Bundaberg artist, Christine Turner, was The Edge Digital Award Winner in the 2013 Flying Arts Queensland Regional Art Awards. Christine’s work will be on display at State Library as part of the upcoming Essential Character of Queensland exhibition. As part of her prize she will also be completing a two week residency at The Edge and we had a quick chat to learn a little more about her and her work. Tell us about your career as an artist to date? I started getting interested in making art around twenty-five years ago when my children were old enough to start being more independent. I was looking for something to fill in time and started some art classes, which sadly stopped running after two sessions. I’d always had an ability to draw and but the first couple of classes got me obsessed with making art. I’m basically self-taught, but I looked to Christian iconography to see how to create a powerful image. I was also really interested in how women were represented. How did you progress into digital media? In the late 1990s my husband bought me CorelDraw, as he knew I wanted it and would never buy it for myself. I loved the technology and have been producing in digital ever since. I’m now moving into video and animation and digital projections. How did you end up applying for the Flying Arts competition? I was a Flying Arts representative in Bundaberg for three or four years and have a history with the organisation. I heard about the competition through a local art gallery. The competition was for regional artists, which I think is so important, as regional artists often get lost; they’re not being recognised for the work they do. I submitted a piece called Immersed, about my experiences in the flooding. Most people in Bundaberg were deeply affected by the floods. It was so unexpected; no-one really expected it to be so huge. It still makes me upset remembering some of the things I saw. How has the imagery of the floods made it into the piece you submitted to Flying Arts? I was on a flight that passed over Bundaberg and I got amazing aerial photos of the rivulets around the city. You could see that the river was thick and churned up, even though it was some time after the floods. These images have been used to superimpose onto the figure in the piece. How is being at The Edge helping you progress your practice? It’s incredibly exciting to be here, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s been great to get exposure to Premiere Pro, Final Cut and After Effects, software that I have not be able to work with so far. Access to tuition is also very helpful. Having the opportunity for people to see my work and get some critical review is another great opportunity. It’s also a chance to take a real look at what I’ve been doing and to reassess what I want to achieve over the next few year – I want to get really good at video editing to feed into my projection mapping work.

Up until now I'd never experienced one but let me tell you: caffeine hangovers are a thing. With only three weeks left until graduation I'm surprised my play-hard, procrastinate-harder lifestyle hasn't thrown me one sooner. But sure enough, several recommended daily doses later and here I am, staring out the windows of The Edge's basement at an eerily dark afternoon. The darkness is not only a blessing on my flaky eyeballs but it's also set the mood for my final day at The Edge. Before I emailed Beck with my application for the intern role I had no idea this space existed. It wasn't until my mother linked me the ad for the position that I started to see some of the excellence that I've now come to expect  daily from The Edge.  (Holy hell it's starting to rain. Dry bed sheets are overrated anyway.) During my time as a communications intern at The Edge I've edited and updated staff profiles (and subsequently gotten to know great people); I've gotten to learn about awesome events such as the Zombie Apocalypse Series; and sit in on great programs such as Creative Community Computing. I've also drafted radio ads, social media posts and of course there's the editing (we will never forget the editing). However, during my time as gleeful imbecile at The Edge I've had the chance to get touchy feely with a 4000 year old Babylonian tablet as well as getting up close and personal with a preserved polar bear. I've discovered that green ghost drops are a no-go and that clothes can be grown from tea. Yesterday I was looking over Michelle's shoulder as she took samples of her own blood for use in a music video and today I got to sit in on a seminar on the future of libraries (far from as boring despite what you might think). For those applying to intern at The Edge: to say it's a rewarding experience is like saying the sun is hot. You can't anticipate the kind of shenanigans that you might experience in a week at The Edge, possibly because the staff can't either. It's the nature of the organisation and I fear it may be the kind of internship experience that many hope to find but most do not. If you are lucky enough to get called for an interview read up on as many of the events and programs as possible. Even if you don't get the position you'll be a far more interesting and knowledgeable person for it. Anyway, technically I've finished my role as intern and am now just loitering in the office. Security has been notified. So for my final slice of cheese: you can't have a rainbow without a little rain. Nailed it.

In the lead up to Saturday's SoundSelect event we wrap up the Sound program, the Sound types at The Edge have been preparing their live shows, light-sound costuming, editing video, growing cells and building interactive sound installations. The event opens officially at 5:00pm and runs to 8:00pm with an open soundcheck demo and talk from 4:00pm. This event includes: 4:00pm – 4:45pm Michelle Xen's open soundcheck 5pm-8pm Interactives (things for you to play with) 5:00pm – 5:30pm Producers Club showcase w/ Rose Carrousel and special guests 5:40pm – 5:50pm Sound Extrusions – Work in Progress with Daniel Bartos 5:50pm – 6:00pm The Noisy Elephant in the Post-Digital Room with Emmanuel Martinez 6:10pm – 6:45pm CAVE live set with Andrew Gibbs 7:00pm – 7:10pm My Cells music video exclusive preview 7:10pm – 7:45pm Michelle Xen + The Neon Wild   FREE | NO BOOKINGS REQUIRED

So in September our programming intern Matthew ran a workshop on how to to make resonators that remove trapped bass frequencies found in performance rooms. Participants walked away with a set of 3 resonators. The workshop was a great success but if you couldn't make it to the workshop here is a link on how to make them yourself.    

I apologise in advance for any incoherence throughout this post — today was a little bit crazy and at the time my brain matter felt like a packet of strawberry clouds, however now that I'm coming back down to dirty Earth it feels more like a box of used matches. But let me start from the top... Today I tagged along on a photo shoot for the next two Clever Conventions which saw us visit both State Library and the Queensland Museum. First up, Emily the photographer, Tegan and I took a trip up to the John Oxley Library Reading Room on the 4th floor of the State Library to take a few photos and get a sneak peak at some of their artist book collection. These art-books are fairly awesome and vary in size and age. There was one that took two people to manoeuvre and another that was 4000 years old. There was a Steam Punk E-reader and a book made from hundreds of fish. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to post here, but keep an eye on The Edge's social media or better yet book yourself a ticket to the next Clever Convention (Curated Collections), which will be held in the John Oxley Library Reading Room on Tuesday, 8th October (book here). After finishing up at the State Library we moved next door to the Queensland Museum where we got to go behind the scenes into some of their preservation rooms. It was unreal! It was probably around this point that my nasal passage begun filling up with my fizzing brain matter. While we waited for another group to finish up, we casually chatted to one of the staff there as she de-meated (for lack of a better term) a Bandicoot —  even their lab was enough to make me feel like I was on a primary school excursion. However the real awesomeness was in the next room, their catalogues of sorts, where the majority of their specimens were kept. In here we got to see all kinds of preserved animals and skeletons. Peacocks, armadillos, dry wretch-inducing rattle snakes and all other types of preserved creatures were inside. Cue childish wonder. And finally, the Pièce de résistance — none of us were prepared for this. I think I let out something between joy and terror. What do we think? An Attenborough in the making?  

I'm not sure that the title is exactly what I'm looking for in terms of thematic foreshadowing — but my life is full of mixed metaphors, so tough. I'm proud to announce that I've officially hit the halfway mark of my internship with The Edge. 80 hours of intense literary mastication, and I'm beginning to feel like my shiny intern gloss is slowly being scraped away and the soft, mushy parts where my self-esteem used to be are now non-specific clusters of minerals and trauma... I'm completely joking mostly, so far it's been awesome fun and a really great experience — exactly like the brochure said! Amongst other things, I've finally put the staff profiles behind me. The whole process was quite in-depth and the last points of editing included tone, length (I edited them all to fit in the same amount of lines) and general avoidance of repetition between profiles (particularly members within the same team). I'm glad to be moving on to something new and I'm probably 70% happy with what I handed to Beck, but I suppose that's always the way with one's own work. As I've said in previous posts, one of the best things I've taken from the experience so far is to know when to let go of something, and to also place less emotion into my general work (note the aforementioned transition of mushy parts to non-specific clusters). Coming up next week I'll be starting work on writing content for current programs as well as a select few of the previous projects that have gone on here at The Edge. I got to choose from a list and naturally my first pick was the Zombie Climate Apocalypse. I'll also be writing about the Mad Scientist Tea Party (a great party theme in my opinion) and the Science Fair, so keep your eyes peeled — or for a less coarse approach, pulped — for a look at some of the great stuff from The Edge's past. I'll also try to include a couple of the best photos I come across during my digital trawling. I suppose what I was trying to woefully allude to with the title, is that if you don't have a positive outlook, chances are you're not going to enjoy your internship/whatever you're doing. And usually to get to the super-cool-fun-stuff you have to trudge through the tough and tedious, and remaining positive through the latter can sometimes be a mission. So far, that hasn't been the case in my experience and whether it has been because of the people, the content or the general work environment, even usually menial tasks (e.g. capitalising) at The Edge result in stumbling across something new and interesting. Wish me luck for the second half of my stay! I'm looking forward to it, but with the finish line imminent I'm not sure whether my own emotional glass is half-full or half-empty. Stay tuned for more self-cognitive epiphanies. At this monumental point in time, a piece of advice for future interns: always eat the cake. If you don't it will go stale — or sour if it's a cheesecake.  

It's time to think about the programming bit of the Sound Extrusions project — that will be the other quite adventurous part of the whole project! While I'm away for some weeks to Europe, during great late summer time in Moravia, with all sorts of fruits and berries getting ripe in front of your eyes for later local brandy production ... anyway, I'm diving into the programming part right now! The code will create the sound installation behaviour and online data interaction behind the visible porcelain speakers which were discussed previously. Let's leave the plaster moulds drying out in The Edge basement for now and let's have a look at the possible solutions of how to put a multichannel audio installation together. The first tool of choice nowadays will be the MAX/MSP or alternatively Pure Data (called Pd) environment. It's not so long ago when such a sound installation project would have to be hard-wired and made of specifically designed hardware parts and sound cards. I will discuss this approach with Milan Gustar from Music Academy in Prague soon as he's one of the very experienced hardware wizards. Also I would like to take advantage of my trip to Europe and introduce a couple of exciting sound artists, using the MAX/MSP environment from the Czech Republic, to The Edge community as well. That's one more reason to follow up some of the next posts! :) MAX/MSP and Pd environment both originated with research into signal processing by Miller S. Puckette at IRCAM in the late 80s (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris, which is worth checking out anyway). MAX/MSP was developed into a commercial package later on by a San Francisco based software company called Cycling '74, founded by David Zicarelli. Recent development saw MAX/MSP (MSP stands for Max Signal Processing) evolving into Max For Live — you guessed right, it became part of the Live Ableton Suite package. This incredibly creative mix of technologies becomes a very cool tool for sound and music production, with heaps of Max For Live effects and instrument presets available right now! To find out, how such an environment can become a  creative trademark or even change the way we think about music making, please check out some great interviews at the Cycling '74 website. There's one interview with Matthew Ostrowski, who's introducing his interactive sample based live performance technique with a glove controller, while the the second is with Damian Taylor (sound engineer of Bjőrk), who uses MAX/MSP for live stage applications and innovative composition techniques. We still haven't mentioned how such an environment works — the whole idea is to use objects in an easy-to-set-up graphic interface, which deliver realtime signal processing. In other words this is incredibly exciting, and a huge leap in instrument development and music performance alone. This approach of connecting specific objects is generally called visual programming (the objects are written in C programming language under the hood, but we are reconnecting them with audio and message virtual cables, so don't stress out!). The most important objects, and the ones which make you understand how to use MAX/MSP anyway, are the basic objects connecting you to the sound card input and output (adc~ and dac~; the tilde "~" character denotes objects working with audio signals). The important thing is to make a difference between an audio signal connection and a "bang" trigger path, which helps to create specific logic in the code and sends messages instead. How to structure such an application and how to treat a multichannel setup in MAX/MSP will be covered in some other posts to come, but for now... Thanks for reading!

Today marks the end of my first week as an intern with The Edge (I've been told my official title is negotiable, though business cards will not be provided. Check this space later for any further development.) The first thing I noticed about The Edge was how fantastic the space is; nestled between State Library and the Queensland Art Gallery, you'd not be blamed for missing it. Although I'd moseyed along the boardwalk, right past the office windows countless times, I'd never had the foggiest as to what lay beyond the glass. Inside on the first level are are a bunch of wondrous spaces, filled with couches, beanbags and projector screens that appear out of the ceiling! Combine this with an awesome view of the city and you've got a recipe for collaboration and inspiration (or maybe just distraction). But the coolest area, I think, is the basement, where the offices and other dark and mysterious corners can be found. At one end of the basement is Lab 4, where, amongst other things, you can find a batch of Kombucha Tea (see photo), which the team have used to manufacture a unique fashion line (I'm still trying to get my head around it). At the other end you can find a Nerf Gun surplus, left overs from the last Zombie Climate Apocalypse that the building suffered (I tried to hide my devastation when hearing it was unlikely there would be another during my time here. I may have failed). The Edge is full of the weird and wonderful and has me anxious to start next week. More wonderful and slightly less weird, are the inhabitants of the basement: the staff. The first task I've been given is to begin re-drafting staff profiles for the new website. This meant I first needed to spend some time getting to know everyone. Although I could give you a spiel about the particularities of each of the staff I've spoken with thus far, it's suffice to say that they're about as clever and diverse a bunch of people as you're likely to find in any basement. Aside from an excellent opportunity to introduce myself and get to know the team, my first task gives me an opportunity to use some of my skills (no one has challenged me to a staring competition yet) in a professional context. It's very rewarding to be able to begin making connections between your university education and how you might be able to apply it in the real world (thank you QUT). It's Friday and 5pm is quickly approaching so you'll have to wait to hear more about this creative-wonder-factory. Otherwise I'd suggest coming down and having a look for yourself. Intern out.

As part of the Zine and indie Comic Symposium on 31 August - 1 September, The Bedroom Philosopher will be coming to The Edge to present his only Brisbane show, as well as popping up as a guest panellist on Saturday as part of the ZICS program. As a warm-up, he had a chat to the ZICs crew about creating and becoming a sharehousehold name. What do you create/do and why? I write songs that have funny, thought provoking lyrics and cracking melodies, having grown up on a diet of Beatles, Beck and Bonzo Dog Band. I also write hard hitting gonzo-memoirs about my ridiculous sojourns up and down Australia’s eastern seaboard. I do this because I have to. It’s the only thing I’m really good at and the only thing that makes me truly happy. It also makes me truly broke and cynical but it’s a rich tapestry, y’know? How and  where do you like to work and create? I get a lot of writing done at my desk, in my dingy apartment in Thornbury. I’ve been known to pull out the guitar and sit in front of the laptop and piece together a song. Noodle noodle. Tap Tap. Write Write. Rehearse rehearse. Record Record. That sort of thing. I also make a lot of notes on my iphone app while on public transport. There are 700 at the moment. I find travelling stimulates the brain and fires up a different range of missiles from the lotto barrel of infinite dreams. Why are you involved with ZICS and what do you hope to get out of ZICS? My friend Vanessa Berry told me it was cool, so that was good enough for me. I have a lot of respect for the Zine community. I wanted to get in on that cool scene but the ladies at Sticky looked at me funny and went all quiet when I told them I had an e-zine. An EZINE! Trust some former bogan from Burnie to try that on. Anyway, the more I struggle and battle to forge a semi-career here and solidify my position as a sharehousehold name – the more affection I have for those toiling in near-obscurity. The comedy industry is commercially focussed and it’s all about getting on TV and stamping out the competition (the music scene is equally as competitive, in its own way) – but with small scenes like zines and comics, as my friend David Blumenstein says “there’s no industry to be competitive about.” Artists write zines and make 100 copies and give them out and they do this because they want to share and they want to give and they hope it might make a stranger sigh in a beautiful way and they might dream a little lighter at night. This is a wonderful thing – and it brings creativity back to its roots and gives it an integrity and an honesty that you lose when you’re counting up your Facebook fans and swearing into your breakfast. What or who inspires you? I’ve been writing a book about being an artist in Australia for the last year, so I’ve read a lot of interviews and spoken to a lot of artists. I get excited when I hear people say things like “do it no matter what” and “I might end up broke and dead and unknown but….what else are you going to do?” And people like Marina Abramovic and the documentary ‘The Artist Is Present.’ It reminds me that it’s okay to take your craft really seriously and to be prepared to die for it in a way – or if not physically die, then sacrifice things like financial stability and emotional comfort and, y’know – dignity! I’m 33 and I’m still getting Centrelink and perhaps on certain days I feel a sense of shame about that – but after hearing another artist talk about the importance of KEEPING GOING, I think ‘yeah f*** it, I’m doing it for my art, man – I’m living on the edge and I’m gripping onto the one thing that makes sense in my life.’ This is counter to the ideals we are brought up on in Australia like ‘never try’ and ‘low aspirations rock’ and ‘work a s*** job cos that’s what everyone else does.’ So for the past year I’ve been filling my artistic pot (which was pretty empty) with lots of good, wholesome sentiments and reminding myself of the eloquence of action and NOT GIVING UP no matter how overloaded the credit cards get, or how many 11pm drunks at that Hobart pub are haunting me in my dreams. I think most artists in Australia are just searching for respect – either from themselves or those around them – and it’s f***ing hard getting it from either. I’ve realised how important it is to respect myself and…look, I’ll say it….love myself. Being able to inspire yourself is a good thing. All right vegemite. If your life was a zine or a comic what would it be called? The surprisingly okay sexual adventures of a sensitive new start guy. Catch The Bedroom Philosopher at the Friday night launch of the Zine and Indy Comic Symposium (30 Aug 6-11pm). Tickets $15 pre $20 at the door if remaining.

Shoot! As part of my time here at the Edge as Sound Catalyst, I am engaging with former Fringes Catalyst, Svenja Kratz, in isolating and growing my skin cells for imaging. We will then take this cell growth documentation and animate it for use in a music video. The open shoot ran on Tuesday this week, and went exceptionally well... with preliminary keying tests coming up trumps! (This essentially means that when we select the green colour in the video frame, it selects cleanly, allowing us to layer imagery of the cell growth.) If you are interested in the processes of animation, keying, editing and cutting to sound, come along to our open post production session coming up next week. See you soon. Mxen Connect on Soundcloud | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram Join the brand new Soundcloud Group!