Kiera O'Toole

This looks like one to put in the diary.

Thanks Kiera for the following text:

“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone” W.B.Yeats. September 1913.

As an immigrant to Australia, O'Toole is concerned with the repositioning of Irish Identity in a post modern culture and with issues of negotiating individual identity; the reality of migration; a sense of place and displacement of language and community. Her artwork is an emotive response to immigration and the inquiry into the (pre)conceptions of Ireland and ‘Irishness’.

“Blue bottles, in the Irish imagination, are alien to us. They exist only in exotic places / spaces. They are exquisite in their visual beauty but you can’t touch them. They drift aimlessly, unrooted, uncertain, grouping; gazing in different directions so in case of danger, some can survive. Blue Bottles are not a single organism, but made up of a number of zooids. Each zooid has a specific role and together they function as if it were an animal. These little beings remind me that we all need a safe place/space, physically, spiritually and emotionally.

As an immigrant to Australia, I am establishing new beginnings. The distance both physically and psychologically between the two countries allows me to take “a look at us as Irish people, our displacement, our living all over the world, our history of emigration, our psyche” (Alanna O Kelly). ‘My intention is not fashion sentimentality of a homeland’. (John Moriarty 2007) but to express the private and collective basic emotions common to all immigrants and express my perception of Ireland today.

The poem, September 1913 by W.B.Yeats, is a response to the Lockout of September 1913 in Dublin. Yeats was infuriated by the man who led the lockout, W. M. Martin as he also refused to support Yeats ambition of buying an art gallery in Dublin. Yeats comment in this poem, on the justification of the pursuit of money and the lack of idealism in Ireland is reminiscent of Ireland today.

“What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;”

Over the last twenty years, Ireland has experienced the ‘Celtic Tiger’. (The ‘Celtic Tiger’ is an idiom for the period of rapid economic growth in the Republic of Ireland. (1990s – 2001) During this time Ireland experienced a boom in which it was transfigured from one of Europe's poorer countries into one of its wealthiest which continues to present day.)

Many people in Ireland believe the growing consumerism is destroying Ireland’s culture. Our new economy has created such wealth and affluence that it has desensitized its people. We have, in my opinion, to a large extent, become superficial and depersonalized. Ireland of old, an enclosed, inward looking and conservative country still lies in the underbelly of Irish society. ‘Romantic Ireland is dead and gone’.

Dialogues: Women from Ireland. Katy Deepwell. Published by IB Tauris & Co LTD. P140.
Dialogue: RTE 1. Radio. ‘A tribute to John Moriarty, writer and philosopher, who died at the beginning of June.’ 7th July, 2007.

Moo Media

Final art post from the Country Fair.

Youngest entrant (18 months) wins $2 First Prize in Pre-School Children's "Other" category.

Photography and arrangement (fridge magnet backing on 'calf cradle ' panel) by Claire Berecry-Brown.

Claire considers how to spend the cash.

Mangrove Mountain Country Fair

A preview of art at tomorrows Mangrove Mountain Country Fair.

Well done Michael Thompson of Somersby School - too bad about the prize.

On the subject of winners and others. Are the portraits by children at Central Mangrove School an indication of things to come ?

Federal election 07

Continuing The Back Page practice of canvassing candidate's arts policies at election time, the following letter has been sent to candidates standing for Robertson.

Dear ........

I would like to invite you to outline, for the arts community in the Robertson Electorate, your arts and culture policy for the upcoming federal election.

In the recent state election, candidates were invited to have their arts policy posted on the Central Coast contemporary art blog, backpagefree.blogspot.com

This initiate was well received and we have been asked to do the same for the federal election.

We are interested in the overall party policy, but particularly keen to hear your comments with regard to policy in terms of local needs and priorities for art and culture.

This invitation to candidates will be posted on the website.
Responses will be posted as soon as they are received.
Visits to backpagefree.blogspot.com have been steadily increasing over the last year, but peaked during the state election this year.

Your attention to this invitation will be greatly appreciated, not only because the policies are important, but also because the courtesy shown by responding both builds a sense of community and a feeling for a candidates receptiveness to his/her constituents.

Thank you, and best wishes for the campaign.

Intellectual and animal rights

Intellectual property and animal rights

In view of the recent IPR debates, we note the post on the Gosford Times blog about American artist Rachel Berwick who taught parrots a lost language, and wonder if a breach of copyright is possible when the means of reproduction is a living organism.




On a lighter note, take elephants. (with a glass of water)

Information received about an exhibition (cancelled).

"Agency presents quasi-things. Quasi-things fall just inside or outside a category, they move from one category to another or they don't belong to any category at all... In short, things that witness hesitation in terms of classification.

On the occasion of the exhibition series "Faire un effort" of NICC at the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, agency presents quasi-things that are related to conflicts concerning authorship. Some of these conflicts lead to a lawsuit. As opposed to visitors of an art centre, who usually approach things in a subjective way, a judge is expected to make an objective judgement. For the purpose of evaluating copyright, a judge employs the division between categories such as nature and culture, evolution and creation, object and subject, collective versus individual... Many things are difficult to classify as such.

Take for example Specimen 770. This quasi-thing is part of the German TV film “Zwischen Zirkuskuppel und Manege” that was broadcasted by WRD in 1964 (see picture above). The point of conflict is the copyright of a dance of a circus elephant. The judge has to decide whether the film abused the copyright of this dance. The resulting discussion during the lawsuit questions whether the taming of an elephant can be protected by copyright of dance."
[Information from e-flux]

Elephants in Gosford, 12th October. Left front foot held in raised position while peeing © Nelli.

art and/or culture

Just in passing – a note on art and/or culture provoked by Poli-talk on such matters in election 2007 policy announcements.

“One of the problems with the new administrative reforms both on the Nordic as well as European level, which also resulted with NIFCA being closed in Finland, is that no differentiation is made between culture and arts. All is culture: sport is culture, food is culture, everything is basically culture. Maybe the only thing that is not culture is contemporary art.”

An extract from Between a Rock and a Hard Place – the Possibilities for Contemporary Art Institutions to Function as Critical Political Spaces.
By Marita Muukkonen.
Part of the Public Preparation series for the upcoming Biennale of Young Artists in Estonia, and a document that will form the basis for discussion at Market Gallery in collaboration with variant magazine.

Worth a read.

See also “I reach for my…” tagged posts on Back Page.

Burma

Back Page posts this message for those who want to act in response to recent events.


Dear friends,
Burma's generals have brought their brutal iron hand down on peaceful monks and protesters -- but in response, a massive global outcry is gathering pace. The roar of global public opinion is being heard in hundreds of protests outside Chinese and Burmese embassies, people round the world wearing the monks' color red, and on the internet-- where our petition has exploded to over 200,000 signers in just 72 hours.
People power can win this. Burma's powerful sponsor China can halt the crackdown, if it believes that its international reputation and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing depend on it. To convince the Chinese government and other key countries, Avaaz is launching a major global and Asian ad campaign on Wednesday, including full page ads in the Financial Times and other newspapers, that will deliver our message and the number of signers. We need 1 million voices to be the global roar that will get China's attention. If every one of us forwards this email to just 20 friends, we'll reach our target in the next 72 hours. Please sign the petition at the link below -if you haven't already- and forward this email to everyone you care about:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php
The pressure is working - already, there are signs of splits in the Burmese Army, as some soldiers refuse to attack their own people. The brutal top General, Than Shwe, has reportedly moved his family out of the country – he must fear his rule may crumble.
The Burmese people are showing incredible courage in the face of horror. We're broadcasting updates on our effort over the radio into Burma itself – telling the people that growing numbers of us stand with them. Let's do everything we can to help them – we have hours, not days, to do it. Please sign the petition and forward this email to at least 20 friends right now. Scroll down our petition page for details of times and events to join in the massive wave of demonstrations happening around the world at Burmese and Chinese embassies.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Paul, Pascal, Graziela, Galit, Ben, Milena and the whole Avaaz Team

More info at.

Federal Election 2007 Arts Policies

Continuing the practice started with the State election, Back Page will be covering the arts policies of the major parties and other relevant political organizations in the upcoming Federal election, with a particular focus on local candidates.

We begin with the Labor Party’s Policy and commentary on it by NAVA in their Media Release.

Summary of -
NAVA Media Release
18 September 2007

Visual Arts Positive About Labor’s Arts Policy

Today the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) expressed its positive expectations of Labor’s New Directions for the Arts policy, launched last Friday.

Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director of NAVA said, “Though the detail and financial commitments have still to be revealed, with this policy most of the main issues for our sector are on the table.”

Full text of the statement is available at NAVA web site, which also has a link to the full text of New Directions for the Arts.


Back Page Editor's notes:
The document, despite employing the planners favourite term “Vibrant” on its cover, a word made almost meaningless through overuse, does contain some interesting policy and useful perspectives.

Like Coalition rhetoric in the past, it makes a point of pushing for greater private sector investment and corporate philanthropy in the arts. This is of course easier said than achievable in the current cultural climate in Australia, and of course the Big End of Town is attracted to larger arts institutions and prestige events. We look with interest for measures to support small to medium scale art projects.
There is also a question over the future of AbaF (Australian Business Arts Foundation) under the Labor policy.

It is good to see, in the section 'Supporting Australian Artists', that there is recognition of “the arts as a significant field of endeavour, worthy of support in their own right”, as well as the arts having a purpose in shaping national identity through art production and the arts sector giving “an immeasurable, sustaining dimension to the life of the nation”.

Labor will develop ArtStart programs to assist young and emerging artists, and to harmonise current Australia Council, Centrelink and ATO rules for income earned by artists on welfare. This is welcome, but the commitment to “CONSIDER” adding “‘participation in arts projects’ to the criteria for employment and community participation in work for the dole programs where it is likely that such participation will improve a persons prospects of gaining employment or private income”, sounds like a “non-core promise”. Without the contribution of unpaid work in the arts sector, the artist-directed and run initiatives that nurture contemporary practice, and hence the whole food chain, would die. Therefore it would be a positive move to support, rather than “consider” this addition.

New Directions for the Arts states Labor’s commitment to equity of participation in and enjoyment of the arts, and in this regard emphasises “the development of arts in rural and regional Australia as well as outer suburban areas.”
It makes a commitment to examine ways to develop regional arts, and to work with other levels of government to identify local priorities.
For Gosford and the Central Coast this sounds promising, but the area’s status (not really regional, rural or outer suburban) continues to confound programs of support, even when expressed in such general terms as in the Labor policy.

'Arts Education Policy' section of the policy is good in recognising the importance for individuals of arts education beyond the curriculum categories, and of its instrumental value, but does not mention the intrinsic values of engendering the expansion of cognitive faculties and the “technique” of art as a way of knowing.
The strategy of encouraging “artist in residency” programs in schools and universities is useful.

The topic of “Creative Industries” gets considerable attention. There is recognition, at last, of the importance of this sector of the Australian economy in the global mesh, and makes clear that Labor realises that there is a lot to do to catch up internationally.
While there is considerable attention given to Digital Content and New Media, there also seems to be an understanding that these 'creative' industries are built on a necessary foundation of speculative art practice. To quote: “Creative research is central to the growth of arts and innovation, and increasingly draws across disciplines and incorporates emerging technologies.”
In the policy document there remains the usual blurring of the important differences between cultural entrepreneurship, creative industry and art (there are many who think that art is in opposition to the intentions of the others). But to the extent that the Creative Industry argument feeds art funding, it should be welcomed.

In conclusion, New Directions for the Arts, contains many welcome initiatives, and is worth reading more closely. It also has the sense of in insider’s understanding, so one can assume it was well researched in consultation with art industry folks.

Everyone will discover some shortcomings for themselves, as I did, so we look forward to Policy statements by other parties for comparison.

BACK PAGE WILL BE CONTACTING LOCAL CANDIDATES FOR A STATEMENT ON ARTS POLICY IN RELATION TO THEIR ELECTORATE.

Click Here

Flash!

Brown's Cows Art Projects have been awarded $10,000 in the recent round of the Gosford City Cultural Grants.
The grant is to conduct Click Here, a series of art activities in the Gosford Town Centre.

In this project Brown's Cows will work together with Gaff (Gosford Art Flux Forum).

Watch this space for more information about the project and activities planned.

Caroline Bay Watch 19th Sept

Caroline Bay Watch.
Highlights from the Regional Gallery Advisory Committee – 19th September.

After two years of waiting, the catalogue for the 2005 Dawn Light Symposium has been distributed. Problems with the final product have been passed on to Tim Braham for attention.

In response to a paper tabled by Neil Berecry-Brown designed to redress problems with the functioning, roles and responsibilities of the Advisory Committee, it was decided that the following motion be put to Gosford Council by Councillor Drake.

A. Gosford City Council to have the Community Services & Organisational Development directorate prepare a report on the role and function of the Art Gallery and Caroline Bay Arts Precinct Advisory Committee taking into account the historical function, present function and future function.

B. Whether the committee remain, disband or reform into another Advisory Committee to assist Gosford City Council in future cultural development of Gosford Council.

C. Gosford City Council to develop a terms of reference for any committee it recommends as a consequence of its review.

This is a draught of the motion to be put, and may be amended on reflection by the members of the Advisory Committee.

The final form of the Cultural Spaces and Places Report should be available soon, so the reformation of committees will be interesting.

Gosford Art Flux Forum

“The flux of art is a cultural and intellectual commons, and is the vital foundation for all creative engagement as well as being a playground for imaginative and critical conjuring with possibilities.”

Gosford Art Flux Forum is an initiative of Brown’s Cows Art Projects. Gaff was incorporated to provide a legal entity to facilitate the development of contemporary art within the Town Precinct of Gosford and places within the City’s ambit.

An objective of Gaff is to be a catalytic art presence in the town centre; promoting creative processes of democratic engagement in the production and presentation of socially engaged, collaborative and temporary projects for non-gallery situations where context is integral to the meaning of the work.

Gaff will also operate as a street front venue in the CBD serving as a focus for contemporary art and a locus for the presentation of art projects, the provision of information resources, and a coordination place for work in the public domain,

GAFF will conduct art research through praxis of Gosford itself as a process of contemporary art and encourage projects in which the people of Gosford can be part of the invention of “Gosford”, gaining both understanding of its emergent identity and its place in the world.

We recognise that autonomy is an essential part of the culture of effective contemporary practice and, at the same time, that art can play a role in creating the context in which it functions. GAFF will work to address its context by developing infrastructure for sustainable contemporary art practice in Gosford City through discussions and partnerships with various stakeholders, including all levels of government, artists and artists’ organizations, educational organizations and business.

Gosford Art Flux Forum understands itself as part of an international network of artist directed organizations and groups that share a number of attributes. These include a culture of open enquiry, a sometimes alternative and critical position in relation to civic and commercial art operations, and an interest in playing a catalytic and engaged role in generating an immediacy of experience in contemporary cultural and social issues.

In order to engage with critical issues and new ideas and practices in contemporary art, and to place local artists within the ambit of developments internationally, GAFF will support the development of contemporary art in Gosford by building partnerships, linkages and exchanges with other organizations beyond the region.

Gosford Art Flux Forum seeks to reinvigorate the urban ‘commons’ with imagination, the poetic, and an enjoyment and enthusiasm for contemporary art processes and practices.

GAFF has a program of activities scheduled for 2007 and is currently working on the programs for 2008 and 2009.

GAFF Secretary: leeji@pacific.net.au

Sculpture in the Vineyards

Opening event - 20th October, 2007.

Dispatch From the Front

Feed-back from the Cultural Spaces and Places Framework process.

The consultants engaged to make a report to Gosford Council gave a progress presentation to some of the “stakeholders” at the Laycock Theatre on Monday, prior to it also being made to Council today.

The general response to the presentation was very positive, with agreement that the consultants have listened well and integrated most of the community’s comments into their report. It was also clear that they have brought insights gained from other places and situations to balance the pressures from particular lobby groups who understandably are pushing their own agendas.

This “dispatch” is in no way meant as a summary of the multifaceted presentation and workshop at Laycock. The process has many phases yet to go, and while stage one in still not finished, but there were a few highlights that might interest contemporary artists.

Not surprisingly "Performance Spaces" head the list of facilities required, with specifics for a major Concert hall/Theatre of 1,000 seats with rehearsal rooms etc., and a “Black box” multi-functional space of 250 seats accommodating everything from Arthouse cinema to new media, dance, comedy and cabaret.

The next listed “Element of Gosford’s Cultural Precinct as Regional Capital for the Central Coast” is a Contemporary Art Gallery of 1,000 square metres, followed by facilities for Artists’ Studios and Workshops. At this early stage the specific functions of these spaces relative to each other and to existing facilities needs some further work, but it is gratifying, not only make it onto the radar, but to have the critical role of contemporary art presented to Council as a central part of the cultural life of the city, at its own expense.

Given the high cost of building the “Performance Spaces”, and the inevitable squabbles about the Theatre’s siting, it seems to me that it will be a long time before we see any major infrastructure projects funded for contemporary art. So life goes on - “You can stand for a long time on the side of a mountain with your mouth open waiting for a roast duck to fly in”

There will no doubt be modifications to the report before it is completed at the end of the month, and a chance for public comment, but it is shaping as a useful document with Council elections due next year.

There were other areas in the presentation including public art, residential and commercial uses and a 3,000 capacity sound shell, but the purpose of this dispatch was to keep you in the loop about contemporary art issues from a personal perspective at this interim stage, not to make a definitive report.

Cheers
Neil Berecry-brown.

Daniel Dancer video

For those who wanted to see the video Daniel Dancer made and were frustrated by the lack of information about screening location, you can check it out here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3443203277495364049&hl=en

"5 Lands Dreaming by Daniel Dancer
NSW Australia, 2007.
This short film documents a yearly event called The 5 Lands Walk
which is a 10 kilometer "walkabout" along a coastal path that knits 5
communities together via art, culture and music in a celebration of
nature at the height of the annual humpback whale migration
northward. This completely non-commercial event seeks to honor and
reconnect with the oldest culture on Earth . . . that of the
Aboriginal people of Australia which dates back 50,000 years. An Art
For the Sky humpback whale was created as the finale for this event
and involved music, dance and movement through the image at a
spectacular location."
Quote from web site.

Wind Prayer/Brides of Khan

A couple of artists, familiar with some readers, will be performing at the Ku-ring-gai Art Centre on the 17th August, 6.30 pm. Jieon Lee will be dancing, and Boyd (with Sam Golding) will be playing.

Wind Prayer is a production of
Brown's Cows Art Projects,

with support from
the Korean Culture Foundation,

Gaff
Gosford Art Flux Forum
Contemporary Art Gosford Incorporated
and
The Ku-ring-gai Art Centre

Stretegic development space 2

Update, and response to Jillian’s comment in the previous post.

The visit was a field trip by Kim Spinks in order to be shown around the Central Coast to assess the arts and culture situation.
At least that is what I could glean from her comments at an afternoon tea she had with the Regional Gallery Advisory Committee. Her intention is to write an internal report.
It seems that she spent most of her time with local government people (Wyong and Gosford Council employees) as well as holding some meetings with groups organized by Christine Bramble (Wyong Council). Contemporary art groups were not amongst those included.
The report will not be public, but will be available to local government staff.
Her take home message was that a Central Coast arts strategy will not come from ArtsNSW, but that they would support a unified, and politically backed, strategy if one could be developed in the region.
The impression I had was that ArtsNSW preferred to deal with local government as the representatives of the community. It will be interesting to see how the Councils move forward, if they do, given that they have no communicative structure with contemporary art groups at this time.

As it was, so it will be.
In contemporary art it is “D.I.Y. or Die”, as a New York group recently put it.
(Remembering the positive aspects of autonomy in this statement)

These are just my personal observations of the meeting.

The next official “Arts Futures” event will be feedback to stakeholder groups meeting, on the 6th of August, by the consultants employed to carry out the “Cultural Spaces and Places Framework” report.

Neil Berecry-Brown

Stretegic development space

There is some progress to report in the campaigns to implement strategies for developing sustainable contemporary art practice in the region.

Kim Spinks from Arts NSW will be in town on Monday in relation to the development of a regional arts strategy for the Central Coast.

However given the speed at which strategies are developed, and then maybe implemented when and if funds are available, we will continue to work at filling the space rather than watching it.

Caroline Bay Watch

The prize season is with us again!

Gosford Art Prize 2007 exhibition “the highlight of the exhibition year” (GRG copy), opening Friday the 3rd of August.
This year GRG is offering a guide to the art prize industry from the Gallery’s perspective. Explaining how to use the competition to promote, market and win, how to chose which competition to enter, and the judging processes. Unfortunately it will be held (on Tuesday 28th August) after the opening of the exhibition, but it is good to see GRG start to address some of the issues in its programming. We hope it will be more than a “how to”. Contact GRG (4325 0056) for information.
One could start with:
The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value by Jim English. (review)

Young artists at NAIDOC market. No prizes, just for fun.

Prize to GRG for committing programming to indigenous culture and reconciliation.
The NAIDOC market event on the 8th of July was fun.

Also announced from the GRG is Wamberal to Wagstaffe open studio tour scheduled for the 8th and 9th of September. In the running for art tourism/business advancement Prize.


Prize for the worst coffee.
The coffee shop at Caroline Bay must serve the worst coffee, at the highest prices and with the slowest service, anywhere on the Central Coast.

The Masque of Zero

We welcome a new era for Performance Art in Gosford with the installation of state of the art equipment by Gosford City Council.

Launched last Friday the video equipment and installation, costing $320,000, makes possible forms of practice previously associated with larger cities abroad.

Pat Naldi and Wendy Kirkup, using what now seems primitive equipment, made some ground breaking work in the UK as early as 1993, and the Surveillance Camera Players in New York (and now San Francisco, Italy, Sweden, Turkey etc.) are synonymous with the genre.

Game on.

Image – Fiona Romeo, Curator of the Science of Spying exhibition currently at the Science Museum, London.

Daniel Dancer

Daniel Dancer’s work at yesterdays 5 Lands event, prompted some extension of thoughts begun with the Watanobbi post; his is work in which the central conceptual concern is with engendering a transformative experience for participants. The aesthetics of the final production, as art, is important only so far as it gives authenticity and authority to the process.

Terrigal, June, 2007.

Making large scale interventions in the landscape as art, was pioneered by the Land/Earth artists of the 1970s, such as Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, Richard Long etc., and James Turrell, who, like Daniel Dancer, is also interested in the sky, although his Roden Crater Project is infinitely more enduring physically. (Watching video of Daniel photographing his 'drawings' from a plane, also conjured up associations with Smithson who died in similar circumstances – The Icarus myth is a recurring theme in the artists’ psyche).

Daniel Dancer’s projects are concerned with accessing insight (sky sight) through direct bodily experience, possibly reflecting his education in Child Psychology, and do not address themselves to modernist and post-modern, questioning of the of meanings of form, process and theoretical context.

Big Horn Sky, Bishop, CA 2005 - 950 Kids and Teachers.

The form of his imagery is ancient; transcultural. Like many Land Art projects, it raises questions about the phenomenology of perception, which I think have been insufficiently interrogated in contemporary practice. This situation seems to be changing however, as the advent of GoogleWorld, the ready availability of GPS technology, ubiquitous CCTV and the 'Mobile Phone That Ate the World' have opened our eyes anew (while blinding us).
Daniel asks us to understand that we need to see the “Big Picture” if we are to make decisions that will give the world a future. Working often with children, he keeps the message simple, but the cognitive principle is sophisticated – although perhaps more accessible to the imaginative young mind of children (and other playful people). It means that we must reawaken our ability to experience the world from two places at the same time – to experience the material world, earth and body, while seeing the view from above – the “sky sight”.

In April, 2007, the Community Independent School in Pittsboro, North Carolina formed this nearly extinct bird in a pasture near their school with 100 participants and lots of clothes.

This reminds me of what has been told to me about how aboriginal people always live in a geography that is simultaneously the material world, and a “Big Picture” of story and myth by which to “make decisions that will give the world a future".
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
But perhaps this intelligence is an ability we are born with, and sometimes lose, and rather than focusing on surviving the dissonance we could think of a creative synthesis. This seems to me the paradigm Daniel is working with.
The Art for the Sky projects each produce a video for presentation and so live on as representation. They do not critique the Society of the Spectacle as put forward by Debord, although they want to give primacy to the immediate experience – perhaps it is impossible to avoid the S.O.the S. However to some degree it could be argued that many of the threats to the environment that Daniel Dancer seeks to change by resurrecting an holistic ‘living with the world’ are contributed to, if not largely caused by, the alienated, consumer driven S.O.S.
Any ambiguity of the position does not diminish the contribution he makes, anymore than the commercial compromises to the Burning Man event completely negate the power of the experience felt by attendees.

Eyes in the sky - Terrigal.

Perhaps we will see Daniel again, lets hope so – his arriving by balloon would be nice.

And lets hope next time that Gosford is a bit better organised. Preparation looked rather underdone on Saturday, and although Daniel will be presenting the video on Monday (tomorrow), no one knows where.

[Images 2 & 3 above are from Daniel Dancer's web site, Art for the Sky, linked above.]