“Newcastle is an emerging creative, digital and technological hub which hasn’t forgotten its roots as one of Australia’s industrial powerhouses” – Professor McMillen.
A recent article produced on the trending city site posed an interesting topic which the City of Sydney touched on late in May at a ‘City Talk’ event regarding the programming and activation of spaces within our urban settings.
As a major city we are always looking at ways in which we can redevelop spaces to improve form and/or function to have a greater influence on its context. Though we tend to neglect the spaces we currently have and the affect and character they already have within our city.
A great initiative of this is currently occurring in Newcastle NSW along Newcastle’s oldest street, Watt Street. A landmark contemporary art project which features a series of interactive digital projections. The festival proudly, funded by its partners takes a journey through the fascinating background of the stunning historic and cultural precinct from sunset to 10pm each evening. Learn more
Projects intended to bring life back to the CBD through activation of forgotten spaces is a positive move which should also be looked to be programmed into new developments as it allows the design to be explored with its original intentions.
These programs don’t always need to be ‘festivals’ to grant involvement and a recent installation in Finland Turku is a great example of this. Artist and urban creative Candy Chang was commissioned to create public art as part of the 2011 European Capital of Culture events. She decided to focus her art on a popular bike and pedestrian path that takes students from their residences to the nearby university. Turning the path into an interactive art space where students and pedestrians fill in the gaps in the sentences. Find out more here…
Written by Matthew Simpkins
