Day 6 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Day 5 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Day 4 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Day 3 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Day 2 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Day 1 – Do You Really Care? Do I? :: RAW SPACE GALLERY::

Hiromi Tango & her project – Raw Space Galleries

Due to the chaotic happenings over my side of town and my involvement I have not had the chance to get back to see Hiromi’s project in motion. It’s not to say that I wasn’t aware that I was missing out as the hours clocked by to it’s finish on the 25th of August (this Friday).

Yesterday I rode my bike over to visit Hiromi thinking I would just stop by for 1/2 hour however due to the progressive nature of the work things had changed so much that half an hour had passed before I had even had a chance to finish musing over the amount of changes and added/deleted content in the 7 days I had missed. After a while I waved to Hiromi and she showed me a note that said ‘Tom where have you gone?’ she had wrote it days prior to my arrival. Hiromi asked me if I’d like to go inside the box which is a question I can never refuse, for me it’s like pressing an eject button to get out of society momentarily, something I think many people would like/should experience.

Once inside the box we discussed the changes in her project and she showed me some very interesting footage she had captured from events that had taken place over the days I had missed. Hiromi got sick of talking about her project so we swapped to discussing both of our desires to implement projects/social experiments in public. From this we went onto my work and Hiromi told me about what she had been thinking about my work since I had shown her some of my pieces, her insights were great and gave me plenty to think about.

Realisations;

- I find the box very comforting and calming, almost like a security blanket that gives me confidence. I find it easier to communicate with strangers when inside i communicate with strangers regularly normally and it tends to lead me to a more profound yet simple analysis of myself, my art and also what those outside are driven by when frantically walking past oblivious to the array of content in the 3 glass boxes. Stop and smell the Roses!!!! Please.

- This project proves that if governments/councils etc. were to give the public the public as in space and allow more people to create evolving installations/graffiti and general art amongst and out of the city it would not only develop dialogue between different people but form new bonds between different socio-demographics. Through this project I have broke down barriers within myself and have spoken to and developed dialogues between people I had seen before but would probably never have approached, also new friendships as well.

- Being in the box extracts me from reality, everything seems so simple in there and I feel relieved of expectations, not personal ones but requirements such as paying bills, fitting into groups, working, living, talking, relationships. I can either create a dialogue with Hiromi or just sleep neither way is right or wrong if only the World could take a leaf out of Hiromi’s prject I think it would be better.

- A friend of mine said to me when discussing Hiromi living in her 3 glass boxes for a month ‘I think it would be really boring’. This generates a question I have and that is how many people have the opportunity to step back from their life’s/lifestyles/jobs/commitments and just live in 3 large glass boxes. The answer is very few. We are slaves to society, slaves to a regime that we have created, birth>childhood>education>work>retire>die, there’s not many chances in there to just step back from everything and do something completely different and when the opportunity is there we are either too dependant on others for survival or too old!

The homeless don’t have it easy, they’re the hardest workers in this city but they have the World sussed. Contentment always sits at the end of desire unobtainable creating a viscous circle. (‘)

Questions anyone?

Messive 2

Sat 19th
After another late night I surprisingly managed to surface quite early and get my but down to visible ink to get some serious making of our sound stuff for the tournament into progress. We hung out all day arranging what to put into the show bags which all the audience would receive, we decorated our remote control cars and did a small social intervention at Mc Donalds with a fart bomb (every show bag had one). After a few beers and pizza we headed off down the street for a new media/karaoke/krump interactive performance presented by Jemima Wyman and Thea Baumann. This turned out to be something completely different to what I was expecting, I was thinking along the lines of “Sue Dodd”:http://www.gertrude.org.au/studio_artists_template.php?id=82 which would have been fine but it turned into a crazed group karaoke session.

my karaoke track listing as it happened;

-Anarchy in the UK – Sex Pistols
-Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen team low fi group song
-By the Way – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
-Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue

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Sun 20th

Sunday was an early start to get stuff ready and I had to race out to a mates place to pick up team Low-Fi’s secret weapon of mass destruction. After an hour return of driving I had the secret weapon and returned to help the team with final preparations and transportation. After I dropped my car home we got our other vital team item ‘oil for the workers’ a carton of Victoroia’s Best. After decorating the secret weapon and a few beers we were ready to roll up to 610 Inc. for the final showdown. Well what can I say, with every person getting a show bag as they walked in and our secret weapon entrance (see below) we were a grand hit with the crowd, I even seen Hi-Fi crowd moving to the Low-Fi side as the night went on. We Won!!

A vid of the grand entrance with some more pics and vids later.

Random pics from the night
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Thanx to Matty for some fliks and videoing!

Messive

For those of you who have been living under a shell for the last few days, the “Straight Out Off Brisbane”:http://www.straightoutofbrisbane.com/ festival has been rock’n the house full force. There has been so many awesome gigs/exhibitions/work shops and just all round entertainment that’s it just not funny.

I’ll run through my last week seeing though I’ve neglected my poor blog.

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Sun 13th Aug.

!http://www.tomhall.com.au/Images/IMG_2876.jpg!

Did a group painting at 610 Inc. the venue head quarters for “Straight Out Off Brisbane”:http://www.straightoutofbrisbane.com/

Checked out “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey”:http://www.biff.com.au/festival/Programme.aspx?Control=FD&code=471 at The Palace Theatre near my place. Awsesome is an understatement, any fan of metal would find this film really entertaining.

Mon 14th

Just did some photo work.

Tues 15th

EKKA (Brisbane Show Day Public Holiday) eve and the opening of 610 Inc. and “Straight Out Off Brisbane”:http://www.straightoutofbrisbane.com/ Went to 610 for a while and caught a couple of Bands and then headed to the Jubilee Hotel for a very very late night/morning.

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Wed 16th
Caught up with Justin of “Phono-Statique Records”:http://www.phonostatiquerecords.com/ to talk about how he would like me to make the web site for his label.

Thurs 17th

Checked out a fashion show at the “IMA”:http://www.ima.org.au/ as part of “SOOB”:http://www.straightoutofbrisbane.com/ generally because “Potatoe Masta”:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=64459477 was playing and it proved to be very entertaining, with dancing Panda’s and a particularly raunchy incident when it humped one of the models.

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Fri 18th

Got the call from a mate. We’d been asked to paint a wall live as entertainment at a mini festival over in West End. We hit it pretty hard for about 4 hours or so with it looking pretty crap at moments, it did however turn out pretty good.

!http://www.tomhall.com.au/Images/IMG_3001.jpg!
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Then myself and 2 other mates raced back to the valley to try to catch Melbourne’s crazy rockabilly band ‘Fireballs’ and pretty much got in the door just as they started. These old guy really know how to put on a live show, they kicked some serious riffs out, they’re right up there with Motley Crue, Limited Express (has gone?) and other notable bands as far as stage presence goes.

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Saturday and Sunday will be posted tomorrow.

Unorthodox Improv – Several Days Later

!http://www.tomhall.com.au/Images/IMG_3101.jpg!

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Anyway, if your in Brisbane and you don’t get your booty along to this you don’t cut the mustard (unless of course your reading this after the event)

TOURNAMENT OF THE TOOLS at the Straight Out Of Brisbane Festival 2006 new media
BATTLE: Sunday 20 August 5:00pm – 7:00pm, 610 Anne St. Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. (just up from China Town)

TOURNAMENT OF THE TOOLS is a showdown between Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi, where kinetic machines made from exclusively analogue or digital technology, will compete against each other in a ‘battle for supremacy’.

There are two teams: TEAM LO-FI – who are restricted to analogue technologies such as motors, mechanics and other raw, non-digital material; and TEAM HI-FI who are restricted to digital technologies such as computer programming, video projection and other non-analogue, hi-end technology.