NITD 2 artists: Jenny Fraser, Radiance (Rose Staff), Olaf Meyer, Kim Munro, Michael Carmody, Hugh Davies & Jan Hendrik Brüggemeier
Curator: Dr Jan Hendrik Brüggemeier
NITD 2 (2015) is based on underwater survey material from marine national parks along the Victorian shore - length: about 23 minutes
Showcasing animal life from Victoria, Australia, Nature in the Dark (NITD) invited artists to create video works inspired by ecological habitat surveys from the Victorian National Parks land and water. Video and photographs originally used to identify animals and population sizes are now creatively re-purposed to create works of art. Entering this art/science conversation from different points of view, artists, scientists and local communities share the same concern of gaining a better understanding of native wild life and the environments around us.
Nature in the Dark as the name for the project collaboration between Victorian National Parks Association, Parks Victoria and La Trobe University came about, firstly, because literally speaking we are often still “in the dark” when it comes to our understanding of ecology. Secondly, by looking at the survey videos and photographs, one of their most prominent feature was that these motion-triggered cameras were mostly activated at night by nocturnal animals. Extending the established project formula Nature in the Dark 2 invited seven artists to explore the underwater realm of the Victorian shore line.
Having an art/science conversation as its point of departure the NITD videos are a new form of screen production and creative research that attempts “to make sense” of these kind of human/non-human encounters. Taking into consideration that we can never entirely escape our own ‘bubbles’ of subjective experience and therefore cannot really ‘think like a mountain’ (Leopold & Sewell 2001). Just as we can never really understand what it is to be an albatross, zooplankton, a coral reef, or an ocean.
NITD 2 features video footage and photographs from the Merry Marine Sanctuary, Bunurong Marine National Park, Flinders Pier, Point Addis Marine National Park, Merri Marine Sanctuary, Marengo Reefs Marine Sanctuary, Flinders Pier, Eagle Rock Marine Sanctuary, Corner Inlet Marine National Park, Churchill Island Marine National Park, Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary, Twelve Apostles Marine National Park, Arches Formations Port Campbell, Yaringa Marine National Park, in Victoria, Australia.
Date: Mon. 28th November, 2016, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm AEDT
Venue: SAB Cinema, RMIT University, Building 80, Level 1, Room 2, 427-433 Swanston Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tickets $16.67 - bookings here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/film-screening-nature-in-the-dark-2-tickets-28674212341
NITD 2 was made possible through the support of Victoria National Parks Association’s (VNPA) Reefwatch and Parks Victoria with special thanks to Steffan Howe and Mark Rodrigue.