I had a great time at Queensland College of the Arts (QCA) this week at an intensive workshop with some of Griffith’s most talented artists. Here’s an overview of what we did for our 2-day The Art of Looping Workshop – Enjoy!
Day 1
I arrived at the QCA Southbank Design Studio and met my usual partner in creative crime, Claire Tracey. I’ve not been to the studio before and was impressed with the setup. The room had workstations set up with screens and we were issued with extra equipment and tools like speakers, MP3 recorders and other technical materials we would need. We all had mobile phones and a few, like me, had their laptops as well.
There were 19 participants in total, three of whom I knew. So it was a good mixture of mostly new and some familiar faces.
After an intro from the organisers, our presenter Alex Murray-Leslie showed us some of her latest work which explores electronic footwear, lights, environs and video – very interesting!
Then we went around the group and introduced ourselves and our art practice.
We then moved to a different space and took notes as each person read aloud a section from one of the texts they had bought. The readings ranged from textbooks, academic journals, song lyrics, children’s books and people’s own musings. We did a free writing activity and then got into set up in our “looping’ groups” just before lunch.
My Looping team consisting of three other amazing artists: Xhaohui Yang, Paula Payne, Hannah Reardon-Smith and me. Paula is a terrific painter, Hannah is a flautist with the Conservatorium and Xhaohui brought a few of her amazing pieces with her and we ended up using them every day.
After lunch, we all visited fellow Looper Karen Stone’s exhibition and heard her speak about her work. My team ended up staying in the exhibition space to continue filming – and we got a number of impromptu vignettes there …like…
Then we had free time to start shooting short videos. Our team spent the rest of the afternoon trialling and erroring ideas, discussing, designing and investigating how things could work when looped.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working on little projects in pairs and as a group. It was good fun to work with other people and it was a deliberately open format, so we could self-direct and follow ideas as much or as little as we wanted.
I was pretty tired by the end of the first day. Once I got home, I did a 29 min Teacher’s Tech crash Youtube course on DaVinci Resolve 14. I have had this editing software on my computer for some time, but have not made the time yet to use it. As we were one of the groups that didn’t have a video expert, it was the ideal time to learn new skills. The crash course was just enough to hack together a few ideas – perfect!
Day 2
Most people brought ‘extras’ on the second day: costumes, makeup, props, jewellery, pieces of our own art – and I brought in Leki. We started out by going on an ‘excursion’. Those with outfits put them on, others lugged gear and props. We wandered around Southbank and heading over The Goodwill Bridge and into the Gardens on the other side shooting scenes and scenarios as we went. It was great fun.
We explored lawns, garden beds, went up trees, into drains, through car parks, down flights of stairs, sat on rocks and cause some happy mayhem along the way. All the while in colourful costumes, sprouting text and being directed by fellow Loopers – much to the curiosity of random passerbys.
On one particular sortie, Claire, Alex and I found ourselves on Level 6 of the QUT Law building, whereI rode Leki across an overpass while poor Law students undertook a Law exam next door – we were quietly respectful, but the contrast between the two groups was palpable- good luck students!
After our excursion, we all headed back to the Design Studio and spent some time collating, editing and exporting our Loops. They were raw, rough and fun.
As you would expect, each team produced totally different loops. They varied widely in concept, production and technical delivery. It was really interesting to see what others had been working on and what were we able to produce in such a short space of time.
As a final showcase, filled every screen in the Design Studio with team loops, so we could walk around and see what people had been working on. Quite a few academics also came down to see our final presentations – it looked awesome.
Take-aways of time spent Looping
- I was really inspired and impressed by the work and skills of my Looper team and the other participants.
- It was great working on set with Claire again – we have such great creative synergy. It reminded me that public art and performance are so engaging and fun to create, but also that it is hard work.
- I really enjoyed the variety of activities: I liked the warm-up intro, reading and writing that lead to the group work – it worked well to orientate us and get the creative juices flowing.
- I liked that the open format pushed me to relax into whatever was happening, to relinquish the idea that ‘I need to know what I am doing’ or always have structure – the learning was organic.
- I learnt a new skill (DaVinci Resolve Software) enough to put together an experimental short clip – which I would not have done in such a way if I had not done the workshop.
- It was also great to have designated adult play-time – what a joy! So precious!
- My team were easy going, innovative and everyone brought something to the table – and it was lovely being in a space where there was no right or wrong ideas or actions – just ‘seeing what might happen if we do this’ or ‘Let’s try X here’ – such a rare delight!
- It was also great to get about and about in Brisbane to do some live shooting. I was very proud crossing The Goodwill Bridge with my fellow Loopers and being part of this beautiful, courageous, colourfully-dressed band of creatives exploring the city streets, buildings and gardens of Brisbane.
Looper Awards of Excellence
For a finale, Claire and I awarded each of our fellow loopers (and fearless leaders) a custom-made recycled Looper Award of Excellence medal, each of which we had made out of an array of recycled materials like bike inner tubes and parts, beer caps, repurposed bits-and-bobs, jewellery pieces and other found objects (see below). Just doing our bit to get more bikes in the creative arts!!
Thank you!
A massive thank you to Beck and Sue for organising this event.
To Alex for running the workshop – we had a great time!
To my team for being right there with me – you were awesome!
To all our other fellow loopers … for being equally amazing!
I can’t wait for the next workshop!
