Tag: Brisbane

After Orlando

Mechanical Dolphin

If you work in a cultural institution, what do you do in response to a tragedy like the shooting in Orlando last week?

You see a lot of rainbow flags on social media and there’s a hashtag going round, #LoveIsLove. There have been gatherings in major cities, showing solidarity with Florida and letting each local LGBTQ community know they are celebrated and cherished.

These are wonderful things but I wanted us at the State Library of Queensland to do more.

On Monday morning, we fast-tracked a project to acquire a major piece of Australian LGBTQ oral history – the final interview tapes of Bernard King.

King was the flamboyant, gay, notoriously acid-tongued pioneer of Aussie TV cookery and talent shows. We discovered the tape as part of my weekly newsletter Marvellous, Electrical when I interviewed King’s biographer Stephanie Clifford-Smith.

You can read the Bernard King edition of Marvellous, Electrical here.

This is a major acquisition of materials from a forgotten Queensland icon whose work was under-represented in the state’s libraries and archives. You’ll see more about it through official channels in coming weeks.

The interviews will now be digitised by the library’s Queensland Memory team. State Library oral histories currently available online include the LGBT Lives: Oral Histories collection and the Greg Weir collection.

I have to say massive thanks to Dianne Byrne and Gavin Bannerman of Queensland Memory for helping us to pursue this acquisition.

I also spent my evenings this week investigating Queensland’s Panic Defence – a lingering clause of the state legal code which seems to allow killers to claim they were provoked to manslaughter if their victim made a homosexual pass at them.

Alongside celebration and solidarity, it’s important to look to our own doorsteps and recognise where prejudice and injustice can be found right before our eyes. Discussion of the Panic Defence led to some uncomfortable truths about murder and straight male privilege in Australia’s Sunshine State.

You can read Marvellous, Electrical: The Panic Defence here.

Marvellous, Electrical: Adventures of a Wandering Cook

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Angela Hirst of Wandering Cooks tends the garden at her Brisbane food incubator

Brisbane is just shading into winter now, and while it doesn’t get too cold in subtropical Queensland, you still need to make a little effort if you want a place to feel cosy.

On the fringe of the cultural quarter, entrepreneur Angela Hirst is doing just that, as she plays host to the city’s most adventurous chefs and diners at her “food incubator” Wandering Cooks.

In this week’s newsletter, Angela explains the links between philosophy, architecture, permaculture, and her attempt to create a special place for culinary innovators in the heart of Brisbane.

You can read this week’s Marvellous, Electrical here.

Beyond Panels: The Presenterless Future?

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Our quest to mitigate guest speakers’ privilege, plus include audiences as participants in workshops and panel discussions, continues.

Last week I spoke at USQ – where audience members were invited on stage as part of my live-streamed presentation – and I also delivered a workshop “Are we asking the right questions of our digital future?” at Broadband for the Bush.

For the latter, I wanted to create a way of talking about the future that was open to all and could even be held in venues with limited access to technology.

I put together twelve provocations: 400-word texts, followed by questions which served to prompt discussion. Workshop participants were invited to choose one or two of the twelve provocations, read them, and then discuss them with their tablemates.

Read more →

Marvellous, Electrical: Think of the Tender Things That We’ve Been Working On

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This week’s Marvellous, Electrical covers the opening night of Brisbane’s Cabaret Festival and an uncomfortable flashback to the winsome days of the early 1980s.

There’s also gender-flipped Spice Girls, paleobotanists, and a fumbled double-bass solo that grips like wet rope.

Check out Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical here.

No Longer at Ease / The Life of Lines – Interview with Beth Povinelli

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Frontier Imaginaries Poster from QUT/IMA exhibition in Brisbane

Frontier Imaginaries is an exhibition currently being held across two sites in Brisbane: ‘No Longer at Ease‘ in the Institute of Modern Art and ‘The Life of Lines‘ at Queensland University of Technology.

Beth Povinelli is one of the artists featured in ‘The Life of Lines‘  – she is also Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University.

Beth’s research forms a critique of late liberalism – she dubs it an ‘anthropology of the otherwise’ – which I find vital to current debates about Australian identities and our visions of the future, both here and around the world.  At the launch of Frontier Imaginaries, she argued that Australia is on the front lines of a crisis in Western thought, brought about in part by the pressures of climate change and the rise of digital technology.

Originally a philosophy student, Beth’s love of Australian movies led her to visit the country on a grant application in 1984. She eventually found herself working as an anthropologist and advocate for Indigenous communities. As she says, her career has been less about “explaining” Indigenous culture and society to others, more about helping to analyze how late liberal power appears from an Indigenous perspective.

Read more →

Electrical updates

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There’s been some new entries on Marvellous, Electrical in recent weeks.

Here’s a few highlights:

You can sign up for weekly updates from Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical here.

Rock and Roll Writers’ Festival: Playlist

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My playlist is up for Brisbane’s first Rock and Roll Writers Festival.

Growing up at the tail-end of the mixtape generation, compiling songs was a way of connecting with friends and strangers alike, all through high school.

Now Leanne de Souza and her team at the Festival are working with the team at Playlistr to share music selections from Festival contributors and friends.

If you’re not a Spotify user, you can find my mixtape on YouTube, too.

And the one must-listen track is this…sweet video, too.

Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical: All We Leave Are The Memories

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You can subscribe to the Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical newsletter here.

Brisbane’s weird, in the best way. They’ve got portals into the past – actual physical gateways. Years ago, they had state-sponsored magicians who could make buildings disappear overnight. Their job was to erase the city’s history. These things happened right in the middle of town.

It’s all documented. The magic’s fading now, and when I first heard the stories, I assumed it was just people exaggerating. But I work in an archive, the place where records are kept, and it turns out Brisbane’s magic is real.

Check it out over at Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical.

Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical: An E-mail Newsletter

Mechanical Dolphin

In January 2016, I start my role as Creative in Residence for the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

A man riding a goat over a high jump in Blackall, Queensland, 1905
Tiger the goat makes a record high jump – State Library of Queensland Archives

As part of this new adventure, I’ll be launching a weekly e-mail newsletter called Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical. In it, I’ll share some of the things I find on my journey through the past, present, and future of Australia’s Sunshine State.

To join up, visit http://tinyletter.com/marvellouselectrical – the first newsletter will go out on Saturday, 9th January.

 

2016 Creative in Residence, State Library of Queensland

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I’m happy to announce something that has been brewing for a while: in the new year, I’m off to Brisbane for a twelve month stint as Creative in Residence at the State Library of Queensland.

I’ll be working with the Library’s Signature Team to develop programming, partnerships, and community participation across Australia’s Sunshine State.

You can expect the usual blend of fun, play, challenge, and adventure, with a uniquely Queensland flavour.

The new role kicks off in January 2016. More news then!

Two men jumping in early 20th century Brisbane

‘Jumping for joy’ image (1918) from State Library of Queensland archives