The ECOS Project. An interactive simulation to promote an ECO-friendly universe.

Custom designed for display on the Cube Installation situated in the new Science and Engineering Centre (SEC) at QUT, the ECOS project is a playful interface that uses real-time weather data to simulate how a five-star energy building operates in climates all over the world. In collaboration with the SEC building managers, the ECOS Project incorporates energy consumption and generation data of the building into an interactive simulation, which is both engaging to users and highly informative, and which invites play and reflection on the roles of green buildings. ECOS focuses on the principle that humans can have both a positive and negative impact on ecosystems with both local and global consequence. The ECOS project draws on the practice of Eco-Visualisation, a term used to encapsulate the important merging of environmental data visualization with the philosophy of sustainability. Holmes (2007) uses the term Eco-Visualisation (EV) to refer to data visualisations that ‘display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy’. EVs are commonly artifacts of interaction design, information design, interface design and industrial design, but are informed by various intellectual disciplines that have shared interests in sustainability. As a result of surveying a number of projects, Pierce, Odom and Blevis (2008) outline strategies for designing and evaluating effective EVs, including ‘connecting behavior to material impacts of consumption, encouraging playful engagement and exploration with energy, raising public awareness and facilitating discussion, and stimulating critical reflection.’ Consequently, Froehlich (2010) and his colleagues also use the term ‘Eco-feedback technology’ to describe the same field. ‘Green IT’ is another variation which Tomlinson (2010) describes as a ‘field at the juncture of two trends… the growing concern over environmental issues’ and ‘the use of digital tools and techniques for manipulating information.’ The ECOS Project team is guided by these principles, but more importantly, propose an example for how these principles may be achieved. The ECOS Project presents a simplified interface to the very complex domain of thermodynamic and climate modeling. From a mathematical perspective, the simulation can be divided into two models, which interact and compete for balance – the comfort of ECOS’ virtual denizens and the ecological and environmental health of the virtual world. The comfort model is based on the study of psychometrics, and specifically those relating to human comfort. This provides baseline micro-climatic values for what constitutes a comfortable working environment within the QUT SEC buildings. The difference between the ambient outside temperature (as determined by polling the Google Weather API for live weather data) and the internal thermostat of the building (as set by the user) allows us to estimate the energy required to either heat or cool the building. Once the energy requirements can be ascertained, this is then balanced with the ability of the building to produce enough power from green energy sources (solar, wind and gas) to cover its energy requirements. Calculating the relative amount of energy produced by wind and solar can be done by, in the case of solar for example, considering the size of panel and the amount of solar radiation it is receiving at any given time, which in turn can be estimated based on the temperature and conditions returned by the live weather API. Some of these variables can be altered by the user, allowing them to attempt to optimize the health of the building. The variables that can be changed are the budget allocated to green energy sources such as the Solar Panels, Wind Generator and the Air conditioning to control the internal building temperature. These variables influence the energy input and output variables, modeled on the real energy usage statistics drawn from the SEC data provided by the building managers.

The ZomPoc Project. A Large Scale Public ARG Event

An experiment in large scale, live, game design and public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative arts to design, deliver and document a project that was both a cooperative learning experience and an experimental public performance. The four month project, funded by the Edge Digital Centre, culminated into a 24 hour ARG event involving over 100 participants in December 2012. Using the premise of a viral outbreak, young enthusiasts auditioned for the roles of Survivor, Zombie, Medic and Military. The main objective was for the Survivors to complete a series of challenges over 24 hours, while the other characters fulfilled their opposing objectives of interference and sabotage supported by both scripted and free-form scenarios staged in constructed scenes throughout the venues. The event was set in the State Library of Queensland and the Edge Digital Centre who granted the project full access, night and day to all areas including public, office and underground areas. These venues were transformed into cinematic settings full of interactive props and various audio-visual effects. The ZomPoc Project was an innovative experiment in writing and directing a large scale, live, public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative industries. In order to design such an event a number of innovative resources were developed exploiting techniques of game design, theatre, film, television and tangible media production. A series of workshops invited local artists, scientists, technicians and engineers to find new ways of collaborating to create networked artifacts, experimental digital works, robotic props, modular set designs, sound effects and unique costuming guided by an innovative multi-platform script developed by Deb Polson. The result of this collaboration was the creation of innovative game and set props, both atmospheric and interactive. Such works animated the space, presented story clues and facilitated interactions between strangers who found themselves sharing a unique experience in unexpected places.

The multi-platform user engagement and data visualisation tool

The ability to identify and assess user engagement with transmedia productions is vital to the success of individual projects and the sustainability of this mode of media production as a whole. It is essential that industry players have access to tools and methodologies that offer the most complete and accurate picture of how audiences/users engage with their productions and which assets generate the most valuable returns of investment. Drawing upon research conducted with Hoodlum Entertainment, a Brisbane-based transmedia producer, this project involved an initial assessment of the way engagement tends to be understood, why standard web analytics tools are ill-suited to measuring it, how a customised tool could offer solutions, and why this question of measuring engagement is so vital to the future of transmedia as a sustainable industry. Working with data provided by Hoodlum Entertainment and Foxtel Marketing, the outcome of the study was a prototype for a custom data visualisation tool that allowed access, manipulation and presentation of user engagement data, both historic and predictive. The prototyped interfaces demonstrate how the visualization tool would collect and organise data specific to multiplatform projects by aggregating data across a number of platform reporting tools. Such a tool is designed to encompass not only platforms developed by the transmedia producer but also sites developed by fans. This visualisation tool accounted for multiplatform experience projects whose top level is comprised of people, platforms and content. People include characters, actors, audience, distributors and creators. Platforms include television, Facebook and other relevant social networks, literature, cinema and other media that might be included in the multiplatform experience. Content refers to discreet media texts employed within the platform, such as tweet, a You Tube video, a Facebook post, an email, a television episode, etc. Core content is produced by the creators’ multiplatform experiences to advance the narrative, while complimentary content generated by audience members offers further contributions to the experience. Equally important is the timing with which the components of the experience are introduced and how they interact with and impact upon each other. Being able to combine, filter and sort these elements in multiple ways we can better understand the value of certain components of a project. It also offers insights into the relationship between the timing of the release of components and user activity associated with them, which further highlights the efficacy (or, indeed, failure) of assets as catalysts for engagement. In collaboration with Hoodlum we have developed a number of design scenarios experimenting with the ways in which data can be visualised and manipulated to tell a more refined story about the value of user engagement with certain project components and activities. This experimentation will serve as the basis for future research.

GOMA Birthday Song

This work was commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery to mark the fifth birthday of the Gallery of Modern Art. The brief was quite open, with the only directive to make the work complement the major exhibition "we miss you magic land!" by Perth artists, Pip & Pop (Tanya Schultz and Nicole Andrijevic). This musical work draws on a similarly otherworldly, childlike theme, influenced in part by the cinematic world of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka.

Ephemerality, affect and the "Art Dump"

This work was composed in relation to the author's research of the popularity of themes of ephemerality and affect in recent global art. This focus correlated with Chicks on Speed's ongoing inquiries into issues of collections and collecting in the artworld, articulated as 'the art dump' by the group. This work was subsequently performed as a contribution to a performance with international multidisciplinary group Chicks on Speed as a part of their residency during MONA FOMA in Tasmania.

Behind the cane

Composed by David Bridie and Andree Greenwell with script and lyrics by Margery Forde and Michael Forde, BEHIND THE CANE was community-driven music theatre, commissioned specially as the signature work the 2011 Queensland Music Festival. Co-presented by the QMF and the Whitsunday Regional Council in association with QUT Creative Industries, BEHIND THE CANE was created with and performed by over 180 Bowen residents and told the story of the South Sea Islanders who were brought to Australia to work in the cane fields in the 19 century and the journey of their descendants through the succeeding generations, through racial discrimination and economic hardship, to the present day. The large-scale spectacle event was performed the Sound shell on the Bowen harbour foreshore to audiences of 8,000 over 3 performances and included many of the descendants in featured roles.

West End : seat of power? (Griffith, QLD)

This video details interviews undertaken and shows a range of varying local opinions in West End within the Griffith electorate of Brisbane in the lead up to 2007's federal election. In 2007, West Enders had both the sitting Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, and the impending Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, as their local members. This video was produced as part of the YouDecide2007, a non-profit citizen journalism intiative led by QUT's Creative Industries and funded by the ARC. The camera man and editor was Barry Saunders.

Ghost Wash

‘Ghost Wash’ unveils the past in a contemporary context. It is a blending of video projection, sound, music and performance that reconstructs the anger, the angularity, and the angst of Brisbane music from the late 70s through the 80s. The music is contained within an ongoing story about Brisbane music history.

Black ribbons (Autumn mix)

7' vinyl single and digital download

The Apartments at Pig city

The first live appearance of The Apartments after many years was at Brisbane's Pig City, a live music event curated to coincide with the release of Andrew Stafford's book of the same name.

BlaqCarrie - Raw Shining (engineer/producer)

"Raw Shining", a song by Zimbabwean Australian artist Blaq Carrie, was recorded and produced as part of the Indie 100 research intensive project within the Independent Music Project (IMP). The IMP is an ongoing, interdisciplinary research arm within QUT.

Embedded digital creatives

Digital creatives are spread widely across the economy, and growing rapidly in number. New industries such as mobile applications (apps) development are creating new occupations and services, and transforming some older ones. Digital creatives are driving innovation and economic growth in these industries and service sectors. Digital technologies and processes are becoming increasingly important in virtually all spheres of creative work, as they are across the economy. And yet there is no broad agreement either in Australia or worldwide about the constitution of the digital creative grouping, and only limited understanding of both the role of creatives in the digital economy and innovation, and of the issues and challenges they face. Who are they? Where are they working? Where are their numbers growing? The answers to these questions will help to inform the development of policy and the fostering of an environment that promotes digital content and creativity.

Body stories

This research is in the field of arts education. Eisner claims that ‘teachers rarely view themselves as artists’ (Taylor, 1993:21). Situating professional dance artists and teacher-artists (Mc Lean, 2009) in close proximity to classroom dance teachers, spatially, through a shared rehearsal studio and creatively, by engaging them in a co-artistry approach, allows participants to map unique and new creative processes, kinaesthetically and experientially. This pratice encourages teachers to attune and align themselves with artists’ states of mind and enables them to nurture both their teacher-self and their artist-self (Lichtenstein 2009). The research question was: can interactions between professional dance artists, teacher-artists (Mc Lean, 2009) and classroom dance teachers change classroom dance teachers’ self-perceptions? The research found that Artists in Residence projects provide up-skilling in situ for classroom dance teachers, and give credence to the act of art making for classroom dance teachers within their peer context, positively enhancing their self-image and promoting self-identification as ‘teacher-artists’ (Mc Lean, 2009). This project received an Artist in Residence Grant (an Australia Council for the Arts, Education Queensland and Queensland Arts Council partnership). The research findings were chosen for inclusion in the Queensland Performing Arts Complex program, Feet First: an invitation to dance, 2013 and selected for inclusion on the Creative Campus website, http://www.creative-campus.org.uk.

Separating shadows

This practice-led research is in the field of dance creation and performance. The dancer, unlike many artists from different fields, has to contend with the added complexity of being a creative tool. Grove states, ‘..they are the phenomenon of self-creation twice over, being both the artist and the work of art’ (2005, 44). A dancer’s success relies on the quality of their instrument and their ability to reliably employ it in the creative act (Jowitt 2001a). The traditional rehearsal studio is the creative meeting place for dance artists. A liminal space with specific spatial, temporal and personal considerations: a space fraught with uncertainty and vulnerability, ripe with potential. If harnessed, the creative potential inherent in vulnerability, experienced as increased sensitivity and openness (Press 2002), can facilitate new ways of investigating and doing. This research investigated ways in which dancers prepare themselves during the act of creation and rehearsal within the studio, for the public presentation of a site-specific dance work. Navigating the complexities inherent in performing site-specific dance work is best achieved through the development of a connection with the site during the creation of the work. This is achieved through the provision of rehearsals within the site and ensures seamless replication of rehearsal qualities from studio to non-traditional site. This research received funding and support from the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Queensland, Brisbane Festival, Kelvin Grove Urban Village, Besen Family Foundation, Korean Culture Arts Foundation and the Australia Korea Foundation. It was presented in the Brisbane Festival, 2006. http://www.accentedbody.com/projects/accented-body

Orchids : My Intersex Adventure

Orchids: My Intersex Adventure is a multi-award winning autobiographical documentary film. The film follows documentary filmmaker, Phoebe Hart, as she comes clean on her journey of self-discovery to embrace her future and reconcile the past shame and family secrecy surrounding her intersex condition. Despite her mother’s outright refusal to be in the film, Phoebe decides she must push on with her quest to resolve her life story and connect with other intersex people on camera. With the help of her sister Bonnie and support from her partner James, she hits the open road and reflects on her youth. Phoebe’s happy and carefree childhood came to an abrupt end at puberty when she was told she would never menstruate nor have children. But the reasons why were never discussed and the topic was taboo. At the age of 17, Phoebe’s mother felt she was old enough to understand the true nature of her body and the family secret was finally revealed. Phoebe then faced an orchidectomy, invasive surgery to remove her undescended testes, the emotional scars of which are still raw today. Phoebe’s road trip around Australia exposes her to the stories of other intersex people and holds a mirror to her own experience. She learns valuable lessons in resilience and healing but also sees the pervasive impact her condition has on all her relationships. At home, Phoebe and James want to start a family but dealing with infertility and the stress of the adoption process puts pressure on their marriage. Phoebe also starts to understand the difficult decisions her parents faced and is excited but apprehensive when they eventually agree to be interviewed. Will talking openly with her mother give Phoebe the answers she has been looking for? The film was produced and directed by Phoebe Hart and commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The film premiered at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2010 where it was voted the number one film of the festival by audiences. Orchids was broadcast on ABC1 in Australia in 2012, appeared in more than 50 film festivals internationally and has since been broadcast nationally in Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Spain, France, Russia, Poland, Germany and the USA.