YOU ARE HERE MARCH 18–22 2015 YOUAREHERECANBERRA.COM.AU FOR FURTHER INFORMATION DURING YOU ARE HERE PLEASE VISIT OUR FESTIVAL HUB, THE RECORD STORE, CORNER OF CITY WALK AND EAST ROW. YOU ARE HERE IS A CURATED FESTIVAL WHICH SHOWCASES THE BEST OF CANBERRA’S DIVERSE INDEPENDENT AND EXPERIMENTAL ARTS AND CULTURE. ORIGINALLY COMMISSIONED IN 2011 BY ROBYN ARCHER (AO) TO ENLIVEN THE CANBERRA CBD IN THE LEAD-UP TO THE CENTENARY OF CANBERRA, YOU ARE HERE HAS GROWN INTO A SIGNIFICANT EVENT ON A NATIONAL SCALE, AND A HIGHLIGHT OF CANBERRA’S CULTURAL CALENDAR. AFTER FOUR SUCCESSFUL YEARS, YOU ARE HERE IS NOW A FIXTURE OF THE CANBERRA ARTS LANDSCAPE AND IS QUICKLY BECOMING ESTABLISHED AS ONE OF THE PRE-EMINENT EXPERIMENTAL AND EMERGING ARTS FESTIVALS IN AUSTRALIA. THE FESTIVAL PRODUCERS TAKE PRIDE IN ENSURING THE FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO EXPERIMENT; TO SUPPORT ARTISTS IN DEVELOPING NEW WORK; TO FACILITATE THE GROWTH OF CANBERRA VENUES, COLLECTIVES AND SCENES AND TO PROVIDE AVENUES FOR CANBERRA ARTISTS TO CONNECT NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY. DETAILS CORRECT AT TIME OF PRINTING, PLEASE REFER TO WEBSITE FOR CHANGES AND UPDATES. YOU ARE HERE IS A DRUG AND ALCOHOL FREE EVENT. ALCOHOL IS ONLY PERMITTED WHERE EVENTS ARE HELD IN LICENSED VENUES. YOU ARE HERE EVENTS ARE ALL-AGES, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED. ENTRY TO ALL EVENTS IS FREE. YOU ARE HERE WISHES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRADITIONAL CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND THAT WE WORK ON. WE WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND RESPECT THEIR CONTINUING CULTURE AND THE CONTRIBUTION THEY MAKE TO THE LIFE OF THIS CITY AND THIS REGION. YOU ARE HERE ENDEAVOURS TO MAKE ALL THEIR EVENTS AND VENUES ACCESSIBLE. IF YOU HAVE SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIREMENTS, PLEASE CONTACT US AT FESTIVAL@ YOUAREHERECANBERRA.COM.AU PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: ADAM THOMAS, YASMIN MASRI, DANNY WILD, HELEN DUNCAN @ CREATIVE BEHAVIOURS, MATT GREENLAW, MATTHEW SYRES, NICOLA LAMBERT, MIN MAE DESIGNED BY NEW BEST FRIEND | NEWBESTFRIEND.COM.AU PRINTED BY ELECT PRINTING
This program is designed to be kept as a souvenir of the festival. Make sure you also pick up a copy of our folded poster which lists a full schedule of events as well as a map of all venues and event locations. Pick up a copy of the poster at the festival hub or visit youareherecanberra.com.au for more information.
Welcome! You are here… amongst these words, moving gradually forward, one word at a time, into the program of a five day festival of experimental art. This is a festival that sees a city centre as its laboratory. Not just any city centre, but Canberra’s city centre, Civic, during five days at the beginning of autumn, 2015. It is a festival that sees the streets, the buildings and the thoughts of our city centre as its media. Not just any thoughts, but your thoughts, and my thoughts, the artist’s thoughts, the thoughts of the urban planner, the guy in the bakery and even that magpie that is looking into my coffee cup. Many works of art are born and raised in the studio. An audience waits, patient and alert, for their reception... in a gallery, museum or theatre, or in front of a page. The audience’s reactions have been carefully mapped out in the mind of the artist as he or she created the piece behind closed doors. But this art is different, here where you are, in this festival. It is born through its performance and through collaboration, in real time, within and among the space of its audience. Although it sets up a few conditions to propel it forward, it doesn’t have a predetermined destination, and it is not entirely clear how its audience will respond. It is the art of experiment, improvisation and discovery. You can expect it to be inclusive and surprising. This art is here, with you, and with me, and with a whole bunch of other people, for five days. So let’s experiment. S H A N E B R E Y N A R D, D I R E C TO R CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
Celebrating its fifth year, the You Are Here festival continues to make its mark in the ACT’s cultural calendar. Its eclectic and free program will showcase Canberra’s creative talent. Past favourites such as Neon Night Rider, the colourful bike ride around Lake Burley Griffin will take place alongside new events that will challenge and engage our artists and community. The ACT Government is pleased to support the You Are Here festival through the ACT Arts Fund and ACT Event Fund. It is an important contributor to enhancing the cultural life of our city, a key ACT government priority. During its five days, the festival will enliven the CBD, support experimental and emerging artists, and encourage participation in the arts. Take part and enjoy discovering the unexpected in Canberra! CHIEF MINISTER ANDREW BARR
The You Are Here Festival will again be taking over the centre of Canberra with innovative and exciting experimental arts events from 18 – 22 March 2015. The Festival highlights the energy, innovation and talent of Canberra’s artists, across a number of art forms, and encourages strong community participation. Taking place in the Canberra CBD, You Are Here showcases the city’s alternative arts and underground creative culture. It specialises in presenting and promoting work in nontraditional venues, revitalising city spaces and attracting new audiences. I look forward to seeing a program designed to showcase the energy and talent of Canberra’s artistic and creative communities. I hope all Canberrans will take part in this free and exciting festival which reflects the dynamism of Canberra’s arts scene. MINISTER JOY BURCH
PRODUCER FOREWORD Welcome to You Are Here 2015! We are five years old this year and almost can’t believe it. If you know YAH, you’ll notice that we have made one significant change, the festival is shorter this year. We made this decision for a number of reasons, but mostly because we wanted to be able to dedicate more time and support to our artists. We believe YAH is a rare space in which artists truly get to experiment with new ideas and take risks with their work. Providing opportunities for artists to take risks, challenge themselves, collaborate, and blur boundaries between art forms has always been at the centre of YAH and in 2015 we wanted to push this even further. As producers our aim was to provide more curatorial support, advice and assistance than ever before across all events. One place you’ll see this is in our partnership with first timers Noted Festival, an experimental writers festival the likes of which Canberra has never seen before. But what does this mean for you, our unreasonably good-looking audience? Consider it this way, we’ve still got 5 full days of theatre, dance, visual art, music, performance, spoken word and everything else that can’t be so easily classified. The same mix of strange, thoughtful, playful and bizarre events as ever. So pull on your normcore sneakers, tie those laces tight and get ready for a really great festival. Less days, just as many events, and no reason not to see everything. VANESSA, NICK, ADELAIDE AND ANDREW
In Memory of Sylvie Stern Sylvie Stern built things. She advocated and demanded and cajoled and directed and supported generations of young Canberran artists to surge forward rather than stagnate. It was her face in the audience, her voice on the wireless and her insistence that we all shut up for five minutes and learn how to write a funding application that created an environment that You Are Here could thrive in. Canberra will be a quieter place without her, but she has left a legacy of unbridled enthusiasm, tireless advocacy, and a culture where artists support other artists to be artists. The best memorial we can give her is simple: Give a shit. Demand others give a shit. Build things, like she built things. Support young and emerging artists like she supported us. And, if possible, volunteer at a dog shelter. ADAM HADLEY
THE RECORD STORE
When: Everyday of the festival from 12pm til late Where: Corner City Walk and East Row opposite King O’Malley’s This year You Are Here is going underground. No longer are we a metaphoric underground festival, but a literal one. YAH is taking over the former JB Hi-fi store, and former, former Impact Records store in Garema Place as our festival hub for 2015. Drop by, get a program, see an event or just hang out in your favourite record store that also hosts an experimental arts festival.
NOTED FESTIVAL
When: 20–22 March, check program and www.notedfestival.com for event times and venues Description: Note well: insistent city stories, unscripted phrases and fictional Twitter notifications. A wild haiku retrained until it’s a sonnet. A writer– musician mash-up steps off an army truck and into your ears. Notice every word at once and you’re a sponge, ready to squeeze ink onto the blank screen. Noted is Canberra’s first ever experimental festival of words. An offshoot of You Are Here, Noted will have its inaugural year in 2015. This will be a chance for writers, readers, publishers, the undefined and the interested to participate in the rejigging of the writers festival format. Encompassing a literary bar hop, multi-art collaborations, online interactions, unpredictable live events and formative workshops, Noted will be the reason you put down your books, pens and devices and the reason you pick them back up again. Come and get Noted. n = Noted Festival Event
A Prologue: there is a Canberra Scene? Uncertain Times was conceived as an attempt to facilitate critical discussion around the arts in Canberra. By bringing together local art thinkers and practitioners the project hoped to map the Canberra scene. However, what the project discovered was not a consistent field but a territory that resisted any attempts to contain it.
function efficiently to provide security and selective support, doing well to highlight how this rigidity creates a reluctance to seek support between networks and across disciplines, not to mention a striking lack of commercial opportunity. The provocations within Uncertain Times call for an approach that is more capable of responding to a certain instability, flux, and negotiation that is required of any creative city.
Tracing out “The Canberra Scene” revealed the nebulousness of its character. Appearing too slippery a ground for any reflexive critique it became something of a misnomer – failing to account for what it purports to describe. So what might this tell us about the situation for art in Canberra? Why don’t we have a scene to discuss, or to move more freely within?
Taken together, the authors argue for a need to radically reconceive the ways we engage with the arts in Canberra. By acknowledging the spurious nature of the scene, it is possible that one can become more capable of taking risks, of pushing the boundaries and imagining this territory, and our place within it, as otherwise.
These texts point to a gap in arts infrastructure outside the more rigid institutional frameworks. They describe the situation in which entrenched institutional structures
Uncertain Times was conceived and curated by Grace Blake with contributions from Kate Murphy, Martyn Jolly, Robert Guth, Louise Curham and Oscar Capezio. GKB AND OC
Should I stay or should I go? KATE MURPHY
On being an artist in Canberra Canberra: the most liveable city in the world, a haven with fresh air, birdsong and (almost) no traffic. Canberra: the circle of hell Dante missed; a bland maze of never-ending roundabouts populated with concrete monuments and public service worker-drones. We’ve seen plenty of this in the media over the years, our city denigrated as a soulless over-designed toilet block or the defensive residents’ response of – hey real people live here, the quality of life is great and it’s not boring at all once you scratch the surface. In an article for Overland magazine entitled ‘Why art?’ Alison Croggon commented that ‘Artists do a lot with the little they receive. The biggest funder of the arts is artists, through unpaid labour; the biggest beneficiaries of artistic activity are not the artists themselves but the communities around them.’ For Canberra to be a fully rounded city, a place people want to live and a place where cultures thrive, it needs the arts. But do artists need Canberra? What are the benefits or drawbacks of living here? Should young creative types choose to live here? Why or why not?
Unlike inhabitants of other cities of comparable size, Canberrans experience the advantages and disadvantages specific to living in a capital city, home to a collection of large cultural institutions. One of the advantages is that we have a wealth of local arts organisations focused on working in the community and then the big institutions providing employment and other professional development opportunities. There are many artists working as educators, art handlers and registration staff across the galleries, archives and museums. Not only can they draw an income to support a non-commercial or experimental practice, they can develop an inside knowledge into how these organisations work and how to effectively work with them. I’ve heard differing opinions on the value and role of the big cultural institutions in our community. Some artists agree they provide useful support structures and the relatively small population means that the chances of getting work are easier than in the larger centres. Others have commented that these institutions encourage a bland, conservative approach to art and culture, that the environment in this city doesn’t push artists to experiment or make challenging work and that the art community itself is not very diverse. I wonder if this is because we expect art with a strong agenda to be loud or ugly and if we look closely at what artists are doing, could we find work that is more subtly challenging, asking intelligent questions and choosing quiet forms of experimentation? I also wonder if those comments are coming from people who have had any engagement with the community arts centres and the art being made outside of the art-school-trained contemporary art community. There are some wonderful interstate and international collaborations bringing fresh work and ideas into the community. I’m thinking of Megalo Print Studio and Gallery’s work with Indigenous artists in remote communities and the Culture Kitchen art collective’s work in Indonesia and
Canberra. This is where I really admire the work of younger artists who live here and collaborate with interstate and international groups. Last year ANCA gallery shared an exhibition with Sawtooth ARI in Tasmania, and the ZONK Vision collective has hosted a number of performances and events both in Canberra and elsewhere. It’s one way to remain in Canberra whist having outlets to push exhibition practices, gain experience and find audiences. Compared to many other places, life in Canberra for artists is a breeze. We have solid arts organisations such as Canberra Contemporary Art Space and Craft ACT that provide exhibition space and professional support, local media that engage with the arts and smart audiences. What we don’t have are many commercial galleries – the ver y small local scene means limited oppor tunities to exhibit and sell work. Exhibiting interstate is expensive, and some commercial galleries are now pushing the financial risks back onto the ar tists they represent expecting them to foot par t of the bill for openings and publicity, while continuing to take substantial commissions on sales. The downturn in the global market has affected Australian galleries, forcing a number of closures and amalgamations in Sydney and Melbourne over the last five years. Most exhibition oppor tunities in Canberra are in non-commercial spaces that charge a hire fee for the use of the venue. Once the ar tist has paid rent, done the legwork, funded making the ar t – they are spending thousands of dollars to put on shows where they may be lucky to sell any work. The question of how to make a living in the arts has always been a tricky one to answer. To choose the creative life is to choose a strangely privileged and simultaneously challenging path. So for fresh graduates leaving the shelter of a university course, art school, music school, film school – what happens next?
Should I stay? For visual artists there are opportunities to apply for studio residencies and exhibitions. You may find that a busy year after graduation turns into a couple more years of nothing much and a struggle to find an income and keep creatively motivated. The advantages of staying reside in your existing network. You will know other graduates, established artists and art professionals who can help you with applications, letters of recommendation, critical feedback, practical assistance and finding paid work. To take advantage of the community you will need to be visible and participate. You may find, that you can generate an income working in arts related fields and continue to pursue a fulfilling practice. Should I go? Artists leaving Canberra to live elsewhere face the challenge of finding their way in a larger city with no support network, risking becoming trapped in a cycle of unpaid internships and volunteer work they hope will lead somewhere – while juggling paid work and cramming their art practices around the edges. Larger populations in Sydney and Melbourne also mean larger pools of artists competing for exhibition space and grant funding. If you go – seek out like-minded artists and communities – know that getting work in the arts in large cities is highly competitive. If you can, do postgrad study in order to build a network of peers you can work with and to meet professionals in your area. Get involved with artist run initiatives and spend time burrowing your way into a new social scene. Keep in touch with the scene ‘back home’, come back and show work here, use the support base in Canberra as a launch pad and a bolthole, when you need to retreat and have a break. When I think about the traps for artists – the offers to work for no pay for some mythical bonus called exposure, the vagaries of a
limited commercial market, the challenges of making work that is not the flavour of this month – my advice to new players would be Ask not what you can do for your city, but what your city can do for you. What do you want from your career in the long term? What kind of a life are you working towards? How can you establish a practice that is sustainable, that won’t result in burnout and bitterness? Can this city provide a platform for that? Or do you need to take off and find a niche somewhere else? Kate M Murphy has a split personality, she teaches Professional Practices at the ANU School of Art and exhibits photography, video and performance art under the pseudonym of Ellis Hutch. She produces a blog http://artbusinessbits. tumblr.com/ where she shares arts related information and opportunities; and also interviews artists about their working practices.
Braddon MARTYN JOLLY
The world snorted with derision when, for the second year in a row, the OECD nominated Canberra as the world’s best city. Critics pointed out that, although it had come out with the biggest numbers in the OECD’s nine ‘wellbeing indicators’, which included education, jobs, incomes and environment, this did not make for a great city. In fact, they chortled, Canberra is a terrible city. In The Guardian’s words: ‘Canberra is a deathly place. It is a city conceived as a monument to the roundabout and the retail park, a bleak and relentless landscape of axial boulevards and manicured verges, dotted with puffed-up state buildings and gigantic shopping sheds. It is what a city looks like when it is left to politicians to plan.’ None of that is wrong (the ‘gigantic shopping sheds’ bit is particularly right). But it is very much an attenuated view from lofty London that begs many questions for those of us who are actually making a go of living here. For instance, maybe its monumental conception – Griffin’s grand design for utopian civic virtues – gives our city its brittly surreal, hyper-really heterotopic character for which many of us have developed a cool, wry affection. And maybe some of us like the regular irruptions into our day-to-day travels of raw bush and depthless sky, afforded by the skeletal nature of the relentless axial boulevards. And those axes have also begun to shelter at their fulcrums some fragile urban microclimates which have been slowly developing over the years.
Since the 1960s, coincidentally Canberra’s heyday, urban discourse has shifted from the macro of the master plan to the micro of the precinct – the local area dense with textures, memories and experiences. Since the 1960s, across the world and without exception, many neighbourhoods of poverty or industry have been remade as waves of gentrification have swept over them. Artists have been the shock troops, reinforced by designers and architects, and followed by developers and trendies in a pattern as familiar and repeated as the tides. For fifty years urbanists have become adept at sniffing out the fluctuating nuances of the ‘local’ as waves of gentrification sweep back and forth. Antonioni’s 1966 masterpiece Blow Up, set in swinging London, is not only a film about the limits of knowledge in photography, it is also a film about the ever-transforming psycho-geographies of the postwar city. In his restless need to have everything he sees, the photographer visits a quiet nondescript London street to see a rundown junk shop he wants to buy. As soon as he notices two gay men incongruously walking a poodle there he knows, and the audience knows, that the local area’s character is already changing, and he must snap up the shop quickly. In Blow Up nothing is stable and nothing, not even the city, can ever completely become as it seems, before it must become something else. This is now the state for every city in the world, even Canberra.
Guardian, identifying Braddon as Canberra’s ‘decidedly hipster underbelly’.
For instance, ranged around the urban doughnut-hole of Civic are separated sites of local regeneration such as New Acton, Childers Street and Braddon. Of these perhaps only the transformation which Braddon is currently undergoing is intimately and intricately embedded in its past, however brief and prosaic that past may be. Braddon is basically only three parallel streets, and its car yards, hardware stores, panel beaters, takeaways and camping shops are only gradually giving way to coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, bike shops and apartments. On their brief visit to Canberra the New York Times was kinder than The
For instance, Braddon has always been a car precinct (just as Canberra has always been a car city). From 1920 it was the site of Canberra Garage Limited, servicing the city’s fleet; and up until just a few years ago rev heads would spend their Saturday nights cruising up and down past the car yards, doing the circuit by languidly swinging round the roundabouts at Lonsdale and Torrens Streets, every now again pulling into the Caltex near the Mandalay at Girrawheen Street to pop their hoods for the admiring gazes of their mates; sometimes even attempting a burnout at the top of Lonsdale Street. If they ever ventured back to Braddon
Pioneers such as the Helen Maxwell Gallery, once upstairs on Mort Street, predicted this urban renaissance many years ago, but couldn’t survive long enough to benefit from it and, some of the temporary pop-ups (who for a few months kept real estate spots warm before the temporary fencing went up around them) such as the Chop Shop, which was briefly located down an alley in Lonsdale Street, recognised past usages in their names. This rich and dense texture was just what sophisticated urbanists want, and is certainly what Canberra needs, probably more so than all the other ‘normal’ cities on the planet, so who am I to quibble? Only to wish that because Canberra is different, there is the utmost delicacy as Braddon continues its inexorable makeover. Of course delicate urban renewal is what everyone wants, not least the developers themselves who love underbellies just like the rest of us, and for whom creative grunge has an intangible commercial value if handled correctly. But when it comes to the bottom line of the balance sheet – where income has to be plotted against expenditure down to the last percentile point over each individual square metre – the delicate presence of the past, or the tenuous tenancy of the under resourced, sometimes still loses out.
now the only circling they would be doing would be looking for a park. One of the handsomest facades in Braddon was the delicate, white, open brickwork curtain that surrounded National Capital Motors on the corner of Mort and Elouera streets (perhaps the original site of Canberra Garage Limited?). But that piece of delightful architectural texture was flicked over like a house of cards to be replaced by a building of depressing, generic nastiness, with less architectural charm than the Centrelink office around the corner. All of the acres of recycled, undressed timber cladding, Dynabolted to the newly poured concrete walls of Braddon, can’t replace the authenticity of that lost texture. The only ghost I can find now of the facade is on Google Street View. The Google car had driven by National Capital Motors in 2010 and, thankfully, hasn’t been back to Braddon since. When it eventually does come back it will find quite a bit changed, but will implacably wipe away all the old ghosts with one sweep of its robotic camera. In the meantime the de-Fyshwicking of Braddon continues, and for the pedestrian the mingling smells of gasoline and grease are regularly displaced by doughy, oily, blasts of hot air from each successive bistro kitchen’s exhaust. The pop-ups have popped off, and replacement aluminium and glass apartments have been cad-cammed into instantaneous existence. Street shopfronts have become enclosed retail experiences, and the artists left walking outside on the streets of Canberra’s erstwhile underbelly are beginning to feel the backs of their necks prickling as they are distantly surveilled by the area’s new residents from their beWebered fifth-floor balconies. These changes to Braddon are not just inevitable, they will probably end up being, on balance, ultimately good for Canberra too. They are nearly identical to the changes in a thousand similar inner city neighbourhoods around the world. But only nearly identical, not completely identical, because Canberra
is different, Canberra, as we are frequently reminded by the rest of the world, is a special case. This makes any more than an absolutely necessary lack of delicacy in the ongoing gentrification of Braddon especially tragic, not that there will be of course. (Thanks to Erin Hinton and Ursula Frederick for the tip-offs) Oliver Wainwright, ‘50 years of gentrification: will all our cities turn into ‘deathly’ Canberra?’, The Guardian, 13 December, 2014 Emma Pearse, ‘36 Hours in Canberra, Australia’, New York Times, 5 June 2014 Martyn Jolly is Head of Photography and Media Arts at the ANU School of Art. He is a writer and photographer. He blogs occasionally at martynjolly.com. He is currently researching the impact of digital technology on the curating of photography in Australian art museums, and Australia’s magic lantern culture, both in the past and today. He has lived in Canberra for a long time.
OSCAR CAPEZIO
The artist Oscar Capezio is an elusive art trickster and conceptual strongman. His work is not reconcilable with any single image or fixed medium. But instead traces the dilemmas of being an artist in the world, performing the curatorial, and playing the viewer.
Artists in Canberra LOUISE CURHAM
I am curious that there seems to be so little reportage outside of Canberra about things that happen in Canberra. I don’t follow the art press religiously but I’ve had a good dig around. You can shoot me down easily on this one. I hunted for the artists I know quite well in Canberra and they’re there: Realtime always strikes me as quite a useful indicator for what people are actually doing. Dan Bigna’s writing about the Soundout festival pop up and coverage of Shoeb Ahmad’s hellosQuare record label are two immediate examples. And of course there’s a fair share of coverage for those with their own public profile, but it’s not within the context of Canberra’s art scene. Still I’m going out on a limb and saying it anyway: outside of Canberra amongst other communities, there doesn’t seem to be a general understanding of the cultural life here. It’s easy for every Canberran to succumb to the temptation of explaining ourselves, even though the New York Times did it for us twice (the report on OECD rankings 6 Oct 2014 and ‘36 hours in Canberra’ 5 June 2014).
But both articles were quite silent about the excellently energetic communities that do stuff in Canberra. The poets spring to mind, as do the experimental musicians. There’s no reason for these New York Times pieces to mention them and how would you do that in a way that reflects the reality that such activity is just part of the woodwork of Canberra. In my five years in Canberra, I’ve had a chance to join in on a few events that seem to energise different art communities in Canberra. These include Soundout, You Are Here, the intermedia shows the Canberra Contemporary Art Space orgainises between exhibitions and I’ve also tried to organise a couple myself. So I’m puzzled by this silence outside Canberra. There’s a lot of creative production in Canberra – many sophisticated amateurs who are highly skilled at their shtick (be it bird photography, botanical art etc) and many who earn some money from doing this. And many whose real audience is not in Canberra – maybe I’m amongst them.
I am quite disappointed to just discover that even You Are Here was not started by Canberrans but rather by Robyn Archer’s enthusiasm (26 April 2014, Sydney Morning Herald). Did Robyn think of supporting the Corinbank Festival? Noodling around to write this, I found Yolande Norris’ piece in The Canberra Times before Christmas pondering why it’s hard to find out about the past of the arts in Canberra. Of course it’s there, but you have to dig for it. On a recent car ride with Sarah Miller (former director of P Space, PICA, UOW academic), she told me all about her youth in Canberra in the late 70s and early 80s. It sounded quite wild. A mum friend of mine who was a doyenne of Canberra burlesque confirmed this and I also had a really interesting run down from one of the dads at school about the demise of Canberra’s metal scene (Dan Bigna has also reflected on this I discovered while reading, 23 Oct 2014, Canberra Times). Splinters and its legacy of course had a good run in 2013 and so it should. But not all the good stuff is in the past. Sally Pryor wrote in The Canberra Times a year ago an article entitled ‘A new age for Canberra arts?’ (4 Jan 2014, Canberra Times). It struck me at the time and reading it again today, it’s quite intriguing. Maybe the question mark in her title suggests she’s not quite convinced herself. She interviewed the Canberra Museum and Gallery’s director, Shane Breynard who said lots of happy things about art in Canberra and went on to mention that the art loving public is compartmentalized – and this is the keyword – we seem to fragment ourselves somehow and this leads to a lack of critical mass. Shane described how for him, a compartmentalised public means our very high levels of participation and engagement with art in all its guises fails to bleed out into our public spaces. The sophisticated amateurs just aren’t interested in the poets and vice versa. The Gods poets aren’t interested in the Slammers etc. So this makes it hard to show ourselves and others
how diverse and vibrant we are; a platform that works for one compartment won’t work for another. You Are Here isn’t a space where sophisticated amateurs want to show their work, just as the Artists Society of Canberra shows are not the place for the nightlong sound performances of YAH. So that’s fine – no problem with each art and each audience having its own ecosystem. It’s just that compartmentalising like this bleeds away our ability to engage a wide audience. And usually there’d be no need or benefit to try to draw compartments closer except that we’re a small city and we need that critical mass. I think what I’m getting at is an underlying hospitality to creative practice in Canberra. I think it’s there but we need to make it explicit. The American John Dewey has an idea that might be useful for us: his notion that the work of art is the work art does in shaping our experience. Maybe we can all add his idea to our sense of what it means to contribute to creative life in Canberra; we all contribute to cultural encounters, whether or not we’re crafters of objects, or an audience member. So here’s my suggestion: keep open-minded curiosity at the fore, encourage it in each other and make people welcome. Louise Curham is a video and new media artist living and working in Canberra.
Canberra Art Economics or: Why I’m Going to Sell Bread ROBERT GUTH I think I may have made peace with being a creative producer in Canberra. It has taken two decades and three university degrees. Finally, I have the tools to understand what seemed to me an unbalanced economy. I now rejoice in the rich diversity of incredible talent that is shared by amateurs in all fields. This is a turnaround from when I saw these generous individuals as ruining the market for emerging professionals by being able to ruthlessly undercut people trying to make a living. I now see the production of art in an expanded field that allows for more diverse exchanges. As creative producers we choose to participate in an economy in which money is only a small part of what is exchanged between members. Value is placed on the exchange and accumulation of such abstract concepts as: self worth, exposure, future opportunity, mutual support, purity of intent, ideas and the common good. While the values placed on these forms of social capital make it a fluid, fast and fun economy it also makes it damn hard place to make a living. Canberra is a particularly good place for this sort of economy to develop. There is a backbone of work ethic and employment that values security, personal comfort and independence while supporting a separation between an individual’s job and their identity. This is commonly expressed as; “I work in the Public Service but my passion is: (insert time/money expensive enthusiasm here).” This is an environment that encourages the development of self images that are in contrast to the everyday realities people are bound by. It is admirable that individuals choose to take their profit in time developing skills and engaging with their community, perhaps this group should be named the “Clark Kents” – mild mannered public servants by day, raging writers, actors, musicians, event organisers, painters, photographers and models by night.
The only question that remains for me is how to navigate this externally financially funded ecology in a way to make a living? I have only tried a few ways in the past: being an exhibiting and commissioned photographer, a community engaged artist, part time university lecturer and the most financially successful – a scholarship supported graduate student. One solid option for the future is providing services for the Clark Kents. No one hesitates at hiring a sound system, paying for safety equipment or buying a coffee to rent hangout space in a café. The future is unknown but reasonably you can expect to find closer co-productions between commercial and creative outputs. These projects would bridge the gap by allowing Clark Kents to financially support emerging artists while continuing to create social capital by their involvement. As an example, I might choose to set up a bakery/restaurant/gallery that trades on my identity as a community engaged participatory artist and integrates my artworks, examining exchange and value via the interactions with patrons. The customers/participants could be given a choice of how they pay, combining cash and social community actions. These payments in social capital are recorded and disseminated as part of the projects ongoing nature as an artwork. At the same time enough cash should change hands that I can have a reasonable middle class life. Dr Robert Guth is a sessional lecturer at the ANU School of Art and a participatory artist. His community artworks deal with engagement, value and exchange. This is an infomercial, YAH could only afford to pay a small honorarium so I have taken payment by promoting my upcoming commercial venture Doktor’s Kitchen – follow us on Facebook or send an email to doktors.kitchen@gmail.com
LETTERS TO THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY You Are Here commissioned poetry about the Australian Capital Territory, tangential or direct as long as it centred on the Territory. The writers each have a strong connection to Canberra and offer a unique poem on place.
another few minutes, maybe the brown dribble from the showerhead will run clean but work can’t wait today, so. she inspects the yellow rivulets as they collect the night sweat trailing like new veins down her abdomen, her legs, the drain. a vagrant drop settles in the corner of her mouth taste of chalk, of iron, of something else she can’t remember (childhood smell of dry creek bed). this is normal now. a spritz of fragrance hangs white particles in the air and hides the strange dry smell. her brother went to see the dam wall looming absurd, holding back air she dresses and she thinks; ‘why go there?’ the bike, past the old Floriade carpark converted shipping containers once emergency shelter, now men sit in folding chairs there cigarette rolls between black fingers washing strung, musically bare there are some dogs nothing special, or really vicious just a pack but she’s nervous enough thinks how she’ll kick if she needs when she’s clear she thinks no further work can’t wait. maybe the water will be clean tomorrow. AARON KIRBY AND ELEANOR MALBON
Eleanor Malbon and Aaron Kirby’s Eucapocolypts Now starts from the premise that we need to be prepared for a future in which human life is no longer the centre of the world.
1. a list of lists I haven’t made yet list of awesome names for cats list of fancy pants list of rejected marketing ideas for tampons list of reasons why it’s awesome to be me list of reasons why it would be awesome to be a cat list of reasons why Disney couldn’t be worse than Lucas list of inexplicably hot cartoon characters list of awkward times to need to pee list of weird shaped penis’ I have seen list of reasons why I don’t understand my friends attraction to Bear Grills list of celebrities that probably smell weird list of facebook status’ nobody wants to see list of facebook status’ it’s inappropriate to like list of things we are nostalgic for but really shouldn’t be list of sexy scientists list of contests the master of conflict seems to have put thought into (a very short list) list of badslammers who look like fancy hobos a list of SHUT UP KABO 2. fill a page with swears all the swears in every combination you can think of 3. A short poem about tea: chamomile tastes like disappointment CHARLES J QUINN A thirty year old, chronically ill, genderqueer, Charles J Quinn, decided to perform at every BAD!SLAM! for a year and has become the unique poet they are today.
Question time I guess the luminous excuses made a master out of me. I comprised the grasslands and the river, the car wash and the utility services bill — always the lectern stood though I refused to speak or couldn’t? That strange breach was broached by a warm acquaintance, not involving campfire but yes, intimate, yes, during a late chill of hours. It’s commendable to sign up each day, but better to maintain a patina of disobedient actions, shoplifting or whatever. So we concluded. The vibe of Canberra was OK. The lake water slopped in one direction, which you might have thought impossible. This meant an easy air governed despite the unease and no one really bothered the potoroos. A series of underground passages brought the kink. That’s a true rumour. Gimme. There at the vault is where I mouthed off. EMILY STEWART Emily Stewart is a poet and commissioning editor of Seizure.
82 LAPS When: Wednesday 18 March, 9.30–10.30pm Where: The Merry-go-round Explore the inherent and confected meanings of life by spinning within Canberra’s shittest landmark, the Garema Place merry-go-round. There will be reflection, exhilaration, song and – obviously – the gentle up and down of fake horses, because you only get to go around the sun so many times. All under the benevolent guidance of the heavily-insured man behind the curtains, Chris Endrey (In Canberra Tonight, Fun Machine). Artists: Chris Endrey and friends
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10 YEARS OF HELLOSQUARE When: Saturday 21 March, 8.00–11.00pm Where: The Street From humble beginnings in a Belco bedroom to touring international artists and curating events across Australia, SouthEast Asia and the UK, the hellosQuare label continues to defy boundaries with their ever evolving melting pot of sound. hellosQuare celebrates their
tenth year of existence in 2015 with a special “past, present, future” performance at The Street featuring Cracked Actor (launching their debut album Iconoclast), Paul Heslin and the internationally renowned Lawrence English. Presented along side will be a walkway exhibition of the archives, cover art and posters from the last decade of hellosQuare releases and performances. Artists: Cracked Actor, Paul Heslin, Lawrence English
A CHILL DAY IN HELL When: Saturday 21 March, 3.30–4.30pm Sunday 22 March, 2.00–3.00pm Where: Westside at Acton Park, Commonwealth Avenue In the midst of society’s slow, grey decline and with reports of The Hum causing increased madness and hysteria, Felix broadcasts what he hopes will be the last episode of his long running podcast
So make sure all government mandated headphones are tuned to the relevant frequency and munch down on some Bumbledown if you’ve got it. It’s time to spend a final Chill Day in Hell. Artists: Arran McKenna
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF TED NO n When: 20–22 March Where: @thelifeoftedno
Artists: Jordan Morris, Candace Petrik, Kate Iselin
ART FOR OUR SAKE When: Thursday 19 March, 3.00–5.00pm Where: The Record Store Have you ever thought there is more to art than art for art’s sake? Are you an artist, arts worker or producer interested in community development? Or do you work for a community group and are interested in the power of arts to create positive change? Join You Are Here, Belconnen Arts Centre, Big hART Inc, special guests and like-minded individuals for an intensive session of skills sharing, knowledge swapping and network shuffling as, together, we unpack Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) – what it is, how it works and how you can get involved. Using Canberra’s unique circumstances and challenges as a starting point,
together we’ll workshop creative ways to generate the life-altering arts of tomorrow. Artists: Belconnen Arts Centre and Big hART Inc
ASK ME ANYTHING
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This series of facilitated Q&A sessions will delve into the minds of industry experts on the topics of publishing/editing, performing, and the practicalities of writing, drawing out the full scope and noting the details. This panel series is presented with generous support from the ACT Writers Centre. Ask me anything: Patrick Lenton, writer When: Saturday 21 March, 1.00–2.00pm Where: Smith’s Alternative Ask me anything: Lex Hirst, publisher When: Saturday 21 March, 3.30–4.30pm Where: Smith’s Alternative Ask me anything: Niki Aken, writer for TV When: Sunday 22 March, 3.30–4.30pm Where: Smith’s Alternative
BAD!SLAM!NO! BISCUIT! VERSUS FEMINARTSY VERSUS THE FESTIVALS n When: Wednesday 18 March, 7.30–11.30pm Where: The Phoenix Pub Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! has teamed up with Feminartsy, You Are Here and Noted to bring you a unique night of poetry, performance, writing and entertainment all wrapped in the competition of the poetry slam. Five judges, scores from 10 to negative infinity, no props, no music, your original words, many MCs, many feature acts, the Score Adder and the Master of Conflict. Bring your words. Sign up from 7.30pm. Artists: Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! and Feminartsy
A–B
Noted Festival invites you to seize a moment in a day in the life of #TedNo: a Twitter-based character whose story will be dictated by every tweet using the #TedNo hashtag. Contributing a tweet could change the course of Ted’s life forever.
notable writers taking on the agony aunt role. You provide the questions, they’ll dish the dirt. Read the results on the Noted website. Send your questions to notedfestival@gmail.com Buzzword bloggers: Kate Iselin, Patrick Lenton, Lynette Noni, Katie Taylor, Samantha van Zweden
them up to games so that you can explore music in a whole new way. Come and experience an artful mess of music, games, interactive art and performance, where you create the art. Be part of a new type of concert. Also appearing at Generate: Indie Games Showcase Artists: CTRL_Coda
CUTS! When: Throughout the festival Where: 2XXFM and the You Are Here website
BE A COMPOSER! WORKSHOP When: Friday 20 March, 5.00–7.00 pm
B+C
Where: Canberra Museum and Gallery Join this interactive music composition and performance workshop with Inventi Ensemble’s artistic directors: Ben Opie and Melissa Doecke. Learn about the creative process, new techniques, commissioning new works, collaborating with artists and ultimately write your own music. Musical knowledge and music reading skills are not required – just come along with your creative ideas and explore how they can be translated into music. All you need is your imagination and enthusiasm! Artists: Inventi Ensemble
BUZZWORDS
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When: 20–22 March Where: notedfestival.com Buzzwords is Noted’s very own advice column, with four
CLASSICAL POP-UP When: Wednesday 18 March, anytime Where: Anywhere Classical music where you least expect it. Search for Inventi Ensemble in and around Civic and enjoy their spontaneous performance during Opening Night. Artists: Inventi Ensemble
CREATE, COMPOSE, PLAY When: Saturday 21 March, 6.30–7.30pm Where: Canberra Museum and Gallery Want to try to draw beats on an etch-a-sketch? Compose a symphony in space? Use a hacked turntable to fly with a bee? Do you want to drum out colours? Create a song in the air with your hands? CTRL_Coda has hacked instruments and hooked
In 2015, building on past emerging arts reviewers projects such as Scissors Paper Pen’s Papercuts, You Are Here is presenting CUTS!, an opportunity for emerging media producers to present critical responses to the festival. Led by facilitators skilled in content production, the CUTS! participants will be encouraged to undertake deeper analysis of the festival, critique our artistic vision, question our artists and their processes and explore Canberra’s diverse creative communities. In 2015 we are partnering with 2XXFM and Young Folk Media, a media collective for young people living in the ACT brought together to unpack Canberra’s infamously boring reputation by producing content for 2XXFM, Canberra’s community radio station and SYN Nation. Young Folk Media is part of SYN’s National Youth Media Project. Tune in to the Young Folk Media Hour, the show presented by Young Folk on 2XX 98.3FM on Sunday at 4.00pm or visit the YAH website to hear CUTS! Artists: Young Folk Media
DANGEROUS TERRITORY
DISHES
No stage. No lighting desk. No dressing room (except their cars). This year YAH challenged Canberra theatre-makers to pick a strange space in the city and create a show around it, a show that couldn’t happen anywhere else. The result is six performances that transform the city spaces you see every day and run the gamut from joyful to raw, split-your-sides to no-holds-barred. Join us for a very unusual tour – record store, laneway, coffee shop, shipping container, army combat truck – as story and city become one.
When: Sunday 22 March, 7.00–8.30pm
it at Neon Night Rider when Bo Loserr will be busting out the tunes while everyone gets ready to ride.
Where: Black Mountain Peninsula
Artists: Bo Loserr
The Dangerous Territory shows are: Zak and Reefa’s Bollywood Funeral, Eucapocalypts Now, A Chill Day In Hell, Sir Co, KREWD presents A KREWD Chorale, F*ck Decaf
DIGITAL ZINE
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When: 20–22 March Where: notedfestival.com/ notification Emma Davidson will experiment with making a digital ‘zine’ of collages and writing inspired by the idea of possession of the self, spirit and in the eyes of the law. Artists: Emma Davidson
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Dishes is an absurd ceremony that uses Black Mountain Peninsula beach as an expanded wash basin. As the sun goes down, illuminated ceramic crockery is gathered and washed by dancers as synthetic sounds create life from under the water. Dishes is a new household routine, removed yet humorous. Artists: Danny Wild
DJ COMBAT TRUCK
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When: Friday 20 March, 7.30–8.00pm Where: Lake Burley Griffin, meet at corner Albert St and Barrine Drive The DJ Combat Truck is an all-terrain all arts vehicle that’s been taken over by You Are Here and Noted. Built by Bo Loserr, formerly Bacon Cakes, the truck is a converted Royal Australian Army 4×4 Land Rover Perentie radio truck. Proven in Somalia, Timor Leste, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan now it rolls the streets of Canberra full of theatre, music and other surprises. Catch
EAST ROW MUSEUM When: Everyday of the festival from 12pm–late Opening event Wednesday 18 March, 6.00–8.00pm Where: The Record Store What happens when we challenge the way we document history? Or give curatorial interpretation free rein? Welcome to the East Row Museum: a space for the untold, untrue and unbelievable.
nor apocalypse, and asks – can you face it without flinching? Artists: Ellie Malbon, Aaron Kirby
EXCAVATE When: Thursday 19 March, 7.00–8.00pm
Saturday 21 March, 7.00–8.00pm
Where: Check the You Are Here website
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Enjoy an audio tour around the museum, as you view collections presented by more than 17 local artists and curators – from half-remembered mementos of motherhood, to objects salvaged from time travel, to a forgotten 90s sludge pop band – every artefact has a story.
EUCAPOCALYPTS NOW
Want to get involved? Add your own stories to exhibits in the collection when you visit.
The capacity of the planet to fulfill our material desires is being rapidly depleted, particularly in Australia, and we are concerned to think through a particularly Australian response – a wave of eucalypt breaking over our cities and towns, tarmac cracks and blisters and the mallee begins its long march back over abandoned farmland. How are we to process this? Will we go mad? Or can we develop new myths and philosophies which complement the sour taste of sap? Eucapocalypts Now is a poetry performance which prises open the eyes to an increasingly likely future that’s neither utopia
Artists: Curators: Hannah Bath and Chris Carmody; Vanessa Berry; The Sculptural Collective: Tom Buckland, Corri Hakaraia, Janet Ranken, Rebecca Selleck and Sian Watson; Lucy Caldwell; Oscar Capezio and Naomi Xeros; Chiara Grassia; Peter Jones and Susan Taylor; Nannette LouchartFletcher; Zid Mancenido; Frances Staden; and Ellen Wignell Exhibition Design: Julia Johnson Project developed by rip publishing.
When: Saturday 21 March, 2.00–3.00pm
Sunday 22 March, 3.30–4.30pm
Where: Westside at Acton Park, Commonwealth Avenue
An intimately expansive new dance work. Performed at sunset atop a rooftop terrace, Excavate digs down as our perception widens out. Set high above the Canberra CBD, excavate asks what space can be carved away for our present-future, as we dredge through the past. Featuring a cocoon of sound, intricate movement and the horizon alight, excavate is a unique performance experience. Artists: Choreography and performance: Gareth Hart Composition: Edward Willoughby
rationalisations, perceptions, deliberations, inferences, considerations, realisations, reasonings, ruminations and theories with the Official Festival Confessional. Artists: Paul Heslin
FINGER YOUR FRIENDS When: Thursday 19 March, 10.00–11.00pm
FAR FLUNG
FESTIVAL CONFESSIONAL
When: Thursday 19 March, 7.00–8.00pm
When: Everyday of the festival from 12pm–late
Where: The Record Store
Saturday 21 March, 9.00–10.00pm
Where: Meet at Canberra Museum and Gallery Far Flung is an interactive, real-time performance event that explores the challenges and excitement of long-distance communication. Part dance work, part live video installation, the performance takes place simultaneously across three different venues linked together by online video conferencing. Audience members are invited to choose their vantage point and encouraged to change their point of view as often as they like throughout the performance. Dance artists based in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra have teamed up with young dancers from QL2 Dance to bring this project to You Are Here 2015. Artists: Courtney Scheu and Ashlee Bye in association with QL2 Dance. Far Flung was originally devised by Courtney Scheu, Ashlee Bye, Anna Kallstrom, Robert Brassington and Hannah Wong.
How is your festival going? How is your life going? Leave your thoughts, ideas, desires, memories, dreams, hopes, reflections, speculations, understandings, opinions, ideas, contemplations, anticipations, mediations, deductions, truths, introspections, intuitions, studies, judgments, apprehensions, observations, celebrations, insights, musings, meditations,
Finger Your Friends is a sex-positive music project that brings the party in a relatively responsible way. Part performance-art, part rock concert and part punk political activism, Finger Your Friends dissects sex, misogyny, fame and party culture with body moving bass, catchy pop hooks and wailing guitar. Visually spectacular, sonically wild and unashamedly impolite, Finger Your Friends are the unwanted love child of Peaches and TISM on a lot of red cordial. Artists: Rob Hughes, Emma McManus, Joseph Parro feat. special guests. Lighting Designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson
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Where: The Record Store
GENERATE: INDIE GAMES SHOWCASE AND FORUM When: Saturday 21 March, 12.00–5.00pm, Forum at 3.00pm Where: Canberra Museum and Gallery
F–G
F*CK DECAF When: Saturday 21 March, 5.30–6.30pm
Sunday 22 March, 4.00–5.00pm
Where: As You Like It Café, The Street From the pen of Tyler Jacob Jones, winner of two Artrage Theatre Awards (2013 & 2014) and this year’s winner of the prestigious Martin Sims Award (2014 Fringe Festival). F*ck Decaf is The Cutting Room Floor’s latest high octane,
caffeine infused production. F*ck Decaf explores our addiction to love in a bold adventure beyond the safe lands of tea readings and cucumber sandwiches. How important is it to have that special someone around? Or do you really just want to get laid? Add shattered china, coffee shots plus a desperately cute waiter and watch the steam hit the froth and the inky black drop. Artists: The Cutting Room Floor
Are you into single player, adventure, strategy or MMORPG? Do you want to know what MMORPG means? Did you know that Canberra has a thriving indie game development community? Who’d have thought? For the first time, You Are Here is pleased to present the Indie Games Showcase featuring the new, in-development and experimental games that local developers are working on. Play demos, give feedback to the developers and meet folks IRL. At 3.00pm we’ll be sitting down for a forum with members of CTRL_Coda, representatives from local game developers and the other creatives – chatting about developing games in Canberra, experimentation and the exciting cross disciplinary work that indie developers are doing with musicians, designers and artists. Artists: CTRL_Coda, Cardboard Keep, Siege Sloth Games and more
HEARTS IN CAUSES
Nicola Lambert When: Wednesday 18 March, 7.30pm Where: The Phoenix Pub during Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! n
When: 20–22 March Where: www.notedfestival.com/ notification Hear about the untidy and confusing parts of life as a dogooder, activist or campaigner. Vanity, hope, pride, guilt, meeting fatigue, friendship: this poeticdocumentary project embraces it all in text and audio. To share your story and get involved, email notedfestival@ gmail.com Artists: Merrindahl Andrew
Dr Jeanine Leane When: Saturday 21 March, 4.30pm Where: Smith’s Alternative Tony Trobe When: Sunday 22 March, 3.00pm Where: Westside at Acton Park Bare-knuckle boxing’s illegal. Corporal punishment’s out of fashion. Project Mayhem came to nothing. What recourse is left to a city in need of improvement but to invite its brightest minds to verbally excoriate its flaws? Three experts deliver three short, bloody,
Artists: Ashley Thomson, Nicola Lambert, Dr Jeanine Leane, Tony Trobe
IN SYDNEY TODAY, IN LONDON TODAY
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When: 20–22 March Where: www.notedfestival.com/ notification From their homes in Sydney and London, two friends write and record each other’s poems. Using Skype, they’ll perform their unconventional, carefully curated spoken word performance exploring place, technology, politics, work and friendship. Artists: Rosa Campbell and Christopher Brew
IN THE LOOP
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When: Saturday 21 March, 12.30–1.00pm Where: Smith’s Alternative When: Sunday 22 March, 3.00–3.30pm Where: Gorman Arts Centre In the Loop is a story designed to be felt, touched and inhabited as well as read. The story is constructed on clothing worn by performers, becoming a worn word sculpture. Artists: Claire Capel-Stanley
H–I
(I HATE YOU) FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS
insight-laden calls to arms. Nicola Lambert, artist and arts facilitator, questions the cultural inclusiveness of the ACT’s arts programs; the ANU’s Dr Jeanine Leane examines Indigenous representation in the literary scene; and heavyweight architect Tony Trobe calls for a re-examination of Canberra’s architectural priorities. Don’t miss these pointed brutalisations of your beloved capital’s shortcomings.
INTIMATE SOUND IMMERSION When: Wednesday 18 March, 6.00–8.00pm
Thursday 19 March, 12.30–2.30pm
Friday 20 March, 12.30–2.30pm
Where: Canberra Museum and Gallery
IN THE TREE, PART OF THE TREE? When: Wednesday 18 March, 8.30–9.30pm
Saturday 21 March, 8.30–9.30pm
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Where: The tree at the corner of Mort St and Elouera St Elouera, meaning “pleasant place” in the language of the Tharawal people of the Illawarra basin, is a name transported from its original setting, much like the Portuguese Gall Oak tree, that now adorns so many Canberra streets. Solco Acro’s aerial acrobats explore belonging, mobility and kinship, with a stunning display of flexibility, strength, style and grace, all while suspended from the Portuguese Gall Oak on the corner of Mort St and Elouera St. Artists: Solco Acro
INFLORESCENCE When: Saturday 21 March, 6.30–7.30pm
Sunday 22 March, 3.00–4.00pm
Where: The Street
Life is ephemeral, art long, music transient, experience deceptive and experiments essential. Inflorescence draws inspiration from the triangle of pollination; the flower, the pollinator and the pollen. It is the illuminated memories of pollinators planted, plucked, gathered, observed and listened to. It is history, relationship, shared language, the pollination of new ideas with old and how they flower in real time. Improvising musician Reuben Lewis and visual artist Dianne Fogwell come together to contemplate the natural choreography and sympathetic resonances found in this hidden world and to present their findings in two special events of curated art installation and musical performance. Artists: Reuben Lewis and Dianne Fogwell
Aviva Endean’s solo performance for one blindfolded audience member at a time offers a uniquely personal auditory and sensory experience. Listeners are transported into the depths of their own imaginations in a work that occupies a space between experimental performance and immersive sound therapy. Foregrounding the fragile sounds of everyday objects alongside the elusive, shadowy tones of the bass clarinet, the work teases and massages the ears of the solitary audience member, whose temporal, spatial and sensory awareness will be challenged and disrupted in an intensely intimate sonic experience. Artists: Aviva Endean
Writers/concepts: Joe Woodward, Geneviève Kenneally, Katie Woodward, Ellie Garran, Gina Morrison and Steven Bailey. Cast: Miri Slate, Lucy Matthews, Kat Bramston, Gina Morrison, Kristy Harley Quinn, Sarah Michelle Thomson, Anna Voronoff, Barb Barnett and Alison McGregor.
JILLIAN CARRUTHERS: GIRL REPORTER IN CANBERRA; FESTIVAL OF SPIES – THE LOST EPISODE J–L
When: Saturday 21 March, 8.00–9.00pm Where: The Record Store Back in 1932, the newly minted ABC created the serial radio play Jillian Carruthers: Girl Reporter to try and reach new audiences for the confronting new technology of AM radio. This tale of plucky heroine Jillian on her journey from junior copygirl to junior girl reporter in a busy metropolitan newspaper touched the hearts of the ten or twelve Australians who listened to it. In 2014, Nick Smith and Chris Ryan recreate the most lost episode of all, the one where plucky gal Jillian comes to the brand new city of Canberra to report on the brand new arts festival. Only not on AM radio, but live! On stage! With sound effects, in three dimensions, and featuring interviews with You Are Here performers! Artists: Chris Ryan, Nick Smith and special guests
KREWD PRESENTS A KREWD CHORALE When: Saturday 21 March, 9.00–10.00pm Where: Bible Lane All over the world they control our minds and in silence we suffer guilt; unnatural guilt that has been forced upon us. Across the world they rape our sisters, they cut out their lady parts and throw away the scraps, but my mouth is not sewn shut, my tongue is not cut out. Artistic Director and concept by: Katie Woodward Directors: Katie Woodward, Joe Woodward (Shadow House PITS), Steven Bailey and Casey Elder.
L’ASSASSINER DE FAUX FAUX AMIS When: Thursday 19 March, 8.00–9.00pm Where: The Record Store L’Assassiner de Faux Faux Amis is a murder mystery party hosted by a rock band. However, the night goes off script when it’s discovered someone is systematically killing the band. The band continue to play as their numbers dwindle, all while trying to solve the mystery and unmask the murderer. L’Assassiner de Faux Faux Amis is an episode of Scooby Doo written by Jean-Luc Godard – a pulpy whodunnit, splattered with existential digressions on death and the power of pop songs. Artists: Faux Faux Amis
LAUNCH ALL OF THE WORDS n When: Sunday 22 March, 1.00–4.00pm Where: Gorman Arts Centre
Artists include: Patrick Lenton, Emma Jones, Beige Brown, Josh Donellan, Jordan Morris, Tasnim Hossain, Deb Cleland, Jess Stone, Sarah St Vincent Welch, Raphael Kabo
A roomful of artists vie for your patronage in an all-at-once, all-out launch of zines, books, albums, ideas, campaigns and tobe-determined items, where you, valued customer, are always right.
LISTEN IN
Artists: Maryann Mussared
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When: Friday 20 March, 6.30–7.30pm Where: The Record Store
L–N
A book club for those without a long attention span, Listen In invites you to share a song you love that has something to do with the literary world. If you can make a connection between a song and the written word, bring it along on any device: iPod, iPhone, Galaxy, you name it (no, don’t). Sit on comfy couches, listen to and yarn about the songs, and share a damn fine evening. Artists: Lisa Sampson
LIT HOP
from the Little Library but in turn please donate so others can enjoy. Donate anything you think others would like to read: vintage books, paperbacks, magazines, or something you have bought recently and enjoyed so much you would like to share.
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When: Saturday 21 March, 6.30pm–late Where: The Record Store, Lonsdale St Roasters 23, The Hamlet Like a bar hop, but better. Discover notable writers and performers as you go from one watering hole to another. You’ll find storytelling, games and rowdy trivia in three separate venues, with pop-up pit stops along the way. Then put your pens down and get your groove on at the after party.
LITTLE LIBRARY When: Throughout the festival Where: The Record Store, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Gorman Arts Centre Choose a book, as the world should be free to choose, read so you may be enriched, and give so another may benefit. Little Library is an interactive installation that embraces something we all love – books! Your local Little Library operates through a borrowing system of honesty where everyone can share their pre-loved books. You can borrow
NEON NIGHT RIDER When: Friday 20 March, 7.30–9.30pm Where: Lake Burley Griffin, meet at corner Albert St and Barrine Drive After the rollicking success of our first neon community bike ride in 2014, we’re back with even more incandescent fun for your Friday. Join You Are Here on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin as the sun sets. Bring yourself, your bike and
Artists: Shoeb Ahmad, Assad, Lortica, Cold Emotion, Reuben Ingall, Peter Hollo
P.S. You have to have lights and a helmet to ride. So says the law.
NO LIGHTS NO LYCRA When: Friday 20 March, 9.30–11.00pm Where: The Record Store For Canberrans who can’t help but cut loose, for beat buffs bopping around in their bedroom, for monster mash masters – No Lights No Lycra (NLNL) returns to You Are Here. At NLNL there is no light, no lycra, no teacher, no steps, no technique, just fun and free movement. The Canberra crew will curate a Light + Dark themed playlist, perfect for those who dance with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Want to practise your Risky Business routine rendition? NLNL Canberra dances every Wednesday night at St John’s Church hall in Reid. Artists: No Lights No Lycra
NO SIGNAL: 10 YEARS OF HELLOSQUARE – LIVE When: Wednesday 18 March, 10.30–11.30pm Where: The Record Store A late night live podcast recording as part of the No Signal series curated especially for You Are Here by hellosQuare. Featuring new lo-fi electronic beat making outfit Cold Emotion. Come, stand up, lie down, dance, drink tea, contemplate. We’ll be there.
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your friends. Roll up at 7.30pm to embellish your bike, we’ll provide the neon, you make yourself glow! Then at 8.15pm we’ll ride off into the night, a glowing stream from bridge to bridge accompanied by the Neon (k)Nights, some tunes, a disco ball or two and all your favourite pals.
Artists: Cold Emotion
NO SIGNAL: 10 YEARS OF HELLOSQUARE – PODCAST OPENING NIGHT SERIES When: Released at 1pm every day of the festival Where: Check YAH website for details A series of five special edition podcasts celebrate the 10 years of DIY spirit that the hellosQuare label has brought to Canberra. From a celebration of the back catalogue to simulcast live performance and a presentation of influences, these podcasts delve deeper into the label’s history and aesthetic choices and present the perfect chance to discover new music along the way.
When: 6.00pm–late
Where: Meet at The Record Store In our busy hectic lives wouldn’t it be easier to see all your art in one night? Opening Night is the opening night for everything you have ever wanted to see, all at once, all within easy walking distance. Encompassing visual art, performance, theatre, dance and music, Opening Night wants you to explore the city and discover art wherever you find yourself. Meet at The Record Store at 6.00pm, get your program and start opening all of the art.
PRIMAL SCREEN When: Sunday 22 March, 8.30–10.00pm Where: The Phoenix Pub
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This week’s hottest new social network, Primal Screen, launches tonight! The only catch is that its offline, made of cardboard and only exists in the Phoenix Pub. Social media mavens from Canberra and around the festival match their wits against each other and the baffling rules of a capricious and arbitrary form of communication. Artists: Aaron Kirby, Cohen Gum
RAINBOW HELTER SKELTER When: Wednesday 18 March, 6.30–7.00pm Where: The Record Store Ruth O’Brien presents a series of new songs in which she pushes her boundaries as a predominantly blues, jazz and cabaret singer and songwriter.
Lyrically, many of her songs hint at themes of love, life lessons and everyday situations. Sonically, Ruth experiments with a fresh DIY approach to pop that incorporates loops and everyday sounds and centres the voice as her instrument. Artists: Ruth O’Brien
RESERVING TIME When: Throughout the festival Where: The streets of Civic and Braddon Reserving Time is a five-part series of mock-up reserved parking signs around Civic. Rewritten with new ‘instructions’, these signs include messages such as quotes and the artist’s own private musings. Centrally themed around time and how we experience it, these signs are contemplative, humorous and ironic. Official in format but intimate in tone, these small interventions question the idea of reserved public space and ponder how that space might be used to stimulate conversation or self reflection. Artists: Rosalind Lemoh
ROLL WITH ME
SIR CO
When: Saturday 21 March, 3.00–4.00pm
When: Saturday 21 March, 6.30–7.00pm
Where: Meet at the steps of Old Parliament House
Where: Bible Lane
If you have a portable radio or music player that can connect to FM radio bring it along or just come along and borrow one of ours. Artists: Harriet Gillies, Farz Edraki, Yen Eriksen, Adelaide Rief
When: Sunday 22 March, 1.00–2.00pm Where: Verity Lane Sir Co explores the conditions lived out by people in detention facilities. It attends to the acting out and play of power; those players who produce and perpetuate State practices and the transgressive power wielded by those under State control who creatively interrupt, intercept and interface the flow and functionality of institutional control. This one act play aims to create a liminal space where power, identity and purpose are stripped away from both actor and audience. Artists: Millie Cooper
SLOWTUNES When: Wednesday 18 March, 9.00–10.00pm Where: The Record Store In Slowtunes, Reuben Ingall talks about slowed-down music in popular culture, from Chopped and Screwed to the Inception soundtrack to 800% stretched Bieber, with lots of audio examples. There will be time for Q&A and requests at the end, so bring some tunes on CD, USB, vinyl, cassette, or even on your phone and Reuben will get ‘em slowed ‘n throwed. Artists: Reuben Ingall
SPEAKERBOX
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When: Sunday 22 March, 5.00–6.00pm Where: The Street
Scissors Paper Pen brings the writers, hellosQuare brings the musicians. Catch these one-off collaborative works: sound stories, song poems and new word/ noise fusions. Artists: Jess Stone, JM Donellan, Cathy Petocz, ANU Experimental Music Studio, Ollie Bown, Alphamale
SPINE LABEL POEMS AND SIX WORD STORIES n When: 20–22 March Where: notedfestival.com/ notification Watch poetry come to life as students from Saints Peter & Paul Primary School explore the literary possibilities of working with found text. Artists: Students in years three to six at Saints Peter & Paul, Garran. Coordinated by Andrea de Carvalho, Literacy Coordinator Saints Peter & Paul, Garran
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Roll With Me is part walking tour, part performance, part podcast all rolled up in a live interactive experience on Capital Hill. Roll With Me draws on a deep and uniting passion for rolling down grassy hills at Parliament House and experiences of living in a town where the architecture of government looms in the distance. Come, roll with us and explore the almost imperceptible ways that your surroundings rein you in.
TAKE NOTE (WORKSHOP SERIES) n Hone your skills with these small-group workshops with the most competent and charismatic facilitators on the block. Workshops will include skills such as: poetry, radio play production, long form writing and alternative text. This workshop series is presented with generous support from the ACT Writers Centre. For more details about the full workshop series please see notedfestival.com/workshops.
TALE TIME STUDIO CONNECT When: Open by arrangement, check the YAH website for more details
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Studio Connect Open Workshop, Sunday 22 March, 11.00am–1.00pm
Where: Check YAH website for details Studio Connect is a group of 12 visual artists who identify as having a disability. Studio, is a 10week project that aims to provide a temporary supported studio space in Canberra CBD. Studio Connect members will participate in facilitated workshops in skill development and training and collaborate on new artwork alongside key artist and project coordinator Nicola Lambert and special guest You Are Here artists. The space will become an open studio for the duration of the festival, providing an opportunity for community engagement through workshops led by Studio Connect members and pop-up exhibitions and interactive events created during the project.
On the final day of the festival Studio Connect will hold an open workshop for the public where the members will facilitate workshops centred around making artworks in response to the themes that they have been exploring through the studio process. Check the You Are Here website for more details on opening times and where to find the pop-up exhibitions and events. createandsow.wix.com/ studioconnect Artists: Studio Connect and Nicola Lambert
When: Sunday 22 March, 2.00–3.00pm Where: The Record Store KREW for Kids will bring story time alive using play, sound, bodies and movement. Children are invited to actively participate in transforming a story into a world created by their own vivid imaginations. Artists: KREW for Kids
WORDS: ART, TEXT AND DIGITAL SPACES n When: Opening Wednesday 18 March, 6.00–8.00pm Where: The Record Store Words is an online exhibition exploring the possibilities of art and text in digital spaces. Featuring interdisciplinary creatives from around the world, this exhibition can be found online at www.notedfestival.com/ words-exhibition.
When: Check notedfestival.com/ where-the-wild-words-are for more details Where: In the Wilds of Canberra Let your mind and metatarsals wander as you go on a writing adventure. Come along to one of Canberra’s best kept secret spots (keep an eye on the twitter feed for times and locations), and get writin’. Bring your friends and pens. Each writing session will be led by a different artist and/or literary group. Artists include: Canberra Cafe Poets, Us Mob, Kaaron Warren
WOMEN OF CANBERRA When: Wednesday 18 March, 6.00–8.00pm
Thursday 19 March, 2.30–5.30pm
Where: The Record Store Inspired by Humans of New York, the Women’s Centre for Health Matters (WCHM) presents an online photographic documentary
project that sets out to produce a series of powerful photographs showcasing the diversity of women in Canberra accompanied by snippets of their stories. We want to delve into the joys, hopes and fears of women from all walks of life in our community and, at the same time, confront existing stereotypes of Canberra women. The stories told by policy, statistics and media give the impression that women in Canberra are a homogenous group – highly educated, economically empowered and out-performing their competition in other states and territories on many indicators. However, WCHM knows from our community engagement work that women in Canberra are actually a culturally and socioeconomically diverse group, with struggles and aspirations that aren’t captured by mainstream narratives. Women of Canberra come tell your story in words and image. Let’s shake up the existing stories! Artists: Women’s Centre for Health Matters
Curator: Jessica Oliver Exhibition Design: Yasmin Masri
WORK IT When: Wednesday 18 March, 8.00–9.00pm
Friday 20 March, 8.00–9.00pm
Where: Garema Place “art is almost as old as man. It is a form of work, and work is an activity peculiar to mankind…” Ernst Fischer, The Necessity of Art Work It is a multimedia dance performance presented by Lingua Franca Dance Theatre
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WHERE THE WILD WORDS ARE n
Artists: Jessie Adams, Mez Breeze, Claire Capel-Stanley, Nicci Haynes, Rosalind Lemoh, Anja Loughead, Ellie Malbon, Maryann Mussared, Kate Ruebenson, Frances Spurgin, Laurie Steed, Monica Styles, Chris Sutevski, Louise Upshall
and collaborators revealing and reframing our relationship with place, in particular, our contemporary workplace. The work integrates the moving body, interactive video and a live DJ mix exposing and responding to our behaviours, thoughts and feelings connected with work, place and identity. Performer: Alison Plevey AV/video mixer: Caitlin Welch Audio/DJ: Yohan Iddawela Dramaturge: Adam Deusien Presented with support from artsACT and QL2 Dance
WORLD OF PAYNE When: Thursday 19 March, 9.15–9.45pm
Friday 20 March, 9.00–9.30pm
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Where: The Record Store Liam Payne is one fifth of the world’s biggest boy band, One Direction. Here, he appears in tiny plastic form, making his contemporary dance debut to share his most intimate experiences. Teaming up with choreographer Paul Simon Jackson, plastic Liam shares his thoughts on friendship, fame, celebrity culture and life in the spotlight. Artists: Paul Simon Jackson
YOU ARE HERE (AND SO ARE WE) When: Throughout the festival Where: In and around Garema Place and the Civic Bus Interchange The shopfronts, streetlights, stairways and ledges of Civic have been invaded by a quirky collection of sculptures lovingly crafted by the artists of the Sculptural Collective. Made from a wide range of materials including cardboard, feathers, cloth and woven plant matter. Some sculptures lurk in the hidden corners of Civic while others hide in plain sight. This collection of
sculpture celebrates the weird and wonderful world that often goes unnoticed in day-to-day life and draws attention to the unseen spaces that exist in the city. Artists: Tom Buckland, Corri Hakaraia, Janet Ranken, Rebecca Selleck and Sian Watson
ZAK AND REEFA’S BOLLYWOOD FUNERAL When: Wednesday 18 March, 6.30–7.30pm Where: Landspeed Records When: Thursday 19 March, 6.30–7.30pm Where: 21 Barry Dr, Turner
When: Saturday 21 March, 11.30pm–Sunday 22 March, 7.00am Where: Canberra Museum and Gallery The third annual You Are Here sleepover will trap you in a multi-strand pagan ritual based on a traditional Canberra Saturday night! Midnight–3am: All the frantic, sweaty awkward possibilities of a Night On The Town will be thrown against the wall. Soak in the Cage of Sound and Sense or take the elevator up to the mysterious Wah Wah Room – if you dare. 3am–6am: Nothing good happens after 3am. Odd noises. Hazy vision. Tired mind. Bad ideas make for excellent stories. Navigate the early hours of the morning with weird video clips and magical music. Delve into a YouTube black hole and attempt to crawl your way out. Let your waking state and dreaming self blur as you drift in and out of sleep, ethereal words and sounds and other voices washing over you. What will you discover? Plus: Karaoke Of Cruelty.
6am–7am: You Are Here will help you get up and ready to face the day with the morning after recovery ritual – fresh coffee provided by the CMAG cafe and eggs on toast by YAH. Limited capacity, be there by 12.30am to secure your sleeping spot. Artists: Luke Janniste, Hannaka Johnson, Struthers Murray, ANU Experimental Music Studio, Robbie Karmel, Paul Heslin, Chiara Grassia, Fossil Rabbit, Raphael Kabo
All of Sherifa’s friends are already getting married and, a year out of university at 22 years old, she’s starting to contemplate an arranged marriage so that she doesn’t miss out. On the other hand, Zak is trying to hide the fact that he’s dropped out of uni, taken up smoking, and started playing guitar in another crappy indie band the world didn’t ask for. This is their funeral. They lived good lives. Artists: Tasnim Hossain and Chris Brain
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YOU ARE HERE’S ILL ADVISED NIGHT OUT
Sherifa and her brother Zak are young, very unemployed, very single, and living in a world where every “aunty” with a child over 18 turns into a sari-wearing, technicolour matchmaker.
ACKNOW LEDGE MENTS Managing Producers Vanessa Wright Nick Delatovic Producers Adelaide Rief Andrew Galan
Operations Manager Karmin Cooper Production Manager Samantha Barrett Technical Manager Nick McCorriston Media and Marketing Manager Zoya Patel Production Designer George Rose Coordinators Morgan Little Yasmin Masri Photography and Videography Adam Thomas Shane Parsons Sound and Lighting Dirty Deeds Event Sound Designers New Best Friend You Are Here is presented with support from the ACT Government through Arts ACT, Events ACT and with sponsorship from Canberra CBD Limited. You Are Here is supported by Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, which are ACT Government Arts Facilities managed by Gorman Arts Centre Inc. a not-for-profit association.
Thank you to all our artists, venues and supporters, particularly… Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centres Canberra Museum and Gallery The Street BMA Magazine 2XXFM Smith’s Alternative The Phoenix Pub NewActon Lonsdale St Roasters 23 The Hamlet ACT Writers Centre QL2 Dance QIC The Childers Group National Capital Authority ACT Government Territory and Municipal Services Jane Easthope Bruno Garreffa Shane Breynard Michael Bailey Bianca Jones Vivienne Rolfe David Finnigan Yolande Norris Adam Hadley Sarah Kaur Last but not least, thank you to our amazing audience.