On this day, 26 Jan 2024

Me on the grounds of Granville South Public School, circa 1972. Like the writer and political commentator Tim Dunlop, I went to school in the 1970s, but unlike Tim, who describes in his article Australians all attended Catholic schools in Canberra, I went to public schools in Sydney's western suburbs. The experience he describes was …

Using synthetic media (e.g. ChatGPT)

Drawing by Frankie, 5 years old. If you intend to use some form of synthetic media making, ask yourself, why? Some say we can use these new tools as a kind of co-pilot, others will suggest using them outright, but if you peel back the hype you'll find more critical concerns. From data privacy concerns to copyright issues with all …

KNOW ME – in post-production

KNOW ME is an intimate portrait of Sarawak's 'ulu', its remote places.

Absence

A requiem for my granddaughters, Ophelia and Tarrow.

I am not an alien

For decades I believed I had come from the stars. What I believed to be memories waned in my 30's, re-surfaced in my early 50's and came to a necessary halt around the time I turned 56. Read the entire saga, a mere 5 min of your time, on Medium.  

On writing a requiem

Over recent days I’ve been making notes towards a requiem. David Chisholm referred to one earlier today and there was a wonderful discussion about the form on Radio National’s Rhythm Divine a couple of days ago. They played Sculthorpe’s Requiem, eight compelling movements with a haunting didjeridu part performed by William Barton. The requiem is a …

Seeing another future

Yesterday I saw another future. It was akin to hearing my first radio, seeing Armstrong step onto the moon, picking up a portapak and shooting video, and that extrodinary moment we knew we could code hyperlinks onto a web page. However this was virtually real, immersive, uncomfortably intrusive and yet emphatic. Grant McHerron: How did …

Response to Senate Inquiry – Impact of Budget Decisions on the Arts

Something in the order of 2300 submissions had been made come midnight 17 July 2015. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee website indicated only 93 had been uploaded, but it appears they were overrun by submissions their server could not keep up with all that incoming. Here's my humble offering... Senate Legal and Constitutional …

Towards Ocean in a Drop

In January I had left Australia to work on a new film in India in collaboration with the Digital Empowerment Foundation and Inomy Media. I was there, based in Dehli, for five months. OCEAN IN A DROP explores the impact broadband is  making on mostly rural and tribal communities, some who have barely heard a …

Indifference in difference

Just as there had been a flourishing of flowers that brought colour and shape of all manner throughout the forests of planet Earth, so too was there a burst of humans reflecting the diverse landscapes and climates across the great continents, grand brush strokes of language, song and dance, creed and shade, all speaking to …