aliens.au was a survey of Australian new media art assisted by the Australian Film Commission’s marketing department.
Aliens_1997
“we are all, to some degree, aliens in Australia” Linda Wallace, Sydney based curator and VP97 Australian Commissioner.
aliens.au constituted the Australian component of Video Positive 97 (VP97), Britain’s premier new media event. The selection comprised installations, CDROM works, two 70 minute screening programs and a range of internet sites.
ANAT supported the project in kind by providing server space for the web site which accompanies the project. Wallace’s intention with the website was for it to act as a gateway to Australian artists on the internet.
The three installations in the show were by Lyndal Jones, Jon McCormack and Gordon Bennett and range across many fields of ideas.
The CDROM selection included:The Cute Machine by Martine Corompt; planet of noise by Brad Miller/Mackenzie Wark; Invert by Lloyd Sharp; GMS (Genetic Manipulation Simulator) Patricia Piccinini & Drome; and The User Unfriendly Interface by Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski.
The screening component of aliens.au presented a survey of Australian screen based work and included computer graphics, video and film — not just the dazzling new, but work which articulates fissures in the contemporary Australian fabric — and includes work by artists such as Caroline Davies/Shane Rowlands, Ian Andrews, Lucy Lehmann, John Tonkin,Tony Ayers, Paul Winkler, Alyson Bell, Ian Haig, Francesca da Rimini & Jospehine Starrs, Elena Poppa, Emily Chan, Sam Littlemore and Merilyn Fairskye, the video Seven Sisters’ Dreaming, from Central Australia Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) Productions and the film No Way to Forget by award-winning Aboriginal director Richard Frankland looks at the issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
http://archive2019.anat.org.au/aliens
Please note this is a historic site – some links may no longer work
Tags: contemporary Australian, digital communications, experiemental media
