Projection | Alinta Krauth
Engage Arts connected with digital artist and poet Alinta Krauth to produce a work for U.R{BNE} Festival 2015. The result was a light projection titled, Wind blisters those who try to run, which lit-up the Old Windmill at Wickham Park, Spring Hill on the 17 and 18th of April.
The U.R{BNE} Collective is run by a committed group of tactical urbanists that aim to activate neglected urban spaces through community engagement. Our response to the Brisbane City Council’s Draft Spring Hill Renewal Strategy and the goal of urban activation provided the framework for the curatorial rationale of this project. Engage Arts invited artist Alinta Krauth to collaborate with us to produce a site-specific work commissioned for the U.R{BNE} festival.
Krauth chose to work with the Old Windmill in Wickham Park. This monument is the oldest convict built structure in Brisbane and is of great historic significance. Krauth created layers of animated text, hand drawn images, blueprints and photographs that were projected onto the Windmill in response to its long history. Krauth’s original soundscape added both a visually and aurally immersive experience for viewers.
Engage Arts supported the production of this work from concept through to completion—from sourcing specialist projectors that could cover the Windmill’s height to working closely with the U.R{BNE} team to ensure all permissions were received. Our services encompassed:
- Curatorial rationale
- Artist selection
- Strategic vision – Contextualising within National Trust’s Heritage Festival & the International Year of Light
- Working closely with U.R{BNE} Festival Team’s vision
- Liaising with U.R{BNE} President to arrange all necessary permissions
- Art administration, including orgainsing artist agreement, permits and insurance
- Contracting technical crew and arranging specialist technical projection equipment
- Marketing of the event, comprising of media releases, social media marketing and website advertising
- Supervision of install and demount of the work
This projection-mapped art event was not only listed with the UR{BNE} Festival but also on the websites of the National Trust Heritage Festival and The International Year of Light. The event has received positive feedback from Brisbane City Council, guests and local community members and the artist has received significant interest, generating new opportunities for future collaborations.
Engage Arts would like to thank everyone involved—particularly artist Alinta Krauth, the U.R{BNE} Collective, MicroHire, the Brisbane City Council and National Trust for making this event happen.
Here’s what artist Alinta Krauth had to say about working with us:
“I am a new media artist based in South-East Queensland. I was very lucky to have Engage Arts produce my artwork, ‘Wind blisters those who try to run’, a large-scale projection mapping onto Brisbane’s iconic Old Windmill, as part of U.R{BNE} Festival in April of 2015. I had also previously known Engage Arts through their positive and intellectual reviews of my work, and interviews with me as an artist/author. Kerry, director from Engage Arts, handled the hiring of equipment for my U.R{BNE} artwork, as well as liaising with the festival staff. She also handled the budget for my work and oversaw my original application. This left me with more time to focus on content creation for this piece, and greatly reduced the usual stresses of festival involvement. Due to Engage Arts’ efficiency, we ended up with equipment far beyond original expectations, which greatly contributed to my artwork and the public’s engagement with it. Kerry also seemed to be generally instrumental in helping out the festival as a whole, by making sure there was a variety of artists involved, and adequate security and technology for the events. U.R{BNE} was a nicely put together festival, and I’m sure that they benefited greatly from having the involvement of an experienced agency such as Engage Arts”.
Video & Photos by Anna Osetroff. Work is © Alinta Krauth, all rights reserved. For more information on the artist www.alintakrauth.com
Workshop | Million Stars
For the 2015 U.R{BNE} Festival, the festival organisers were looking for artists and producers to facilitate events that aimed to activate urban spaces through public participation and community engagement.
Engage Arts proposed a workshop based on the community-engagement project 1 Million Stars to End Violence, established by Samoan-Australian artist and weaver Maryann Talia Pau in 2012. Maryann vision is to collect 1 million woven stars from people around the globe by 2018. Her project aims to spread a message of love and hope for victims of violence. Engage Arts’ concept for this workshop was to invite festival participants to contribute to this ongoing work and display the woven stars at Wickham Park.
Engage Arts approached Maryann who was happy to extend her project to the U.R{BNE} festival. To locate the workshop we contacted the BrisStyle team, who kindly donated a stall at their Twilight Markets. By co-locating with BrisStyle we were able to bring this vision of 1 Million Stars to the festival and create a link to the craft community.
On April 17, people of all ages were invited to weave their own stars with Maryann and workshop host Alice Gittins. Alice was the perfect partner for this workshop as an art practitioner and student of art therapy. Participants had fun learning the traditional Samoan weaving techniques and the event received fantastic participation with people weaving throughout the evening. Pre-event engagement via social media meant we even had some of the community bring in stars made at home.
We thoroughly enjoyed putting this workshop together and our services included:
- Community engagement strategy
- Event proposal
- Liaising with the artist and BrisStyle
- Event management and insurance
- Event marketing
- Engaging volunteers and participants
- Workshop materials preparation and workshop set-up
- Installing and demounting star installation at Wickham Park
This was a very busy workshop with many participants dropping in throughout the night. This event successfully contributed to the range of activities available at the U.R{BNE} Festival and Twilight Markets. Stars made on the night will be sent to Maryann for her final display in 2018. Engage Arts is very excited that we could contribute to such a heart-felt project that continues to inspire people across the globe.
A big thank you to Maryann Talia Pau, Alice Gittins, the BrisStyle team, and U.R{BNE} for getting your weave on!
Upcoming Event: Projection-mapped installation by Alinta Krauth
Alinta Krauth shines light on Brisbane’s oldest monument
We’ve been busy at Engage Arts preparing for this year’s U.R{BNE} Festival. We are working with digital artist Alinta Krauth, to produce a projection-mapped installation that will light up Brisbane’s oldest building, The Old Windmill in Wickham Park.
The projection coincides with The International Year of Light and National Trust’s Heritage Festival celebrations. Wind blisters those who try to run highlights the historical importance of Brisbane’s oldest building, inviting us to consider this year’s Heritage Week, theme of Conflict + Compassion. As Alinta is set to shine-a-light on The Old Windmill’s shadowy past with her installation, Wind blisters those who try to run.
Alinta’s digital projection will transform the windmill’s plain bricks into colourful, abstract artworks that hint at the building’s past while generating new meanings. She uses light and shadow to reshape our experience of the building and draws attention to its cultural relevance.
Wind Blisters those who try to run will be on display April 17 and 18 from 5pm – 8pm at The Old Windmill, Wickham Park, Brisbane. This event has been produced by Engage Arts as part of the U.R{BNE} Festival, which runs from April 10 – 24, 2015.
Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Engage Arts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.