Roll up, roll up! It’s a speculative time travel game at Queen Vic Market!
Back after being thwarted by Covid, Worth While is a live roleplay that Mick and I created through the Testing Grounds’ Public Art Park residency next to QVM. We’re running just one session on Saturday 9 December.
We wanted to make something fun and spiky – something that pokes breathing holes in how we think about cost, value and the market, that also has space for different feelings. Softness and silliness and homesickness. The smell of fish and the squish of a persimmon. So somehow we ended up with time travel.
It’s free, fun and possibly the momentary break from this reality you need right now:
Worth While Saturday 9 December 2023 11 am to 12 pm Testing Grounds, Queen Victoria Market Free | book here
Worth While is a live-action time travel game exploring what value really is.
Take on a new identity as a traveller from the year 2100. Go through a time machine to the market in 2023 where you can hunt for bargains and treasures to take home to the future. Then show and tell your fellow travellers what you found so you can pass through customs.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a speculative time travel roleplaying game at Queen Vic Market!
For the last couple of months I’ve been doing this very cute public art residency with a whole bunch of folks, over at the new Testing Grounds site next to Queen Victoria Market. Basically every Thursday we hear a talk, make lunch together, then chat about art and capitalism and ecology and whatnot while we eat. Then we have a play and test out our ideas on each other. We all arrived with a rough idea of something we wanted to do for Public Art Park, but I think everyone’s work has changed a bit through the process of chopping tomatoes and sipping endless cups of coffee.
I’ve been collaborating with Mick and we wanted to make something fun and spiky – something that pokes breathing holes in how we think about cost, value and the market, that also has space for different feelings. Softness and silliness and homesickness. The smell of fish and the squish of a persimmon. So somehow we ended up with time travel.
Worth While is a live-action time travel game exploring what value really is.
Take on a new identity as a traveller from the year 2100. Go through a time machine to the market in 2023 where you can hunt for bargains and treasures to take home to the future. Then show and tell your fellow travellers what you found so you can pass through customs.
I just realised that I had this post sitting in drafts for more than a year after I posted my first ‘Friends of Underfoot‘ roundup! Well, it’s never too late. If you’re into audio journeys, hyperlocal history, site-specific art and Underfoot, here are some other projects to check out:
Six Walks is a series of audio walking tours that was commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in 2020 as part of the multi-platform project Who’s Afraid of Public Space?
I think Underfoot fans will particularly enjoy Episode 5 with Timmah Ball, ‘Exploding the Maribyrnong‘.
Yalinguth is a mobile app that delivers an augmented audio experience reflecting the oral storytelling tradition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Queer-ways maps the queer cartography of Australia, combining the queer stories and voices of past and present into a permanent, interactive record of being queer in Australia. It’s curated by Luciano and Georgia Keats and supported by the Australian Queer Archive and there’s also a delicious interactive map you can add your own footprint to.
Another beautiful queer history project with a place-making focus, this project was commissioned by Heritage Victoria and it’s full of intriguing surprises.
Speaking of history through objects, here’s one I loved being part of: Powerhouse’s Oscillations six-part series, which takes unassuming objects in the collection as departure points for all sorts of reflections and investigations. Listen at the link above or view the illustrated transcripts on the Powerhouse website.
Hot off the press! n-SCRIBE 15 is an anthology of 40 works by Darebin writers and artists (including cover artist Tama Sharman) that you can pick up in Darebin libraries, cafes and bookstores for free.
Artist Roberta Joy Rich’s exhibition The Purple Shall Govern explores the resilience of people during Apartheid-era South Africa, alongside those living on the unceded sovereign lands of Australia. As part of the exhibition program, you can join the artist and Elders Uncle Larry Walsh and N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM as they guide you through the rich landscape of Kulin Country along the Maribyrnong river banks. More info and bookings here.
Artist Hoang Tran Nguyen presents these participatory karaoke performances as part of his ongoing series, Labour. With a list of songs that are themed and or titled in relation to work, working and workers, the repertoire spans trade union songs to pop music, and includes tracks in both English and Vietnamese. The sites are also all connected to histories of labour – the ANA Building, University Square, and the Westgate Bridge. Register here.
Check out Hoang’s past work too, or you can read about it in Liminal or in this incredible essay by Scott Brook for Meanjin, ‘Footscray, for example‘ – I think Underfoot listeners will really appreciate it!
Wander the Wood is a self-guided walking tour through the flats of one of Melbourne’s most well worn neighbourhoods, starting from the iconic Smith and Stanley Street corner in Collingwood. As you walk the grounds of the public housing estate, listen to stories of the area’s creative history and hear about its residents’ talents and journeys. Created by Izzy Brown, Joshua Tavares, Mini Miller and Viv Malo with producer Annaliese Redlich, as part of Rising festival.
Created by Bec Fary on Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung lands in Footscray, this durational listening experience is algorithmic and shifts through the night, and day to day. You’re invited to come and go as you please, whether you choose to forefront these listenings or use them as background soundtracks.
A blog and now book by Nick Gadd based on a series of walks he and his late wife Lynne took around Melbourne’s suburbs, forming a circle around the city. Gadd says, ‘The walks are an experiment in psychogeography – which I define as an attempt to understand a place by experiencing it at close range, and seeking to make a connection with the lives and the stories embedded in the place.’
Please add your suggestions in the comments! I know I had a couple of other things bookmarked that I can’t find anymore.
I made a short podcast about Melbourne’s Chinatown for The Hearts of the People are Measured by the Size of the Land, an exhibition curated by Olivia Koh (Recess) for Rising.
Sadly the festival is paused while Melbourne goes into its fourth lockdown so I’m not sure whether you’ll be able to see the exhibition currently, even the outdoor projections, but you can listen to the podcast in the meantime. Hoping events just get rescheduled.
In this podcast, Jinghua Qian offers a broken, bite-sized history of Chinatown and its role as the epicentre of a fractured and evolving community.
Audio samples
Nikki Lam, ‘Anchor and a Loose Thread 錨，和懸絲’, two-channel video installation, 2019. Sound design: Supina Bytol and Conor O’Hanlon.
Underfoot presents four virtual audio tours through Footscray’s past. Liz and I bring an intimate lens to local history as we wander the streets and the archives looking for people like us: queers, migrants, radicals and artists. There are some big conversations about capitalism, nationalism and settler nativism, as well as some finely aged gossip.
Each track comes with a map, transcript, photos and notes so you can either explore these places in real life (observing social distancing!) or just enjoy the stories while staying home. You can even dive into some historical research yourself if you’re so inclined.
Jinghua Qian 