Exit 06 to showcase a wealth of student talent

Grab your diary! Exit 06 – a festival of the best music, arts and media works by Southern Cross University students – is about to be launched.

The month-long festival of performances and exhibitions by final-year students in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, who are completing Contemporary Music, Visual Arts, and Media degrees, will cover creative arts as diverse as magazine and documentary production, music CDs and musical performances, painting, sculpture, film, writing, animation and digital art.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Clark will officially launch the month-long extravaganza on Friday, October 20, in the Music Building, room D.129, from 11am to 12 noon. It will kick off with a live music performance by final-year students in the Bachelor of Contemporary Music program.

Head of the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Dr Jean Griffiths, said the Exit program had been growing each year and the 2006 event promised to be the best yet with more than 100 students presenting a variety of work.

“This is a fantastic event featuring some of the region’s best new media, musical and artistic talent. It’s a great opportunity for people from throughout the North Coast to come and see the creativity and professionalism of our students,” Dr Griffiths said.

“Our Bachelor of Media Honours students are doing inspiring work – one is producing Australia’s first ever dirt bike magazine for women and another is project managing animation for an innovative multimedia game about Australian rainforest animals. Both Media and Visual Arts undergraduates have collaborated on the advertising-funded student magazine, Properganda.

“Our Bachelor of Contemporary Music has a well-established reputation for producing some of Australia’s leading musicians and musical directors, and our artists have also achieved success at a national level.”

The Exit 06 launch will feature performances by Southern Cross University students Tim Sladden, Sally and the 4 (a band comprised of current and graduate students) and composer Brenton Rice.

Sally’s band plays a cool mixture of funk and jazz influenced repertoire. Tim Sladden’s songs reflect influences of jazz, blues and folk. They display his many talents as a singer, guitarist and trumpeter. Brenton’s development as a composer is evident in his growing interest in film scoring and an anticipated move to the US.

All three students intend pursuing careers in the music industry after graduating from Southern Cross University.

Music exam performances by students will be held over three days, October 23, 24 and 25 at Campus Central on the Lismore campus, from 5pm, by invitation only.

On Thursday, October 26, from 6pm, the Winsome Hotel in North Lismore will host a media showcase of animation, digital images, documentary, music videos and fine examples of journalism and radio features, highlighting the work of over 30 media students.

The showcase will be followed by an end-of-year party for Properganda, which was created when Pulp, Southern Cross University’s old student magazine, lost its student union funding.

Properganda editor Nathan Apps said students could have been left without a media voice, but they fought back against the effects of the Federal Government’s voluntary student unionism law.

“The government didn’t count on media students being motivated, having the resources to publish and to get advertising support from community-minded business,” he said.

“We want to write about what’s important to students of all ages and backgrounds across all Southern Cross University campuses, and our new website propergandamag.org will welcome articles from anyone who wants to be part of that.

“Together with Office of Alumni Relations, the School of Arts and Social Sciences and local businesses, the Properganda collective have created a print and web publication which can reach internal and external students, as well as our University graduates.”

For art lovers, collectors and potential students, the Exit 06 visual arts exhibition, in the University’s Visual Arts Building, will be a must to visit. It will feature the work of 53 students and open at 5.30pm on November 3, then be open every day (including weekends)from 10am to 5pm until November 12.

Exhibiting artist Joanna Kambourian has produced a wonderful installation that describes a domestic scene reminiscent of the time she recently spent with her Armenian grandmother, in New York.

Joanne met her grandmother for the first time when she spent a semester on exchange at one of the world’s leading colleges of art and design, the Pratt Institute, in New York, earlier this year.

“It was a powerful experience for me getting to know about my Armenian heritage through this extraordinary woman,” Joanne said.

“Being in her apartment was amazing. She had lived in that same home for 64 years and it was filled with stories and intrigue.

“In a way, creating this installation of her living room is like bringing her home with me.”

Artist Trinity Leonard is excited that Exit 06 will enable her to showcase her narrative style of painting, which is often inspired by still images from old films.

“My pictures tell a story. I like to paint pictures where something happens. I tend to depict women in ambiguous situations where you get a vague sense of what is happening to them but you are not quite sure,” she said.

Exhibiting artist Craig Raynor believes that as the colonisation of native environments continues to increase with the force of globalisation, our natural world is at risk more than ever from human development and environmental degradation.

“The artificial has replaced the natural as capitalistic wealth and prosperity further burden an environment already under siege from mass objectification and over consumption,” he said.

Caption: Media and Visual Arts students have raised money to develop Propaganda - SCU’s new, independent student voice. So far they have published two thought-provoking editions and a website.