2High Festival... I'm in!
--- A little background... When I arrived in Brisbane a little more than a year ago, I found one of the coolest venues ever. The Brisbane Powerhouse is just amazing. It is a hulking brick and steel edifice that once housed the city's actual powerhouse. There are performance spaces, stages, bars/ restaurants and in between all that is gallery space. As soon as I walked in, I thought to myself "I'm gonna get in here with my photography some day." ---
So, needless to say, I am super excited to be participating in a festival for emerging artists. This is not the big hang where I cover all the awesome, exposed brick walls with all my own work... but it's a very good start.
Actually, I won't be hanging any work on the walls. "What's that?" you say... "this makes no sense!" Lemme explain.
Instead of throwing some work up on the walls, to be mixed into the varying media on surrounding walls, I chose to offer an experiential exhibit. Having spent 8+ years as an Outdoor Educator, I had made it my mission to inject everything with a kinaesthetic value. It's the doing that creates an experience which is far more integrated into the mind (thereby, the reality) of the participant. I wanted to offer something a bit deeper... something that you physically engage with rather that merely see and ponder (or glance at and walk on by...).
The goal: To create art, live and in the moment, with the audience. To give the full creation process to the audience. To do it with a camera.
Since photography is a relatively isolated medium in that I have the camera, I take the picture - creating "my" vision and therefore "my" art... I realized that I needed a different approach. I decided to offer Light Painting as an audience-driven form of creative expression; whereby I merely provide the capturing of the creative process. Technically, this essentially relegates my role to that of the canvass. Realistically, I'll also be interacting with the audience and the person 'painting'... maintaining interest and stimulation... creating hype, drawing a crowd. Usual 'carnie' type stuff...
In order to put some extra spin on this interactive exhibit, I decided that it should be positive and inspirational if it's going to exist at all. I mean, why not add some good vibes to the planet as a bonus?!
So the light painting will be focused. Each participant from the audience will step up and draw a Power Word from a hat. Words like Joy, Truth, Love... I'm going for the whole package! Interactive, experiential creation of positive, uplifting art in photographic form! Try saying that 5 times real fast! What a mouthful!
Ultimately, I want the participants to walk away with an experience unlike anything they've had before. Plus, they all walk away with the image they created. This ensures that the experience doesn't remain relative to that sliver of time in their lives. Hundreds of uplifting messages will be shown and shared with friends and family all over the world... from a 2-minute experience... swinging a flashlight around in the air... in front of a big, old building.
Sounds good to me...