Mervyn Johnson and the Gooreng Gooreng Dancers
I have worked on many projects across the country running digital story workshops, traditional knowledge recording workshops, live visuals for bands and festivals and consulting with groups on media issues and equipment purchases.
The range of work is very diverse so the following is a brief outline of some of the projects. Also, please be aware that pages on this site may conatin images of indigenous people now deceased and that may cause concern for some viewers.
Traditional Knowledge Recording Workhops:
Robert Bond at Cherbourg
In collaboration with Luke Barrowcliffe I co-facilitate recording workshops in South East Queensland. We have run projects in Cherbourg, Bundaberg – Gooreng Gooreng People and Hervey Bay – Butchilla and Kabi Kabi People.
These workshops aim to provide youth and elders with the skills and knowledge to record their own stories and knowledge from their own perspective, thus having full ownership and control and opening up many other opportunities.
Participants have gone on to form crews recording at indigenous festivals, radio documentaries, newspaper articles and family histories. Often the presence of an outsider effects the recording process, so skilling up indigenous people empowers them to gain insights and connections that others may not achieve in an interview situation.
Resources for all media forms and educational DVD’s for libaries and schools are now available as a result of the workshops. We run the workshops with great support from the Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG), Flora and Fauna International (FFI) and The Qantas Foundation.
We are currently in the process of initiating further workshops throughout South East Queensland and look forward working with many more original Australians. Knowledge is Power!
Papers of a Dead Man at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art
Live Visuals:
I have created visuals for live performances at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art, Woodford Festival QLD, Powerhouse Museum NSW, Awakenings Festival VIC, Noosa Festival of Surfing QLD and VeryAbility Festival NSW.
The live visuals have comprised of pre-recorded video and live camera feeds including greenscreen keying.
My visuals have screened behind Linsey Pollak and QWERTY, The Atlantics, Taman Shud, Guy McLean – Performance Horseman and many others.
Chris creating visuals for QWERTY
With Linsey Pollak, Peter Rowe and Terri Delaney AKA QWERTY, I created live visuals spontaneously as the lyrics were made up on the spot….
Peter Rowe cannot speak, but he can communicate beautifully via his QWERTY keyboard and facilitator. Linsey and Terri create mesmerising melodies to support Peter’s lyrics and I supply the images as we go!
We have performed at the Woodford Festival, Dangar Island and the Powerhouse Museum.
I have supplied live visuals at festivals too for performers at the Noosa Festival of Surfing, Veryability Festival in Lismore NSW and Awakenings Festival in Horsham Victoria.
Noosa Festival Of Surfing
My visuals supported Linsey Pollak’s Yesterday Tonight performances at Woodford Festival alongside Jenny Pollak’s and Sonja DeSterke’s photography. Each day we collected visuals trhooghout the festival and projected them to a live soundtrack by Linsey.
Spirit Of Woodford
The footage and photographs along with music created from sampled sounds of the Woodford workers was later edited to create the 2007 Spirit Of Woodford Film Award Winning Entry.
