Floating Land Festival to welcome Balance-Unbalance delegates from 24 nationalities

The region is getting ready to welcome 250 people representing 24 countries attending the Balance-Unbalance International Conference, running in partnership with Sunshine Coast Council’s Floating Land 2013.

The conference, which grew out of the academic and seminar program of Floating Land, is co-hosted by Noosa Biosphere Limited and CQUniversity Noosa and will be held at The J in Noosa Junction from 31 May to 2 June 2013. The diverse range of attendees will include international, national and local artists, academics, scientists, philosophers, community activists and policy makers who all have one thing in common – a desire to create a more sustainable future.

Community Programs Portfolio Councillor Jenny McKay said it is no coincidence that Balance-Unbalance organisers decided to hold the conference at the same time as Floating Land, as the festival presented the opportunity for another 38 acclaimed artists to join the Balance-Unbalance program.

“It is the first time the Balance-Unbalance Conference has been held in the Asia-Pacific region and we are delighted to welcome attendees and participants to enjoy and explore the beautiful Sunshine Coast region,” Councillor McKay said.

“We believe council’s commitment to sustainability, our support of Noosa Biosphere Limited and council’s environmental art festival, Floating Land, is what convinced conference organisers to host this event in Noosa.

“The participants are set to visit Floating Land on Saturday evening as part of the diverse program.”

Most conference events will take place at CQUniversity Noosa including over 120 presentations, three keynote panels, 12 Pecha Kucha presentations showcasing presenters from across the globe sharing their visions for the future through a series of dynamic visual presentations, 60 papers, 25 performances and installations and 30 panels and trans-disciplinary activities.

Participants will get to hear about how cities may look in the future, how the Red Cross uses the arts and even gaming to explore climate change and disaster management, and how Gubbi Gubbi people are reviving Indigenous knowledge through the Gun’doo Yang’ga’man bark canoe project. This Indigenous project is also a feature in the 10-day 2013 Floating Land program.

The concept of Balance-Unbalance was developed by Dr Ricardo Dal Farra, a multimedia artist, researcher and performer based at Concordia University in Canada. Previous events were held in Argentina in 2010 and Canada in 2011.

Launching on Friday 31 May through to Sunday 9 June 2013, the Floating Land Festival presents a cultural smorgasbord of over 150 free events held at Boreen Point and locations within the region. Visit the website for full program details or for details on the Balance-Unbalance Conference see their website.

Balance-Unbalance Conference Keynote Speakers of interest:

Andrea Polli (USA) is a digital media artist living in New Mexico. Her work with science, technology and media has been presented widely in over 100 presentations, exhibitions and performances internationally, has been recognised by numerous grants, residencies and awards including a NYFA Artist's Fellowship, the Fulbright Specialist Award and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award. She currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate through sound (called sonification). In 2007/2008 she spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project - www.90degreessouth.org. As a member of the steering committee for New York 2050, a wide-reaching project envisioning the future of the New York City region, she worked with city planners, environmental scientists, historians and other experts to look at the impact of climate on the future of human life both locally and globally. Andrea will explore the conference theme through the presentation of her practice and key projects including ‘Particle Falls’. This project creates visual waterfalls drawing on real-time data about the atmosphere.

Tony Fry (Australia) is Professor of Design Futures at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Australia. He is also an award-winning designer, a theorist, a farmer, and director of a project developing an academy of Indigenous-based creative practices in East Timor. The author of nine books, Tony is regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers on design in the world today. Of his acclaimed book, Design as Politics, a reviewer commented: “To say it’s ‘timely’ is an understatement. Fry offers us one of the most prescient theses for the design of a different possible future.” Tony Fry’s keynote will focus around the concept of the ‘Future of the Human’, future settlement and exploring exactly what will need to change and how we ‘create’ it.

Ramon Guardans (Spain) - Artist and scientist Ramon Guardans traces pollutants and their effect on local and global populations, health and environments and examines the relevance of different ways of life in understanding exposure. He has been involved for 20 years in international action on atmospheric and marine pollution including the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). Ramon’s keynote will provoke new ways of understanding Atmospheric and Marine Pollution through art and trans-disciplinary thinking.

Fee Plumley (Australia) is an artist, creative producer, consultant, speaker, blogger and self-confessed techno-evangelist. At university her experience in Theatre Design and Technology was side-lined by a growing interest in the (then) quite new phenomenon known as the Internet. Seduced by this new digital culture, she went on to obtain a Masters in Interactive Multimedia Production. This kick-started (trans) media arts practice as a creative producer, combining technology, performance and literature. As co-founder of UK based company the-phone-book Limited (2000-2008), she was best known for encouraging people to be creative with their mobile phones at a time when most people didn’t realise the power they carried in their pockets. Now undertaking a ‘reallybigroadtrip’, she is travelling around Australia in her ‘bus’ blogging, tweeting and teaching as she goes. She eagerly awaits the arrival of the National Broadband Network and the chance to endorse its wealth of creative opportunity across Australia.