The Motorcycle: Design ~ Art ~ Desire

Magnetoman

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VOC Member
I'm sorry I took this thread off in a fraught direction. Back to the QAGOMA exhibition. Although, there certainly is a directly-relevant covid aspect to this thread because, like Bambi blithely frolicing in the forest, things were going ever so smoothly up until the time we returned from the press launch at the end of February. The worst thing we had to deal with in organizing it was the smoke from the fires that were consuming Australia at the time. Then Godzilla appeared out of nowhere and stomped on us. European institutions went silent as their employees were confined to home, international air freight shipments suddenly became a major issue as airlines stopped flying, and in-person visits to potential lenders were no longer possible.

I drafted a ~1500-word article describing what it was like for us to quickly and completely reconfigure a major international design exhibition in the face of a global pandemic. We haven't decided yet where to submit it but I'll post that information here once we do. It was a "fascinating" experience.
 

Magnetoman

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With all the ups and downs in Australia, in April, and again in August, it seemed a safe bet that the exhibition wouldn't take place. But, it now looks like anyone who placed those bets stands to lose their money. Opening is just six weeks away and we couldn't be more pleased that throughout it all everyone stayed the course rather than give up in the face of covid.

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QAGOMA's workshop has been busy since early September reconfiguring the three large room and installing plinths for the bikes. Their film department has created an excellent program to screen during the five-month run, and are deep into the time-consuming task of securing screening rights. Their Public Programs team already has met with several clubs that will stage runs at the time of the exhibition as well as set up their bikes for viewing on the lawn next to the gallery.

Ultan Guilfoyle's and my major effort for the past week has been scripting and taping two 3-minute videos for them to supply to the press ahead of the opening. Also, we've been scripting a longer set of videos and audio clips to be combined into a virtual tour of the exhibition, and will turn our attention to that effort as soon as we deliver the short videos.

Ultan has the unfair advantage in making his half of the videos in that he's an award-wining professional filmmaker so he actually knows what he's doing. That said, I've made a number of my own unprofessional short videos so I'm not starting from zero. However, it's been a while since I made my last one, and meanwhile Premiere Pro and After Effects have gone through several upgrades so I've had to relearn enough of what I used to know in order to produce something that doesn't look amateurish.

I turned a spare bedroom into a studio and dragooned my twelve-year old granddaughter into being a stand in for setting the focus and to tweak the zoom and positioning to get a head-and-shoulders shot with a blank wall behind and without showing the fan above or the bookcases below. Then, mostly as a test of the sound level I taped myself using my draft script while she listened to what ended up just over 4 min. Her comments were, it's too long, I spoke too fast, her mind wandered because there was too much information, and it would be a lot better if there were images and not just me talking. I laughed, because she was obviously right on every count. She didn't know that the final video will have images inserted, but my revised script now comes in under 3 min.

Vincent content (and spoiler alert):

The Jack Ehret Black Lightning will be in the exhibition, along with video clips from the David Lancaster and Gerry Jenkinson Vincent documentary 'Speed is Expensive.'
 

Magnetoman

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At this time there are only a few places in the world where Covid appears to be in check.
Australia is one of them. They took it seriously and it has paid off.
The number of covid deaths/day has been in the single digits for the entire country since early September. New cases also are down close to only 10/day, again for the entire country.

Yesterday Ultan and I uploaded ~1 Gb of high definition video of us speaking about the exhibition so we've now turned our attention to creating the longer virtual tour. It's too early to know how long that will turn out, but my guess is it will end up between 15 and 30 minutes. Possibly toward the 45-minute end of that range...

Their press people had asked for the short videos that we just uploaded to be filmed in front of plain backgrounds. I tried that, but the result looked like I was being interrogated at Guantanamo, so I filmed myself in my library instead. Similarly, Ultan filmed himself against the background of fall foliage in Central Park. So far their press office hasn't reacted to our clear violation of their request.
 

Magnetoman

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VOC Member
Nearly three years after we started serious discussions, and after exchanging countless Word, Excel, and Acrobat files, today four photographs showed up and suddenly it became real. Two of the photographs showed 15 bikes parked in two holding rooms, and the other two showed two of the three rooms with the already-constructed angular plinths where they'll be installed. I'm very jealous of those of you who live in Queensland, and potentially jealous of those in other parts of Australia
 

Albervin

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VOC Member
Nearly three years after we started serious discussions, and after exchanging countless Word, Excel, and Acrobat files, today four photographs showed up and suddenly it became real. Two of the photographs showed 15 bikes parked in two holding rooms, and the other two showed two of the three rooms with the already-constructed angular plinths where they'll be installed. I'm very jealous of those of you who live in Queensland, and potentially jealous of those in other parts of Australia
It is actually easier to travel from New Zealand to Quensland than from Victoria to Queensland at the moment. We in NSW are somewhere in the middle and hoping to obtain visas shortly.
 

Martyn Goodwin

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It is actually easier to travel from New Zealand to Quensland than from Victoria to Queensland at the moment. We in NSW are somewhere in the middle and hoping to obtain visas shortly.
And when (not IF) New Zealanders sneak into Victoria, they are allowed greater freedom of movement that those who actually live there.

Something is NOT right!
 

Magnetoman

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And when (not IF) New Zealanders sneak into Victoria, they are allowed greater freedom of movement that those who actually live there.

Something is NOT right!
As an outsider I don't have to live with whatever restrictions you Australians do. All I know is there has been an average of no more than 1 covid death/day for your entire country for the past ten days, whereas ours has been stuck at ~700/day for months. Further, our number of new cases/day has increased by 75% since the middle of September, on track to surpass our previous peak by the end of the month, so an already-bad situation is rapidly getting worse. Per capita, to date you've lost 10x fewer people than we have. Personally, if I had the choice, I would rather watch a gaggle of New Zealanders frolic outside my window, spending their pesos to help our economy, and in exchange have 22,000 dead in my country rather than the 220,000 we have had to date.

This is a very frustrating time. Even though I'm free to travel, there's no way I'll want to go near an airport, or take an overnight motorcycle ride and stay in a motel, until the situation changes. I'm not allowed to attend the opening of the exhibition in Brisbane that I worked three years to create, but that disappointment barely registers as a 1 on a 10-point scale of awful situations many people are dealing with. For nearly all of us, 2020 will go down in memory as perhaps the worst year we've ever experienced.
 

Albervin

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VOC Member
Charles, I hope to attend the exhibition but it will most likely be in 2021. If the restrictions are loosened considerably would you entertain a visit to see your "baby"?
 
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