New Screen Dance initiative

Sydney’s funkiest arts venue, the old railway repair shops in Redfern known as Carriageworks, is to be the venue for a three year, $300,000 Screen Dance initiative established by the dance board of the Australia Council for the Arts.

24 Frames per Second will see 24 commissioned artists, 18 Australian and six from overseas, bring together collaborators to make 24 new works at the intersection of screen and dance culture, over the three year period.

“Screen culture has exploded into practically every part of our lives,” says Chrissy Sharp, Chair of the Australia Council Dance Board. “From screens you carry in your pocket or video billboards that wrap around entire buildings, our relationship to screens is expanding.

“No longer do we just watch screens; increasingly we pinch and flick and spin them, we smile at them and we use our whole bodies to operate them.This new environment of touch screens and gesture control opens up numerous new opportunities for screen dance practice.”

Carriageworks will appoint a curatorial producer to work with a “curatorium” comprised of industry leaders from film, producing, choreography, broadcast and visual arts to deliver the project.

The commissioned works will be presented across a number of platforms over the three-year period. Screenings of the works in development will also be presented to invited industry peers, community members and stakeholders.

24 Frames per Second will culminate in a major exhibition in the third year, which will be presented in a number of locations across Australia. The final commissions will be curated into smaller scale touring projects that have the capacity to tour to regional venues across Australia and internationally.

Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah says 24 Frames per Second has been developed in response to major shifts in the cross-disciplinary, collaborative nature of choreography, visual arts and film.

“Just as visual artists and filmmakers are increasingly incorporating choreography and gesture into their work - choreographers are looking towards bringing visual arts and film into dance,” she says.

AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS commissioned to create new works under the project include Tony Albert (Brisbane), Alison Currie (Adelaide), Vicki Van Hout (Sydney), James Newitt (Hobart), Byron Perry and Antony Hamilton (Melbourne), Khaled Sabsabi (Sydney), Aimee Smith (Perth), Latai Taumoepeau (Sydney), Christian Thompson (Gawler, South Australia) and Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters (Sydney).

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS: Nick Cave (USA), Sriwhana Spong (New Zealand), Wit Pimkanchanapong (Thailand) and Ming Wong (Singapore).