SmartARTS closing Party!

SmartARTS closing 15/4/11 @ Red Rattler.
Photos: Me and Mel Pap.

Why would ya wanna shut this party down?

There is a new set of mind-blowing photos up from the Wormwood (by Octopus Pi) just gone (APRIL 7) which are testament to the uniqueness, beauty and experimentation present at the monthly event.

The photo above is something new Alex and I are experimenting with using analogue practise and manipulating it using digital video editing and effects.

Check out the photos- if you've been you get it, if you haven't then surely you feel you may have missed out?

Dreaming about the next one...

Be Sweet to Bunnies this Easter

Why do bunnies need our help?

Though it's illegal to test cosmetics and toiletries on animals in Australia, a loophole allows products that have been tested in laboratories overseas to still be sold in Australian supermarkets.


One of the most common animal tests is theDraize test, in which rabbits are restrained and have chemicals dripped to their sensitive eyes. They are often left to languish for days, unable to paw at their inflamed eyes to remove the painful substances.


Many people don't know that some of the most popular brands such asColgate/Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, andL'Oreal fund cruel and unnecessary tests that burn, poison, and kill millions of animals every year. You can help to convince these companies to quickly adopt humane alternatives to animal tests by demanding that animal tested cosmetics be banned in Australia. Please click here to take action.


On behalf of all animals who deserve to be free from laboratories, thank you for your support. We wish you a very happy, cruelty-free Easter!


From the Animals Australia team

Bean.

Rabbits are complex animals. Bean is currently going through a phase. Not only has she reached adolescence but she is dealing with a stranger rabbit into her domain (although Leia is actually living in the kitchen and separated by a door, her presence is felt strongly). Bean is feeling confused and has major mood swings- attacking us with kisses then with her fangs! I am learning to try to aid Bean with as much love as I can and not to get angry with her. As I have said, bunnies teach me patience day by day.

Everyday our bunnies teach us patience, love and respect for the sentience of animals.

APRIL Wormwood

Inside liquid light projections beam odd shapes and twisted dyes drowning out all static white surfaces. 

Psychedelic music is given colour, each act evoking a different ambience. 

Yonic Transformation projections are bowed to like goddesses of shape, light and colour. 

Inner anguish, drips in illusory manifestations- the walls ooze emotion. 

Visual and Sound become Sensory dreamscapes.

Jamming with the space, the hand that will perhaps rescind its supportive base.

So again, Wormwood (held monthly at UTS bar The Loft) is threatened with expulsion and so again we must fight to continue to deliver amazing musical acts and performances and experiment with new ways of getting people to come together to share an experience. Wormwood has always been about stimulating the mind to allow it to open up and liberate it of its fetters. It is in no way a regular underground music gig with predictability and the shackles of tradition.

Curator Kimberley Galceran has always tried to bring together visual, sound and abstract elements that respect the audience's desire to have their senses and emotions catered to and inspired- not just their basic passive desire to see a good band or act. It is about collaboration- how can separate entities or groups merge their diverse works together in one space to accomplish a myriad of interpretative perceptions and experiences for the people in that space? It is an ongoing experiment, it needs more time to flourish and evolve.

But this is Sydney. And in Sydney, you have to fight for any opportunity to do something different and exciting.

Join the group, and  look upon the Octopus Pi blog (even just for its tripped out design) to keep up to date and receive the call for help if there needs be.

Also read this interview with Ms Galceran by Dripping Acid Airwaves which concludes where I'd like to conclude:


Remember what the white rabbit said – Feed your head!

SmartARTS Youth Festival

All Photos: Vornstar from Opening Night @ Pine St Studios.

SmartARTS Youth Festival: Catching the dreams of the youth, helping them discover their inner artist and unleashing a canvas of inspiration which motivate to reach for the stars!

CLOSING NIGHT will be on Fri 15th April from 6pm @ the very fine Red Rattler in Marrickville. The Divine Knights, MC UN-1 and Alice Spacedoll will accompany Punk Monk Propaganda taking spirited attendees on a journey of unfettered sensory experience.

All ages plus free food!! More info here.

It's okay little bunny. You'll get better soon and someone (besides me) will love you.

    

   

This is Leia. Or Princess. Or Princess Leia. She had to be named after a Princess because she is so pretty and has beautiful long eyelashes. Seeing her in the pound reminded me of fairy tales of princesses being locked away in castles... and of course of Star Wars. "Help me, You're my only Hope"!

I don't know Leia's history but she is extremely scared of people and has a respiratory infection which makes her breathing sound like whimpers. She has a lot of sadness and fear in her but I can see that one day she will be an affectionate, sweet girl with the potential of even being a lap rabbit.

Leia has to recover her health before she can become someones new friend. I am working hard to socialise her, and even wear my soft white dressing gown when I sit with her and groom her. I do all the crazy things that bunny people do like twitch my nose at her, bow my head and pretend to groom her. Basically, I try to convince her I am a huge bunny friend. I think she might be too smart for me- maybe because twice a day I force antibiotics down her throat for her respiratory infection..

Please keep Leia in your thoughts- her owners sure didn't. If you know people looking for bunnies, I have become active in rescue and know many buns looking for homes where people will treat them like royal prince and princesses and find what is returned just as special.

Bunny Biz

Watercolour: Talia Griffin

I have been busy girl which should mean lots to blog about. I have been pre-occupied as I have embarked on a mission for animals. You can see the blog that I have begun to help save the bunnies here.

Jurassic Lounging

The lure is curiosity- socialites, suits at the end of the work day, students and artists tempted into a museum to sip wine and dance amongst relics and artefacts of a time passed. What could be happening in a museum that could attract such an eclectic crowd, on a tuesday night, just as the sun goes down?

I enter with calm in my body, this is my 4^th Jurassic Lounge and it feels almost like home. The familiar rite of entering via the bar to use our little red coupons. I hear soft sounds coming from within the skeleton room and assume Charity Turner. Skeletons lounge and perch around the action whilst the living follow lead on cushions and chairs. It's after hours healing time and Charity soothes with her guitar and flute touting sister. She sets the tone. But only for this room. Up the stairs, around the bend, into the next room and the magic feels different. Inspiration emanates from each room with its own set of sensations and thought provocation.

As I make my way up one of the staircases I hope will take me where I want to go, I accept that I might end up in any unknown realm of the museum- I just don't have the map reading expertise to explore this place in any order. So I let the spirit of the space guide me on my adventure. I find a balcony room framed by taxidermy birds behind sheets of glass. Their souls trapped within their lifeless bodies a juxtaposition to the excited crowds fluttering in and out.

I'm peering in at snails and insects as torch light flickers around me and sets onto hidden suprises; a prey bird with a rat in mouth is about to take flight, a dingo peeps around the corner lazing and watching... two wizards mix and match images and sound on screen, eyes glued to their tools 21^st century image and sound makers; their laptops. The vibe is one of childlike delight.

A few slight detours and I am in a very familiar place- to the right of the looming dinosaur bones which break the space into two. The Kino Collective films. The Festivalists' (who are Jurassic Lounge co-organisers) first baby Kino, is Sydney's cell in an international movement of underground filmmakers who meet regularly for an open mic of their short films. This is my family. My home and new faces are peering up and revelling in the spark that makes Kino so special- diverse films of comedy, macabre, bizarre and poetic pieces made on no budget with little time with the mantra “don't think just shoot”. I watch a few even though I have so many times before, it re-enlivens something in me and I hope that it does for some other people there too.

I realise that I should check out the beginning of the live art or the transformation won't mean much later on. I look first from the perspective of above, through one of the many secret peep holes into the various spaces of the museum. I see curved lines, the first thoughts of artist Jumbo. Many thoughts are to be put onto canvas throughout the night keeping guests on their toes and engaging them in the present tense of artmaking.

I suddenly feel like seeing the some of the Wildlife Photographer of The Year. I have avoided it at previous Jlounges because I felt I needed to dedicate a good amount of time and focus that I didn't have until now.

The exhibit itself is nothing short of amazing in all its mystical, awe-inspiring and tragic undertones. If the aim is to get people talking about what makes photos such as these so important for human sight then doing it whilst people are connecting with one another in a social setting makes so much sense. People bending to read descriptions, gasping, laughing, pointing here and there and making their way through the spiralling exhibit was touching. The exhibition was most poignant in highlighting the fragile state of nature much of which is teetering on the edge of oblivion. It is easy to disconnect from these facts, these moments that exist so far out of the bubble that is a city.

It's time to get another drink and feel some grooves. The Brutal Poodles get me excited thinking perhaps a novelty band would bring me out of my deep reverie considering the animals and our history; the earth. However, to their credit, there was no novelty. Just sweet beats layered on top of one another, building and seeping into your skin. The perfect push towards the silent disco for some JackShit action.

Always everyones favourite thing about Jurassic Lounge- putting on headphones and shaking that daytime stress from their bones. This is the part where everyone feels like they're doing something a little bit naughty or a little bit crazy. Drinks in hand, grooving around skeletons and glass encased artefacts just feels wrong enough to feel so right. The double aspect is the spectacle that onlookers experience of silent rocking out!

Just as the Museum announces it will soon close, which always seems to come around too quickly, I was dashing up to the gem room which I had not known about until tonight! My eyes darted wildly over sparkles of the most vivid colours and wondered about the potential magic inherent within. The second announcement sounds that the museum is now closing. Its the second closing of the day and I guess a museum has to close sometime...

Half of what goes on at Jurassic Lounge is part of the Museum's regular exhibition showcase but the energy during this special event makes it seem so much more important and worthy- the key design aspect of these nights, aimed to re-ignite the interest of museums to young adults and adults alike who spend most of their time elsewhere without a thought dedicated to when they will next be visiting the Australian Museum. We have really got to thank Clover Moore too. She wants people to get less smashed and stop causing such a racquet on Sydney streets. Perhaps opening venues like this, and giving people some less predictable options, people will not be looking to excessive alcohol consumption and fists to keep themselves entertained...

Leaving Jurassic Lounge is not a thing of sadness. There are still so many of these nights to go. The acts are a surprise until just before each one, but mainly you go to Jurassic Lounge without knowing what to expect. You go to Jurassic Lounge for the surprises.

22/2/11- also posted here.

photos credited to the ever talented alexander papasavvas.

Peats Ridge, full of colour!

15Mb of FAME [Peats Ridge 2010] from punk monk propaganda on Vimeo.

 I'm finally getting around to sharing a little about my/our experience at Peat Ridge Festival over New Years.

After the immediate awe inspiring Glenworth valley is absorbed by the senses ( mountain ranges all around, the little lake that runs around the grounds, cicadas at highest pitch...) the first thing that really grabbed me at Peats Ridge was all that colour. Everything is vibrant- flowing fabrics off the hips of ladies, flags set to the wind, the sun bouncing off the various installations, the gypsy caravans decorated homily in the artists grounds... up, down and around with the serene backdrop of bushland.

The energy at this festival is not like at many other "drinking" and "partying" festivals. It's more thoughtful and relaxed. No-one is rushing from here to there except the wild young'ns dancing and racing around joyfully. It's my first experience at a festival where I have not been pissed off by someone drunkenly harassing me or groups of shirtless southern star clad guys making a scene. Besides the few instances where supposedly educated individuals with a conscience for environmental issues were seen sitting in their air conditioned cars, running a roaring generator all night and clearly not using the very simple bin system to recycle and compost, overall this was clearly a unique set of festival goers.

We participated in a few ways at Peats Ridge in the geodisic dome we called home for the duration of the festival [Land of Hopeless Utopians]. Night No.1 had us doing our trademark liquid light show on the dome's white canvas whilst guest Punk Monk Alexander Sovronsky played haunting violin jammed with Ghosts of the Civil Dead recordings and twisted manipulations by Alexander Papasavvas on pedals. The beanbag clad floor filled with stargazers consuming their virtual acid through coloured drips, blobs , splatters by Kate, Alex and myself. 

Night No.2 had us bring a mini-festival of film to the dome, mapped and mashed by the regenr8 crew (amazinggg!) The beehive of films featured many of our Kino Sydney friends as well as Punk Monk home-made pieces and scavenged treasures. Sovronsky again pierced the air and set hearts beating, this time jamming with the creation of Liam O'Shea- a composition loosely inspired by Xanadu, twisted and bashed into a immobilising beat for beanbag dwellers who congregated en masse. The dome was definitely the healing zone for those zapped from all that dub or the heat and needed to collect themselves, or lose themselves.

Throughout the whole festival the inaugural 15MB of FAME was taking place. Those excited about participation had their phones and cameras out and were capturing what made Peats beautiful to them and were handing in these scraps for us to make into a visual scrapbook of Peats. Anyone could do this. Peats is about something different to everyone and the footage we received was so amazing. Above you can see the result.

Hello 2011.

Hopeful Utopians

To unravel the meaning of 'Punk Monk Propaganda' we go back to their physical roots, a site of gutter beers, plump cats and permaculture. The Corner Shop. It's part studio, part home and it's most likely to find the Punk Monks on any given day of the week.


Read more.


An article about our family which doesn't only include Vic, Kate Alex and I.


Family holiday to Peats Ridge Sustainable Music and Arts Festival this New Years Eve as we work on a few projects including our liquid light projections in the dome for some reason entitled Land of Hopeless Utopians (I for one am quite hopeful...!), a curated showcase of Punk Monk, Kino friends and other artists films entitled Psychedelic States and a crowd sourced film (15MB of Fame) which will be entirely shot, edited and screened during the festival by attendees to encapsulate their unique perceptions of the collective and individual experience. Phew! We're going to be busy! But it will also be fun!

Re: above photo. We ARE usually this random.

Weedy Connection

There's a lot of hysteria based around apocalypse. Climate change is destructing our earth to the point where the term should be re-named Climate Crisis. Our food supply is threatened by mass pesticide use, companies like Monsanto, the bee crisis and a range of other factors most attributed to human (mis)use of land and resources. Could weeds be the answer?

Recently (well in October) we attended a "Weed Tour" as part of In The Balance; Art for A Changing World, an exhibition hosted by the MCA with Diego Bonetto,(Weedy Connection) friendly man and weed expert. We toured Sydney Park where  Diego's advises us not to sample weeds from. It's history tells us it used to be an industrial dumping ground and may still have remains of this in its soil. He advises us that knowing your area's history and current use is an important step in foraging as well as knowing your weeds. What we were there to do was to engage in a discussion about weed and foraging ethics in general and gain identification skills to go on our own forage adventures. We find plantain (the miracle band-aid), hawksbeard, mallow, wild mustard, thistle, farmer's friend... and a host of other wild herbs and vegetables.

We don't look at any dandelions but they'd be there- they're everywhere and my favourite source of..everything! They have more beta-carotene than carrots, more potassium than bananas, more lecithin than soy, more iron than spinach and probably most things. Dandy is full of Vit. A, C, E, thiamine, ribofalvin, calcium, phsophorus and magnesium- hello magic healing plant?!

Diego's weedbook initiative lets you be friends with these weeds- elevate their probably low self esteem and reputation by befriending them. Here is dandelion- Taraxacum Officianlis on FB.

It is amazing to open your eyes to the free, vitamin rich health foods growing by their own accord in bountiful numbers almost anywhere you could think. Weeds are pioneers- they grow between cracks in the concrete, in roof gutters (see above), along train tracks, in nature strips- they get trampled, removed, poisoned but they do not die. They re-seed, they spread and re-grow flourishing and offering nourishment if people would only SEE. We are ignoring our natural public resources- the biological beings that offer symbiosis but are thwarted, killed off by fear and ignorance.

Food does not need to incorporate poisonous fuel or oil to transport itself from source, to table to our insides.  We need not support corrupt corporations that dominate and control our food supply and threaten nature's gift of biodiversity. Weeds cannot be owned but they should be utilised and given respect for the important role they play in ecosystems.

Patrick Jones of Permapoesis and Artist as Family turns the issue of weeds back onto us: As feral or non-indigenous Australians, we can well ask ourselves, are we beneficial organisms within our local environment? Do we retain resources equal to what we take out? Noxious weeds appear to just colonise and rob from the land. Are we such weeds? 


This year, in our garden, we have hawk's beard, dandelion, farmer's friend, nettles, chickweed and warrigal greens growing- some pioneered on their own and some we have seeded ourselves for our own health and for the happiness of our bunny; our furry forager.

Stop complaining about the price of supermarket food, grown your own, join a community garden and have a forage!

Wormwood closing

Wormwood December 2; The Final Wormwood?, At least for the year. I've spoken of Wormwood before and how important I think its ethic is.

I was trying to give Kimb (aka Octopus Pi, aka Wormwood pioneer) a quote to help her case to keep Wormwood at the Loft next year which is undergoing new management. I came up with a pretty long quote/rambling:

wormwood is basically the only free gig with experimental, garage and psych music that offers a total sensory arts experience in syd. its gaining momentum and if ticketed would be sold out. it aims to pioneer the way media, music and experimental arts collide. It is about responsiveness and interactivity but also indulgence and being treated to some magic all care of sydney's most pioneering creators.

something that makes it special is the space: the loft. the way its physicality allows for a free flowing journey, offering different yet correlating atmospheres in its different nooks, surprises around each corner, up each stair, above star gazers heads, hidden in the faerie tree, balancing over the balcony, within each fire set green drink... It is the Wormwood home, the welcoming space that so comfortably houses all these creative forces and whilst Wormwood could, of course, adapt, there would be a sorely missed sparkle.


Something new this Wormwood was a collaboration with Mersey Sound Collective- a spoken word micro-event hosted in the secret room up the top of the Loft. Though the musical disruption from outside proved hazardous, this was a beautiful experience especially for us Punk Monks who had the chance to work our liquid light with a different medium. Playing with our artworks for poetry was incredibly carthatic- we are used to moving to a rhythm and beat provided by songs that start and finish sometimes rendering it more of a decoration than a contribution. Moving to the rhythm and beat of poetry is more fluid, you can evoke emotion and imagery and move slowly and more calculated- it's extremely evocative and meditative and is something I'd like to explore more. 


*The footage from this Wormwood says more than the quick snaps I hastily took whilst running from one projector to the next through masses of absinthe toting wormees. We'll try get it up in due time, times have been busy but it should be a treat.

Ki Mono @ Sound Series #10

 

Some Punk Monk's (Alex and I) recently (10/12/10) created video projections (Entitled Wunian, Part 1) to accompany Ki Mono (then Kim ono, teehee) during her sound experience show @Sound Series #10 New Weird Australia. Ki Mono's (aka.the ever talented Kimberley Galceran) humbly presented 5 songs which I (without being very good at describing music that I like) could describe as a mix between fantasy video game adventure music and epic cinematic soundscape meditations whilst teleported into various magical forest scenes of brilliant colour and flowing movement of reverie inducement. http://soundcloud.com/kim-ono

Sound Series is a one of a kind monthly show @ Hardware Gallery- the home to a comfortable mix of commercial and underground arts. Sound Series is all about sound- experimenting and ear/mind opening.  I can't seem to find much else (except maybe what the Serial Space peeps are doing) dedicated to the specific sense of sound but celebrating the mind-blowing diversity inherent in the field. The gallery owner himself admits it has been a perception shattering adventure that he has been so grateful to have experienced and it will definitely return in the new year.