Henry Tapia

Under Arts + entertainment

So it’s been a busy few days, followed by some not-so-busy days. I spent the long weekend at Newcastle, having a beer with mates and on the prowl for the elusive “This is Not a Penis” festival. I was unlucky, instead I constantly ran into the various happenings that made up the This Is Not Art festival.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve picked up a virus, and this has opened up a vacancy for a bacterial infection. As the two competing infections battle it out, I’ve been pretty much bedridden since returning from Newcastle. This is why it’s been a while since posts, but I’m back in action now… anyway, more about TINA:

This is Not Art is a combination of several events: the National Young Writer’s Festival, Electrofringe, Sound Summit, Critical Animals, National Student Media Conference and EAR.

Amongst the various hoo-ha’s and what-nots aroud the place, some of my highlights of the weekend were:

• Some of the electrofringe acts on Saturday night. I liked Dsico’s whacky Karaoke (his take on Kelis’ Trick Me is a current fave of mine). I wished I hadn’t missed so much of it. There were lots of other interesting audio visual acts throughout the night…
• Outside the honeysuckle warehouses was a shipping crate that was fancifully decorated and rigged up to a midi system so that all these percussion instruments, kick drum bits, toys and other assorted bits and pieces banged away in rhythm to produce a wonderful cacophony. It’s my understanding that this was the work of Nick from Toydeath (who else?) – wicked. Check it:

• BBQ and beer recovery. Thanks to Dan and Sophie for putting us up for the weekend. We had a great time hanging out.
• The Zine fair – nothing is more interesting than watching a bunch of lonely obsessives get together and trade their wares… Even though I’m not big on zines, it was good to have a look around anyway – I can relate to these obsessives.
• Over to the Watt Space on Sunday to watch some of the featured short animations. These were really cool, featuring the works of Ben Hutchings and good mates of mine, Ross “Radiation” Tesoriero and Glenn “Glenjamin” Smith. And a notable mention goes to whoever did the 3D animation of the super heroes performing as a Scandinavian heavy metal band. If anyone knows more about this, be sure to post a link or let us know who was responsible. Classic stuff…
• Matt Gardiner’s Oribotics showing at the Art Gallery, combining Origami, Lego robotics and multimedia. This was very cool – touching the corresponding image on the touchscreen activated an origami flower via Lego technics and some subtle clear nylon lines. Accompanying texture projected onto the flower from the ceiling and surround sound ambience completed the experience.