HISTORY

• Biennial site-specific outdoor sculpture symposium

• Ephemeral/temporal artworks• International, national & local artists • Commenced in 2001• Artists in Nature International Network (AININ)

European Research• Major focus on events that involved artists working on

site in nature over a period of 2 weeks – with a major social program and community interaction program

• Explored the notion of the artist as a revered/respected person in the community

Norbert Attard

Liz Woods

Thierry Teneul

Carolyn Ho-Bich-Tuyen Dang

Julie Davies

Evaluation – Floating Land 2001• Difficulty of obtaining community support/nurturing in a large

shire with a mix of sophisticated semi-urban and rural communities.

• The notion of art as a separate object • The enormous resources in promotion required to sell a new

concept• Lack of ownership by community

“A lot of the issues and organisational problems can and will be rectified in future events but the aim of increasing social development, cultural sophistication and cohesion in the broader community is one that is still elusive.” Kevin Wilson, first Artistic Director

Julia Davies

Marie Sierra

Domenica De Clario

Corrie Wright

Floating Land 2007

• Curatorial Rationale: ‘design focus’• Review of the ‘intention’ of the art and concept• Photographers commissioned• IP shared with Noosa Regional Gallery

Firings event held at lake Cootharaba, enormous community response

Firings by the Lake, Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Rex Kaleholf, designer

Photographer:Adam Sebastian West

Artist:Jill Chism

Photographer:Adam Sebastian West

Artist:Jessica Huddart

Photographer:Tony Wellington

Hands from workshops, Photographer: Raoul Slater

• In March 2007, UNESCO granted the Noosa region biosphere status.

• Shortly after, the local governments of the region were amalgamated to form the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

Biosphere

Object listed in NBL Constitution

• Provide support for demonstration projects, environmental education and training, research and monitoring related to local, regional, national and global issues of conservation and sustainable development.

Floating Land…building a system

Systems Thinking/Approach• A systems approach encourages the exploration of the

relationships between social, environmental and economic interactions.

• This approach resists breaking a problem into its component parts for detailed examination. By examining the links and interrelationships of the whole system, patterns and themes emerge which offer insights and new meaning to the initial problem.

• In a community engagement context, encouraging a diversity of views can lead to a new understanding of the situation and the identification of opportunities for action that may not have otherwise occurred.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Victoria

Systems Thinking/Approach

• Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static

‘snapshots’.

The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Senge, (Doubleday: 1990)

Floating Land – Rising Seas 2009Curatorial rationale: • Relevance (not art for art’s sake)• Biosphere and MAP critical issues• Australia as a Pacific Ocean country• Problem with ‘conversation’ suddenly ending at end of

event (‘seduction and abandonment’)• New Sunshine Coast regional government area wished to

retain ‘village status’• Creative economy • Capacity-building

Creative Production…• Oceanic, national and state-

based artists, regional and local artists

• New media/acoustic ecology (www.ecosonus.com)

• Performance• Writing (Writing Floating Land)

Community engagement

• Venue – small village in biosphere• Community meetings began 18 months in

advance including local community associations & environment groups

• Contributed to creative programming• Engaged local artists + mentoring• Addressed their community issues & helped find

some solutions• Partnering of community with artists

Communities involved• Boreen Point to Sunshine Coast communities• Gubbi Gubbi• Vanuatu• Papua New Guinea• New Caledonia• New Zealand• Tuvalu• Tokelau• Takuu

Forums

• Critical forums: Climate Change, Shifting Paradigms; Placemaking

• Discipline based: Artist on art, writers on

writing etc

• Add content and perspective

• Engage other communities

• Stimulate conversations

• Build networks

Documentation & workshops

• Photographers• Sound artist• Writers• Videographer

• Children's workshops• Artist and writers

workshops and• Mentoring

Partnerships• Festivals Australia • Arts Queensland• Gordon Darling

Foundation• Mission aux Affaires

Culturelles• Air Calin• Noosa Biosphere Ltd• Heritage Building • Society

• UQ• QUT• Central Qld University• University Sunshine Coast• TAFE• Noosa Longweekend• Earthcare• Urban Art Projects• Apollonian Social Club

Research

• Photovoice – University Sunshine Coast A visual research technique used to elicit

and share a community’s values about being at the water’s edge in a time of climate change and rising sea levels.

Artist: Susan Coburn Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Terry Summers Workshop, Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Artist: AKA Photographer: Raoul Slater

Artist: Yann Conny Photographer: Raoul Slater

Firings by the Lake, Gubbi Gubbi Dancers & Kari Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Artist: Virginia King Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Artist: Richard Newport Photographer: Adam Sebastian West

Richard Newport Photograph: Raoul Slater

Tuvalu Community Photographer: Raoul Slater

Websitewww.floatingland.com.au

• Global conversation (i.e.not Noosa specific)• Continually and strategically build new content • Develop database by continuing the conversation through

new content• Triggers in content enable the spread through social

networking processes & sites – builds larger database

New deliberate and inspired art

ENGAGEMENT

Aggregation through web-based processes & re-

interpretation of the issue

New interpretation of issue/context/people/place

Social Networks(with wider social

conscious)

ENGAGEMENT

Wider audience via internet

Re-interpret the created artworks and to create a

second generation of artworks (photographs,

music, writing)

Build on original content

ArtistsScholars

CommunityAdvocates Critiques

Deliberately create artworks (content)

through collaboration

ArtistsScholars

CommunityAdvocates

‘place’

Floating Land methodology

SHARING/TRANSMISSION

RE-ENGAGEMENT

AGGREGATION & TRANSMISSION

ENGAGEIssue for

communication/resolution

Systems Thinking ‘Iceberg Model’

Events

Trends and Patterns

Structure

Mental Models

Floating Land

Event/s

Interpretation

Social/community networks

Creativity

Leverage

Floating Land is…

• A catalyst• Its intention is to pose an hypothesis then

create/stimulate complex systems involving many interactions and generations of processes and products.

• Through aggregation and distillation, each iteration may provide a resolution to the original hypothesis.

Floating Land… Science.Earth.Art (SEA)