I then discovered a digital projection arts festival was taking place down in Melbourne later that summer (Australia’s winter) in Melbourne, called the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, and I had not missed that, and so I proceeded to book my plane tickets and hotels, and rental cars. Of course, I made a point to visit Sydney as well while I was down there, but that’s a separate post.
The Gertrude Street Projection Festival is an indie arts festival that activates Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria (I think I have that geographical taxonomy correct) between Smith Street and Nicholson Street, where Gertrude Street comes to an end at the Melbourne Museum. Whereas Vivid Sydney is a corporatized event designed to bring tourism to Australia, the Gertrude Street Projection Festival is an art festival for artists. You could argue that it is a great art show that spans a couple of city blocks so to speak, as I was probably the only tourist there, and surprised a couple of staffers who asked me why I was there. The questions were not hostile or guarded, rather curious that a foreigner such as myself would have ever come across the event to begin with.
As is likely the case with Vivid Sydney, the photos on the GSPF’s site were punched up in Adobe Lightroom, which is fine and didn’t bother me, and as they didn’t have corporate sponsors footing the bill for $500,000 Christie Projectors to light up the sides of buildings, I was totally happy with what I was able to see on the few tall buildings Gertrude Street afforded. Apart from that though, the rest of the street had a broad array of styles of art that conveyed authenticity while also sticking to the themes of color, light, motion, and projection. There were even some digital interactive installations as well, although these were limited due the record inclement weather Australia received in 2015.