Making marks in an expressive way - exercise 1

A Creative Approach — Project 1 Marking marks — Stage 2 — Exercise 1 — Making marks in an expressive way

Stage 2 - Exercise 1
Making marks based on the words: fast, slow, hard, sharp, soft, delicate, bumpy, smooth, sensuous, sad, happy using a variety of pencils

The first exercise we had to make marks using the theme words. I did this in my A3 book. For this exercise I used an HB pencil, charcoal, and a watercolour pencil

For the first page, I tried one square for each word:
markmaking-full01r

Then I changed to using one A3 page per word for a few selected words.

fast:
markmaking-full02r

slow:
markmaking-full03r

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Joanna Fowles - Sydney textiles designer

this morning I read the articles that had arrived in my inbox and webpages overnight and discovered a talented Sydney based textiles designer called Joanna Fowles via this article in TDF (the design files). Joanna is originally from the UK, though has lived in Australia previously - when she did a year-long TAFE screenprinting course. she then returned to England where she studied textile design at Chelsea College of Art. I love her geometric designs - featuring many large and overlapping dots. she specializes in Shibori dyeing and printing, using the Shibori indigo as well as other colours to create her scarves and fabrics. I notice Fowles also has a design featured in the wonderful "Digital Textile Design" book by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac, which "covers everything students and practitioners of textile design will need to learn about designing and printing digitally".

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"From Field to Publication" - Douglas Quin workshop

"From Field to Publication" - Douglas Quin workshop

On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 June Quin will present a workshop "From Field to Publication".

During the workshop Quin will discuss audio equipment and field recording techniques and share with workshop participants his approaches to recording wildlife and natural soundscapes in environments around the world. Later, aspects of production such as the translation of recordings and experiences for publication in avenues such as films, games, artistic exhibitions and historical exhibits will also be discussed.

This workshop will be ideal for emerging and midcareer composers, sound designers, naturalists and artists with an interest in music and the arts of sound.

Places are limited and we will make selections by an Expression of Interest (EOI) process.
Residents from around Australia are encouraged to apply. Please note that residents of NSW will have the opportunity to access our ‘WIRED EARS’ (Emerging Artist Residency Scheme) subsidy program, which will assist them with the costs of attending the workshop, which will be held onsite at The WIRED Lab.

WHEN:
Sat 16 June, 10am - 3pm
Sun 17 June 10am - 1pm
Lunch provided by The WIRED Lab, BYO recording equipment

FUNDING FOR NSW ARTISTS

WIRED EARS The WIRED EAR Scheme provides financial assistance for emerging and mid career artists from NSW to attend WIRED Lab workshops and initiatives. For this intensive masterclass The WIRED Lab will be offering funding support to assist 10-12 emerging artists with the costs to attend the masterclass. Artists who consider themselves to be "emerging" or "mid career" are invited to submit a brief expression of interest (EOI) detailing their arts practice and how they feel they will benefit from being a WIRED EARS participant.

On your EOI please cite the cost of your return travel to/from Cootamundra NSW and keep your EOI to one A4 page. Also note that we don't follow the standard age determined definitions of "emerging" we expect you to determine where you place your practice and experience. Interdisciplinary artists are encouraged to apply.

WIRED EARS is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW, the scheme is currently offered to NSW based artists, we have offered WIRED EARS nationally in the past and hope to do this in the new FY.

WIRED EARS expressions of interest are due Monday 28 May
(places will be confirmed no later than Friday 1 June)

To obtain an EOI form and for more information email: workshops at wiredlab dot org

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Burramatta Family Fun Day (NAIDOC week)

Burramatta Family Fun Day

Sunday 8 July 2012
10:00am - 3:00pm
Prince Alfred Park, Parramatta

The traditional owners of Parramatta, the Dharug People, invite you, your family and friends to join them in their NAIDOC Week celebrations. Everyone is invited to this free event featuring kid's amusements, live entertainment, free workshops and bush food and bush medicine displays!

Workshops:

- Traditional Tree Painting
- Taronga Zoo, Australian Animals Display
- Didgeridoo playing workshops
- Rock and Boomerang painting
- Traditional Basket weaving
- NSW Rugby League and AFL workshops
- Aboriginal Dance

Entertainment
Get ready for an action packed day of live entertainment highlighting Australia's rich Indigenous heritage.

Live music program featuring:
- Shellie Morris
- The Stiff Gins
- Sharnee Fenwick
- Microwave Jenny
- Col Hardy
- Marcus Corowa

visit the Burramatta Family Day event page for more details

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Stop the NT Intervention Rally, Sydney 16th June 2012

On Saturday 16th June 2012, at 12 midday, there will be a "Stop the NT Intervention - Stop the expansion" rally in Bankstown at Paul Keating Park. For more background information on this important issue, please visit the Stand for Freedom websites : I Stand for Freedom page on facebook + Stand for Freedom external site, as well as the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples facebook page.

details about the rally via the Stop the NT Intervention website. there is also a facebook event for the rally:

Stop the NT Intervention - Stop the expansion

Rally 12pm June 16th,

Paul Keating Park, Bankstown

View Larger Map

Not in Bankstown, not in the NT, not anywhere - say NO to government income management

Stop 'Stolen Futures' laws - no to another decade of discrimination

Speakers include:

George Gaymarani Pascoe, Milingimbi, NT
Larissa Behrendt, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning UTS
Rosie Pearson, Yirrkala community, NT
Representatives from the Bankstown Coalition

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Engage Media : Videomakers For Change

Engage Media has done incredible work in documenting some of the stories of people & communities in Asia. Some of my favs are the Punks who use their music to do activism and help their communities, and the amazing work Andrew Garton has done with Sarawak, documenting how their traditional lives in forest communities has been changed & is at risk of being lost.

They are crowdfunding via pozible to help more video journalists attend Camp Sambel this year, for training.

It's just over half way funded, pls help it get through, & spread the word to your friends. I think the world needs to hear more of these Voices - they're doing important work

http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/4673/description/0/0

visit the pozible page for more details, or read more.

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Thanks to all who donated to #Funds4DaMasta - AUCTIONS HAVE STARTED

Thanks to all who donated to #Funds4DaMasta

The Auction is now live @ http://search.ebay.com.au/?sass=aliak77&ht=-1 or visit http://funds4damasta.tumblr.com

Once again, the cream of the crop of Australia's hip-hop community has banded together to offer some rare and exclusive items up for auction in benefit of a good cause… This time for our good friend and fellow musical brother in hip hop; MC, DJ & turntablist, DA MASTA who has been enduring a long-term battle with cancer. 100% of the profits (amount raised minus ebay & paypal fees) of the items sold in this auction will go directly to the DA MASTA to help with medical bills, living expenses and aid in the release of his forthcoming album.

A lot of the items up for auction are one offs and rarities kindly donated from all corners of Australia, friends, artists and peers have all chipped in, so reach deep, as cancer is a horrible disease that has a further reach than just the hip-hop community, along with the recent loss of Australian hip-hop icon MC Hunter (RIP).

The support and donations have been overwhelming and your bids are appreciated. If you do not happen to be able to bid, and want to make a donation, alternate details will be posted soon where you can directly contribute to DA MASTA. This auction was put together by DJ Sheep and being overseen by Reason and AliaK.

We'd like to send our special thanks to all who have donated items for these auctions:

360
Bigfoot
Blue Corner Records (DJ Damage & DJ Sheep)
Chris @ Soulmate Records
Chris Kelly (Adicts / Sunday Scratch Jamboree)
Crate Cartel Records
Debate (Train Of Thought)
DJ Damage
DJ Sheep
Down For The Count Records
Elefant Traks
Evolve
Evolve & Mids
Face (SSF / Smoke Screen Family)
Fizzy Fizz
Funkoars
Hams
Hilltop Hoods and Golden Era Records
Horrorshow
Jacquey (Weird Gear)
Joe Resetar
Kevin Riddell
Lau and MarleyBear on behalf of SBX
Len-1
LookUP crew, Bingethinkers, That's Them & Sarm
Mata & Must / Pang Productions
Matty Fresh & DJ Damage
Media Fortress
Minimal Aesthetics Records
Mortar / Clandestien
Nikk-C
Porsah Laine
Ran MC
Realizm
Smokescreen Family (Da Masta)
Soul Clap Records
Soulmate Records
Southside Custom Ink
Stealth Collection (Mark Pollard via/& AliaK)
Steven Baillie
The Masta (SSF)

Many thanks from the #Funds4DaMasta team.

http://funds4damasta.tumblr.com

Fundraiser Auction for The Masta

The Brisbane turntablists and hip hop community are organizing a fundraiser for The Masta (The Master / Da Masta / Jason Belzer) (twitter tag #Funds4DaMasta) who is also suffering from cancer. Initially they are asking for people to donate items for the eBay auctions - details below.

*** Update 19-20/12/2011 - THE AUCTION IS NOW LIVE @ http://search.ebay.com.au/?sass=aliak77&ht=-1 ***

the auction has started! all the profits will be sent to The Masta to help ease his battle with cancer - already an amazing response - from such high quality & often rare donations, to people spreading the word, and bidding on items. still a few items to put up, but the majority are there. thanks so much to everyone involved - it feels like the whole Australian hip hop community has come together to help with this. (I will add more to the tumblr site over next few days) auctions run for another 9-10days - there's a range of items (& some aren't hip hop, if that's not your thing). I think there's something for everyone. single items & packs - if you can't afford one item, maybe consider doing a 'joint bid' with another/few people. &/or help spread the word. all help is greatly appreciated!! http://search.ebay.com.au/?sass=aliak77&ht=-1 is the direct ebay link

http://funds4damasta.tumblr.com

I remember seeing The Master DJ at gigs and in competitions (eg DMC & ITF) in Brisbane in the 1990s and early 2000s. He always had the flair to entertain the audience with crowd pleasing moves. At the time there was a fair bit of rivalry between some of the turntablists - there were battles between DJ Angus / Bribe and The Master. Angus was a friend of mine so I always went for him of course, but I thought The Master was a good turntablist too - his skills often had the crowds cheering. I remember seeing them battle it out on the decks at Rics in the Valley and at the bar in Paddington (which I've just forgotten the name of, will update when I remember).

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I have a copy of his "From Dole Cheques to Rolex" album also, which I'd discovered a couple of years after its release (as I'd left Brisbane officially in mid 2001, though traveled back there often throughout 2001 on weekend trips) - it's a great cd, once again, very entertaining. He's also one of the fastest Australian rappers that I've heard. His raps on this album are very funny, but in the same way a little sad in that there always seems to have been something going wrong in his life or a quirky situation in his lyrics. It's good he handled it with humour though. He used to have really long hair back then - a Samson-like character. Or an Australian version of a Philip K Dick book character, the Aussie battler.

Hunter used to speak about him very fondly on twitter - we had a few chats about his CD and DJing and Hunter would sing his praises. I found some of his tweets from 6th & 7th April 2011 - this was one occasion - I'd sent Jason a message on facebook to see if he'd like to do a video for turntabletag and had mentioned it to Hunter - he told some stories and talked about some music they were working on together. I know he wanted to help the Masta also, and mentioned that he spoke to him on the phone often. The Master lives in Melbourne now - MC Reason has posted on twitter too that he's gone over to Jason's place to help support him, and I've heard Bigfoot has been a great support also. It's just a heartbreaking situation, and we've already lost too many good people with Hunter's passing.

Mez' book of Mezangelle - human readable messages

Mez has been writing mezangelle / code poetry / netwurks on mail lists and the web since the 1990s. Trauma Wien Art Club has released a new book of Mez' mezangelles from 2003-2011 called "human readable messages - mezangelle 2003-2011" The book will be available at the Trauma Wien site, and also be on amazon in January 2012 (technically December 31st, but with the time difference in Australia, check in January) For those who can't wait (like me), it's also available from Lulu. There's a preview of the book on the Lulu page, including the table of contents. There are mezangelles with titles such as, "_Sub.Mission[s]_", "_Squashed Tele.biology_", "_Dream Fullscreen_" and many more.

Florian Cramer has described mezangelle as (from netwurker.de) :

[quote]As florian cramer says: “The beauty of "mezangelle" is that it uses elements of programming language syntax as material, i.e. reflecting formal programming language without being one. For the reader of mez's "netwurks", it remains all the more an open question whether the "mezangelle" para-code of parentheses and wildcard characters only mimics programming languages or is, at least partially, the product of programmed text filtering.”. Jim Andrews asserts that: “The term 'code poetry' has been used in connection with Mez's writing…as in using the devices often found in computer languages (like deep bracketing) and applying them meaningfully to natural language. These devices, in computer languages, are often used to represent data structures in code (like trees or other 'graphs') and also manage processes on these data structures (like insertion/deletion/tree balancing). Mez takes these ways of representing often non-linear structures and introducing/managing process in these structures and applies/deranges them in natural language--there is little computer language in her work. Like the text contains its own neath text.” les schaffer’s take on mezangelle is “mez's style is just the most delightful play on coding. I think of her as a cross between James Joyce and... Larry Wall – author of the Perl programming language and a linguist by training.....". [/quote]

Neil Gaiman & FourPlay String Quartet

NEIL GAIMAN
Supported by FourPlay String Quartet
WED 28 DEC @ 8:00PM

Neil Gaiman is best known as a writer, he's been a bestselling writer for over twenty years. He's won awards for his books and stories and comics, from the Hugo and Nebula to the Carnegie Award. He's also a famed and accomplished reader of his own work: his reading of his novel “The Graveyard Book” was awarded the Audie Book of the Year (The Audies are the Oscars of the Audiobook world).

His last Australian performance was a sold out Sydney Opera House appearance for the Graphic Festival, with famed Australian string quartet, FourPlay and the inestimable Eddie Campbell where he read an hour-long story w/ prepared visuals to an enraptured audience.

He recently completed a sold out American tour with his wife, Amanda Palmer. He read and she sang. This time he’ll be appearing both alone and with FourPlay reading stories and poems, things unpublished and things beloved.

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Robert Rich in Sydney

Robert Rich - Medicine Box: Ultima Thule 23rd Anniversary Concert
Friday 10 February 2012 at 08:00 PM

Over the course of his three decade-long career, California-based Robert Rich as become widely acknowledged as one of the seminal figures in the world of ambient music.

Rich's work is founded on the seamless integration of electric, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, and the exploration of just tunings. His musical compositions take the form of organically-coloured, longform, impressionist drone soundworks which are known for their subtle and exquisite layered complexity and beauty.

Ultima Thule Ambient Music is Australia's foremost radio programme of ambient and atmospheric music; it has been broadcast weekly by 2MBS-FM since 1989, and also reaches a national and global audience counted in the many tens of thousands via satellite, streaming audio and podcast.

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New Order at Future Music Festival 2012

I just heard tonight via Michael Watt's facebook feed that New Order are playing in Australia in March 2012. After the news earlier today that The Orb and Bomb The Bass were coming to Sydney, I almost couldn't believe it. such memories from all of these bands. Watt asked everyone on his feed, which is your favourite (apart from Blue Monday of course) - well it's hard to choose just one! I've posted a few below - but add every song on Substance album also, which had quite a workout in my house in the late 80s, let alone the earlier Joy Division albums and songs. there's songs to dance to, and songs to sing along to, all great. in my late night musings I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if they did a side show at a dodgy pub like in Melbourne 1982. that would be incredible!

at this rate (tonight's music announcement discoveries) I think we're going to get to relive the 80s & 90s all over again. bring it on!

The Orb and Bomb The Bass in Sydney

The Orb Sound System and Bomb The Bass are playing a gig in Sydney on February 25, 2012 at the Metro Theatre. Tickets are General Admission. The last time I saw The Orb was in Brisbane at the December 1st Advent*jah party in 2001 - it was a great gig. I can't recall seeing Bomb The Bass play but we used to dance to their songs in the early 90s. I think this will be another reunion for the older dance party crowd.

from the ticketek site page :

Rarely do two such iconic acts who where so fundamental in shaping electronica music come together for two truly amazing Live sets Gusto international proudly present an amazing smorgasbord of sound and visuals to tantalize your every sense. The Orb and Bomb The Bass.

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Philip K Dick's Exegesis launch at Moe's Books

as you may know, Philip K Dick's "Exegesis" has been released. here is a great panel session for the launch - with members of his family and editors of the book. bookmarking the audio - it's very informative! I've started reading the book, but have to stop a lot to look things up. it's an incredible collection of his writing & thoughts post the '74 VALIS incident - apparently there were 6 volumes of letters alone, and he used to keep the carbon copies of them. what a prolific letter writer! I think it'll take me years to finish http://www.moesbooks.com/111122-the-exegesis-of-philip-k-dick

also, http://pkdreligion.blogspot.com is a great site with articles about Philip K Dick and religion.

I love that many PKD scholars also write about music.

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One Stop Shopping

Tom Ellard from Severed Heads has re-released an electronic version of the three cassettes called "One Stop Shopping" which were originally included with SLUG Magazine in 1981. The download includes the 61 songs from "Terse Tapes" - Ellard's cassette tape label - plus pdf scans of SLUG magazine, the cassette cover art label, and an article about the release in Rolling Stone magazine dated July 9th, 1981. SLUG magazine has articles and quotes about and from members of the legendary "Clifton Hill Community Music Centre", including David Chesworth from Essenden Airport (see also the recent interview with Chesworth by Bevan Jee)

The Rolling Stone article mentions "Fast Forward" cassette magazine and writes, "What with the ever-increasing popularity of "walky" cassette players ... there would certainly seem to be some sort of cassette revolution and within this development, Australia is something of an innovator." -- Rolling Stone, July 9th 1981 (pdf scan in the zip file)

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