E-mission Interim Exhibition

Spystation NC1074 entered its second phase when completed missions were sent from Holly Fluxx, Melody Panosian, Oliver of the Sky and Kate Geck.

Now their work is playing 24 hours in the shopfront. Sorry I dont have a better photo.
But here is their work installed in the massive Loop Space. to be accompanied by work from my local spies from the 26th to 28th february.

Renew Newcastle Blog

I started a blog for my residency. to report on how my spystation is going

http://nicolaisgreat.wordpress.com/


Thought I might see how the wordpress side of the world lives. and save my friends from my laboriously long group emails

Artist Review: Nicola Morton by Jackie and Simbi Dare

This reference for me is from the Editing Group of the Zine: Mind Objects: A Phenomenological Inquiry

1. Nicola is unique in combining amazing enthusiasm and ability to generate fantastic ideas with a just as admirable tenacity and determination to follow through with her ideas and present them to the public. Her work is consistently, brilliantly at the forefront of conceptual thought, challenging and quirky, yet invites you in with humor, performance and ebulliance. As energetic and dedicated as she is to completing her own projects, she devotes just as warm energy to being thoughtful and supportive of others, never missing a chance to be in the front row of a friends' show. She is a wonderful person to have in a group because there is simply no way to imagine her becoming jealous or competitive, or shirking her share. Her work in Mind Objects, a zine I published and distributed in New York and Berlin, is absolutely invaluable. Both her writing and her performances for the zine release were thought provoking, multi-textured, humorous, relevant and inspring. Both I and the Berlin editor agreed that of all the young artists we know, Nicola is the most deserving of success. Her enthusiasm and encouragement kept the zine on schedule when it might have flagged behind. I feel incredibly lucky to have her contributions and to have collaborated with her in writing, art and musical projects.

As a contributor to the "Phenomenological Inquiries" project, Nicola has repeatedly presented works that are challenging and engaging in ways that other contributions are not. Nicola's submissions consistently add new ideas, media and methods of communication to the project. Nicola has a unique ability to engage with new media and find ways of making new media function in novel and unintended ways. Her approach to technology is fresh, inquisitive and greatly individual. When engaging with any of her pieces, I find myself seeing with fresher eyes and a broader mind. I can only see further education continue and broaden this and give her a platform to truly shine.


2. For the past several years, Nicola has worked full time in addition to conceptualizing and performing consistently essential work. I always wished she could fully immerse herself in creating and producing art and music. Such an opportunity would not be wasted for her. Through the years her confidence has grown and now seems to be the perfect time for her to trust herself enough to make this switch. I believe this residency could be an essential turning point in her art and music career.


I believe that Nicola's approach to art as a means of communication and social renewal will contribute immensely to the art and culture of Brisbane. By studying, Nicola would be able to further advance her skills in utilizing new medias towards her artistic goals and further contribute to the art scene of Brisbane. Her contributions are simultaneously efforts at enhanced and new levels of social interaction and awareness; her ability to communicate would bring art to a wider audience and greatly enhance the role of art in society in general. Nicola is uniquely able to engage new medias and technology in challenging ways and the opportunity to study would be of benefit to her and to her community. I highly recommend her for the program, and look forward to to her future projects.

Photos from Spystation NC1074 opening . its on now

SNC1074 in February 2010 at Loop Space is an installation and workshop series that infiltrates, creates and challenges. It features several monitors broadcasting images and videos collected from myth makers around the world, live video chats with informants, weather balloons floating in the air, missions hidden in stuffed toys, and workshops for visual, audio or linguistic spying.
The workshops not only teach practical skills like field recording, digital imaging and German/Japanese but also create and exhibit new narratives for the environment. SNC1074 instils a new era of ownership of the ‘active’ landscape and opens the act of surveillance up to the public .
SNC1074 is hiding a social action. It touches diodes and fingers across Newcastle by finding and creating material culture. The environment around us is active and changing, we can share it, we can belong to it, we can own it together. Creating significance in the environment makes it special to us, creating myths fights the linearity of time. SNC1074 exhibits myths from all over the world and starts new narratives around the environment in Newcastle. Existence in the temporal becomes existence in the forever.
‘Big Brother’ owns surveillance (both in the form of government & in mass media). But the simple act of observation can be fun, not malicious and not about ‘who’s the boss’. Observation is an important tool for imagination and critical thinking. SNC1074 destablises the power model of surveillance and brings surveillance out to the public, lets them see what a fun Spy Station sees (not all terror threats and narky arguments over food) and devises adventurous missions for them. It uses telescopic visual and audio recording, mirroring, language lessons and internet communication to literally put people in the picture, place themselves in the world and even lets them fly.
Spystation NC1074 is exhibitive, interactive and interventive. It uncovers secret worlds, knowledge, thoughts and power for the community. But most of all it is a fun happening that everyone can be a part of.





Open Mon - Fri 9-5 and Sat 10-2
Loop Space 109 Hunter St Mall, Newcastle, Australia

Opening night photos that look much better than mine are at
http://loopoz.com/index.php?/All/spystation-nc1074.html
Thanks to Damian Castaldi