The Launch Weekend – In Conversation
An integral part of our opening program is a series of informal talks with key thinkers and creators who have are involved with The Edge.
Presented over the first weekend, these afternoon sessions are part think-tank, part speculation; but importantly they are an opportunity for our audiences to gain valuable insight into key issues and new opportunities we want to engage with in the future.
The Program
Saturday, 27 February 2010
1:00–2:00pm
Why The Edge?
With Lea Giles-Peters, State Librarian; Tory Jones, former Edge Director; Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; David Cranswick, Edge Director(facilitator)
A centre full of digital tools and a sophisticated online space might to many seem incongruous to traditional ideas of a library. Yet Libraries are proving to be amongst the most progressive and innovative cultural institutions and are positioning themselves to respond to incredibly fast-changing information and media rich environments.
The Edge represents a bold step in the continuum of library practice. It’s still very much about knowledge—finding and preserving it—but more than ever about generating content as well.
This panel will feature Queensland’s State Librarian about the philosophy about The Edge came about, how it builds upon library core business, and what can be achieved.
We’ll also speak with invited panellist Tory Jones who remains one of the key drivers for The Edge and Seb Chan who is one of Australia’s true innovators in collections access and the application of new digital tools.
We’ll be asking them what a library does, what its purpose is, and whether a library is merely a repository for information or whether it is a creative enterprise in itself.
You’ll hear about how major public collecting institutions are responding to changes in audiences, technologies, information storage, and how they are availing themselves of the new communication channels and reshaping the futures of cultural institutions.
2:00–3:00pm
New Digital Culture Initiatives in Australia
With Carli Liembach and friends, Splendid; Kathryn Gray, Australia Council for the Arts; David Cranswick, Edge Director (facilitator)
Carli Liembach will introduce the Splendid Labs together with some of the main protagonists and provocateurs as they shape up for their 2010 program. Splendid sprouted off the Splendour in the Grass festival in 2009 and do the Australia Council and the Queensland Government support an innovative example of the kinds of
projects.
The Australia Council for the Arts has recently launched a series of major new initiatives specifically aimed at young and emerging artists with a keen focus on the opportunities those new digital channels and tools offer.
Kathryn Gray from the Australia Council will talk about new programs of support for young and emerging artists and provide an overview of a range of new opportunities being cooked up right now.
3:00–4:00pm
New Media vs Old: Does it have to be a Competition?
With Sherre DeLys, ABC Pool; Megan Elliott, X|Media|Lab; Sarah Jansen, Edge Communications (facilitator)
In keeping with our theme of how digital media are transforming established institutions, we meet Sherre DeLys who is heading up an amazing new program called The Pool pioneered by Australian Broadcasting Commission. User generated content, crowd sourcing and an incredibly flexible approach to old ideas of intellectual property and creativity are at the core of this new model of media production and distribution. This panel will talk about how new media models are transforming the traditional publishing and broadcasting industries and challenging established models. The notion of media consumer is being flipped on its head to where we all might be creators, commentators or producers ourselves.
How might established or emerging media professionals meet new challenges and grasp opportunities that rapidly changing technologies and audiences provide?
Megan Elliott is co-director of X|Media|Lab, which brings together some of the worlds most successful creative entrepreneurs and thinkers to participate in their highly respected media lab model. Their think-tanks have been convened in China, Australia, Europe and South East Asia and have proven a hugely successful model for development of creative industries and debate about the future of the media and entertainment. Together at The Edge, these two speakers will talk about their own initiatives and speculate on the future shape of the media landscape.
Sunday, 28 February 2010
1:00–1:30pm
The Edge—How to Get Involved
With Mathew Fallon, Edge Creative Production Manager; David Cranswick, Edge Director; Brett Sirianni, Edge Communications Coordinator (Digital)
Ask questions and hear about how The Edge can work for you from the Director, Creative Production Manager, and Communications Coordinator (Digital). With a rolling program forums labs of residencies and workshops, The Edge promises to be an innovative space and a focal point for creativity in Queensland. This forum is an opportunity to discuss how you can engage with the Edge.
1:30–2:30pm
Based on a True Story?
With: Josie Emery, writer/filmmaker/multi-platform producer; Jason Nelson, online literature and new interfaces; David Cranswick, Edge Director; Matthew Fallon, Edge Creative Production Manager (facilitator)
Archives and collections constitute an extraordinary repository of artifacts and objects, which in the right hands are the source for incredibly rich and engaging stories. Traditionally these are delivered in the form of exhibitions publications and documentaries. But what happens when new technologies are applied and how might new audiences be drawn to engage with new forms of storytelling. History shows that new mediums often rely on their wow factor to impress and attract new audiences. As the technologies mature they inevitably return to narrative as the fundamental means of capturing the imagination. In this session, our three speakers will discuss the idea of the archive as a repository of material for new stories to be told on new platforms for new audiences.
As part of the State Library of Queensland, The Edge is in a unique position to capitalise on new mobile, online and location based augmented reality experiences coming from a rich archive. How we might do this and what are the key issues involved will be explored in this one-off where a where an experimental artist, a writer, and a technology producer converse about the possibilities.
2:30–3:00pm
Break
3:00–4:00pm
Future Gaming
With Christy Dena, Creativity 101; Morgan Jaffit, The Impossible Changing Brain Foundation (and formerly from Pandemic); Jackie Turnure, Hoodlum
Interactivity has come a long way since Pong and the ZX Spectrum. Contemporary tools enable developers and storytellers alike to engage in innovate experiences for audiences. The proliferation of MMORPG environments, mobile technologies and high-speed internet are creating new opportunities for cross-media experiences in the game world.
This combined with fast, cheap PCs, consoles and a generation of users who have grown up with digital technologies at their fingertips creates a powerful platform for exploration in the game space and human interaction.
Two of Australia’s leading exponents of new game cultures discuss the trends that are shaping the present and informing the future of this interactive space. This forum is a rare opportunity to participate in what promises to be an extraordinary conversation that is not to be missed.
The Speakers
Sherre DeLys, ABC Pool
Pool is a collaborative space created by the ABC where audiences become cocreators — a ‘town square’ for all Australians. Sherre is the Executive Producer and an artist whose work is all about collaboration and interaction.
She has worked with some of her favourite writers and musicians to create radio art which displays an intense regard for listeners’ own imaginative involvement.
Christy Dena, international leader in cross-media entertainment
Christy specialises in research, strategy, game design and creative writing for cross-media entertainment projects; consults to organisations providing strategic advice and cross-media design for projects; presents industry and academia; writes articles; and works on her own creative projects.
Megan Elliott, XML
Megan Elliott is widely recognised as one of the most successful and effective leaders of Australian media in industry development, political representation, and advocacy.
Since 2006 she has been a Director of X|Media|Lab (XML), an internationally acclaimed creative industries event that creates a meeting place that brings together the best thinkers, entrepreneurs and creatives in new media at a series of conferences around the world.
Megan’s background encompasses creative industries development for the European Union; industry development and organising for performing artists; and she herself is a recognised contemporary performance maker, industry writer and theatrical producer.
Josie Emery, writer etc.
Writer, cross-platform producer, filmmaker and former Director of the Literature Board at the Australia Council for the Arts, Josie’s latest book, The Real Possibility of Joy has been touted as ‘…a searing account of the author’s physical, spiritual and emotional journey from man to woman’ (Murdoch Books) and ‘…a compelling, poignant, fascinating, honest memoir’ (Literary Minded). For the past three years, she has been co-head of Screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and an agent for change.
Lea Giles-Peters, State Librarian of Queensland
Lea is the only woman to take the top job at the State Library of Queensland in its 104-year-history and led the redevelopment of the library that transformed it into the dynamic, welcoming place everyone goes to research, read, and connect with information.
Lea continues to play a critical role in shaping contemporary thinking about and practice in libraries and shaping the State Library of Queensland into a library for the 21st century.
Kathryn Gray
Kathryn is on the Inter-arts Board at the Australia Council for the Arts and is instrumental in key projects such as Opportunities for Young and Emerging Artists (OYEA) and JUMP, Australia’s largest national mentoring program for young and emerging artists.
In her life as an artist, Kathryn asks questions and contrives performances and installations, working with text, video, industrial and domestic materials, discursive and representational processes.
Morgan Jaffit, The Impossible Changing Brain Foundation
Morgan is the head of The Impossible Changing Brain Foundation, an independent game developer focused on creating innovative titles and addressing users outside the classic market. Most recently Morgan was Associate Creative Director for Pandemic Studios developing new IP with a strong social and online focus.
He is convinced that the game industry is the most exciting place in the world to be, at least partially because it’s filled with crazy people on the frontier of creativity.
Tory Jones, Design and Building Development Director, SLQ
Since managing the Millennium Library Project, Tory has worked at the State Library catalysing various strategic projects, not least The Edge. She’s the person to go to if you want to know anything about the history of the project or building design and details.
Carli Leimbach, Splendour in the Grass
A media and arts buff from way back, Carli is now the Producer of the Splendour in the Grass Festival’s new art program, Splendid. Splendid is a new cross-artform program supporting artists to make work for festival audiences and The Edge is joining forces with it to create some mobile magic in July 2010. Splendid artists Dominic Finlay-Jones and Alice Lang will join Carli to discuss their experience of the Splendid Arts Lab and illustrate how the program has not only influenced their arts practice but kick started their careers.
Jackie Turnure, Hoodlum
Hoodlum is an award-winning entertainment company that specialises in creating unique multiplatform content and sponsor integration.
Based in Brisbane, Hoodlum specialises in creating meaningful online experiences. They engage audiences by integrating active storytelling with existing on-air storylines so what people discover online is played out on-air and vice versa. As a result, Hoodlum offers audiences compelling reasons to migrate between media
platforms.
…And Edge insiders
David Cranswick (Director), Brett Sirianni (Digital Communications), Matt Fallon (Creative Production Manager), and others.
Will there be webcasts of the Launch conversation?