31 January 2003
Kick back and imagine the future at the National Museum's outdoor new media festival Sky Lounge each Friday night in February.
Sky Lounge combines live performances by top electronic artists and DJs with animated films on the big and sky screens, graffiti, multimedia interactives and projected art.
The Museum's Garden of Australian Dreams will be transformed over four distinctly themed nights, with films chosen to complement each week's musical lineup:
- Retro Future, 7 February: Katalyst (Sydney), Koolism (Canberra)
- Beauty, 14 February: Prop (Sydney), Toby1 (Adelaide)
- Hip Hop, 21 February: The Herd (Sydney), The New Pollutants (Adelaide)
- Abstract, 28 February: Tipper (United Kingdom), Andrew Pekler (Germany).
'Sky Lounge brings together some of the most exciting and cutting edge live acts from the burgeoning electronic and hip hop scenes around Australia,' said Music Programmer Seb Chan, organiser of Sydney's Frigid electronic music nights and a member of seminal sound system Sub Bass Snarl.
The 50 animated flicks shown over the course of Sky Lounge deal with subjects ranging from urban warfare and body art to the world's most aggravating dog and a submarine crew attempting to attack a nun's soccer team.
'Sky Lounge will extend and challenge people's fixed views of animation,' said Animation Programmer and Melbourne's Moonlight Cinema organiser Malcolm Turner. 'We've gone for a diversity of animators, genres and styles which means everyone in the audience will be excited and inspired at some stage.'
The festival includes future art projections from artists including Mike Parr and Anne Zahalka; a sound and light installation in the tunnel through the Garden's centre; and multimedia interactives created by students from the Australian Centre for the Arts and Technology.
The Museum's Backyard Café will serve food and drinks, including beer and pizza, from 7.30pm each night, with the music starting around 8pm and animated flicks from 9.30pm.
Tickets are $15 adult, $10 concession, available at the Museum, Stocks stores throughout Canberra or by phoning 02 6208 5021.
For more information, interviews or photos contact Leanda Coleman, National Museum of Australia on 02 6208 5338, 0438 620 710 or l.coleman@nma.gov.au