Text by Louise Mackenzie: originally appeared in Architect Victoria: Quarterly Journal of the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter
CINESCAPES......MA|A
As a part of MAA, CINESCAPES, developed by Delia Teschendorff and Helen Sutton, is a program of events which aim to engage the public with their city through the medium of film. The CINESCAPES program forms a filmic journey along the north bank of the Yarra River. It will have several components including the Signal Workshops & Screenings, the Bridge Project, ACMI Mediatheque Project: The Shape and form of Home [Melbourne + Beyond], the AMCI Screen: Liquid Stone and, the FED SQUARE SCREEN.
SIGNAL
In September, artists, architects and young people came together for a 2-day workshop to explore the question: “What makes a home?” through film and sound. Their films will be screened for the duration of the MAA Festival. During the SIGNAL workshop, the participants also worked with a sound artist to produce a sound installation to accompany the Signal screenings. Sounds of the City will be played, in conjunction, with the films, through the 18-speaker sound walk.
SCREENING MA|A: OCTOBER 24TH-30TH AFTER DARK 2011
BRIDGE PROJECT
A projection installation by Delia Teschendorff (AUS) and Helen Sutton (UK) will transform Princes Bridge during MAA week. http://www.deliateschendorff.com.au/bridge-project-2/
8pm Tuesday 25th October 2011
ACMI _ MEDIATHEQUE PROJECT
The Shape & Form of Home [Melbourne + Beyond]
Curated by Des Smith & Louise Mackenzie
A program of short films featuring Melbourne on film will be screened daily in the Mediatheque at ACMI.
7 days a week _ 12pm to 6pm. 2011
The theme of this year’s MA|A (National Architecture Week) is “home”, in terms of architecture and the city what could this mean? Helen Gibson* wrote, almost 10 years ago, that she thought the problem with urban planning and design in Australia was that it did not engage with the people who are indented to live in these, proposed, spaces.
In what ways does the form of the city shape our experience of home? What is home _ are we referring to the central city of Melbourne or the house where we live? Perhaps both - the two being intertwined and interconnected, what shapes and forms will Melbourne take? - will we continue to sprawl or densify? - how else could we live?
How do you live? What do you want your home, at an architectural and urban scale, to be like?
The following films tell different ways of how we have lived and do live in Melbourne and other places - perhaps we can take all our experiences and ideas to suggest how we might live. What shapes and forms do we want Melbourne [home] to be? And how do we want to live in theses spaces?
*Helen Gibson “Planning and Communicating to Achieve Sustainable Strategies” in Take 1: Urban Solutions: Propositions for the Future Australian City, Editors Michael Keniger, Geoffrey London, Carey Lyon Ian McDougall Stuart Niven, Peter Williams, The Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Canberra, 2002.
HOME (2007) 2.25 by Zephlyn Neilsen
this film asks is it physical or something intangible?
OLYMPIC GAMES, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 1956 (1956/1999) 9.41 by Straford Brothers
filmed during the games and edited in late ‘90s the film takes us back and also connects us to a more recent Melbourne – collectively linking us all through images of central Melbourne (& Sport!). The Pool, by architects McIntyre, Boland, Murphy & Murphy, has a starting role - the images of which are beautiful
A PLACE TO LIVE (1972) 10.43 by Aust. Gov.
describes to migrants the housing options in Melbourne & Australia in the early 1970s.
WORLD TO CONQUER (1952) 6.06 by Frank & John Straford
takes us to a suburban home with backyard in the 1950s – it brilliantly references classic Hollywood and the silent tradition and it is an outer space experience.
NARRAPUMELAP (1974/2007) 3.42 by Gracemary Cumming & Grace MacGugan
describes the experience of a home – in between states – an almost empty house with strong experienciential memories.
TRIPOLI, MELBOURNE, ME! (2007) 2:07 by Dania Dabliz
describes, two homes, Dania Dabliz tell us what it is to emigrate for her, she also talks about city shapes – density & sprawl – and the experience of these city types.
FROGGIE (2001) 12.22 by Joan Robinson
describes and shows the importance of place lived and how types of living change over time – the young girls in the share house are a new addition to Brunswick, not so much seen in the 1950s.
MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE 1910 (various)
this film takes us all back to a place - 1910 only 75 years, since white settlement (1835) – at the beginning of the gold rush era - in the 1850s - people would have held in living memory a “Melbourne” as home that figured differently, and not in an insignificant way, these experiences of home should also be considered in any proposals we have, in looking presently and forward, for Melbourne as home.
ACMI SCREEN
Liquid Stone: Unlocking Gaudi’s Secrets
A documentary film by Polly Watkins where Mark Burry Architect discusses his work at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Spain
Screening during MAA at
ACMI Saturday 29 October at 4pm 2011
