Matt Gingold and I had done much exploring of spaces at Point Nepean and ruminating about sound. It was the second last day of the residency and the talk was finally over. We were chomping at the bit to get into our favourite acoustic bunker and make our imagined freeform racket. With percussion tools aplenty, microphones, walkie talkies and two heads full of ideas we rolled in, set up and got primal.

Louise Terry

Technically Point Nepean is not remote, its only 120 KM from Melbourne and there is a toll road but once we got there we were locked in, staying behind the Quarantine station, behind the Parks offices, behind three fences. We did not leave except for bare essentials. In doing so we tried to answer a few questions. How can we adapt ourselves to working in remote areas? As artists how can we be attentive to what is already present in a place. How do we engage with multiple and often conflicting historical narratives. How can we place ourselves in the footsteps of the audiences who might come here to see the art we make? How can we get to know and involve the communities who are here in generating the content of the artwork we are making? Simple.

To induce true cabin fever for two weeks we talked only to each other and received in-depth talks from many including local historical societies, ex-officers who were stationed at Point Nepean before serving in Vietnam and incredible seaside ecologist Gidja Walker among many other ghosts, pirates and Parks Officers who showed us around the danger zones. After a few days the world condenses into a tiny strip of land and the landscape becomes more vivid; trees are 600 years old, empty buildings filled with officers at grand ballroom dances and the beach home to both indigenous people who watched the first ships invade and later a boat full of Europeans racked by terrible fever. We fall in love with it and feel claustrophobic at the same time.

The inadequacy of an empirical Western approach to history become more obvious, the capacity of people to preface their own narratives over others, glaring. Various maps emerge; from the military perspective a grid of no-go zones to networks of threatened plants and ancient geological layers of limestone.  It becomes clear that what we are all balancing is the dynamic of care for a landscape and access to it.

We start to understand that remoteness is relative both psychologically and culturally that the tourists visiting here it is the end of the Earth and that for those of us familiar with Australia, the bakery is just down the road.

Willow S. Weiland

The AE approach to sustainability is to try and make it an integral component of the process. Philosophically we are all interested in the ways in which we can make work with limited impact, without the burden of a ‘green message’ being on the artwork itself.

According to partners Creative Environment Enterprise (CEE) honcho Euan Williamson, the approach is based on the best practice model which is recognised internationally as a key foundation concept of implementing sustainability, a three step model that involves…1. MEASURING everything from materials used, food consumed to the power consumption of AV and technical equipment, 2. REDUCING with better and cleaner options and then if necessary 3. OFFSETTING with complementary environmental actions, like using solar power or planting of protected native forests

Logistically the problematic of travel is the hardest, getting to and around Point Nepean either car-pooling, walking or cycling with masses of technical equipment with 12 people with different creative priorities means that usually only one activity can be achieved in a day. You are also and out of range and so missing the lift means an extra 2- hour walk. None of these things are very interesting in themselves but combined they offer a morass of planning and scheduling issues that are at the core of having to adapt our artistic behaviour for both site and sustainability. We have generated some amazing excel templates if anyone is curious.

During the community filming day the AE crew used CEE’s amazing Germinate mobile solar generator to power the equipment used across the day’s different locations from the beach to the cemetery. Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, having a completely silent mobile generator is ideal for a film shoot environment. The film crew used the rig to power laptops, camera battery rechargers, phones and other camera peripherals as well as the wifi network which included a 3G router, high gain aerial and transponders to receive and stream various film and audio material live to the AE blog. A truly mobile broadband system!

After the shoot, the Germinate solar generator, affectionately known as the “Germinator” powered the Blow Up inflatable cinema screen, PA system and projector. It was an awesome test and we will be looking to integrate the cinema into the launch next year.

One of the challenges of the Atelier Edens Wilderness Lab was to power all the electronic equipment using only the Creative Environment Enterprises solar powered generator for the community filming day from 9.00am until 12.00pm that evening. One laptop was primarily used to set up a WI FI system around the Quarantine station and for live streaming. iPhones were recharged several times to live stream video content and recharge, the sound recordings had to be dumped onto the laptops, the GOPRO, Canon 5D and HD video cameras footage also had to be uploaded to one of the laptops at intervals and charged throughout the day. It was also a great success in powering the Blow Up Cinema. See Gus Berger’s time-lapse of the set up below.

This gave the team an actual reading of the energy consumption of 91-107 Watts or 121VA with 0.7 pf.

This experiment will help the artists and technical team to plan for the launch which will be entirely run by The Creative Environment Enterprises renewable energy rig in late 2012.

Here is a video of Liam O’Keefe from C.E.E speaking about their involvement in the project and how to think sustainably about art making.

As part of the Wilderness Lab creative development, the artists sought to map out the ultimate walking trail to encourage visitors’ exploration of the Point Nepean National Park’s unique features and natural and historical points of interest; key ‘hot spots’ or GPS points that would trigger cinematic content as part of the final downloadable app.

HERE ARE THE FOLLOWING WAYFARING METHODS USED BY THE ATELIER EDEN’S ARTISTS TO MAP THE FEVER BEACH TRAIL.

ANITA FONTAINE  / Champagne Valentine

Using Google Maps 

- Using Google Maps on iPhone and smartphone

- Google locks onto the GPS position, this forces the iPhone to grab  the GPS coordinates

- Quit out of the Google Maps application

- Then go to the Camera function and take a digital photo of it on order to take a good position lock . These photos can later be uploaded to Google Maps.

MATTHEW GINGOLD

Developed own GPS tracking app – IAtelierGPSTracker

The IAtelierGPSTracker was developed in openFrameworks   http://www.openframeworks.cc/ ).

It records a continuous stream of images, location and force data from an iPhone or iPad. The basic idea was to make an application that let us visualise a path through any terrain, whilst gathering information about GPS position, accelerometer and force sensors.

The IAtelierGPSTracker records GPS and accelerometer data as fast as the phone can generate it, whilst taking a photo every 1 to 1.5 seconds. We also added the ability to ‘tag’ two different kinds of ‘points of interest’ by touching the screen on either the left or right hand side. For developing future applications that use GPS points or accelerometer data to trigger content this gives us a way to identify areas where we thought major visual or audio content could occur.

The main aim of developing IAtelierGPSTracker  was to:

1. to provide detailed data for visualising and mapping the park

2. to allow us to test the application/game off-site by “replaying” the GPS and accelerometer data in the         comfort of our studios!

JOSH  GARDINER 

Using Firepin 

Josh used an app called Firepin on his iPhone that records and trips made with the iPhone. It tracks the GPS coordinates and overlays them on a Google Map, and tracks the phone’s movement in real time.

Josh orignially used it in 2008 for people to follow him on a motobike trip along the East Coast of Australia.

The limitations of this app are  that to track in real time you need network coverage from a cellular provider otherwise it appears as blank spots – ie: no network coverage . Also the accuracy of the reading varies according to terrain – GPS can pinpoint 5 metres maximum accuracy.

Josh would like to see Firepin integrated with live video feeds – so you can not only see live video but also the location from where it is being shot. According to Josh, there is no product out there that can currently stream live video from a given GPS point.

Here is the link to the Point Nepean Trail mapped with Firepin: http://firepin.com/map/point%2019-12-2011/61f43390-0c01-012f-ebf5-12313a00c1c5

Using Nearmap.com

Josh also tried the nearmap method. He will give us an update on his experience of nearmap very soon.

GIDJA WALKER / Parks Victoria

Using a camera with GPS, Picasa, Google Earth, and a Garmin Extrex

Gidja is a renowned ecologist and member of the Southern Peninsula Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association.  Here is how Gidja undertakes mapping a site:

“ When mapping a quadrat (a square) – I will use a camera with a GPS and compass direction that has a panorama function in the camera (not an iPhone) … This takes a panoramic shot of the landscape at 270 degrees.

Pictures are then downloaded and then uploaded to a Picasa webalbum (http://picasa.google.com/).  Picasa is a free photographic editing program that can be shared by online communities (communities can include the Department of Sustainability, or Parks VIc).

From Picasa, I then view my photos in Google Earth. a ‘html file’ from Google Earth is downloaded which I then open on my desktop in Google Maps

The second method I use is to walk around with a ‘Garmin etrex GPS’. I then make a ‘way point’ . These are downloaded onto my computer using Map Source program.

These are saved in .klm file which can be opened up by Google Maps or Google Earth”

Gidja will also be sending the Atelier Eden’s artists an LIDAR  (Light Detection and Ranging)  reading of the Point Nepean site and environment. LIDAR uses ultravioliet, or infrared light to create image readings and countour maps of environments.

Thea Baumann.

As part of the Wilderness Lab R+D premise to investigate methods for web streaming/ netcasting while ‘on the go’ in natural environs, the key challenge for me was to uncover a portable, accessible solution for live streaming while on the back of some hot wheels, in an environment with scant and patchy network coverage.

With the release of the wearable GoPro video camera, free apps such as Ustream and assistance from Ian Campbell, an alumni of the Portsea Officers Cadet School, and motobike enthusiast with experience biking in northern India, we were able to stream content of the ride straight to Atelier Eden blog’s LIVE section.

The laps undertaken at various speeds of the military barracks, cemetary, quarantine grounds, and beach, this unfortunately did not translate to an unseamless fluid uStream, filmed via the iPhone’s camera, to the Atelier Eden’s blog LIVE webchannel. The network coverage in the park site dropped in and out, translating to large gaps in ‘dead air’ and patchy and pixellated flickering perpectives of the Quarantine station on the AE LIVE webpage.

As live streaming using go pros, and apps (ie: Stream) is at this stage dependent on a reliable wifi network by a providers such as Telstra, the next research and development stage into ‘live bike streaming’ will be to investigate and test the following parameters:

- methods for expanding and strengthening a network provider’s coverage and range across a wider geographical spread in a park site

- implementing and designing a portable network wifi system that can be ported in backpacks, strapped to the actual motobike itself

- using satellites and/or tetradec cubes

- streaming with iPhone/Smartphone and GoPros mounted on the bike rider’s helmet and/or bike frame.

The technical and logistical knowledge gained through these preliminary streaming test off a motobike at Point Nepean National Park using uStream, an iPhone, and the Park’s existent network coverage, forms the foundation for future investigation into a re-envisioning of the road movie genre, streamed to the net, created in collaboration with the motobike boys and nomadic communities living in the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas.

Stay tuned.

Thea.

Introducing the artists and technical team behind the Atelier Edens Wilderness Lab residency at Point Nepean National Park.

It’s an all-star cast of artistic prowess and technical freaks. There are: media artists, digital artists, technologists, animateurs, technoturges, streaming technicians, composers and sound artists.

Stay tuned to see what happens when so many creative brains combine!

Over the past week, the artists have been absorbing, collecting, testing, storyboarding, collaborating and collating a vast array of media to develop an interactive artwork to be viewed through an iPhone app at the Wilderness Lab at Point Nepean National Park in 2012. The creative juices certainly have been flowing and channelled from this landscape enriched with layers of history.  Traces of shellfish can be found on site and are a reminder of the original land owners, the Boonwurrung people who occupied the this area for 40,000 years. Early European settlement and limestone burning was an industry. The site then became a Quarantine station that housed large numbers of sick immigrants and a cemetery for the deceased, to Military defence training with unexploaded bombs and bunkers and currently, a protected national park.

All this information has been gathered in the lead up to the community filming. On the 17th December 2011, the artists all came together to choreograph and art direct a series of film shoots infused with a certain Australian black humour. The footage is just some of the source material that the artists are gathering to translate into the iPhone app that encourages locals to hike to various points to activate and trigger imagery at key scenic points throughout Point Nepean National Park.

James Hullick our resident composer has been going to sites to acquire field recordings that are both beautiful and eerie. Musican and sound artist, Louise Terry of Brite Fight has recorded and sung a serenade at Cheviot Hill, unearthing material that may feed into the soundtrack. Animateur/Dramaturge Willoh S. Weiland gave performance direction to the Sorrento Croquet Club, Sea Cub Scouts and Thespian Society.  Art and scenographic design was given by Thea Baumann and Anita Fontaine (Champagne Valentine), channeling the ghostly history of the site in the make-up and styling of the croquet zombies, ghoulish bike boys, and pox ridden feverish thespians. Media artists, Champagne Valentine have also been generating imagery with their enchanted perspective on the landscape through their camera work and post-production after affects. Josh Gardiner managed to stream live video updates by our roving reporter, Rachel Feery which fed to the AE LIVE section of the blog. Technoturge, Matthew Gingold has been attaching the GO PRO to cameras to the cubs to literally capture the wheels in motion. Production manager, Bindi Green, clocked up an impressive 20,070 steps on the VicHealth pedometer challenge.

Josh Gardiner is the Communications Wizard here at the ATELIER EDENS Wilderness Lab at Point Nepean National Park. He’s the go to guy for technical troubleshooting and live broadcasting from the Wilderness Lab residency.

Josh spent the first couple of days building a complex Internet system composed of one industrial modem, 1 Wi-Fi router / switch, two Wi-Fi powered repeaters / bridges, 9dbi omni directional multi-frequency antenna for HSPDA / UTMS / GSM cellular networks – to be exact.
In summary, this is the kind of connection that Government Agencies use!

A series of network compatibility tests were run, the wireless access points were tweaked and the bandwidth was adjusted for reliability. Josh was able to tailor an impressive 20 plus devices such as laptops, iphones, and ipads to access the interwebs.
This has given artists the ability experiment with uploading data and streaming live video content from Point Nepean National Park.
This has been particularly valuable for Geoffrey Lillemon, one half of Champagne Valentine who utilises the net to upload photographs for photogrammetric Cloud data processes. Through taking a series of photographs at 360° around the subject, these can be photo stitched online into three-dimensional model.
Think of the Cloud as a floating brain in Cyberspace that does the graphic geometry for you and ping, a three-dimensional image is sent back to you.

The subject featured is Alison Jones, a descendant of the infamous immigrant ship, The Ticonderoga that arrived at the Quarantine Station in 1852.

See image above.

Artist in residence, Thea Baumann has put the technology to the test by streaming a live virtual tour of the Quarantine Station, straight to the AE blog (see AE LIVE). Thea plans to mount cameras on bikes and broadcast live in an Easy Rider meets BMX Bandits inspired film style.

Be sure to check in on the 17th December at AE Live for action packed community filming day of Sea Scouts riding bikes in formations, the ladies of the Sorrento Croquet Club playing inside the Hospital walls and the Blow Up Cinema which will be run entirely from a generator powered by recycled batteries.