ANU’s co-artistic director Owen Boss is undergoing a research initiative for a new artwork Coney Island Dodgems. Owen will meet individuals as he hosts a series of conversations focusing on the sound system and dance floor as a delivery vehicle of culture, thought and alternative political ideology.
The erosion of our venues and cultural spaces due to multiple hotel developments combined with two years social distancing has resulted in an understanding of the importance of our lost communal spaces and their contribution to not only the joy of being together but also as a space of alternative thinking and political views.
This research event will act as a conduit for conversation and passion around music and the dancefloor as a culturally charged political space.
Owen will kick off his research with a conversation with project collaborators Toby Hatchett (sound system maker) and Simon Cullen (sound artist, musician and sound technician).
Visit this page to read his daily outputs throughout the duration of Live Collision.
Day 1
This Coney Island Dodgems research project utilises Lois Weaver's Care Café system. The Care Café is an open source public address system that appropriates the aesthetic of café culture – a small table and quiet conversation.
The system acknowledges social anxiety and personal vulnerability.
One of the tenets of the café is to make available one small and somewhat mindless task of care. ‘There is something about doing something simple and mindless with your hands that keeps the conversation gentle, slow and flowing’.
Owen has made a colouring table cloth for this very function. The images depicted on the cloth have been sourced online and feature politically charged dance spaces. Being occupied in the ‘mindfullness’ of colouring in assists with the evolution of the varied conversations.
These conversations are being utilised by Owen as research to inform a large work planned for 2023.
Day 2
The colouring table cloth continues to take shape...
