks before to get the cheap rate - and they call the irish backward.

July 2nd
Caught up with Rosie & Fab formerly of Experimenta Lynette Wallworth & Dave Carson.

A regular downunder new media invasion of London. I am now truly destroyed, body doesn’t know whether it is coming or going.

July 3rd

Leaving for home today - thank god I have web access on the laptop.

July 5th
Managed to run into Tristian Koneig in a bar in Tokyo airport of course.
The trip has opened a lot of doors for me - but now onto ExperimentaLAB.

June 27th - Diagio Digital Hub

Got up early (again) and took the Luas into town. The Luas is a tram system that Dublin should have had years ago, most of it runs along the canal when in gets to inchicore - only takes minutes to get into town. It snakes up the back of St James Hospital (where i was born & then past Guinness’s and around the back of the four courts.) I got off on thomas st where i had a meeting with Justine Murphy and Elaine Parsons from The Digital Hub.

I found out about this place whilst doing a bit of googling about Dublin - i typed in New Media and Community Cultural development and hey presto. I was also planning to visit the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham but they never responded to my emails, I was hoping to meet the person in charge of residencies. That was the main thrust of me coming to Dublin, Reed Everingham had suggested that I look into doing a project overseas so I lined up the meeting accordingly.

I walked up & down Thomas St - couldn’t find it. Finally asked one of the locals, she could see I was lost & she told me where it was, her son had done one of thier workshops. I had walked past it twice, it’’s very close to the St Jame’s Gate & accross the road from the old windmill.

The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international digital enterprise centre in the heart of Dublin city. Although essentially an enterprise project, The Digital Hub is also an urban regeneration project, and has a specific community and education remit.
Diagio Liberties Learning Initiative Delivered by the Digital Hub - Publication.

The digital Hub are now sponsored by Diagio, the company formerly known as Guinness. The Guinness family have had a long history of philanthropy in Dublin ini the areas of public housing and hospitals (I was born in St James Hospital which backs onto the brewery - my fathers side of the family have worked for Guninness’)
http://www.gallot.co.nz/Guinness/Edward_Cecil_Guinness.htm

So it was great to see a innovative form of their philanthropy being used to bridge the digital divide. The run several programs most of which intersect with my interests in working with community & overlap with the model I have built into ExperimentaLAB (www.experimenta.org/experimentalab).

Programs

Community Program
This program gives the local community access to digital technology. Working with a community capacity building organisation they also utilise a “train the trainer” program to ensure long-term viability of the project (there you are now julie).
The main aims of this program are to:
Address the digital divide
Support local community educational initiatives through hosting train the trainer courses.
provide access to a range of community focused courses through the learning studio
Empower the local community to implement digital media programmes in their own communities
Ensure that schools and community programs complement each other so as to ensure support for children and young people outside the school environment

Schools Program

Again a program that works within primary & secondary schools to address the digital divide. They cover literacy, provide equipment, provide professional development and training to teachers, integrate digital media into the education curriculum, advise local schools on careers in the digital media sector with a view to opening pathways to further education and to ensure that all children of the local areas have access to the facilities.

Enterprising Learning Program

Again like Ars Electronica in Linz, the irish have made a conscious decision to integrate entrepreneurial elements in their program to make new areas for work that complement their community work - why do all this work if there are no jobs at the end. of the day??
In fact it became very clear whilst on this trip that Australia has a very short sighted approach to digital media & the new economy. If Australia wants to carry on digging massive holes in the ground exporting the dirt & buying it back value added - whilst - mind you digging another dirty great hole in ground & burning it to make power - we are going to be living in a banana republic. I really feel - and will probably wear some shit for this - that ACMI really has missed the point of it’s existence. The programs that have been cut out due to budget constraints are really short sighted - do we really need another museum - i still have yet to see the outreach actually having real and lasting outcomes. Now this may be due to the lack of outside funding but personally I find ACMI an impenetrable fortress that has turned in on itself.

RANT OVER

Enterprising Learning Program

This program aims to enhance the development of the sector by addressing skill gaps, monitor trends and advise on how to meet these needs as it develops locally, nationally and internationally. They also host digital media events, deliver a range of digital media courses and sponsor (oh yes) activities in digital media.

Showcasing Program

And yes they also have an exhibition program - notice how it isn’t the main role of the Hub? No it complements all the other programs & fits snugly within everything - oh gawd I am so glad I came home - i really haven’t been banging my head against a wall for five years. If you really want to create a culture within new media in urban centers - it has to based within working class culture & support & nurture it to fruition.

Diagio Liberties Learning Studio

A lot of the work above is carried out through the studio. Set up in 2002 they have just taken over the space used by MIT Europe after they pulled out last year. I weep at the amount of gear they have access to.

Ok there a couple of extra things before i carry on about my tour of the space:

They have set up broadband for all the local schools using power-line technology to pipe internet into 1950’s style classrooms. Using the power network to deliver the internet!!

They run digital storytelling for free!! www.thedigitalhub.com/storytelling

Run a claymation program as Gailge (for you anglos: in Irish).

Have a whole course based in Digital Control Technology making stories under the headings of Story, Myth and Legend.

They have a Digital Beat programme allows participants to take digital images, record digital sounds and learn how to combine these to make short videos. Some of the work was broadcast on RTE news.

And last but not least Digirhythm. This project allows the participants weekly sessions to create rap music with high end digital equipment. Participants learn the basics and are then given opportunity to write and record their own rap/song lyrics to accompany the backing track they had produced.
www.thedigitalhub.com/learning/digirhythm.asp

I spoke to the digitalhub about the work i had done in this area & the fact the ozco had dissolved the boards into a different form. I really do hope that some real change comes out of this new setup, because if we don’t we are going to hhaemorrhage artists/artsworkers overseas to initiatives that we can dovetail into quite easily.

The Tour

Well then I was given a tour of the space - it is huge. There was a show being bumped in that had 100 booths that had 100 actors in each booth - you spent time with each booth for five mins & you made the narrative as you moved around. that was about 10% of the space I saw. Wait for the pics - when i work it out

June 28th

Couldn’t be arsed going to kilmainham after the success of yesterday. Actually went to my my old school to visit past teachers & hopefully give a talk about my work to the kids.Colaiste Caomhîn is still the same- except without Christian Brothers, apparently all the good ones left after the sex scandles in the mid nineties. I gave a talk to my old second class teachers class. The kids were going to go to the gym to practice wrestling moves on each other (it was the day before 2 long months of holidays) and weren’t to impressed with this exstudent who was going to give a talk. Though I had them hanging on my everyword after 2 mins of the presentation. Met my old 3rd & 5th & 6th class teachers who brought out the old school rolebooks.

There I was as gailge with everyday marked in or out. We went through all the past students with Mr Costelloe and Mr Hayes - some sad stories some good ones too - I really want to do a projection there - it is a natural amphitheater - we shall see.

Dublin June 25th

And so managed to fly Aer Fungus (sorry Aer Lingus) to Dublin direct in just under two hours, got me Irish soda bread and a cup of black tea to tide me over till I got to Dublin late afternoon. As we came in you could see the crowds around Croke Park for U2’s show - managed to find myself following them around the Europe - but nary a sign of a ticket. (The stage show looks fantastic - though not as bombastic as the ZooTV/Zooropa tour that hit Australia in 1993 - one of the reasons I became a video artist)

My Uncle Henry met me at the airport & we had to triangulate our way to Inchincore by driving away from Dublin turning in at the red cow - the traffic was so bad because of the U2 gig that the Navan road had backed up the whole Motorway. Ahh some things never change in Dublin. (now there will a couple of Dublin based landmarks mentioned mainly for my folks & friends - so humour me non dunliners)

Henry had lined me up accomodation with his friend Irish muscian/producer Mairé Breathnach - again amazing and gernerous hospitality. Mairé has produced many albums and has also produced the music with a japanese artists for Final Fantasy IV. We only got to talk on the sunday as she was playing at Eric Stoltz’s wedding in the north the day i arrived.

She was of to teach a masterclass on the monday at Limerick Uni but was very interested in the projects mentioned in the Ars Futurelab blog - see below.
Mairé has also allowed me to use any of her music in my projects!!! (I maybe able to finish the “in the snug with Thomas Magee” project soon - the music being the missing link for three years).

Hey Folks,
have been in Warrnambool from July 10th to the 14th editing & finalising the xlab project.
Got really bad food poisoning on wednesday night that had me layed up with a fever that left my skin painful to touch - no painkillers & I was the sole parent that night. Very messy.
Still really queasy - off pizza forever - I wouldn’t have minded only wasn’t it vegetarian!!! (mit salami)
So hopefully tonight I can finish off the whole thing - have activated the images space - just have to get my head around HTML (oh oh I hate markup language) to get them there.
Thanks for hanging in there.
cheers
ian

June 23rd - June 24th - June 25th
I got in late to Vienna after a longer day than expected in Linz.
Met up with my brother in law Patrick at the pension organised for me by the Pani people - again the beginning of another period of amazing hospitality.

I spent the first day giving a talk to the Research & Development guy - rudolf -about my work with really old pani gear in australia. I showed the projects I have worked on with Simon Maidment & Malcom McKinnon. Apparently the work I have done with these guys including video (Colliding Worlds & Talking silos ) is unique & no-one else is doing it anywhere else in the world!!.

I was given a full tour of the factory & new technology they have been developing. When I mentioned that I had been using the AMD 15 they shuddered. Pani was bought out by the present owners in 2000, which has meant a big change in the company. Pani now hire gear out to people - until then you had to fight to buy gear & then there was a lack of support.

The gear we have access to in Australia (BP4 & BP6) are not of the CT model. To the lay person a BP 2.5 CT is as bright as the BP4 I have used extensively in aus!!.
As such the BP4 CT & BP6 CT are also twice as bright than the old series.

Pani have developed a scrolling head unit that will give motion across a projection space, much like a pigi only with extra benefits. I learnt the difference between an HMI lighting arc as opposed to Xenon.

In layman’s terms the difference lies in the arc (the electrical light given through the globe) is smaller in HMI compared to “the other” - the (flicker in animation) is seen by the eye by a bigger arc. Whilst a pigi usually uses movement you cannot see this defect, but in a still image the eye picks it up. The pani tech doesn’t suffer from this because of the smaller arc.

I was shown a whole load of new developments which of course I cannot talk about. Rudolf also gave me three ways in which to discern the unit needed for each situation depending on the incident light to make the image scream (email me if you would like to know this info). I saw the Compact Scroller CS70, which takes a 13m slide which allows you to have 72 slides mounted in the unit or for movable scenes. You differentiate new slides through the use of stuck on indicators.

I then met with Marcus Sautter CEO of the company & discussed my practice, the state of play regarding projection in Australia and his future plans for the company. Once again a gracious host he took us around Vienna to see some of the permanent installations Pani have done. The first we saw was onto the back of an IMAX theatre using the Pani Spartacus BP4CT with a carousel slide changer in a specially designed outdoor housing. The Spartacus housing is a pared bag pani with no badges or with the adjustments on the bottom as they are designed for permanent installation, this also brings the costs down. This unit has been in operation for over a year in both extreme cold and hot conditions with no problems. (Well they had to dig the snow from around the projection window - but that was all.) Another feature designed by Rudolf, is the GSM feature that sends an sms to your phone should there be a problem with the unit! The unit also starts & stops itself at 8 until midnight.

Next day
I was brought to the testing unit with a BP4 CT with the Carousel Slide Changer that doesn’t require a lighting desk - you just bang in the slide time & it controls the new dissolve unit (doesn’t use glass!!) and will run forever. It takes 12 slides and mounts around the projector. They used it in Dubai recently & didn’t lock the gear down before a massive sand storm. The gear was full of sand & after a wee spray of air the projector/changer worked perfectly.

I did a series of tests with slides from Talking Silos taking EV readings of the highlights & mid-tones to compare with the original dvd on the Eslide.

The Eslide is not marketed by Pani as part of their outdoor projection line - it is to be used to create your perspective correction on the fly before making your slides. It also gives you a chance to test different images before a show. The unit slides easily onto the projector, much like the manual slide changer & has vga, composite and S video connectors.

The unit takes 90% of the light thrown by the projector which makes it a 4500 ansi lumens unit on a BP 6CT. Now having just restaged Talking Silos with Malcolm for the Bundaleer, we staged the gig with 2 NEC XT5000 units with standard zoom lenses. Set up side by side we got an image 20m x 15m and the image was quite brilliant (they are rated at 4000 ansi lumens on economy mode). I was going to double stack them should there be a problem with incident light - which of course there was none.

So for Australian Bush conditions I reckon the Eslide is a goer - there is also the advantage of having a super wide angle projector (full silo projections with one unit). I reckon I have an application or two for it. It was so easy to use - and second generation promises to be full of better features.

So after a day of testing Marcus suggested that I try using glass slides. I tested them and whilst they gave the same EV readings in the highlights & shadows they looked about 2 stops brighter - I guess not going through a film base means better transfer of light. He gave Patrick and I a glass slide each and used the Reprolux Colors. Using special hardened glass we spent the late afternoon painting away like kids. I painted the colours on too thick but found using the glass slide quite cathartic & will look into using them in the near future - possibly even for Perth.

I was given a whistle-stop tour of Vienna as I made a passing comment about not having seen any of Vienna to Marcus. He quickly rectified that showing us the projection installation onto the main newspaper there. They have a large projection of a slide on one side and a video projection of the front page of the newspaper which changes every half hour as the front page is chopped and changed.

The next day Marcus was off with the rest of his staff to the Midsummer Festival in Budapest to work with the Raypainting guys (a 38 pani show - oh yes 38 projectors) and Marcus offered to drive me to the airport and drive Patrick to the show in Budapest (where he Dj’d and had full access to VIP area). I helped marcus load a couple of condensers into his car and found we had less than 35 mins to get me on my flight to Dublin. So driving along the ring road at 130-km an hour & making calls to the Aer Lingus Marcus got me on my flight safely and with a couple of mins to spare.

Thanks very much to all the guys at Pani - Marcus, Rudolf and Bernard who I neglected to mention in the above blog, hopefully we will see you all in Australia soon.

As you may have guessed I am back in Melbourne & trying desperately to finish the blog & upload the pics.
I got back tuesday arvo & have had the worst jetlag ever.

Bit shocked after the bombings I awoke from my slumber to watch yesterday night. Have been doing xlab stuff at Experimenta & am off to Warrnambool tomorrow.

Finding it quite wierd that I have from last week a 12 page liftout about Live 8 & this weekend a 12 page liftout about the bombings. Anyhow on with the blog.

Christopher also made time on the 20th to give a quick overview of the futuremuseum.
Ars Electronica make a complete new piece of work for this space every year.
The current work is all about gaming and creating virtual worlds. As you go through the works their is an obvious interconnectedness to everything which makes the experience more rewarding and engaging.

You can make a work from marla and make a 3d scan of it. It then becomes a part of a virtual landscape that you can transport around the room & include in the show. Using a tablet pen on a plasma screen you can then create objects for your space like trees etc. These are transported around on non specific memory cards (manufactured by Ars Electronica??)

Finding yourself at a green screen area you can then can become a character in the planet you are creating. Depending on your body attitude you gain an attitude score. (cloud for angry sun for happy - I got a little sun). You transport your file around in a little box. You then pick up other virtual characters in little boxes like yours & let them out into the virtual world. But first you have to create the landscape using a brush you pick up water & paint into onto a half sunk sphere. You spin the sphere around to create the whole earthscape. I have to admit I felt a little like Slartibartfast (hitchhikers guide) though i didn’t have time to dome some very delicate fjords Jackie .

By letting the characters out of their boxes they become distressed if you move the boxes from the initial freedom point until they find them again. They interact with the other four characters & you in the space. check out their website of this piece the majority of the interaction came projection & ccd camera technology. The final piece gave you the chance to fly through the space as your character in stereoscopic 3d. Using similar technology to compliant (HOT tour 2003-5) but with obvious updates.
And this was only one part of the museum.

2nd day
Of course Christopher had no time to show me around but booked me into the digital cave & got me free entry into the rest of the museum.

As you enter the space there is scaelectrix course where you where an obscenely sized crash helmet & are given a microphone. You get to drive the cars around the course by making the noise of F1 motor vehicles-!! Very very silly - when you crash the car, by not gearing down your voice the obscenely sized helmet shakes you as if you have crashed - quite disorientating.

The digital cave is a stereoscopic projection space which showcases the best of the immersive game engine content made by Ars Electronica. I found the ant nest & the virtual Linz the best bits. The space can hold up to 35 people in an immersive space - the server was a bit buggy on the day so we only got see a few things.

The nasa stuff.
Now as you enter this space you see some crazy plasma shape projections that look like a liquid Darth Vader mask. On closer viewing there is a large industrial magnet over some kind of liquid that becomes shaped the waves the magnet throws out. Amazing. Apparently it is some kind of space age tech lubricant.

The front of Ars Electronica also has airconditioned housings for wrap around projections of the building which stream content form the servers when needs be. Last time they were used they had glowworms which reacted to people going past the space using ccd cameras..

In conclusion Ars Electronica really blew me away; with the work conditions for the staff, the quality of the work and the amount of money earned through commercial applications of new media technology which is poured back into artists. Quite sad really that Australia is so far behind, financially wise, considering we are considered such world leaders in New Media art. I would also like a special mention for Christopher who put me up for my stay there: considering his workload I really appreciate the time spent showing me around & he genuinely respects Australian New Media art.

Linz June 20th
Got to linz in the afternoon and was put up by the director Christopher.
He took me to a graduate VJ performance which was great.
Met lots of people who had been to Melbourne. Christopher was bigging up Experimenta especially the email bulletin Charity.

Next day we went to Ars Electronica’s Futurelab - their commercial wing. They do about 70 - 90 projects on top of Ars Electronica Festival and their museum of the future!!!!!! They employ over 200 people across all their programs. He was very generous with his time as were the New Media artists programmers.

I saw some of the work in progress which I can’t talk about which once again are jaw droppingly good. I can comment on a stereoscopic projection they did for a wagner opera last year that was stereoscopic HD projections. They stage was fucking huge - and get this the images were video software that responded to the different characters in the opera & played in realtime! Amazing - there is a link somewhere on the website.

Futurelab is where a lot of revenue is raised.

Ok I have been 2 hours in edinburgh writing this blog & the weather is glorious so I will finish this later. cheers
ian

London June 17
Flight wasn’t too bad - celebrated my birthday with Bernard and friends at a Karaoke lounge which had the pixies!!!! Gave debaser a good bash (couldn’t speak the next day). Was poured onto the shinkansen & made the flight easy.
Japan blew my mind & a real big thank you to Bernard for putting me up (putting up with me?) and being such a great guide.
Had dinner with Rosie and alex to finish my bday & collapsed to bed.

June 18
Woke up the next day at 5-am - yes I know a minor miracle.
Went for a walk around town with my new digital SLR - which has really changed my photography capturing images for the archive.

Ended up at Buckingham palace by mistake so made a beeline for the war cabinet.
Cost a tenner but it was the only thing open - but found a gem of projection: The Churchill museum.

There was more projectors than you could shake a stick at. Some nice uses of projections onto still pictures which really intrigues me at the moment.

The stand out was a line of 17 roof mounted DLP projectors on a long table triggered by touch-pads that allowed you to open detailed files about events in Churchill’s life. The standout happened when you opened the folder on Hiroshima. The whole table erupted into a massive mushroom cloud. Nice find that one.

Met up with Rosie & went to Whitechapel & a new gallery near there run by a work colleague. Saw some interesting work by an american artist who works with homeless or people with metal health issues. He utilizes the Kmart 14 day camera hire technique in making his work. Really engaging projection - need to get him to oz. The space curates work every two weeks both internationally and local. I will post a link when I find the paper.

Whitechapel had a great show about black artists. Saw a really amazing video/sound piece that used records sleeves scanned in. Gage you would have really liked it. The gallery is in a place like Footscray and was full of locals - They run some really innovative programs - I think Footscray Community Arts Centre could take a leaf out of there book.

Went to the TATE which stayed open until 10pm. Saw a great show with Hans Haacke and Beuys stuff !!!!!!!!. Have to admit that some of galleries were light on content but ces’t le vie.

June 19th
Went to Saatchi museum with the Supercollector book (a critique of the Saatchis) and demanded a discount. The guy gave me a funny look as I left it on the counter. Sattchi has now gone into painting since the fire & since Hirst bought all his work back off him.

Saw an interesting Austrian artist who runs crazy retreats near Linz at his Castle (!!!) for six days which involves a lot of visceral bloodlike paintings. I also saw some painting by a Dutch artist of pictures of deprived kids with big eyes that look at you in a way that implicates you in their poverty - amazing. WIll post names later. Tomorrow Linz.