The 2022 Art and Design Tour was an eclectic, instructive experience in which students who are embarking on Year 12 Art or Design subjects in 2023 were able to discover the next step in their schooling and career options.
On the morning of day one, we went to Swinburne University. We met Dr Jo Kuys, Course Director of the Bachelor of Industrial Design, who brought us on a tour of the Industrial Design building and showed us all sorts of machines, from resin curing to collaborative robots. There was an entire room dedicated to a humongous robot arm, which was described as ‘not collaborating with humans’ by the student helping the Course Director. Next was the Design Factory Global Network for students who love collaborating. On occasion, there is a livestream of students from all around the world, living and studying.
We also met Associate Professor and Chair of Department, Gianni Renda, who took us through the Industrial Design course, and ex-Carey student Natasha Jane talked to us about her double degree in Comms and Cinema Studies. As a hands-on activity, we were assigned a task on biomimicry, where we had to produce an invention to help snails move faster. It was such a fun activity; we all had a good giggle looking at each other’s creations. Jennifer Wei won the task! She won a memobottle, created by graduate Jesse Leeworthy – now a sought-after product created with environmentally-friendly plastic.
After this, we jumped back on the bus and headed to Monash University, specifically MUMA, the Monash University Museum of Arts. They hold four exhibitions a year, showing collaborative, contemporary artworks from an extensive range of artists each time. We explored an exhibition showing Helen Johnson and Judy Watson’s work regarding ideas of archives, our bloodlines and ‘loose threads’ in history. The exhibition comprised beautifully emotive artworks that showed an amalgamation of the intergenerational trauma of racism in Australia, while simultaneously implementing modern shapes and ideas. As we experienced the gallery together, we discussed motifs and materials to help unpack the main ideas behind the exhibition.
At Monash, we undertook a hands-on activity where, in groups, we created artwork with an amalgamation of the first letters of our names. I worked with Maxwell Vindurampulle, and we created a key using our names, which was simultaneously chaotic and a heap of fun. The group’s pieces were genuinely imaginative, and I found myself connecting with the group a lot more! After this, we went on a tour of the university. Monash is a collaborative and cross-disciplinary artist hub.
We then jumped back onto the bus and headed off to the NGV, where we explored Richard Mosse’s ‘Broken Spectre’. This media installation was a realistic and stark position on the tragedies happening in the Amazon Rainforest. This piece was shown on a 20-metre widescreen panorama which unapologetically displays the juxtapositions between humanity and earth. Mosse uses colour to show the literal footprint that humanity has left on our world, with the natural, untouched world being in bright red and purple, while everything touched by humanity was shadowed in a dull grey.
Following this exhibition, we had a quick dinner and headed off to see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, which we loved! The performance was flamboyant and captivating, with a thrilling use of stage magic and carefully calculated lighting techniques to look like authentic magic!
On our final day of the tour, we headed to LCI, an art and design university in Collingwood. The building was originally a clothing factory and is a historically significant site. We met Oscar, a current fashion student at the university, who showed us the process of how he creates his digital fashion pieces. He uses Cinema4D, Mixamo, as well as ZBrush to create his avatar for his clothes. After this, he does a large range of materialistic mock-ups to test how his designs will act. Ex-Carey student Cameron Kilpatrick talked to us next, who now has his own brand and is employed at Zebra Direction! He discussed the importance of mock-ups in the design process, showing us ranked 3D model applications to use if we were to go down that career path. It was an honour to meet these inspiring and entrepreneurial people, and we all found it motivating to meet people who are taking paths that we all might take too!
We then visited the ‘Archives of Feeling’ exhibition at RMIT, reflecting on the lived experiences of trauma. These rooms were beautifully confronting, raw and visceral performances of true events in each artist’s life. We didn’t stay long, but it left a lasting imprint on the entire group.
To finish the Art and Design Tour, we headed off to Blender Studios where we met Doyle, an exciting and bubbly artist who predominantly works with spray paint. He took us on a tour of the studios and informed us of the artist’s stories and pieces. After the tour, we did a spray-painting activity. Doyle instructed us on how to properly use a spray can and use templates to create our pieces. This was the perfect way to finish the tour with a bang!
I’d like to thank Simon Carver, Louise Willis and Ruth McDonald for making this all happen! The Art and Design tour was an experience never to be forgotten – and I strongly recommend it to anyone who does an art or design subject! It was such a blast because everyone was so ready to give things a go and were all genuinely curious about everything. We all gained an extensive understanding of our choices for Year 12 and moving forward after school and saw how the environments related to these careers function too!
Pepa Dear, Year 11
Art and Design Captain, 2023
