Calling The Past on ABC 612 Drive

Yesterday we met with Terri Begley from ABC 612 to try out the phone boxes in the city. We are featured on the blog

A sample of our interview with our favorite singer from the project Sylvia Delaney is on there but to hear today's story don't forget to call --> 1800 231 173

 

The Artist Trail

The Artist Hive have been busily chalking and sticking away this weekend so if you are looking to follow the trail here is a map

happy adventuring!

 

Launched and the project is live

Thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday to the Maritime Museum and listened to our installations and the eclectic performances we had on board the HMAS Diamantina. 

The stories are now live on the website or you can call the number 1800 231 173 to hear today's story. Let us know what you think by emailing us on callingthepast@gmail.com

We are getting ready to launch

Hope you are all free this Saturday 1st June to join us for the launch of the project. 

From 1-4pm at the Maritime Museum, we will be installing soundscapes and stories into the different chambers of the HMAS Diamantina.

We have also been fortunate enough to have talented singers and musicians who contributed to the project perform for us for the afternoon as well. 

Ewan McKenzie will be performing Gypsy Jazz as a duet as well as providing music for one of our favorite true blue storytellers and singers Sylvia Delaney. 

Come join us for the afternoon on board!

Morse Code Messages in Queen St

Today I met with the talented Michelle Freestun as she set out to install morse code in dot form along the phone boxes in Queen St.
Each box will once deciphered reveal a sentence which will be a clue to unravelling different historic stories from Brisbane's past.
We will be linking relevant stories from the project that tie in with the messages here on the blog so you will be able to check whether you got the clue and discover a piece of Brisbane's history in the process.

Michelle's work is the start of the launch of our artist phoneboxes, with the Artist Hive installing an artist trail out of phone boxes from the Fortitude Valley through to Woollongabba; decorating the path with chalk and temporary signage.

We will also be creating a series of small installations of tiny scenes from the stories in the project into the shelves of phone boxes around Brisbane, so if you see something unusual its probably worth investigating.

And while you are at it, you may as well ring the number to hear a free story. We have selected one from a different participant for each day, so a range of tales from as large a sample of our contributors will be available.

Calling All Creatives

Have you ever wanted to turn a phonebooth into an Artspace?

For the month of June 2013, as part of our project ‘Calling the Past’, we have been granted permission by Telstra to decorate Brisbane’s public payphones.

We are looking for creative people who have ideas for how to make these once vital public spaces into individual sites for creativity. Conceptual or visual, anything is possible as long as it can be totally removed after the project has finished, doesn’t interfere with paid for advertising and appeals to public sensitivities.

An opportunity to make a piece of public art to be on display for a month. This project is proudly sponsored by Reverse Garbage and a voucher for materials will be awarded to three artists. 

To submit your ideas, please send a brief(no larger than A4) proposal outlining your idea with a sketch to callingthepast@gmail.com by May 10. Artists whose proposals are selected will be notified by May 13. 

Creativity and Professional Rascism

Whether by default or design, we are discovering that a lot of our interviewees are creatively engaged, professionally or personally. 

A few days ago I discovered how the Woodford Folk Festival had its humble beginnings in a club night. It reminded me that one of the best gigs I still have seen was Zap Mamma at the World Music Festival. 

Last week I interviewed a Koto player from Japan. She has been playing Koto since she was little, as can be seen from the bottom picture. Her Koto is marked with her name and is made of one piece of wood, aged for a long time and valued at around $20K. Such a beautiful instrument.She came to Brisbane and wasn't able to get teaching work even after gaining a relevant australian qualification, which has led to her playing Koto professionally.

For her, professional rascism in a sense granted her a creative career, which was no easy task to pursue. 

It led me to think about the places we reserve for ethnicity in our culture. I've always wondered about how it seems that Aboriginals could only succeed in art and sport. And culture seems to be the only place in most societies where diversity is allowed to prosper. Except through sheer physical prowess. 

Strikes me as strange that we can accept creative and athletic genius from other cultures but not ordinary professionalism. Is it because these realms are out of the ordinary reach?

Old Brisbane Glamour

Yesterday we were lucky to interview this beautiful lady, and she gave us a real sense of an old Brisbane glamour. You do get the feeling with her that she is one of those rare creatures where glamour will always surround her like a cloak. Even whilst she was  helping, housing and feeding all of her distressed neighbours in Yeronga during the 1974 floods. 

 Immaculately dressed and taken at Cloudland, she was a regular at the ballrooms, showcasing the designs of her aunt who was one of Brisbane's most successful fashion designers at the time. 

From working with her strict and brilliant aunt and being asked to become a buyer for Macy's in New York to meeting her husband; every tale she tells is infused with a golden era glamour combined with a strength that cannot be beaten. 

A truly magical lady who still dresses better than anyone I have ever met, which includes my experiences working from the catwalk shows in Milan, Paris and London. 

NYC does twin project

Our man Robert at Telstra today sent me over this article showing NYC is doing a twin project to us, sponsored by the New Musuem.

I'm not sure Brisbane will shape up to be as violent or intense as New York was in 1993, though the dictatorship of the Joh government shaped the spirit of Brisbane in many ways. 

It would be incredible to be able to compare the stories, a tale of two different cities, one of the world's greatest with a small country town on the rise. From my personal enquiry it would be fascinating to see just what kinds of stories were being told.

My interest is to discover the meaning behind people's stories, the values, priorities, fears and desires. Afterall the stories we tell speak volumes about what we feel is important to share and has meaning for us. From the humorous to the fanciful, everything we use as cues reveals cultural cues and habits; and one of the things I have really loved about doing this project is rediscovering those things. Especially after spending 6 years in another country. 

The cultural cringe of Brisbane is one of the surprising reasons that made it a great city to create from. It provided a sense of freedom from judgement that allowed alot of raw creativity to grow. In the sense that noone cared what you did, and therefore you could do whatever you wanted. 

I'm unsure if thats what it is like now, sometimes it feels shockingly aspirational, which in my mind is such a dull personality trait to have. Comments?

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/25/pick-up-a-pay-phone-learn-about-the-new-york-city-of-20-years-ago/

Calling all Public Artists

Looking for artists to decorate phoneboxes around Brisbane

Whether you envision a Sophie Calle style creation like this or prefer something more ostentatious or subtle. 

For the month of June we will be decorating phone boxes around Brisbane's inner city. 

We have been granted permission by Telstra as long as everything can be removed by the end of June. 

Unfortunately we have no money on offer, only the opportunity to create. We are open to all ideas and materials, as long as it fits the brief.

If you have an idea for a an art work inside a phone box, or a particular booth you would like to decorate, please email an A4 proposal through to callingthepast@gmail.com

New Logo

In between researching, meeting and interviewing we have slowly been putting together our design and branding. Here is our new logo, and out website is now officially no longer a holding page. Enjoy!

Australia's most evil and repugnant nightspot

The Foco club, named after a theory of revolution by guerilla warfare inspired by Che Guevara's successful army victory in the Cuban revolution- was a counter culture venture headed by the SDA.

We were fortunate enough to interview one of its founders and the financier of the Radical Student Movement today and look forward to sharing his story in the project.

The club ran in its entirety for longer than a year, when it was eventually shut down. To find out more there is a nice little article here

From Hardgrave Road to Torbreck

West End was my home for 4 years and it has always been one of the most important parts of Brisbane for me.

It was a place where you could feel at home even when you felt a little crazy, because West End was the kind of suburb where EVERYONE was accepted, its openness and community spirit was what made it great. Also when I lived there it was a place where the Coles supermarket had run at a loss for years because everyone preferred to shop at the small vendors as they had better products and better prices.

 Once, I remember walking past one of the halfway houses for people with mental disorders and a whole group of guys was in the backyard watching while one mowed the lawn. This girl from the suburbs walked past in a black t-shirt that said MENTAL across the bust and all of the guys just cracked up laughing. 

It was a suburb you never really needed to leave for anything. And if you wanted to not run into anyone, you would have to take long elaborate routes to get into the city just to avoid the main street. 

This was six years ago, so I am wondering how all the new development and bars have affected the area. I was interviewing one of the key figures in local publishing for my first interview, who greeted me rather stylishly in a bow tie. Not disimilar to his earlier outfit when he first got into advertising. 

After scouring the area for a few more contacts and some really helpful information from locals and everyone alike I headed for my final interview in Torbreck. Recently flooded the ground floor smelt like a wet and mouldy rag. I always find it intriguing when places of decadence are in a state of decay. 

This photograph was there with some information about the building, it is a cut out photograph stuck onto an old image of Brisbane. Its original plans were quite extravagant according to the heritage register - 

"Due to spiralling construction costs and/or lack of Brisbane City Council approval, some of the more elaborate aspects of the scheme had to be abandoned: shopping facilities and professional suites at ground level; basement laundry service; a top-class restaurant offering room service; a terrace cafe; roof and indoor gardens; and a tennis court, putting green and fully equipped children's playground. A planned rooftop observation lounge translated as an enclosed rooftop viewing deck."

There is a pdf with all the news about it in the day here and a host of stories about the building as told by former residents here

my first memory

When I first moved to Brisbane 23 years ago, I was at an age where I had just been taught the difference between the countryside and the city. I was born in Singapore and landing in Brisbane was like stepping back in time. I remember gazing out at the patchy grass landing strip from the plane and wondering where the hell the airport was. 

When I realised it was the tiny shack next to the runway, confusion addled my 10 year old brain as I had been told we were moving to a city, but surely this was the country? As we drove from the airport to our new home this thought was compounded as I looked in shock at all the wooden houses on stilts. 

This memory seems to be a common one for most of the people who moved here in their youth. And yet for all of its country town character, Brisbane still knew how to have glamour in the evenings.

Two landmarks that stand out in so many memories are the Lennons hotel and Cloudland. 

These two places seem to be imbued with a majesty straight out of a Hollywood classic film. They were places where everyone used to dress up in gowns and dinner suits. 

One of the great things about this project is getting a sense of all the things that people really loved about the city. In a lot of ways,the atmosphere and personality of the place hasn't changed too much. 

But what definately seems to have changed is this sense of glamour. 

As much as the super clubs in the valley may have tried and the various hipster enclaves with bearded beer experts that keep popping up to attest to the new, the sense of glamour is still amiss. 

It could be an opportunity for the launch to try and recreate it.  

We Need Your Stories!

a citywide listening project for Brisbane

Call out for Stories

Do you have a tale to tell?

Calling the Past is an oral history project mapping the people’s history of Brisbane.

We are currently looking for contributors with strong personal experiences of what it used to be like to live in Brisbane - witnesses to events that shaped the city, interesting professions, love stories, transformative tales, funny anecdotes and unforgettable characters that were all part of the memory of the city.

We will be recording your stories, editing them with sound and mapping them to their locations. The project will go live for the month of June, transforming public phone booths into free listening stations.

This is an opportunity for your story to become part of Brisbane’s greater history, aswell as to share in the memory of other’s experiences.

If you have a story to share, please get in touch with either Nick -0468497690 or Laura -0468433697 to arrange an interview. Alternatively, email callingthepast@gmail.com with your contact details.

Calling the Past is a project supported by Telstra and the Brisbane city council. Calling the Past is a project supported by Telstra and the Creative Sparks Grants Program.

Creative Sparks is a joint initiative of Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.