Perth Voice Interactive

FANCY driving a train, being a policeman, a clown, an AFL footballer, US president or even the pope?

Choose your avatar and you can be who you like at the Perth International Arts Festival exhibition I Think I Can, an interactive instillation put together by a Tasmanian puppeteer and the Fremantle and District Model Railway Association.

Metres of miniature railway track snake around country settings; through villages and town squares, and over suspensions bridges—there’s even a cemetery.

Viewers choose one of 170 tiny avatars, which puppeteer Sam Routledge places in situ to becomes an ongoing story in the imaginary town. Viewers also get a passport allowing them to come back and direct their resident’s progress, which is also online.

The title of the exhibition comes from the children’s book The Little Engine That Could, Routledge says.

“[I] want to play with the optimism of that title and story, but subverting the value placed upon hard work,” he says.

“We’ll invite commuters to engage with an alternative, miniature version of themselves.”

An iPad personality test calculates their ideal profession, but Routledge hopes most will take a different track.

“Encouraging [them] to imagine another reality for themselves.”

He says model railway enthusiasts don’t usually see themselves as engaging in the arts: “[Yet] it involves complex work in conceptualising, designing and creating miniature worlds.”

The blokes at the Fremantle club were bemused by the instillation when the Voice dropped into their Fremantle Prison station.

They’ll ‘drive’ the trains, but don’t see themselves as artisans despite the painstaking craftsmanship that goes into their models. President Bob Redman says he’s not even a train person: “Electronics is my interest,” he says.

Past president Pat Cropley is into trains and joined the group two years after it started in 1976.

The small avatars they’ll use are bought “naked”, their clothing and features painted on by club members. “Putting the lipstick on is the hardest,” a poker-faced Mr Redman tells the Voice.

I Think I Can is a free festival event in the WA Museum’s Hackett Hall foyer, off James Street Mall, February 8–19 (not Mondays). Call Bob Redman for more info on the model railway association 0411 108 807.

by  JENNY D’ANGER

PERTH city council has approved the demolition of the old Michelides tobacco factory, much to the dismay of heritage fans.

But lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi didn’t have much patience for their campaign to save the factory, saying if they loved old buildings they should buy them.

The factory’s owner Graham Hardie wants to knock over its three buildings–between 70 and 90 years old–to make way for a new development he hasn’t yet revealed. His heritage consultant says they’re falling apart, unsafe and full of squatters.

Last year the state’s heritage council pushed for the factory to be protected and PCC staff initially agreed.

Following Mr Hardie’s presentation at a committee meeting most councillors voted against its listing and that prompted heritage minister Albert Jacobs to ignore the heritage council. Councillors were lobbied hard in the lead-up to Tuesday’s demolition decision, some receiving 150 emails. Many were calling for the facade to be incorporated into the new design.

Cr James Limnios said the applicant’s heritage report made it clear there was no heritage value, so he was in favour of demolition.

“I think it’s appalling that we can sit here and be badgered into making a decision against what is legal for this person,” he said, refusing to budge under the pressure.

He took aim at the building’s fans for “sitting back and making decisions with other people’s money‚“ and he said if someone died in the unsafe building the council would be hauled over the coals.

Reece Harley was the only councillor to argue against complete demolition, saying the art deco facade adds to the streetscape.

Prominent landmark

“The public should direct their anger towards the minister for his evident failure to protect a significant building which the Heritage Council itself described as a prominent landmark and a rare example of its architectural style worthy of retention,” Cr Harley said.

Cr Harley, the youngest member at 27, said they were making the same mistake as previous generations who’d bulldozed so much of Perth’s history.

Ms Scaffidi pointed out “the most active proponents [against demolition] have been a younger demographic‚“ without a financial stake in it.

“It’s all well and good to put these ideas forward if you’re not footing the bill.” She suggested that if groups like the Art Deco society wanted to keep these buildings they should pool their cash and buy them.

Dallas Robertson, who’d organised the social media campaign to save the building, described that as ‚“a ludicrous argument”.

“Just because we don’t have the money to do it doesn’t mean we can’t have an opinion.”

Federal Perth MP Alannah MacTiernan also weighed in, writing to all councillors arguing against complete demolition, as did the Art Deco Society of WA, state heritage shadow minister Margaret Quirk, and the Art Deco Society of Antwerp.

Ms Scaffidi said the building only had social importance, which could be recorded in photos and stories.

For now the site will be turned into a park and a storage and access site for the abandoned Varga nightclub next door, which is also owned by Mr Hardie and soon to be redeveloped.

Scaffidi: If you want it, buy it

ART DECO Society WA president Vyonne Geneve says “it is a sad day for heritage that the PCC has ignored the expert advice of the State Heritage Office, the National Trust of WA, and the Art Deco Society of WA.

“The suggestion that the society should purchase the former Michelides buillding is conveniently ignoring the fact that it is the responsibility of the city and its elected members to protect Perth’s dwindling number of heritage buildings. 

Credentials

“Although the society has neither the advantages of influential developers nor the means to purchase buildings in the City of Perth, it certainly does have the credentials and the right to comment on the significance of Art Deco buildings, particularly when they come under threat.”

She wants heritage minister Albert Jacobs to step in and reverse his decision not to support the listing of the building.

by DAVID BELL

 

FOR 20 years Dave Boothey has been a regular sight in North Perth, picking up rubbish, cleaning the streets and doing odd jobs for local businesses.

This week his long-time service to the community was recognised with the Vincent active citizen award.

The upbeat local retired in 1993 after working for Westrail’s sleeper team for 18 years.

But instead of sitting back and relaxing Mr Boothey kept his hands busy doing odd jobs for local shops like taking their bins out and sweeping up. In return he gets a few snacks for free.

“Milk’d gives me drinks, Metrio gives me milkshakes and a cake on a Thursday!” he told the Voice.

Maylands man Timothy Benson, secretary of Central 55 homeless services, picked up the Bayswater citizenship award for his work breaking the cycle of homelessness.

For five years he’s been involved in the organisation, turning the struggling body into a big player in the sector.

In Perth council’s awards, Marina Del Basso from the Australian Performing Arts Network was named citizen of the year for supporting and inspiring youngsters, while the under-25 award went to Emma Miller for her PR work promoting the bell tower.

by DAVID BELL

RUBBISH collection fees in Perth could soar because technology is making the traditional garbo obsolete.

So far just one apartment block has opted out of Perth city council’s rubbish service because it’s got suction tubes that deposit refuse into a skip bin collected by private contractors, but the council’s techies are worried.

They fear that as more people adopt the new technology, there’ll be fewer and fewer  to share the costs of maintaining the council’s fleet of rubbish trucks and garbos, so fees will have to rise.

The council’s trucks can’t pick up the skip bins.

Adding more pressure to the system, the council was recently told by its lawyers  that a group of owners who opted out after a barney over where there bins were collected couldn’t be charged the annual fee (which ranges from $180 for residents to $260 a bin for businesses).

The council had refused to collect the bins from a narrow alley, but the owners refused to walk them out into the street and contracted a private operator with a more nimble truck.

To combat the trend in property owners opting out the PCC wants to charge a two-part fee; one for those who still use the council service, plus an annual admin charge for everyone whether their rubbish gets picked up or not.

Councillors adopted that plan in principle on Tuesday night and will now look at the nitty gritties such as what the two rates will be.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT city council is hoping to turn its barren verges into lush native gardens through a new adopt-a-verge scheme.

Under the plan the council will do the earthworks and install mulch for interested residents, then cough up for 20 plants at its twice-yearly native plant sale.

Once it’s set up, caretaking is handed over to the residents.

Mayor John Carey, who came up with the plan, says “it’s about greening and beautifying our streets, but it’s also about combating the ‘heat island’ effect [where] bitumen and buildings absorb heat. Greening our streets cools the urban environment—that’s a fact.”

He says while some may expect council to do all the work “there’s so much verge in the City of Vincent that it’s unrealistic to think that council can maintain all of it all the time. This is asking residents to play a role, but we’re also providing an incentive…and we want to make it as easy as possible”.

Simon Thackrah from the Norwood Neighbourhood Association supports the plan. The NNA is in the midst of setting up a community garden at the old Cheriton Street house which was saved from private development in 2011. They’d hoped to use garden mulch from to fix up the verges, and he says this program will be a big help as locals can’t easily get hold of big landscaping equipment.

by DAVID BELL

THE spirit of the garage game developer is alive and well at SK Games’converted office on Fitzgerald Street.

Owner Louis Roots set up the company late last year after coming back to Perth back from a Danish job developing games for mobile phones.

It was a ballsy move for Roots, who employs six paid staff in an industry where scarcity of jobs often means many work for free.

Roots studied game design at Edith Cowan uni after getting hooked on Quake in the 90s (he even has a tattoo of the game’s logo): “When I finished there, there was nothing in Perth.”

After a stint overseas he decided to come home and start SK Games, and was inundated with job applications.

The small office has all the hallmarks of a tech startup; salvaged furniture, non-existent dress code, beers at lunchtime and ideas scrawled on every surface. Games lie about wired together with odds and ends.

The most unusual part: ‚“We don’t sell anything,” Roots says, at least not yet.

He’s not interested in trying to sell a squillion copies of the company’s games in an app store, opting instead to create limited edition arcade-style games to pubs and clubs.

They’ve had a few trial runs at Lets Make Games events (a collective of Perth’s indy developers) and also shown them at local markets.

“We’ve had a really good response, it’s pretty exciting,” Mather says.

“They’re designed for pubs: They’ve got a spot to hold your beer‚ they’re spill proof,” Roots says.

Sticking to their principle of ‘simple and addictive’ they run every new project by staffer Sofie Mather, a non-gamer who helps the techies keep perspective.

“I would be what you’d call a noob,” she laughs.

“We try to be really accessible: If Sofie can play it, then anyone can play it,” Roots says.

Most of the graphics are pretty straight forward, but they’re teaming up with artist Chloe Sellars (aka Arcadian Dreams) for a crossover between art and game. Much virtual blood has been spilt over whether games are art (film critic Roger Ebert enraged thousands when he said they weren’t), and they’re seeking to merge the two worlds with an ‘interactive art piece’ half game, half painting that players can explore like a level.

An exhibition featuring the art piece, called Floating Ephemeral World, opens with a selection of Sellars’ work on February 7 at 167 Fitzgerald Street.

by DAVID BELL

THE list of long-empty buildings plaguing Northbridge is shrinking.

Perth city council keeps a register of tough-nut properties that aren’t progressing, but planning committee chief Rob Butler says it’s been whittled from eight to three.

The remaining properties on the list are:

• 78 James Street, the old DV8 Nightclub;

• 2-6 Parker Street, the old Perth markets opposite Russell Square; and,

• 68 Roe Street, an abandoned gaming cafe.

One of the properties that’s moved off the list is the old Taj Mahal restaurant on Lake Street which been leased to Adam Webb who’s hoping to resurrect his cuffs n collars nightclub The Republic.