Well Hung Pixel Art

ken hung
Appropriately enough for someone who renders the spectacle of Washington in such gloriously mutant pixels, Kenneth Hung’s first exhibition in Australia will be at the White House gallery as part of ‘Straight Out of Brisbane’. Kenneth seems amped too about participating in a range of workshops and talks at that festival too ( Aug 15-20) and was happy to do some Pacific Ocean Ping Pong:

60×1? What is behind the name of that URL?
Back then I have already got my TINKIN.com, and it serves as my main portal. I got bored to have a very routine looking site and one day, I decided to have another web domain that is crazy enough that I don’t need any search engine to promote it- I was thinking of testing the viral marketing aspect of the web and see how Continue Reading →

by Sean Healy, August 9, 2006 1 Comment

Bris Vegas Brain Juice

briscraneFrom Aug 15-20 Straight Out Of Brisbane offers up it’s wintery festival goodness to the sunshine deprived. Aside from a mammoth gigs, art and new-media program, special guests glitch-pop queen Kevin Blechdom & net-artist Kenneth Hung, AV scratching by Collapsicon(.net), robot wars and much more – it also features a ‘festival of ideas’ – a series of forums crisply curated by Qld JJJ reporter Fiona Hogg.

What inspired the ‘Ideas’ component of SOOB 2006, and the theme of urban futures?
A committed stance against the three ‘w’s of forums; waffle, whinge & wank… so to give the program a purpose & direction was a start. As a 20-something born’n’bred Brisbanite, my living memory of the city is nothing but concrete, construction & cranes; on the other hand I have an elderly father who points out where the barley-fields were as we drive through zone2 suburbia. It’s not the norm to grow up going on holiday for two-weeks and returning to see so many changes in a city…. so there was this strong theme of BRI$CRANE.

We are increasingly urban creatures, more than half the world living in cities this century. If Brisbane is the 2nd fastest growing city in the world, what king of impacts is this having for local life?
Brisbane has until now been a big country town; a CBD and then Continue Reading →

by Sean Healy, August 5, 2006 0 comments

War On The Big Screen

wargames“Is it a game, or is it real?” asked Matthew Broderick in War Games, an 1980’s take on Stanley Kubrick’s Dr.Strangelove, and an amusingly Hollywood reflection about automated defence systems and the dangers posed. We’ve had two Gulf Wars since then, and a range of films exploring them.

‘War Is Heavy Metal’ is a short film made by Australian war-time artist George Gittoes, where he asks American soldiers in Iraq about the music they listen to, to help them function in the war zone. Although overtly about music from hardcore hiphop to heavy metal, seeing the soldiers flip through CD jackets and sing along to their favourite songs really helps bring alive the contemporary nature of the conflict – this is *really* happening now. Following up on that great short, ( which featured within Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11) George has made ‘Soundtrack to War’ where he returns to the States with a black soldier who claimed parts of Miami were more of a warzone than where he was based in Iraq.( Soundtrack to War review )

Jarhead & Three Kings are two Hollywood takes on Iraq, the latter exposing more of the politics, conflict and complexity involved, and is accompanied by the ‘Soldier’s Pay‘ documentary film by the same director, David Russell, about the occurrence of soldiers in Iraq raiding houses and stealing money or goods they found inside.

Sidenote of interest? On the smallscreen, Al Jazeera, which claims to be the only politically independent television station in the Middle East, now has an estimated 50 million viewers worldwide – comparable to the BBC.

by Sean Healy, July 29, 2006 0 comments

Comic War Folk

mausThose who recognise the power of comics beyond superheroes, who enjoy their capacity to emotionally overwhelm and powerfully persuade, have probably already read Maus by Art Spiegelman. A landmark graphic novel, it portrays an astonishing and utterly moving true story of one family’s struggle to survive through world war 2 and the Auschwitz prison camp. For me it transcends history better than any story I’ve come across in any media, in bringing home the intensity of events that happened during the lifetime of many people alive today.

barefoot genBarefoot Gen is another gripping attempt to help us remember another aspect of world war 2 – the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, ,in this case a manga novel written by Keiji Nakazawa, loosely based on his own experiences as a survivor of the atomic horrors. ( Two animated films were based on the manga : Barefoot Gen & Barefoot Gen 2 )

palestineProbably the most deserving of the comic-journalist title, Joe Sacco has made extensive comics about his experiences in war zones, outlining in very human detail his interactions with locals, against a contextual backdrop filled with historical background. Try fantagraphics.com for his books : Palestine, The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo, War’s End: Profiles from Bosnia 1995-6 & more.

by Sean Healy, July 29, 2006 0 comments

War Bloggers

Whether you want to call it participatory journalism, citizen journalism or just the noise of the many, the ease of online publishing tools for quick, spontaneous expression means there are a whole world of alternative war perspectives online. Wikipedia has become known as an incredibly valuable resource, not just for encyclopaedic definitions, but for it’s coverage of current events – such as the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Partner project Wikinews now also comes with RSS feeds – meaning you can subscribe to the latest world, regional or topical news.

Elsewhere, impressively leveraging the capacity of Google Earth’s 3D topography & satellite photos, a site has put together a collection of placemakrs which show exact locations of military actions based on news reports – with a whole bunch of added embedded information. Quite intense to browse.

Kevin Sites is a veteran war correspondent now signed up with Yahoo – who aims to travel to every armed conflict in the world, in one year. Using a HD camcorder, satellite phone, powerbook, & satellite modem he sends in articles and edited video from warzones, aided by a production team in the States. Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon are all on his list, but also a whole string of lesser known conflicts such as those in Chechnya, Congo, Haiti, Kasmir, Nepal, Sir Lanka, Sudan and a whole host of others.

Mazen Kerbak‘s response to the craziness of inheriting a war, was not just to blog about it, but to perform and record improvisational music to the sound of bombs falling nearby. That, comics and paintings await.

Salam Pax‘s blog coverage of war in Iraq is also worth a mention, and ABC’s Andrew Denton has a good interview with him about his experiences.

by Sean Healy, July 27, 2006 0 comments