We are talking about ALCOHOL

Beyond Empathy’s Just One Less community art project, which was initially called 5 in a Row but gained traction in the community as Just One Less, culminated in large outdoor projections of material in collaboration with the MCA’s Digital Odyssey tour and the internationally renowned digital artist Craig Walsh on July 1, 2 and 3. The three day celebration also included a young people’s music festival and public screening of other BE material made through the Braking Barriers leadership program at the Aboriginal Mission on the Sunday night.

The content gathered over the past eight months – more than 300 interviews in the mobile video booth, short films made by six high schools and community photo portraits –were projected at an unusual site (back of the grandstand at the local swimming pool) in Armidale. The work was integrated into Walsh’s modus operandi: projecting large images of faces onto community surfaces such as nature and architecture.  Drawing inspiration from the film content, Walsh and the BE creative team generated works of art that reflected back to the community something of itself, providing a powerful meditation on the varied experiences that people share around the topic of alcohol. The projected screening ran for two hours in approximately 20 minute loops.

Outdoor Projections

The film content for the projections included:

·         trailer about the mobile video booth;

·         the mobile video booth interviews (300+)

·         two short clay animation films from the students at O’Connor Catholic College;

·         a film documenting the painting of murals at Armidale High School; 

·         short films by students at Duval High School;

·         community photo portraits with text/quotes from the mobile video booth

·         youth photo portraits

At the site there were fires burning in 44 gallon bins. Young people, stationed at the site, served soup to the audience and engaged them in conversation around the fire about what adults can share from their own experiences around alcohol.  

Premiere screening and launch

On Wednesday June 15 there was a premiere screening and launch of the films made by young people along with a presentation by Walsh and his partner artist Hiromi Tango of their digital artworks. Six local film makers, working under the mentorship of Sydney filmmaker and producer Anna Cater, gathered stories in a mobile video booth housed in a hi-tech horse float and worked with young people from six local high schools. The filmmakers, Nick Duhigg, Jonathon Larsen, Isaac Miller, Trish Stephen, Shayne Teece-Johnson and Sarah Watson, collaborated to create works that explored the culture of alcohol in the Armidale community.

The evening’s lineup included:

·         Clay Animation films by Year 10 students from O’Connor Catholic College

·         A short documentary film by Year 10 students from Armidale High School

·         Short films by Year 10 students from Duval High School

·         The film ‘Smashed’ by Year 11 students from The Armidale School, Presbyterian Ladies College and New England Girls School

·         short excerpt of interviews from the mobile video booth and the Trailer

 HOME screen

Hiromi Tango conducted a three week-long workshop from June 17 to create a special screen from objects donated by the community based on what ‘home’ means to them, including clothes, toys, beads, photos, mementos, handcrafts. 

The Home theme was developed during June in conjunction with the alcohol theme, serving as an antidote that involved parents and community role models, encouraging resilience in young people through understanding, and by instilling values and building trusting relationships with them. Hiromi’s workshops were held in an empty shop in the town centre and were open to the entire community. Young people from the community and school groups all participated. Portraits were taken of participants when in workshops and then these portraits were projected onto the screen each evening during June.

 The public was able to observe this installation from the street at all times of the day and night.

 

 Photos by Craig Walsh – Home screen and portrait projection onto the Home screen

Trailer

A 4-minute trailer was made from the interviews in the mobile video booth. From mid-May it was up on You Tube, the BE website and then at the local cinema, where it was screened before films for the month of June. The widespread screening of the trailer (taking it to the people) continued to build on the project’s creative style of social sculpture/street culture which began with the mobile video booth, and led people to the live event in July.

Photo poster portraits

Photo journalist Angus Mordant photographed 10 members of the general public who participated in interviews in the mobile video booth. They had their b+w portraits taken in their home. Giant copies of these portraits were blown up and pasted around the community, approximately two weeks before the live event. The portraits included direct quotes from their booth interviews and built on the emerging community dialogue around alcohol in Armidale and also publicise the upcoming live event. This further evolved the street sculpture/culture style of the project.

Polly Armstrong (artistic leader) continued the community portrait project during June, photographing 20 young people for the giant b+w posters (without quotes). BE worked with NSW Parks and Wildlife Service to print the portraits. The positioning of the portraits around the community were both in official sites and also guerrilla ones, much like posters advertising music events for young people.

The music event

The Saturday 2 July music event involved 24 young people in leadership capacity performing to a community audience of 200 people. The focus was to mix young people who are disadvantaged up with young people who are well supported. Research suggests that mixing young people up in events like this influence changes for the more disadvantaged young people. Koorified (our local indigenous leadership crew) launched their EP at the music event.

Alcohol Forum

BE hosted an alcohol focused youth forum led by a panel of young people on Friday, June 24 2011 and moderated by Simon Nasht, a Logie winning filmmaker and experienced moderator. The focus of the event was on young people talking with young people. Research backed our concept of the forum, which was summed up in the report ‘“What a great night”: The cultural drivers of drinking practices among 14-24 year-old Australians’, it is stated:

Young people’s use of alcohol and the ways that they understand, think and talk about alcohol often mirror or appear as similar to adult concerns. But they often have very different views to adults. Adult organisations, institutions, policy processes and systems should develop and deploy research, evaluation, and consultation processes that enable the diversity of young people’s voices, and the tensions, contradictions and pleasures that shape these voices, to be included in debates about, and responses to, the ‘problem’ of young people’s alcohol use.¹

120 students from five of the schools and members of the general community formed the audience. A robust conversation was had around the important issue of alcohol and young people. From data collected from evaluation forms, 76% of respondents considered that the forum was well put together and 69% liked the way the topic was presented. Over half the respondents thought the forum provided new insights and helped them reflect on how they think about things or made them think differently about the issue. Overall, the responses indicate positive feedback for the forum that brought

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/beyondempathytv?gl=US&hl=en

There are Just One Less clips made by school students, a horse float video booth trailer, and a music clip by local group Koorified, recorded and filmed as part of the project.

 

For further information about this project, please contact Narelle Jarry on 02 6772 0101 or at narelle.jarry@beyondempathy.org.au