Caravela launches at Wild Dog Gathering on 28th November!

'Caravela' is the name that we've given to the musical projection tragedy that's been in intensive late-night development for several months. Finally all the elements are falling into place, just in time test it out on a receptive audience at the inaugural 'Wild Dog Gathering' on the 28th of November! If you like the look of what you see below and want to be amongst the first to witness our achievement, then jump on the website and get tickets to be amongst it all, at this delightful summer-warm-up event in Melbourne's rural hinterland...

To the best of our knowledge it's a truly unique combination of artforms. It's also the fruition of a long-anticipated collaboration between mutual admirers, the pianoBoat project and Carolina Cordeiro. Throughout the show Carolina Cordeiro's spectacular Portuguese Fado vocals plumb the depths of heartache and heartbreak. And the pianoBoat project has been doing our level best to match the exquisite beauty and haunting melancholy of her singing in the accompanying projections and artwork. Our rich visual language for this show incorporates video, stills, watercolour drawings, shadow-puppets and shadow-acting, as well as artfully composed text translations of key lyrics.

If that wasn't already enough to whet your appetite, Caravela's dozen Fado songs are ably fleshed out by the simple yet fulsome instrumentation of guitar and piano-accordion.

If you can't be at the Wild Dog performance but are interested in the show, please do be in touch, as we are currently scheduling and planning country-wide tours for next year. If you can help with venue suggestions or in any other way, we'd love to hear from you. Read on through our previous posts below for details on the 'pianoBoat' rig and the pianoBoat project's ethos. There's also another post that gives more background on the story presented in Caravela.

projecting the pianoBoat into the new year in style and good company...

the pianoBoat will be following the winds of change up the east coast to see the new year in at Woodford. First time at the famous folk-fest, and we'll be presenters! Sharing a new projection artwork for the alterBABEL program, and a freshly reworked Howard Grey's Unsame Day at the Recycled Cabaret (see previous posts for an overview of the early version that we took to the streets in Under The Radar). The program is their biggest ever with over 3000 performers and presenters, so you'll have to be lucky or determined to find us in the book or on the website, but we really are in there and the key info is below: BABELPROJEKT The mythology surrounding the temple, the ziggurat Etemenanki, the Babylonian tower that soared between heaven and earth; recognised as the site of God’s wrath; an architectural monument that marked the place where the people were scattered into innumerable tribes with a multitude of languages, galvanises the essence of this year’s visual arts festival. From today’s Woodfordian vantage point, it’s possible to reinterpret this tale as an inspired act of holy genius … after all, try to imagine a world without a wonderful abundance of languages; try to dream up a festival without the rich bounty of different art and music; try to conjure up an existence without cultural diversity. Sounds bland? You bet. Towering over the festival on Sculpture Ridge, the three towers of uberBABEL exist as gallery veneers, inverted Guggenheims, where artists generate images, forms, ideas and issues about the ways in which linguistic and cultural diversity is essential to environmental and ecological diversity. Drawing from cultural roots in Indigenous, non-Indigenous and Asia-Pacific cultural heritage in Australia, artists who work on each of the three towers will transfix, disturb and challenge. Arti.Arti afternoons are punctuated by psychoBABEL: the talkfest, an opportunity for debate, repartee, banter, witticism and conversation; where artists from around the nation and around the globe gather in person or via technology, all the while throwing up that uniquely human identifier - to pose and vocalize the questions. In a transformative venture, alterBABEL: the tent event, artists use their digital resources and light sources to manipulate, reflect, mirror, enlighten, blur and project to transform the tents of Artisania into alternate worlds of the night. Location: Sculpture Ridge, Penny Arcade, Village Green, Arti.Arti

Recycled Cabaret
The night is yours. Join us in the ultimate recycled cabaret experience. Come attired in your handmade festival recycled costume. The maitre de will greet you and your family and show you to a cozy candle lit table. The stage will come alive with a collision of fire and flying chooks with Mic Conway, a juggling symphony with The MaskedMime and The pianoBoat Project combines music and shadow puppetry illuminated against a fabric boat. The piece de resistance, you and your costumes strut your stuff. THUR Stardust Theatre 7:30PM