James Street Plaza Activation

In 2021-22, the City of Newcastle engaged Art Thinking as a consultant for the James Street Plaza activation. This was following on from a temporary placemaking research project by a University of Newcastle team which involved a community judged light animation being projected on to the ANZ building. Our city partners wished to take this idea further and a develop a more permanent infrastructure that could be utilised for a range of other creative activities in the future. The intention was to create a versatile mixed-media platform as well as a proof of concept to roll out across many locations in the future. Work is ongoing but phase 1 of 2 is now complete and the system is now able to be utilised by local creatives. Selected projects will be supported and funded by the Hamilton Business Association and City of Newcastle.

More information on the system is provided below but the first step for artists is to simply submit and Expression of Interest (EOI) and Art Thinking will be in touch to see what support is required to make it happen. Projects may include film and animation, performance, music, interactive art, theatre, presentations, community workshops or even dance classes. The ambition is to work with Artists to push the boundaries of what is possible with the current system and beyond.

The system comprises of a high powered projector with multiple lenses to vary throw and brightness, a professional outdoor 4ch audio system, industrial media player and a control pc for remotely scheduling/switching content as well as controlling HW over network. All equipment is housed inside a state of the art proietta casing which is temperature controlled and accessible via bluetooth. Currently the system is situated on the clocktower building balcony until phase 2 roll out which will see the system mounted on top of a smart pole and integrating the pole and other sensor HW for real-time data visualisation opportunities. Complete HW specs and user toolkit will be made available to producers upon engagement.

The R&D for the project was conducted at Art Thinking Studio and Clyde Street Studios White Box located at 50 Clyde Street. See below for visual documentation from the R&D and phase 1 implementation at James Street Plaza.