ANU School of Art becomes Enlightened
Masters student Gabriela Vayas Rodriguez films the test projection of her digital animation projection on the façade of the National Archives of Australia. Image: supplied.
A group of students and staff from the ANU School of Art have, for the first time, joined the edgy digital art festival that hits Canberra every year.
Enlighten, the annual illumination festival that allows artists to showcase digital images across many of Canberra’s famous buildings, starts on Friday 27 February around Lake Burley Griffin, and this year ANU is involved in two of the sites.
The School of Art’s Head of the Department of Photography and Media Arts, Martyn Jolly and Senior Lecturer Lucien Leon are involved at the National Library and the National Archives of Australia sites.
“We have students from the Animation and Video major working with the National Archives of Australia, doing projection mapping on to the building, whereas for the National Library, we have staff and students from Photography and Media Arts working with still photographs of the collection at the National Library of Australia,” Dr Jolly says.
“So they are re-using, collaging, re-formatting National Library of Australia photographs to be projected onto the front, to bring the inside of the building out.”
The two groups each found elements of the collections housed inside the two buildings to replicate on the external facades. The elements relate to this year’s theme of earth, fire, wind and water.
Some of the images for the National Library project include photographs of women pilots and hand-tinted magic lantern designs from the Australian Inland Mission collection.
In total, six static images will be thrown onto the outside of the National Library during the festival.
The National Library project involved four staff and one student, while the National Archives project involved three students and one staff member, says Dr Leon.
“It only really entered our imagination last year. As I was walking around last year I thought ‘this is right up our alley and we should be involved in this’,” he said.
The National Archives building’s images will include those that relate to Australian post-war migration, tying in to the building’s current A ticket to paradise exhibition. Another image will also relate to the 100th anniversary of the ANZACs.
“There’s an element of exposure that you get when you throw images onto a building that you don’t necessarily get when you put something up on a screen,” Dr Leon says.
The School has previously been involved in similar projects on buildings around ANU campus, including on the outside of the School of Art building, at New Acton and in Garema Place in Canberra’s CBD, and Dr Jolly says the ANU School of Art is proud to be a part of Enlighten this year.
“So it’s a chance to develop from that and keep on developing,” Dr Jolly said.
Information on the Photomedia and Digital Arts courses can be found via the ANU School of Art website.
Enlighten, starts on Friday 27 February and runs through to 7 March.
For more information, visit the Enlighten Canberra website.
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