Design // Art // Architecture // Culture

issue #10 FREE canberra magazine dec-jan 2012-13

‘SUGAR SKULL’ CREW-NECK JUMPER //SANCHODESIGNS.COM/

Have you been sleeping well?

I admit, going to ask our writers to find out what’s happening with to solar thermal power in Australia felt like I was going to bribe someone else to do my homework or a teacher offering up a school assignment. I was curious, so I went ahead. As it turned out, they were keen as mustard to get onto the sciences. What about film? Remember Electric Shadows? The underground theatre still comes up in so many conversations… wait until Nishi opens its doors in later this December to see our art-house cinema return as the Palace Electric.

For now, it’s hot, it’s time to grab the board and visit Ulladulla [+ I have to grab myself a bumper sticker]. I’ll see you again late February when we launch some dramatic changes to Wobble.

Lots of Love,

Jennifer EdmundsDirectorhello@wobble.cc

DirectorJennifer Edmunds

hello@wobble.cc

cover//Photo by Alex Moffattof George Rose at APART

review//Art not Apartdesign//Ashley Eriksmoen

design//Matther Taylor and Frank Maconochieillustration//I Drew Thisscience//Solar Thermal

architecture//Brutal Citiesnon-fiction//Lucid Dreaming

jazz//Hippoevent//Ender and the Wolf

new//Rare Hairevent//Suitcase Rummage

film// Palace Electric Cinema

w w w . w o b b l e . c cCONTENTS

Spaces and SupportersPalace Electric Cinema

Nishi, New Acton//PalaceCinemas.com.au/

HippoGarema Pl, City

//HippoBar.com.au/

NewActonMarcus Clarke Street, Acton

//NewActon.com.au/ana///NewActon.com.au/LocalFeats/

Rare HairLonsdale Street Traders

0499 977 273//RareHair.com.au/

ContributorsWriters:

Jess OliverDoug Fry

Nugroho UtomoEd Cooper

David James-McCarthywith thanks to Dr John Pye

Art and Design Cover: Alexander Bell Moffattof Graphic Designer George Rose

at Art Not Apart, New Acton 2012Sancho Designs

www.sanchodesign.comPhotography:

Alexander Bell Moffattwww.brewstersangle.com

George Rose//wobble.cc/artist/george-rose

Scott Franks //scottfranks.com/Ashley Eriksmoen

//ashleyeriksmoen.com/Frank Maconochie

art@wobble.ccMatthew Taylorart@wobble.cc

Alice Carollhttp://alicecarroll.net/

Vj: Mark Doughton

Wobble set up shop early on the morning of October 27 for Art Not Apart with our favourite product design team. The event was due to start at 1pm but we knew something big was about to hit as keen-beans began to storm our space in the ungodly hours of Saturday morning.

A P A R T

Photographer: Alexander Bell Moffatt

The second NewActon Art Not Apart festival provided a plethora of imaginative arts where face paint turned to semi nude body paint, live arts, acrobatic dance and my favourite hackers with a hand made 3D printer, hover crafts, robots and flying machines.

.COM.AU/ANA

Judge of the paste-up competition, George Rose gifted our space a huge paste-up [see the mag cover]. Out in front, artist Victoria Lees transformed the stretch of street trees between the East building and Mocan, with ten kilometers of string weaving the trees into geometric spaces.

“Life is a piece of string, it’s never straight” I spoke to Lees at the 1601 penthouse last night where she explained the organic process and special patience involved in her new medium. From a background in painting, Lees describes the honor of having such a space to exhibit large-scale installation artworks.

The festival reveals concepts that galleries cannot do justice to: the spacial, the live, the interactive and the indescribable. A crowd flooded the lakeside precinct from midday til sunset, friendly and filled with enthusiasm.

I’d like to thank the gentleman who came across the park to compliment my grandmother on her jacket, the cowboy who strode in on a Clydesdale at dusk and the efforts of David Caffery and Becca Chandler who gave up on sleep for the sake of our arts scene.

Ed Cooper

Photographer: Alexander Bell Moffatt

Ashley Eriksmoen‘Little Bug Tables’ 2010, Wood (shown in Ash and Mahogany), steel, acrylic and milk paints, 16” x 28” x 40”Recently moved from California, Ashley is the new head of the Furniture Workshop at the ANU School of Art, she graduated from Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design before researching traditional woodworking methods in Norway. enquire: art@wobble.cc

A P A R Tas seen at:

Matthew Taylor: ‘Kitchencase’ 2012, portable kitchen cabinet complete with an onion draw.Frank Maconochie: ‘Manta-Ray Table’, engineered and hand crafted from a timber veneer shell and poly-foam core.

enquire: art@wobble.cc

A P A R Tas seen at:

An extended print of an article originally published in Wobble #4 Spring 2011.

Committing to creativity as a means of paying the bills is a daunting prospect, but this is a moment that the Alice has, in effect, been working towards for 28-odd years.

“It sounds sort of cliché, but ever since I could hold something I was holding a pencil.”

The urge to draw carried through her childhood to the unpleasant days of high school. “As a teenager with self-esteem issues, drawing was something that I was good at and that people commented on – my friends would always say, ‘Wow, that looks really great – draw me a picture! Draw a mural on the art room wall!’” Despite the validation from her peers, Alice concedes: “I didn’t really consider it as something that I could ever do as a job.” It wasn’t until she began studying at the ANU that Alice started to realise that her skill might extend beyond filling visual art diaries with escapist illustrations.

“I latched onto Japanese at university, and I think one of the reasons I was good at that and enjoyed it was the visual aspect. The written language is something that, if you’re good at recalling images, and can build the muscle memory of writing them [Kanji characters], then that can give you a big advantage.”

In 2007, she undertook an afterhours drawing course run at the university by professional illustrators. Beyond refining her practical abilities, the course taught Alice an important lesson in self-sustaining artistry:

“That was when I realised, ‘What? You people do this for a living? What the hell?’ And from then on I pursued it – step by step.” After that catalysing moment, Alice began to actively

seek out drawing work. “My first big job,” she recalls,

“was a linguist who needed images for her PhD. That gave me a taste of the possibilities.”

i drew this

A few weeks ago saw Alice rushing about the Department of Immigration & Citizenship, seeking out signatories to verify that yes, she has returned her Cabcharge card and no, she hasn’t held onto any books borrowed from the internal library. Only after the final signatures, the ones after kind remarks in her farewell card – did it become official: Alice Carroll has departed the APS to pursue her illustrating on a full-time basis.

Soon after, a casual conversation with the owner of Fang clothing in Ainslie led to another job: designing the store mascot. Making a living from art suddenly became a tangible possibility: “By then I had basically decided that one day it was going to happen.” And indeed it has. Over the past few years, Alice has built up an impressively varied portfolio: gig and exhibition posters, illustrations for picture books and graphic novels, a design-of-the-day on TeeFury.com. Gradually, Alice progressed towards the point where she could make the choice: keep working the 9 to 5, or live from hand to pen to paper to mouth. That decision, she laughs, “Is definitely made now!” Though Alice has hung up her lanyard, and her uniform now incorporates pyjama pants, the end of her public service days aren’t by any means a respite period, not with several major jobs on the boil – one of which, somewhat ironically, involves proxy work for the government. The National Portrait Gallery, to be exact; she’s contributed some spot illustrations to next month’s issue of Portrait, the institution’s quarterly magazine. But her principal task with the Gallery is to illustrate a pop-up book.

“That’s the project that gave me the final push...”

“...That gave me the confidence to take the leap into full-time art.”

The book is intended to introduce younger children to the Gallery, and will feature a backpack-laden girl and her wombat companion wandering through stylised versions of its exhibits and discovering what portraiture is all about.

It would seem that making dry subjects interesting for children is becoming Alice’s inadvertent speciality. In August last year, she was directed to a Twitter advertisement that had been placed by some North Americans living in Japan. The expats, Sean and Patrick, had devised a novel method of teaching English to younger students, and needed an illustrator for their project. `The result was Question Quest, a card-based fantasy role playing game where language skills form the combat mechanic. >>>

“The idea is that you’re essentially attacking your opponent by asking them questions in English, and they have to answer back appropriately to get the points,”

‘Shades’ digital print.

The game’s intuitive learning technique is reinforced by the bright, fantastic nature of Alice Carroll’s drawings: “When you have questions like,

‘Where did you buy that?’ the picture is of a character rocking up on this amazing, steampunk-y, crystal-powered bicycle and it just looks totally sweet and weird.” These days, Alice is more than happy to embrace her affinity for Japanese culture and art. “Not just modern Japanese art,” she says, “but the older stuff – portraits of kabuki actors for example, I really love the use of colour, lines and expressions. it’s like candy for my eyes!” It’s not only the static art that has arrested her – the aesthetics of Japanese videogames have been a “massive influence” for Alice over the years, starting with 16-bit RPGs like Secret of Mana, Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole, and The Legend of Zelda. More recently, the art style of Konami’s Metal Gear series has “been really interesting to watch evolve,” while Baten Kaitos on the Nintendo Gamecube was artistically striking as a complete package: “I adore the kind of art direction that really sucks you into the game world, it’s visually thrilling.” “Drawing gives me energy - superpowers!”

“I sit down to a day of drawing and come over all tingly and excited. When I make a row of tiny lines I really feel alive. Is that sad, maybe?” Being enthused about “the feeling of making something new,” as Alice puts it, is the sign of someone with a true passion for their craft. She may have been a fine bureaucrat, but in the long run, Alice Carroll’s departure from the APS is truly doing the Australian public a great service. Doug Fry

Afterword:One year on, Alice is keeping her illustration boat afloat. She has been able to travel back and forward from Japan to refine Question Quest’s artwork. We had a laugh recently about the eye for detail of young fans - the pressure was on to maintain the minute details of each character from one card to another. Question Quest has now secured a Japanese distributor and is about to go to its first print run. Alice was recently approached by the mega-art site Redbubble.com to illustrate for their graphic design team. To be chosen from the thousands of artist/designers on hand at Redbubble is an indescribably high achievement. She’s enjoying the regular, challenging work. You might see her fingerprints on some of their web banners and promotional artwork.

Working with writer Christian White, the first edition of their Sidekicks comic book was launched in may this year with Wobble. Edition #2 is now in the works, as well as a webcomic the pair are hoping to run in 2013.

Doug Fry now writes for The Canberra Times.

The team from ‘Question Quest’ fantasy card game developed for Japanese school children learning english.

A look into the feasablility of Solar Thermal for powering Australian cities.

Were you that kid who burned ants with a magnifying glass? Experiments with tiny creatures on hot afternoons? A child with a lens or mirror can massacre whole colonies. A simple instrument, a concentrated point of light, a powerfully mean heat.

ALTERNATIVE:

A quick catch up for those who are not familiar: where Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells turn light directly into energy, Concentrated Solar Power (commonly referred to as solar thermal technology), uses the same idea as burning ants with a magnifying glass to generate heat to generate electricity. Through use of mirrors or lenses light is concentrated into a receiver, creating a high temperature vapour, such as steam, which then drives a turbine and an electrical power generator. Just to be clear, when we say high temperatures, we’re talking over five-hundred degrees...

What sets Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants apart is their ability to store energy, not as electricity but as heat. Efficient storage allows CSP to pick up the slack in conditions where PV becomes unsuitable (such as at night). Oh, and solar thermal farms also look so futuristic you will be searching for your hover-board.

Despite the Solar Thermal industry thriving in countries such as Spain (with more than 25 power stations), USA (eight with another four under construction), Germany, France, China and Algeria, CSP is still struggling to find its footing in Australia. Funding is scarce and development expensive. With ‘Solar Flagships’, the government’s program for solar power, being cancelled; stiff competition from the mining industry; comparatively cheap fossil fuels and a perceived high risk factor keeping the private sector wary… CSP in Australia faces a rocky road. Despite several large-scale funding announcements from the government, the lack of plants ultimately being constructed is frustrating.

There are a number of CSP systems currently in use around the world, all of which have their own benefits depending on location and environmental variables:

>Trough: this is the most widely used and mature CSP technology, using a parabolic mirror focused onto a tubular receiver.

>Linear Fresnel: From the focal point of many long, thin mirrors, energy is absorbed into a fluid.

>Tower: large mirrors concentrate sunlight onto a receiver at the top of the tower.

And now the ‘Dish’: the least developed CSP technology has a parabolic shape with two-axis tracking that focuses sunlight to a single point receiver.

Like any technology with huge potential, the competition to become the dominant technology is tough, but which is the best suitor to fill our lives with clean energy?

Dr John Pye, an expert in CSP from the ANU Solar Thermal Group explains:

“...towers are coming to the forefront because they allow all of the high-temperature components to be kept in a single central location, which reduces energy losses and pipework costs compared to LFR, trough, and dish systems.”

Tower technology is emerging from the shadow of the currently dominant trough system, whilst the Linear Fresnel system also gains traction as a potential stand out.

However, Pye believes that his specialty, the still emerging Dish technology has a great deal yet to offer the CSP industry in Australia.

A report prepared by IT Power Pty Ltd for the Australian Solar Institute this year is in agreement with Pye, stating that both tower and dish technologies can operate at much higher temperatures than linear focus systems and thus generate power more efficiently. The downside is that these system technologies are more complex (and therefore more expensive) to construct; but aren’t the best toys the ones you have to save up for?

The ANU Solar Thermal Group is one of the leaders in the development of dish technology in Australia, with the building of one mammoth 500m2 Big Dish, named ‘SG4’ on Garran Road, ANU in 2008-2009.

“We managed to produce a design with reduced steel and other material requirements, partly by considering the strength of the whole structure, including the mirrors, and not just the steel part on its own” Dr Pye.

We are developing some of the world’s best technology in our own back yard. While countries like Spain can’t get enough, Australian programmes like the Rudd government’s, $1.5 billion Solar Flagships have been unable to keep momentum. Partly because the funded projects never secured Power Purchase Agreement’s with retail electric suppliers like AGL, who are heavily invested in fossil fuels and resistant to secure purchase agreements for renewables. To be fair, Spain doesn’t have fossil fuels.

Solar Oasis, a $230 million big dish plant planned for Whyalla, SA [announced in 2007] has been delayed again until changes to their Federal Government deed are addressed on December 16. And Solar Dawn [would have been one of the largest plants in the world] planned for Chinchilla in South West Queensland was cut off mid 2012.

“We’re not here just to, if you like, subsidise electricity into the grid. We’re here to generate the learnings that are necessary to really accelerate the uptake of commercial opportunities there.” - Greg Bourne, Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

It’s not over yet, key developments are occurring. There is a small Linear Fresnel system at the coal-powered Liddell Power Station in the Hunter Valley, two tower systems at the CSIRO National Solar Energy Centre site in Newcastle and two prototype towers by Graphite Energy outside Lake Cargelligo. Small steps and world class research, but despite good intentions, Australia just hasn’t been able to get a full size plant off the ground.

To see the most beautiful of solar collection devices, Google Barcelona based Architect André Broessel’s spherical glass lens, it’s the ultimate in ant-burning equipment and so much more.

Researched and written by Jess Oliverwith David James-McCarthy Many thanks to Dr John Pye.

SunCatchers™ at the U.S. Department of Energy

National Solar Thermal Test FacilityKirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, USA

Photographer: Randy Montoya

Brutal Cities:

Brutalism flourished in Canberra during the 60s and 70s. For architects it was a popular style choice, especially in public and institutional buildings (the term partly originating from the French Béton brut, raw concrete). Decades on, Brutalist architecture has become ingrained into the image of the city. However, its legacy is now under threat.

The Post-war period, extending up to the seventies, represents a time of significant progress in Australia.

Canberra was no exception.

Contrary to contemporary interest that focuses on the original conceptual design of Canberra, this series of photographs attempt to capture certain fragments reminiscent of the period in which a large part of the city was constructed – after WW2. Symbolically for the Capital, it was in this time that WBG’s lake was realised, if in a somewhat modified form.

The National Gallery and High Court duo, the School of Music at ANU, the mostly destroyed and ruined Cameron Offices; these are only a few examples of Canberra’s proud and formidable Brutalist heritage, which extends beyond the icons, and into the realms of the ordinary everyday building. These tightly cropped images are a tribute to these relatively anonymous broadly Brutalist buildings. Arguably, such ‘snippets’ form an integral part of the mental image of the city. They recall specific textures associated with Brutalism.

The roughness of exposed concrete and its reaction against the glaring sunlight is a familiar memory for most.

Some enjoy the perceived harmony between the naked concrete of Brutalist buildings and the ubiquitous Eucalypt. However, for each person that appreciates such qualities there is another who loathes it.

The boldness of these buildings can be intimidating for observers who are more accustomed to polite broken-down

volumes. Consequently, Brutalist architecture is often criticised for being, supposedly, inhuman. Indeed these buildings are far from being of a ‘human-scale.’ But this makes sense when considering the period and, to a lesser extent, the place in which these buildings were built. During this time the car reigned supreme! Unfortunately this fact is completely overlooked in the valuation of these buildings – and perhaps the city as a whole.

Regardless, what is for sure is that the matter-of-fact forms and detailing of Brutalism creates a distinct image that can be appreciated by both the pedestrian and motorist.

Nugroho UtomoPHD candidate, University of Canberra‘An Anonymous Architecture’ Part I

Nb. The notion of how a building is perceived from a moving vehicle was raised by Gevork Hartoonian in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Canberra.

Previous page...Belconnen Fire station training towerarchitect: unknown

Pictured here...Board-formed concrete surface at F.C.Pye Field environment laboratory1965-66, CsirO Black Mountain Campus. architect: Ken Woolley

Someone is in my room. I’m in bed and there is a man standing by the curtains, I can’t quite see him and when I try to turn I’m paralysed. I want to speak but find I am voiceless, I just want to know why someone is in my apartment. The guy moves around the end of my bed, kneeling down by my head as though he is going to whisper in my ear.

By this time I’m screaming inside, eyes tearing their sockets to move the man into

view. I can’t breathe. I think his arm is holding down my chest.

Wait... I’ve heard this story before, this is what sleep paralysis episodes are like, there is no man, the paralysis will pass and it’s so fucking cool to know what it’s like first hand. In reality, the terror stayed, the intruder wouldn’t leave, I couldn’t breathe and I’ll never know how long it took to subside.

This was Sunday night. This had never happened to me before but I had seen a documentary on SBS ten years ago, a bunch of people accounted this identical experience: You wake in the night, there’s someone there, terror, paralysis, the intruder restricts your breathing, minutes or hours, and then it all slips away slowly, ‘they’ leave and movement returns… there’s recurrent and isolated episodes and

about 1 in 6 people will have the pleasure at least once. Thank you SBS for your fascinating late night programming.

The ‘intruder’? It’s a ‘Night Mare’, the creature that all bad dreams are named

after. Some people see Gollum, aliens, Jesus or incubus [like this Henry Fuseli painting, 1781]. Me, I don’t even know who the bastard was or if he really was such a bad guy [but I know there wasn’t a horse in my curtains].

Want to know more? It’s the opposite of sleep walking, narcoleptics get it and some very special people have an out of body experience.

Muscle Atonia is supposed to stop you from acting out your dreams and in an episode of sleep paralysis, the REM sleep cycle is disrupted [chemically] the order is lost, your mind becomes lucid leaving eye movement intact but the atonia blocks all speech and muscle control.

There are a few respectable theories on the ‘guest’ but here’s the gist: you wake, feel incredibly vulnerable, the panic uses more oxygen but the paralysed body breathes lazily, there’s a sensation of choking, the body’s threat response overreacts wildly, fills in all the blanks and creates the apparition [potentially a malfunction of the thalamoamygdala pathway which normally filters junk from real danger].

I tracked down others: A sensation of choking seems the most common scenario, then bad experiences with an anti-malarial called Lariam and then I found my cousin. Want to hear about his late night encounter with Golem? He has recurrent episodes, visitors every night. Some advice from the experienced? “It’s not going to be fun but try to ride out the adventure.”

Every time I sleep walk I wake up feeling really upset that someone has moved me. Hundreds of times and I still spend half a second looking for someone to blame. It’s because I don’t know how I got here that ‘you’ have to have moved me, simple logic. My sleep paralysis episode was like sleepwalking but off the chart and somewhere in my distress I actually created the ‘you’ in ‘I blame you’.

Sweet Dreams,

Jen

Bedtime ReadingLucid Dreaming

Garema Pl, City Centre

Wobble Jazz: The celebration of our 10th Wobble magazine also farewells our much loved friends, Goji Berry Jam as they play their last performance together.

Wobble Jazz has held the 3rd Wednesday of each month at Hippo since mid this year and lucked out in finding Goji. Their spell as a five piece, improv funk band has been stellar. They’re unique to this city. Despite humbling calls to play more, the funksters are loosing Xavier Dunn due to the school of music cuts. Few people realise how important a conservatorium is to Canberra; this is another effect. But the musicians are happy to move forward - the gigs have been awesome and their futures are bright. As we look toward 2013, these guys inspire us toward the next wave of jazz, funk and fusion in Canberra.

Put aside December 19th, January 16th and February 20th to find creative new music-arts collaborations at Hippo.Photographer: Alexander Bell Moffatt

Garema Pl, City Centre

EnderWobble Jazz: the unique stylings of ender and the wolf with Vj Sarah Cooper

Wednesday 19th December 7:30pm

Ender

with Matt

at LonsdaLe street traders.