splashing galaxies

The Hopetoun Hotel, last Friday night. Hailer, Sister Jane and Wade Jackson provided the grooves for the launch of Hailer's latest offering, Sunny Letters. It was a new way of working for Alexander and I. While we've always worked "live" having to focus on getting feeling and emotion out of the projections rather than just a pretty image was a new challenge. The forced improv meant that we came up with a whole new set of tricks, worked out a few colour mysteries that had been keeping us up at night, and generally honed our craft in an intense couple of hours.

If you want to see our improved moves, we're putting on a display at the fundraiser for the short film project Kelly's Blues at Sydney Film School on Saturday night and will be projection bombing our liquid galaxies onto some tall alleyway walls for Algae Rhythm 0.05: PORTALS.




The photographs in this post are lovingly borrowed from Fastlane's Faster Louder photoset- check out his whole set here to spot your pretty face in the crowd.

turn me on, dead man

(GD cred to the always arousing Matt Ravier)

After a long two weeks of sitting in dark theatres soaking in the varied delights of the Sydney Film Festival, it's time to stretch your shapely legs out of their cramped State Theatre position and join together to see your friends, lovers and artful colleagues in full colour.

Tonight is Punk Monk Propaganda's third Algae Rhythm intermedia installation evening. Curators for AR 0.03 include Punk Monk's own Dermot McGuire, Kino Sydney's resident vivacious pin-up Karina Libbey, and film academy darling and conspiracy theory junkie Kathleen Williams. RSVPs are tight at The Corner Shop and places have all been filled for this suspicious inquisition into pop conspiracy and the questionable history of common knowledge. But we love a mysterious stranger. So get in contact if you're intrigued and you want to come and play in the night.

the cradle, the jet plane and the wonderlab

On Sunday Punk Monk Propaganda had an epic digs-shift from our Warehouse cradle to the big-girl's bed that is The Corner Shop. Only a block down from the old space, The Corner Shop smells sweetly of new paint and possibility. We moved the earth with shopping trolleys and discovered a new toy in the paperbark climbing tree just outside the back door. Vegetarian sausages and a few dark bruises later and the well-exerted punks and kinoites warmed the new home quietly with a few beers, deciding to leave the first truly crazy sex party for Night Two. Victoria and Davey snapped away over the day- feast your eyes over at Vic's blog.

Monday was the re-scheduled Kino #24. Old and new faces sheltered from the rain in the Sydney Trapeze School and snuggled in to get a cozy hit of the latest from the Sydney kinoites. I was on bar duty for some of the night so missed a few flicks when I couldn't quite absorb what was happening out of the corner of my eye. There were three Punk Monk films shown, all with a spicy Adelaidian flavour from our recent south west adventure: Dermot's Haiku 4, and Victoria's fleshy easter treat Chick Addict and experimental mobile flick Jet Plane, second in the Loves Me Not series and completely shot using mobile capture devices. I also loved Ang's film Sadness Breakfast Tea.



We've still got access to the newly emptied Warehouse, and so are transforming the former studio into a psychadelic intermedia wonderlab for Algae Rhythm 0.02: PSYCHOCHEMICAL. I've co-curated this one with Alex Papasavvas, and as head alchemists we're especially excited to start swapping chemicals with you all on May 4. If you're interested in coming along to Algae Rhythm, then drop me a line and some guestlist magic can happen. If you're one of the first 30 to RSVP on facebook then you get a personalised copy of our Algae Rhythm collectable zine.

Algae Rhythm 0.02: PSYCHOCHEMICAL

May 4, 2009
The Warehouse, Alexandria (opposite the Australian Technology Park)

Flamenco a go go

I'm curating the next Algae Rhythm event with Alex Papasavvas, and at the moment we're on the hunt for flamenco dancers for a light show installation. The brief is below- if you live in Sydney and this sounds like the kind of crazy stage you want to be stomping all over, let me know on the deets at the bottom of the brief.

Algae Rhythm 0.02 (May 4, 2009)- Dancer’s Brief

Punk Monk Propaganda’s second intermedia gallery night Algae Rhythm 0.02 will focus on lost organics and found vibrations, and aims to reconnect the humans in the room with the biology that drives their innate need for creation.

A central feature of this evening will be a liquid light installation. In the heady days of psychedelia, liquid light shows were an integral part of the experience of the music. In the early experiments at the shows of psychedelic musicians such as the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, the liquid in the projector (coloured oils) was impacted on directly by the vibrations of the music. We’re hoping to achieve a similar effect with the vibrations created not primarily through the music, but rather through the dancers.

We will have a small, low stage set up for amplification so that the dancer’s steps will be creating the vibrations that impact the light show.

We are particularly interested in these dancers being familiar with the flamenco style, as it is given to the kind of loud stomping that we need to make our projector work. We are very open to co-curating with the dancers involved, and feel that the dancers should be as much a part of the creative process as the projectionists.

When considering this invitation to participate, feel free to start thinking about the following aspects of the installation:

MOVEMENT: you’re welcome to make the dance as free form, traditional, unrehearsed, or experimental as you wish. You are the expert in this form of expression. Draw on your craft’s heritage and use it to express your creativity.

MUSIC: while you’ll be dancing in a flamenco style, feel free to experiment with the music that you’re dancing to. It doesn’t have to be traditional.

COSTUME: performance through costume design has always been an integral part of the Punk Monk story. Feel free to be as traditional, creative, non traditional or bizarre as you see fit. We create new meanings by fusing the confused- you’re encouraged to play.

Algae Rhythm nights are by their nature small, organic gatherings of creatively supportive participants (max 30 people). So whilst you will be performing, so will everyone else in the room. Our approach is that all participants walk in as artists.

If you do choose to play with us, you’ll be required on the evening of Monday May 4, as well as for a couple of hours for some testing before the actual event.

For any questions, clarifications, explanations or distillations, please feel free to contact Punk Monk curators Alex Papasavvas and Kate Taylor directly through the details below:



e: kate@punk-monk.com
m: 0466 452 919
a: The Warehouse, 84b Henderson Road, Alexandria

Algae Rhythm 0.01

I blow for fun::



we film things we think are pretty::



crowd saucing::



the zine 0.01::



we like to watch::



bless your bliss::



Photography by Dave, Stevie, Alex, and maybe Victoria. (ed- just stevie and dave.)

For more info on Punk Monk Propaganda's first intermedia happening Algae Rhythm:: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60169142594#/event.php?eid=68873469592

Algae Rhythm

Punk Monk is launching a brand new night of inspiration and intrigue called Algae Rhythm. Do let us know if you want to come and play with us under the blue green moon.






The official speil, penned heartrendinlyohso beautifully by Victoria and Clare:


Punk Monk Propaganda's new interactive monthly one night only gallery is on the launch pad, ready for take-off.

An organic evolution partially influenced by progressive experimental thinkers including Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace and Andy Warhol. ALGAE RHYTHM is a juxtaposition of the ever-changing & dynamic world of colliding interfaces and the pulsing fabric of visually undefinable zeros and ones which mesh it all together.

Building from the traditional idea of the "film screening" night where like minded film & art lovers congregate feeding their passion for the screen, ALGAE RHYTHM, seeks new meaning and method. An informal exhibition of any form of art/expression/discussion, we aim to experiment with new or forgotten ways of discovering, sharing and creating.

Each event will feature a curated film screening in symbiosis with other activities. Each curator should consider an idea behind their event, which could be a platform for a pseudo exhibition using many art forms (photography, music, video art, short film, podcast, science experiment, group project...) or could focus on a particular theme or director or a topic of interest. It should not be limited to any traditional ideas of a generic film screening and in the same way not limiting to what individuals can bring to/take from the night. However, the main idea is to create an involved and stimulating night and to explore new terrain.

Unfortunately there is limited space in The Warehouse, and the only fair way to select people is the 'ole 'First in Best Dressed' method. So RSVP ASAP and be one of the two dozen!

Please bring a delicious edible dish and grog (if you are so inclined) to share.

If anyone wants to contribute/curate a future event the world is your oyster. No idea is too big or too small. The connections don't necessarily have to make sense. Somewhere there's a possible world that they do.

"I never am really satisfied that I understand anything; because, understand it well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand about the many connections and relations which occur to me, how the matter in question was first thought of or arrived at, etc., etc."Ada Lovelace