Melbourne Futures

The stories...

2009-11-20T23:46:00.000-08:00

Who knows? Maybe you'll find your story...

The final map.

2009-11-20T23:31:00.001-08:00

In the cabinets down stairs we displayed the creations of the craft workshops.

In the listening station we had looped audio stories that people could sit down and listen to. They were collected by our story collectors roving around the city during the month.

On the walls we transcribed some of the longer stories with a typewriter, overlaying the stories with old copies of Melways.

It's amazing to compare the vibrant final map with the blank canvas we started with. Thank you Melbourne for sharing so many stories!

The blank canvas.

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These photos were taken pre-opening... it's amazing to see how many stories were collected over the month!

Closing night party at iMap next Wednesday!

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Come celebrate with us, and have a read of the incredible stories that people have added to the map. There will be free food, drink and merriment, and a last chance to add your own story! We would love to see you there!

6-8pm, Wed 28th October at the upstairs exhibition space, City Library.

Closing Media Release.

2009-10-21T18:41:00.001-07:00

Workshop photos...

2009-10-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

During the month of October we are holding a number of fun, different workshops in the City Library- all for free! Come and join us! For more details, please see our earlier post below, or send us an email...

You can see the beautiful pieces made during this workshop in the display cases on the ground floor of the library, be sure to have a look as we will be rotating them regularly.

Photos from opening night #2

2009-10-15T01:53:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came to the opening! It was a great night, with drinks, inspiring talks, live music (a huge thank you to Vivian Black), and most importantly, lots of story contributions.

We are in the library for the whole month of October, come past and add your story. There are also free workshops and a $200 cash art prize!

Photos from opening night #1

2009-10-15T01:48:00.001-07:00

Workshops during the month of October.

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Sat Oct 10^th

12:30-2pm: Story Collecting (1)

Want to hear personally the bizarre stories of fellow Melbournians? In this workshop you’ll hit the streets with us armed with sound recorders to collect stories and experiences from strangers.

2-4pm: Craft and 3D stories

Come and make something crafty that represents a unique experience you’ve had in the city. We will have some craft materials for people to use, and feel free to bring in your own materials to contribute if you can. A selection of finished artworks from the workshop will be displayed in the City Library.

Sat Oct 17^th

12-2pm: Ecological Melbourne

Come to write and draw your ideas of an ecologically sustainable Melbourne – past, present, and future! Create the Melbourne that you want.

2-4pm: DIY Mapping

Do you like the map and want to make something like it yourself to map your home or community? Find out how in this informal workshop.

Sat Oct 24^th

12-2pm: Creative Writing and Place

Explore practical techniques for place-based writing.

2:30-4pm Story Collecting (2)

Want to hear personally the bizarre stories of fellow Melbournians? In this workshop you’ll hit the streets with us armed with sound recorders to collect stories and experiences from strangers.

2-4pm: Photography and Place

Explore some ideas for a photographic approach to place and go on a photographic tour of the CBD. BYO camera.

All workshops will start off at the City Library, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Meet at the map upstairs or follow the signs. If you would like to run a workshop yourself please get in contact with us ASAP – we’d love to hear your ideas!

Map Art Prize- $200 cash!

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The iMap collective is running a mini-competition during October for the most creative and inspiring map of the CBD area. Entries can be in any medium. The term ‘map’ is open to interpretation but entries must have some spatial basis. All further details including regarding submission etc will be posted on this website shortly – stay tuned, and in the meantime- get creative!

Photos from installation...

2009-10-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

Ever tried to hang a 16m map AND get it straight?

iMap opening night!

2009-10-03T22:21:00.001-07:00

After a busy few days installing the biggest map of Melbourne CBD we've ever seen, we are excited about our opening, which is only 3 sleeps away! We would love it if you could join us:

Wednesday October 7th
6-8pm

Upstairs exhibition space
City Library
253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

Be one of the first to contribute to the map! Bring your friends!

For Immediate Release!

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The Mapping Room symposium.

2009-09-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

Recently we were invited to speak at the Mapping Room symposium. There are a huge range of map-related projects as part of this year's Fringe Festival and Melbourne Festival... as well as the Mapping Room you can catch the Interventionist Guide to Melbourne at Platform and Walk This Way to name only two. Below are the details of what's going on at the Mapping Room...

The Mapping Room: 25th September to the 4th October 2009.
Installation & Symposium.

The Mapping Room is an evolving installation of The Fringe Festival and The World. It charts both the concrete and the fleeting. Using live art, SMS, drawing, video and a lecture series to explore notions of scale, temporality and very human geography.

Head Quarters will be divided into cartographic sections with each section being inhabited by a different artists or company including: En Route by bettybooke, Take Off Your Skin (TOYS) by WELL, Emma Rochester, Robbie Dixon, Kelly Ryall, Analogue Art Map, Lara Thoms, Deadpan and more...

The Mapping Room will be evolving each day from 12-4pm.

On October 2nd from 6.30- 9.30 there will be artists talks and Dr. Fraser Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at The University of Melbourne will speak.

You can read more about the Mapping Room at: http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/the-mapping-room

Look out for our flyers around the city...

2009-09-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

If you grab one, write down a short story of something that happened to you in the city and bring it into the gallery with you! We will be compiling all the cards together into a book of sorts...

Mapping Out Our Every Move, The Age, Sept 12.

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The Age writer Suzy Freeman-Greene writes,

"...At the City Library, meanwhile, visitors will be invited to map their memories in the iMap project. A giant map of the central business district (taken from the Melways) will cover the wall of the library's gallery. Visitors will be asked to write a brief account of something moving that happened to them in town. These stories will be attached to the corresponding place on the map.

The tales will be layered and fleeting, as memories often are. What will Flinders Street Station reveal? Or Celestial Lane at 2am? Local and handmade, this mapping project is about as far from Google Earth's all-seeing eye as you can get."

Read the full article at:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/mapping-out-our-every-move/2009/09/11/1252519629969.html

Although keep in mind that the dates they have published are incorrect!

Call for volunteers.

2009-09-07T00:10:00.001-07:00

We want you!
Here are the following things that we're looking for people's involvement with:

Story collecting
Interested in learning more about the lives, stories and adventures of fellow Melbournians? Get involved in story collecting for the Imap project! You will receive training in story collecting/interviewing and in using sound equipment. In exchange we need you to spend two 1.5
hour shifts roving the CBD collecting stories for display as part of the Imap project

Gallery Sitting

Sitting the exhibition space, answering the odd query, and encouraging people to add their stories to the map. Yes, you can do your homework too!

Facilitating a mapping workshop
Helping run a map workshop in the exhibition space - getting people's contributions to the map under a particular theme (eg secret spaces, romance, melancoly etc)

No probs if you're too busy to help out at the moment - if so please send this info onto any friends or groups who may be interested in getting involved. Thank you!

Fringe Festival Program out!

2009-09-07T00:09:00.001-07:00

Exciting news! The Melbourne Fringe Festival 2009 program is now out! Pick it up everywhere and flick to page 43:

Interested in learning more about the lives of fellow Melbourians? Visit the iMap project at the Melbourne City Library. The project uses a large scale map of the Melbourne CBD to collate people's experiences and visions of the city. Come and tell us what the city means to you!

Dates: 2nd - 29th October 2009
Venue: City library, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Time: Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm, Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 12pm - 5pm
Tickets: Free!

Opening night: Wednesday 7th October, 5:45pm- all welcome!

Have a look at the Fringe website at: http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/i-map

Outside Eye artist's professional development program.

2009-08-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

What a huge week... we have been selected to participate in the Melbourne Fringe Festival's Outside Eye program (presented by Full Tilt at the Arts Centre)...

"In 2009 eighteen artists from a diverse range of art forms were selected to receive a mentor, free research and development time in professional studio spaces, and the opportunity to attend master classes led by Lucy Guerin, Kate Sulan, and Brett Sheehy."

The mentor we have been teamed up with is Melbourne-based visual artist Tim Webster. Tim uses video as his medium in a range of contexts, namely performance and installation. We have had one meet up so far with Tim and it looks to be an exciting time...

You can have a look at his website at: http://timwebster.tv

Thank you so much to Simone Collins for all her hard work in teaming us up!

Mudfest map, 2009.

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Mudfest, 2009.

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Exciting news! We have another map as part of Melbourne University's Mudfest program! The map is in the Festival Club, Open Stage, Arts Centre on the corner of Grattan and Swanston streets. The festival finishes on the 29th of August- be quick so that you don't miss it.

3500 students. One map of the city. What's been happening?

Watch the map evolve as students mark down the experiences they've had in the city. Events of intrigue, politics, sex and revelation... don't be shy! Tell us what the City means to you!

Have a look at the festival website: http://mudfest.org.au/program/our-melbourne-2050

Shed 4 launch in the Docklands, 2009.

2009-08-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Future Canvas's new home at Shed 4 in the Docklands, we had a presence at their launch party held in May, 2009. We displayed the map created at the Sustainable Living Festival and spoke to people about what we are doing.

Future Canvas is a design collective of volunteers creating artful everyday action toward sustainability. Starting with a visionary garden in the Docklands, the fledgling social enterprise is working with Melbourne's green thumbs to make urban agriculture dirty and sexy. This is just the beginning... Future Canvas is developing an inner-city space for artists and social entrepreneurs, not to mention a range of quirky and inspiring media projects.

Elements like our community, our well-being, our home, our food and our clothes are brushstrokes on a canvas. Express yourself. Re-design your everyday.

You can read more about Future Canvas at: http://www.futurecanvas.org/news-events/future-canvas-launch-party

I don't know if it's art, but I like it, 2009.

2009-08-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

Following the great success we had at the Sustainable Living Festival we entered the final map, created by hundreds of hands over an entire weekend, into an art competition at the University of Melbourne called, I don't know if it's art, but I like it. As runners-up, we won much needed art supplies vouchers.

Looking at the finished map hung on the wall of the Architecture atrium, it really is an amazing collaborative work of art, and everyone who made a contribution should make sure they see it!

Our Melbourne 2050 at the Sustainable Living Festival, 2009.

2009-08-26T21:33:00.001-07:00

For the 2009 Sustainable Living Festival we installed a map of Melbourne CBD covered with a thin layer of trace paper for people to directly draw, write and paint onto...

In 2009 we are surrounded by the words and concepts of sustainability. We know we should be green. We know our city should be green. But what would it look like? How could it be imagined? Should we just wait for the experts to give us the blueprint? The OurMelbourne2050 map project provides a blank cartographic slate for people’s imagination. It recognises that everyone can dream, and hence everyone can be involved in building the future. Participants take pen, pencil, brush or glue to a map of present day Melbourne, inscribing their individual visions for a truly sustainable city. The ideas gather and cross-pollinate, creating a rich collective tapestry that will help us re-imagine and re-invent our city. We will all help to transform the map from describing where we are presently going to where we want to be. Come by and add yours!

Situated at the side of the busy walkway outside Art Play we were visited by hundreds of people over the weekend, each person contributing their own ideas around sustainability.

You can read more about this project at: http://www.slf.org.au/festival/program/art/2250

Mapping Your Place, 2007.

2009-06-06T02:59:00.000-07:00

Michael Chew had a mapping project, Mapping Your Place, as part of the 2007 Mudfest Program at the University of Melbourne... He set up a large scale map of the Parkville campus in the student union building and invited participants to attach stories of things that had happened to them to the area where they occurred. Over the festival these glimpses of people's experiences built up across the map creating a rich tapestry of layers...

2009-06-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

First post! More to come...