Semi-Permantent and ABC’s FORATV have teamed up to bring some of the speakers talks from the sydney Semi-Permanent event to you. See the full presentations as videos, with images. its like you were really there! so far, 3 videos have been released, and i have embedded them below for you to enjoi.

now, i have to apologise for the lack of updates recently. my computer died, but its back to working now! yay! new site features and content will be coming over the next few days/week.

from FORA:

Ron English on Liberating Billboards -, 08 May 2009 10:00

In an age of mass consumption, everything is marketable. Reacting to this, culture jammers reclaim public spaces and refigure iconic imagery, making us rethink the way we interact with dominant cultural paradigms. American artist Ron English dedicates his time to making illegal billboard ads. With satirical and subversive imagery and sloganeering, English makes people stop and think about how products, personas and ideas are sold to the public. In this very funny presentation at the Semi-Permanent conference, he gives a history of how his art came to be part of the urban cultural landscape.

Ron English is an artist and activist. His paintings were featured in the documentary “Super Size Me”, and his work on billboards and public spaces has appeared in the USA, Europe and The Middle East. He says he hasn’t been to gaol in a long time.

Scott Dadich On Designing Wired Magazine -, 08 May 2009 10:00

WARNING: THIS PROGRAM CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE

Many might imagine that the process of designing a cover for a magazine is a case of taking a photo and organising some informative graphics. Not so for the team at Wired magazine, as Creative Director Scott Dadich reveals. Dadich, a self-confessed perfectionist with obsessive attention to details, provides a thorough and fascinating insight into the creative process of Wired magazine, a magazine internationally renowned for its design.

Recently in Australia for the Semi Permanent conference, Scott Dadich takes us frame by frame through the development of a cover and layout of the magazine, as well as the invention of new fonts. It might sound like supreme nerd-dom but even if magazine design isn’t your interest Dadich’s presentation is thought provoking and absorbing. If you’re interested in why details matter, love technology or just appreciate a good looking magazine, then check this out.

Scott Dadich joined Wired magazine as Creative Director in 2006. Previously, he was Creative Director of Texas Monthly. Under his direction, both magazines have won prestigious awards for their design. He has been awarded more than 100 national design and editorial awards. In 2007 Wired was received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence and in 2008 they picked up the National Magazine Award for Design. He is the President of Society of Publication Designers and has recently completed designing his first two books.

Ian Francis on his Artistic Practice -, 19 June 2009 10:00

When he graduated from art school with a degree in illustration, Bristol-based Ian Francis had no particular plans to become a painter. Less than a decade later, however, he has become a successful working and exhibiting painter and multi-media artist. Here at the recent Semi-Permanent conference he shares his creative processes and progress. From the work he was creating, mostly in photoshop, towards the end of his illustration degree, to the powerful, complex, deeply textured works he is creating now. He talks frankly about his artistic development, inspirations and struggles, including the profound effect the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has had on his artistic practice.

Ian Francis completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of West England in 2001. Since then he has exhibited in solo and group shows in London, Los Angeles, New York, Newcastle [UK] and Sydney.

see IFE semi-permanent coverage here (just clicker newer entries to go through them)

and for more of ABC’s FORA TV go to – www.abc.net.au/tv/fora

semipermanent logo

Well, how do you wrap up an awesome couple of days at the Semipermanent Design Conference? By going home, cooking some dimsims and writing about it! yay!

First up, the announcments!

semipermanent WILL be in melbourne this year, oct 16 and 17, and i was the second person to get tickets! there will be 12 new speakers, but no announcements as to who they will be yet.

here is what the sydney sp09 program says:

For years now the lovely people of Melbourne have been pleading with us to host a Semi-Permanent even in their sexy city. We finally cracked and are pleased to announce the Semi-Permanent 2009 Melbourne event.

We’ll see you down there

Melbourne Semi-Permanent 2009 – 16 & 17 October 2009

melbourne convention and exhibition centre (southbank, melbourne)

speakers TBC (12 different speakers to sydney event)

so there you have it, i havent seen anything on the net about this yet, so i consider this to be an if forever exists exclusive!!! nothing is even on the semipermanent site as yet, but i would be staying tuned to get tickets before they sell out, cos if you guys wanted it that bad down there, its sure to sell out! (plus, you wanna sit next to me dont you? considering i already have tickets)

so thats the exciting announcement! now i just want to tell you, that starting monday we are going to be having profiles on each of the 13 people who spoke at this years sydney semipermanent, featuring works, information and exclusive parts of their presentations. as a bonus, i will include a scan of my raw notes for each presenter, so you can extract your own information if you want. that’s 13 amazingly talented people to be profiled over the coming weeks.

the lineup is as follows:

1. Timba Smits, of wooden toy magazine
2. Kris Moyes, film production
3. Ian Francins, mixed media artist
4. Tamara Dean, photographer
5. Dean Sewell, photographer
6. Danny Yount, film production/direction
7. Droga 5 (Ben Nott), creative advertising agency
8. XYZ Studios (Tim Kentley), animation studio
9. Kate Gibb, screenprinter/illustrator
10. Wired Magazine (Scott Dadich), technology/innovation publication
11. Daniela Federici, photographer
12. Ron English, billboard liberator
13. Digital Domain (Vernon Wilbert), digital production

it’s a massive lineup of some of the most creative people in the business, all of the wowed me at the event, and i hope they inspire you as well! This starts on monday!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thankyouthankyouthankyou to the event organisers – Andrew Johnstone and Murray Bell! without you guys, this wouldnt have happened! keep up the awesome work, and see you at the melbourne show!

dont forget, subscribe to the right to stay up to date with all the awesome on if forever exists.

and dont forget to check the semipermanent website for info on the brisbane, perth and auckland shows, as well as the freshly announced melbourne show!

www.semipermanent.com

peace

qwux

where to begin this one. ron english is a legend. his colourful, photorealistic and subversive style has been covered, and pasted, all over the world for near on 3 decades! and he shows no sign of slowing down. using recurring imagrey if characters he has created, as well as imagery taken from popular culture and art history,his works continue to be sociopolitical commentary at it’s rawest!

vernon willbert from digital domain had an amazingly polished presentation. the digital domain showreel was one of the most pressive reels I have seen in recent times, covering films like curious case of Benjamin button and transformers, to game trialers like halo and gears of war. the bulk of the presentation focussed on the emerging use of machinima in film producion, which started as lofi gamers making mini series like the popular red vs blue based on halo gameplay. vernon worked through the whole creative process behind the scarily successful gears of war trailer, set to Gary jules’ rendition of mad world. the presentation was filled with every aspect of the visual creation, storyboards, animatics, rough animation and the polished finished production. it was an amazng insight into one of the powerhouse digital production companies!

later tonite I will have my conference wrap up, as well as some announcements! so stay tuned!!

peace
qwux