The organisers cleared out an old locksmith shop and launched a dynamic art and event space in December 2000. The gallery played host to political film screenings, free dinners, durational performances, experimental sound nights, site-specific installations...
SquatSpace opposed the standard "pay-as-you-show" system used by many high-rent artist-run-galleries in Sydney. Exhibiting was free, with artists usually becoming involved in the life of the squatting community in some way.
NUCA - the Network of Un-Collectable Artists - is a nation-wide affiliation connecting those who gravitate towards ephemeral projects, participatory experiences, illegal art actions, and activities that oddify everyday life. Some members make unwieldy installation projects, while others alter billboards, project images in abandoned spaces at night, or exchange ideas rather than objects. Some simply make dead ugly paintings that would never sell.
Because such artworks are often fiendishly tricky to document, they seldom grace the columns of "recognised" publications. NUCA is building a publicity machine of its own, so artists may exchange essential info about their activities, collaborate on new projects, and connect with Uncollectable others.
cicada is a collection of artists who work with landscape - urban, natural, constructed and imagined... a combination of results occur, including site-specific installations, performances and interactive pieces... cicada also make other bits of sound+image works for theatre, dance and performance projects... and occational urban gifts of unexpected enlightenment...
Cicada projects have included :
* Mob - an installation exploring the crowd as a discrete organism.
* Saltmilk and other wonders - work resulting from a residency in the West Australian wheat town of Kellerberrin.
* Amensal - an interactive street level installation, a purely negative urban symbiosis.
* Re_Squared - an immersive outdoor audio visual performance celebrating moments of discovered beauty in the city.
Tim Gruchy is a prolific Australian video art, music & installation artist who has performed since the 1980s. his website has examples & listings of his video works, exhibitions, fashion events, parties, corporate events, theatre & opera works, and academic lectures & courses. http://www.grup.tv
Harris Park - these are some of the sights I see when I walk from home - shops & back. there's a lot of cute heritage worker's cottages / houses in HP - some have been renovated & others are run-down, about to be pulled down and probably turned into blocks of flats. unfortunately I can't afford to buy one of these. many are now business offices or restaurants - lots of Indian and Lebanese restaurants here. we also have the international conservatorium of music. Parramatta is a short walk - there's more and more highrises going up there. I like the reflections of the sky & clouds in the buildings though.
I arrived back in Sydney early this morning (29/11) and slept most of the day then spoke to family on the phone. it'd been drizzling when I was coming from the airport, but then in the afternoon there was a hail storm. afterwards the air was so fresh and the skies started to clear. it was beautiful - like the Queensland afternoon thunderstorms we used to have in summer all the time when I lived there. it was a nice way to clear my head a bit too after the craziness of the past couple of days and long flights home.
let's hope the skies can clear for the Mumbaikars too and they & the city can start afresh.
today 18/10/2008 was the Sydney Drupal Camp - held at University of NSW campus in Camperdown & hosted by the Drupal Australia Group. Ryan Cross did a fantastic job organising the "unconference" with assistance from many people in the group. I'm too tired right now to write up my notes about it - suffice to say it was a great event and I learnt a few new tips to try out. I'll try write more tomorrow & post the photos (I only took a few) after some sleep. I'd helped out by recording audio of the sessions which will be uploaded to the group site & available for those who couldn't make it.
attached are the raw notes I took during the day - pasted below for searching purposes. I spent all day in the "B" area - which was beginners, but they went through some of the new drupal 6 modules I haven't used much yet. area "A" was more for the hardcore programmers.
I went to the Sydney Drupal Usergroup - October Meetup last night - my first one in Sydney. previously I've only been to the drupal sessions at fosdem 2005 in Brussels as I'd never been to Brussels and wanted to see what it was like. I'd been using drupal for a couple of years at the time and was testing upgrades. initially this site was a custom made php site that I coded to let me do data entry for events / news items and display them on the site in the same format I used for the mail lists which had been running for a few years prior to the site - so at the time, the custom php site saved me time. but also I found I spent a lot of time getting the site to work and adding new features, so when a friend (thanks Damian) asked me over to try out some CMS's including Drupal and we got it working in about an hour, I was hooked! the format of the articles was not exactly the same as what the previous site had been using, but it was so much easier to manage! I can't remember the exact date I moved the site to drupal, but by looking at the the wayback machine pages, it seems to have been in june / july 2003 - maybe 23rd july??
so, back to the Sydney meeting...
I was surprised to see so many people there - probably around 25-30 people. I hadn't realised drupal was so popular in Australia - though to be honest, I hadn't really checked for a few years. even the European and USA conferences and meetings are really popular now! great to see!! and there's so many books available.
Submitted by Malina Hamilton... on Thu, 02/10/2008 - 20:08
This Saturday 11th October at the Empire Hotel Annandale, Sydney band Super Massive will be headlining a trio of bands that fearlessly deliver performances of extroverted theatricality, whilst exploring their own different blends of electro/pop/rock.
The event will be happening at the Empire Hotel, Cnr Parramatta Rd & Johnston St Annandale. Entertainment begins at 9pm. Entry is $10.
Super Massive take dance rock/pop to new heights with the funkiest live rhythm section in town and powerful songs of recklessness, love and reckless love, guaranteed to make you want to hit the dancefloor.
Led by dynamic frontwoman Malina, whose vocals and stage presence have been compared to Peaches, Shirley Manson and Siouxsie Sioux, and described as 'Kylie's porno double', Super Massive are an underground force to be reckoned with.
NUCA - the Network of Un-Collectable Artists - is a nation-wide affiliation connecting those who gravitate towards ephemeral projects, participatory experiences, illegal art actions, and activities that oddify everyday life. Some members make unwieldy installation projects, while others alter billboards, project images in abandoned spaces at night, or exchange ideas rather than objects. Some simply make dead ugly paintings that would never sell.
