Hooray! Exams are over for students – Congrats to all! As a reward for a busy week marking exam essays, I registered for a wicked 2-day creative workshop called The Art of Looping run by Alex Murray-Leslie (from Chicks on Speed – OMG!). I am super excited and can’t wait! Here is what we’ll be doing.. (no…not wrestling bike monsters like the Gif below – although it is a loop..below, below!! NG.)
Source: @electriccyclery via GIPHY
Looping with the Chicks on Speed
This workshop is a unique opportunity for a small, select group of Griffith HDR creatives. I wanted to come not only for the creative experience and to gain new skills, ideas and motivation, but also as it was a great chance to meet and work with Alex -who is a seemingly inexhaustible artistic icon and source of craftspiration.
This session especially was super popular, so I was happily surprised I was able to register as it booked out very soon after! Lucky!
For this workshop, we will be working in the Design Studios at QCA South Bank Campus. We need to bring three diverse texts we find engaging for our current practice and a mobile phone with video editing capabilities (if we have it).
The Art of Looping: Ephemeral and tangible experiences expressed through costume, performance, spoken word, sound, choreography and action!
What we will be doing – The workshop seeks to create new understandings and opportunities to encounter and exchange using mobile phones as a tool to foster interaction between participants and collective works using audiovisual looping as an artistic method.
Organised in an experimental and engaging format (we decide together at the start of the workshop) the different student groups create a theatre of making; processes of learning and unlearning, performed, documented and edited on the spot with their mobile phones.
Our stages will be the neighbourhoods surrounding the university and the final composition will be informed by chance encounters over the 2-day workshop.
Our presenter – Alexandra Murray-Leslie conducted her PhD research at Creativity and Cognition Studios, The University of Technology, Sydney. She is co-founder of Chicks on Speed, an internationally renowned art ensemble. Alex’s current practice-based research is Fashion Acoustics: wearable musical instrument design for live-art performance focussing on the development of computer-enhanced footwear for aerial dance practice and musical composition with possible health applications.
Attendance – This 2-day masterclass is offered by the Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research for Queensland College of Art & Griffith Film School Higher Degree Researchers only. Limited registrations.
Organisers – this event has been organised by Professor Susan Best, Director GCCAR and Dr Beck Davis, HDR Convenor QCA & GFS. (A big thanks to them both! NG).
I’m keen to meet some new people, learn some new tech skills and have some designated time set aside for some serious creative explorations – wooohooo!
More about Alex and Chicks on Speed
Below is a great ABC Arts segment that shows just how awesome Alex and the Chicks on Speed are.
Alex Murray-Leslie is an artist/researcher and curator, working in the areas of computational foot-wearables, digital music instrument design, Pop Music & Live-Art.
Alex recently completed her PhD in the Faculty of Engineering and IT (Creativity and Cognition Studios, UTS) and is the research fellow at Art and Design Research Incubator (Dept. of Sports Science (Penn State Uni.) and The Music Tech. Group at University Pompeu Fabre (Barcelona).
Recent projects include: Curator of the worlds first wearable technology in Fashion Film competition, Diane Pernet presents ASVOFF 9, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2016.
Alex performs, curates, lectures & exhibits internationally, alongside writing for scientific journal and book publications.