Category: News

Local West End artist Jaye Irving is one of the leading Australian artists exhibiting at Skygate’s Art with Altitude festival from 24 to 27 October 2013.

Jaye’s amazing 5m high bamboo sculpture, Steam Punk Flight, is one of 20 larger-than-life sculptures that can be explored at the free contemporary art festival, presented by Brisbane Airport Corporation.

Set on the greens of retail precinct Skygate; Art with Altitude is not your traditional art festival. As well as the amazing sculptures, the festival’s free, family-friendly, four-day program includes QAGOMA children’s art workshops, Queensland Theatre Company performances, live music and street performers.

JAYE IRVING – Steam Punk Flight

Steam Punk Flight stands as an edifice of times gone by. This five metre high bamboo sculpture alludes to exploits of Don Quixote and the lonely ancient windmills linking the vision of stream driven paddle boats encapsulated in lowtech woven bamboo.

Utilising the strength and natural flexibility of nature’s giant grass, this interactive child friendly sculpture hearkens to a time gone by… a ball driven interactive BOO machine.

Something about the beauty and natural elegance of bamboo has intrigued West End-based sustainable architect and bamboo artist Jaye Irving for nearly 12 years.

This intrigue has led him on a journey around the world exploring the fresh and flowing forms suggested and discovered within the vocabulary of Nature’s Giant Grass.

As one of the leading members of ‘The BooCrew’, a gambit of ephemeral structures have emerged filled with the fun and vibrancy of festivals and continue to explore the space between the modern and the ancient.

For many years people have heeded the call and ‘done the right thing’ by using the bins. Now its Council’s turn.

“It’s important for council to continue its good work and lift its game to match the demands of a city with more and more people.” said WECA President Darren Godwell.

“This one isn’t a hard ask -Council just needs to double the number of rubbish pick-ups.”

“The physical constraints of the footpaths and the demand from many thousands of peoples rule-out the appropriateness of larger bins” added Godwell

Godwell points out that “standard, narrow footpaths can’t handle more people, more street signage, more outdoor dining, more clothes racks, more furniture and larger bins.

Council may find itself exposed to an increased public liability and potential payouts for failing to provide the public with safe and adequate footpaths in one of its highest traffic streets.”

As part of WECA’s Safer Streets initiative, the Community Association is asking City Council to increase the frequency of its rubbish collections from the public bins provided along Boundary and Melbourne Streets in West End and South Brisbane.

“It’s a public health and safety issue. When council approves all the extra outside dining plus approves all the extra bars and licensed premises over the last ten years it happily took the extra revenues from permits and applications. Council has pocketed the extra money, now its time to use those funds to sustain services.”

Since 1995 local business and community interests of West End have initiated urban improvements. A year later the result was Brisbane’s first ever Suburban Centre Improvement Program (SCIP) where fit-to-purpose street furniture and infrastructure refreshed one of Brisbane’s last remaining retail high streets. WECA members and founders were active in that local initiative.

Most of Australia’s finest musicians are suffering for their art, according to new University of Sydney research.

More than 80 percent of 377 professional orchestral musicians surveyed reported having experienced physical pain severe enough to impair their performance.

Fifty percent of the musicians reported moderate to severe performance-related anxiety while 32 percent had symptoms of depression.

The findings, published in the Psychology of Music online, are based on the first study to examine the relationship between self-reported performance-related pain, performance anxiety, and depression in professional musicians.

The research was undertaken by Professor Dianna Kenny of the School of Psychology in the Faculty of Science and Dr Bronwen Ackermann, School of Medical Science.

Their study of members of the eight state and opera orchestras in Australia has implications for how best to treat performance-related pain.

“The survey found 84 percent of professional classical musicians have experienced pain severe enough to interfere with their performance. Half of those surveyed reported that they were currently experiencing pain,” Professor Kenny said.

“There is a strong relationship between the severity of performance-related pain and music performance anxiety. Those reporting more severe pain also reported higher music performance anxiety.”

Music performance anxiety can manifest itself as trembling, shaking, elevated blood pressure and heart rate and cognitively as dread, worry, rumination or catastrophic thinking.

“Seventy-five percent of the musicians showed the expected relationship between pain and depression. Those reporting no depression were also more likely to report little to no pain. Those reporting some depression reported higher levels of pain,” she said.

Professor Kenny believes the respondents who reported pain but not depression warrant further investigation.

“Of most significance was a group of 25 percent of respondents who did not report depression but reported the highest pain severity.

“These results suggest some musicians might somatise their pain. This means that they may convert their psychological distress into muscle tension which leads to physical pain.

“The implication of these findings is that physically based treatments of performance-related musculoskeletal pain that do not address associated anxiety and depression might not prove to be effective,” Professor Kenny said.

The research paper, Performance-related musculoskeletal pain, depression and music performance anxiety in professional orchestral musicians: A population study by Dianna Kenny and Bronwen Ackermann, is available at http://pom.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/09/02/0305735613493953.abstract.

The World Premiere of a new production of Copelia will launch Queensland Ballet’s season next year, while the Nutcracker will become a regular Christmas feature and crowd pleaser, starting here in 4101 on 5^th December.

Running from April 14 until May 10, the ballet will be choreographed by Greg Horsmann. Mr Horsmann told the ballet faithful at Brisbane Town Hall on Monday that Copellia has framed his career.

Director of Queensland Ballet, Lee CunXin, known to many as Mao’s last dancer, presented the 2014 program, announcing that the ballet has Sir … Romeo Juliet, with three international stars performing in the main roles at various times, giving both audiences and dancers a taste of the heights of this soaring art form.

The famous production of Romeo and Juliet, choregraphed by Sir Kenneth McMillan to Prokiev’s music has been closely guarded by McMillan’s widow and it is considered a real coup to have the performance here from 27 June to 5 July.

The crowd pleaser, though, both at the launch this week and for the programs to come will be the Nutcracker Suite as a regular Christmas treat. The first outing kicks off here in 4101 in two months. So popular is this ballet set to Tchaikoskvy’s music that the season has sold out and new shows have had to be added to the program by popular demand.

The expansion of coal mines west of Brisbane will double the amount of coal rumbling through the suburbs residents of Brisbane’s inner Southern suburbs heard at the Yeronga Bowls club last night.

Merryn Redenbach from Doctors for the Environment and Peter Faulkner from Oakey Coal Action Alliance brought very different perspectives to the topic.

Dr Redenbach provided a raft of evidence about those health impacts, including asthma and heart disease. She covered the damage caused by different particle sizes. Smaller particles are more dangerous as they get deeper into the lungs where the body’s defences are less able to deal with them.

Most monitoring only picks up particles of 10microns or larger in diameter as only these coarse particles are governed by law. The fine particles (2.5 microns in diameter) have guidelines but are rarely measured and the ultrafine particles (1 micron) are rarely measured at all.

Doctors for the Environment has research indicating that the cost of coal’s impact on human health is around 6.2 billion dollars. If we included this in the cost of coal fired electricity, renewables start to look very attractive indeed.

All corporations try to externalize as many costs as possible but Doctors for the Environment don’t want to let them off the hook on these health costs.

President of the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, Peter Faulkner, is in the thick of those attempts by coal mines to reduce those costs west of Toowoomba. His main concern is that our food sovereignty and regional communities are under threat as the government paves the way for international energy companies to ravage the landscape in a short sighted dream to make Australia the Saudi Arabia of the twenty first century.

“We are not second class citizens,” he asserts, “and we should not be thrown off our land and give up our food security because some shareholders on the other side of the world want to make money from it.”

His group agitated to raise awareness about New Hope’s expansion plans and have watched in dismay as the company has divided the community with a PR war by throwing money at the local paper, school committee and “any body with their hand out who is prepared to go quiet on the impact of coal.”

The New Hope Acland mine is about eight kilometers from the town of Oakey and is expected to double in size. New Hope has exploration licenses across vast swathes of Queensland from the NSW border north in a band that runs from Toowoomba in the East, West to Dalby.

Peter presented a range of photographic evidence showing the effects of mining on the community. An inspiring speaker, his down to earth style and factual approach had the audience firing questions with a passion.

The evening was organized by Clean Air Queensland, which is well connected to Stop Brisbane Coal Trains, Lock the Gate, Bridging the Divide and the many local groups trying to salvage their communities and their farmland in the face of this onslaught from energy companies with the full backing of the government.

John Gordon and the author on radio talking about Coal Dust earlier this year. We worked hard with Greens Senator, Larissa Waters, to get the Senate Committee into clean air to Queensland.

Twenty year old Annerley local, Ally Burnham, has beaten hundreds of aspiring film-makers and actors to be one of just 10 young Australians to participate in ‘The Shoot’ a short film initiative by Samsung Electronics Australia.

Ally will fly to Sydney for a six-day workshop with one of Australia’s leading creative and performing arts schools, the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), where she will also receive mentoring from internationally acclaimed Australian director, Baz Luhrmann. The short film created by Ally and the other winners will premiere at a prestigious event hosted at the Sydney Opera House as part of the iconic landmark’s 40th Anniversary celebrations on October 24.

Ally was selected from more than 700 entries as the writer for The Shoot. Ally has always wanted to be a storyteller, she has dreamt of being a screenwriter since she was 14 years old, growing up in the country town of Murwillumbah. Her writing is inspired by life experiences and she is looking forward to learn from the best in the filmmaking industry during the workshop with NIDA.

“I am elated to be a part of The Shoot. This is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m very excited,” Ally said. “I am absolutely humbled that Samsung and NIDA thought I was worthy enough to be the screenwriter for their short film, a role I am very excited to take on.”

“Samsung is excited to work with Ally and we’re proud to be able to help showcase her talent as a screenwriter in The Shoot,” said Arno Lenior, Marketing Director, Samsung.

“It is an honour for Samsung to support young Australians through initiatives like The Shoot, allowing them to work with our passion brand ambassador Baz Luhrmann and use to our latest technology while creating a short film at NIDA. I’m thrilled that we can give young Aussies the chance to share their passion and talent with the country while learning from the best in the business to help them on their own creative path,” said Lenior.

Along with nine other winners, Ally will receive:
·           A master-class with Baz Luhrmann;
·           Six day intensive film-making course at NIDA;
·           A VIP ticket to the blue carpet premiere of their short film at Sydney Opera House’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, which will be attended by Baz Luhrmann and other VIPs; and
·            Samsung Creative Communications pack, including the new Samsung GALAXY Note 3* and Samsung GALAXY Gear*.

About the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)

The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is Australia’s national education and training institution for the dramatic arts, providing elite training in a range of disciplines, including acting, costume, design, directing, music theatre, playwriting, production, properties and staging through its undergraduate and graduate programs, and offering training across Australia for children, young people and adults through its public courses. NIDA students gain an unrivalled foundation in their chosen fields and graduates become leaders and innovators within the arts and entertainment industries. To learn more about NIDA, visit www.nida.edu.au