2011 National Film and Sound Archive fellowships

Now calling for applications.

This is a great opportunity for scholars and artists wanting to work with the archive - I think the only downside is that you have to go to Canberra.

Application deadline: September 30, 2010

See website for details http://www.nfsa.gov.au/about_us/sar.html

Where am I at... in Jul_10

The year streaks ahead - a blur in a complete tizz - even just watching it can be exhausting sometimes.

Semester 2 teaching has just started. Luckily I'm out of the fray for the next six months working of a few research projects. While I enjoy teaching and generally get a lot of satisfaction out of making courses and working with students - it's good too to have a bit of a break.

I've relocated my primary office to the country - the main challenge is to resist the lure of the garden and its associated temptations of building drystone walls and weaving baskets to grow my potatoes in. Other than that, it's a great place to snug down, focus and get stuff done.

And that is, hopefully what I'll be up to over the next six months.

Does this mean I can call myself an artist?

Or how about a sound designer? Maybe not, as I've already been made fun of for the pretension of calling myself a 'media practitioner'.

Whatever you call it - I've just delivered an audio piece for a work by artist, Lyndal Jones. It's called 'whispering wall' and is currently constructed over the disused fountain in Melbourne's Town Square. It looks like an untreated wooden wall with little orange holes in it (the speakers are inside the holes).

The audio was quite fun to make - Lyndal and I went off an interviewed about 50 people on the subject of climate change - and then I scurried off alone to a darkened edit suite to devise 12 tracks of audio. It was really refreshing to think of how the piece would be heard across space as well as time - and to a non-captive audience.

Do check it out if you find yourself in Melbourne city (I hear the piece will be travelling to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary art too).

000 AMBULANCE in the dark

The other day I received an interesting request - an English fellow asked me if he could play my piece, 000 AMBULANCE, in a home-style 'listen in'. It was organised by an organisation called In the Dark. It was sweet of them to ask for permission as it would have been very easy to just do it without consulting me.

The whole idea of people gathering in a darkened room to listen to audio features is quite lovely ... it would be great to start up a similar club here in Australia.

Anway, it appears that the listening session has happened - as I was sent lots of very nice feedback about the program:

EXTRACTS FROM COMMENTS:

Love the rest of the pieces. particulalry ambulance. V. Moving. Felt v.
real, he was so honest and straightforward.


COMMENT:
"Really liked the evening - sitting in a room with others. Like
storytelling"


COMMENT:
000 Ambulance - Great, very moving

COMMENT:
"Utterly fantastic- I enjoyed it immensely- its so unique an experience to sit in the dark and listne other people to a doc, i've never done that before and yet I adore audio. What it forces your imagination and concentration into is completely absorbing and revelatory and JUICY.

000 or whatever the number- loved it utterly but as with almost anything it could have entered later! and left earlier. There were a
couple of natural endings before it did end. And less stuff before irish
guy emerged would have made it stronger.

COMMENT:
Gripped. morbid, but gripping. Cried all through the ambulance one.Who wasn't - and the dawning realisation that the irish man had been the ambulance center on the kids call that he had described in the third
person. Immensely moving. Looking forward to more of these.

COMMENT
this was lovely, particulalry the waxing vignette and the ambulance
piece- that lovely man carried me through. My only thought would be for a ten minute break between the documentaries.

COMMENT:
Really enjoyed that, it felt so real and so human. Its easy to feel
identified with the ambulance show people .

Student Internships at Radio National

It's really nice getting to give opportunities away, it makes you feel good. I've just had an internship for a social media producer at Radio National as well as a radio producer for the Book Show to offer a student. The social media producer one went to Ross Richardson, from this years PP1 group - and I recommended ex honours student, Jessica Noske-Turner for the Book Show gig. I'm confident Jess will make the most of the opportunity as she has recently produced a strong short feature for 360documentaries.

TOBY GUTHRIE COILS THE SPRING on air

Not on the airwaves but the air itself - flying high, sort of stuff.

A show I made some time ago was selected for presentation on ABC Radio National's Qantas in-flight entertainment audio channel.

A novel little windfall.

PP1.10 students present their convergent media objects to Pool

Find this year's batch of Production Project 1 (COMM2322) student projects on the Pool; here. Unfortunately these are significantly weaker than they were last year.