Forum - Week 1 - "The Synergy Project"
"Synergy" to me carries the same weight as "Synesthesia" - not much. I have found such blatant word-dropping to be a tactic that the more weird art nuts use to try to establish themselves as pioneers of an emerging industry. I find a striking similarity to this kind of faux self-actualisation within the musical genre of death metal, where bands use track titles like "Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition" in an attempt to seem educated, whereas the track itself will probably only have two notes in it. I also intentionally avoided spelling it Synaesthesia - ooh, let's add an 'a' so people with think of encyclopaedia!
All in all the theme of collaboration was touched upon several times, mostly when the artists were not self-promoting. Ross Bencina was definitely the most engaging, yet ironically spoke the least about collaboration. While his life story was illuminating, it dimmed in the bright lights emitting from the Reactable videos. Oh, if only we could get access to one. That would be absolutely maaad.
"Her name was Deborah Polson..."
Bencina, Ross. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
Gardiner, Matthew. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
Polson, Deb. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
Plumley, Fee. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
Rackham, Melinda. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
Wilde, Danielle. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.
6 comments:
Artists drop name and shameless promote... who would have thought?
Yeah, English is fun.
Christ, whose been flaming your blog? This sounds dramatic.
LOL, I've finally had some time to read your blogs and get some collective two cents on new media-ish The Synergy Project, which I would've liked to attend but I had to work.
As I'm familiar with a majority of the artists/writers who presented at this, I can go on record and say that Ross is the best of the bunch as he manages to avoid the "self actualisation" you're talking about here.
I used to work for a (new) media organisation - ANAT - which Melinda Rackham (one of the Synergy speakers) mercifully directs, and if you ever want an indication of the egos you have to deal with in the (new) media bizzo I can tell you a story or two about what I came across in my time working there. My experience there put me off a lot of stuff that is passed off as (new) media art.
Yes, I have had to extinguish some flames.
Is 'self actualisation' even a correct term? I just put two words together and hoped for the best. I certainly recognised that Ross was more interested in his work rather than himself, which made his presentation much more digestible.
I think I remember Melinda, would she be the hippy who obviously loved being in her own presence? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for industry advocacy, but I still got the distinct feeling they were more interested in selling themselves.
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