Council launches its Asia Pacific Cities Summit exhibit

The colours of the Sunshine Coast – as selected by more than 1000 Coast students – feature in Sunshine Coast Council’s Asia Pacific Cities Summit exhibit, opened in Brisbane today by Mayor Mark Jamieson.

Sunshine Coast Council is one of four major partners in the Summit & Mayors’ Forum, which has attracted representatives from more than 100 cities and runs until Wednesday.

“You need a global stage when you have a story like ours to tell,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“That is what we have here over the course of the next three days – a truly global stage.

“Our presence at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit is about taking our place with some of the leading cities and city-regions of the world.”

Pixel Mosaic, an interative digital art project, will be seen by hundreds of summit delegates including 74 mayors who are collectively responsible for governing 122 million citizens across  Asia Pacific and beyond.

The LED-based display is inspired by Coast students who participated in arts and self-discovery workshops held by artist Mic Black in schools, social clubs, public spaces and galleries

Using their smartphones, tablets or laptop computers, the children used a specially created app to mix red, green and blue colours together to create their own a pixelated animation of colour.

Mr Black said the students were then asked to write a short story describing why they chose the colours and what each colour meant to them.

“The art installation includes an interactive kiosk designed to display the colours and stories of the children who have participated,” he said.

“Video content of the kids completing their colour stories and viewing their work is shown when there is no user interacting with the display.”

Blue/turquoise was the most common colour selected by the students and is associated with water, calm and lifestyle ,while yellow, which is associated with the sun, happiness and excitement, was second most popular.

“Pixel mosaic is a prime example of Smart Art that is both inviting but also revealing in the data it collects from those who enthusiastically and willingly provide it under the guise of art.”

Another highlight of the Sunshine Coast Council exhibit is an eye-catching 3D visualisation of the Sunshine Coast developed by Sunshine Coast Knowledge Solutions.

Able to be used by non-technical staff such as landscape architects, development assessment officers, transport planners and urban planners, the program allows design concepts to be better visualised, improving decision making processes and the efficiency and transparency of communications for concept development.

The 3D visualisation contains highly detailed streetscapes including trees, lights, seating and bins, as well as iconic buildings and infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

It has tools for sculpting transport and building concepts in real-time, enabling the user to add objects, assets and characters for design.

Council’s exhibit also includes information on the new Invest Sunshine Coast Prospectus, SunCentral, Sunshine Coast Airport and Sunshine Coast Destination Ltd, as well as a “green” wall, symbolic of the green landscape of the Sunshine Coast.

There will also be demonstrations of the Sunshine Coast Council Open Data Programme.

Mayor Jamieson will chair a plenary session titled “Cities For People” on Tuesday afternoon with his fellow panellists including Tel Aviv Yafo Deputy Mayor Asaf Zamir, CEO of Acciona Infrastructure (Madrid) Luis Castilla and India’s Minister of State for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Babul Supriyo.

The session will discuss how governments can manage urban development and population growth in a resource efficient and environmentally sensitive manner with a focus on improving people’s quality of life.