{"id":199,"date":"2021-12-17T10:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T00:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/?p=199"},"modified":"2022-06-16T14:26:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T04:56:05","slug":"liam-somerville-is-the-2021-flinders-artist-in-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/2021\/12\/17\/liam-somerville-is-the-2021-flinders-artist-in-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Somerville\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a02021\u00a0Flinders\u00a0Artist in Residence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Each year\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/assemblage\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Assemblage, Flinders\u2019 Centre for Creative\u00a0Arts<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u00a0hosts\u00a0an 8-week,\u00a0fully funded Artist in Residence research\u00a0program. This year\u00a0cinematographer and video artist Liam Somerville was the lucky winner of the grant and able to experiment with\u00a0Flinders\u00a0Void\u2019s cutting edge motion capture software to create his VR experience\u00a0\u2018Eschatech\u2019.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Throughout his career, Liam has explored\u00a0different technologies, both old and new. Most recently, he\u00a0has\u00a0delved\u00a0into\u00a03D and\u00a0motion capture, focusing on the development of\u00a0VR experiences.\u00a0\u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I\u00a0love\u00a0adding new skills and experiences to my quiver of technologies. I really enjoy just experimenting and bending and stretching different techniques to find new visual outcomes<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d he tells us.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">After working on a project in\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/college-humanities-arts-social-sciences\/thevoid\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">the Void<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0in early 2021, Liam heard about the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/assemblage\/assemblage-artist-in-residence-program\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Artist in Residence program<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and got excited\u00a0to potentially continue pushing Unreal\u00a0Engine and the Vicon\u00a0Motion Capture System to\u00a0their\u00a0limits and finding interesting ways to use the technology. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I was doing some work in the Void already\u00a0and\u00a0found it a really exciting place to be &#8211; at the coalface of technology.\u00a0There was an enormous wealth of knowledge here on campus\u00a0and so it was a logical step for me to keep experimenting in this space<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Liam\u2019s work aligns perfectly with the residency\u2019s 2021 theme \u2018Transformative and digital\u00a0technologies\u2019. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">My work has often danced around the human interaction with digital space. I really like bringing human imperfections into a virtual\u00a0space, which is often so clean and crisp.\u00a0I like the human elements.\u00a0There\u00a0are\u00a0certain aspects of that through motion capture\u00a0by\u00a0capturing human movement, but then also things like virtual cameras and getting that really kinetic control of a virtual interface<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Flinders Artist in Residence 2021 - Liam Somerville\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jJhszEXO5Jo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>The concept for\u00a0Liam\u2019s project \u2018Eschatech\u2019<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Under the working title \u2018Anthropocene\u2019, Liam created\u00a0a\u00a0simulation\u00a0of the last 100 seconds of humanity\u00a0for his Artist in Residence project.\u00a0He later changed the title to \u2018Eschatech\u2019. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I felt Anthropocene was more the subject matter and not the actual title.\u00a0So,\u00a0I wanted to create a name that referenced the end of time but also had a futurist, posthuman feel to it. Eschatech is made up of\u00a0Escha, coming from eschatology, which is\u00a0the study of the end of the world, and tech<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Inspired by the beauty and wonder of\u00a0our\u00a0natural environment\u00a0in stark contrast to the destruction of this natural biodiversity caused by\u00a0humans\u2019\u00a0impact on\u00a0the planet, Liam\u00a0put together a somewhat\u00a0bleak and semi pessimistic view of what the future could hold.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Although I spend a lot of time on computers and surrounded by technology, I do have a\u00a0really big\u00a0passion for nature &#8211; conservation, revegetation, and all these kinds of things. I\u2019m an avid scuba diver\u00a0&#8211; I often dive with the\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onesportandfitness.com.au\/underwater\/\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Flinders University Underwater Club<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0(FUUC) actually &#8211;\u00a0and\u00a0I\u00a0like to enjoy the natural environment, the biodiversity of local plants and birds. The environment and climate change are something that I&#8217;m\u00a0really passionate\u00a0about. So,\u00a0if there&#8217;s a way that I could transpose or share the importance of this biodiversity that&#8217;s getting lost through human decisions, that would be a great thing<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">With Eschatech, Liam is hoping to make an impact. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I hope my work will help people think about the real-world possibilities of where we&#8217;re headed as a humanity and how we are really on borrowed time. We really need to make big decisions and big changes\u00a0now, if we want the planet to be the beautiful place that it is today, in maybe 50 years\u2019 time<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In the game, players\u00a0wake up in an apocalyptic bunker and\u00a0are\u00a0greeted with\u00a0the\u00a0titans of human destruction.\u00a0They have 100 seconds to explore the last pieces of our destructed\u00a0planet before the end.<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In his\u00a0last chapter, Liam used dystopian symbolism to showcase the environmental impacts of humankind: doomy hard techno\u00a0playing\u00a0in the background, no plants, no humans, nothing &#8211;\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0left is a\u00a0dark\u00a0world with\u00a0rising sea levels. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In cinematography,\u00a0you are often guided by light and sound, in my game I used carbon benefits and money to guide the player. In the end, these things don\u2019t get you anywhere though, the game is still over<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-200\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/Eschatech.png\" alt=\"Eschatech\" width=\"597\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/Eschatech.png 597w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/Eschatech-300x239.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>The perks of conducting research at a university<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Liam had a strong vision of what he wanted to create but was also guided by different concepts and ideas that helped him refine\u00a0said\u00a0vision. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I had the content and look in my head all along. The research and\u00a0conversations\u00a0then helped guide those parts of the project and filled gaps or answered the guiding questions around the work. I always like including \u2018creative spanners\u2019 \u2013 unknowns that may change the outcome. In this case,\u00a0they were questions around how the world will end or what that actually means?<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Working with professionals from all different aspects, whether that be\u00a0post humanities, philosophy, the Drama Centre\u00a0or the Assemblage team,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/people\/garry.stewart\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Garry Stewart<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/people\/tully.barnett\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Tully Barnett<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, sparked lots of ideas in Liam. \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I came looking for answers and left with a thousand more questions. There\u2019s an amazing fountain of thinkers here and so many interesting people that I\u2019ve had wonderful conversations with.\u00a0The personnel here have a great way to challenge and interrogate, to see things differently and troubleshoot their way through issues. There&#8217;s also lots of knowledge sharing and the door is always open for other people and creatives to come in. I really like that attitude.\u201d<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Another inspiration for Liam was the\u00a0post humanities reading group with Stephen\u00a0Muecke\u00a0that he joined.\u00a0\u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I hadn&#8217;t done\u00a0much\u00a0academic reading since I graduated from\u00a0uni\u00a0about 10 years ago, so this was a real deep dive back into academic reading, journals\u00a0and critical thinking. Taking\u00a0that\u00a0big deep dive into posthumanism philosophy, was something that I hadn&#8217;t really\u00a0done\u00a0before\u00a0and a real eyeopener<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">With the work Liam had\u00a0already\u00a0been doing\u00a0at Flinders University,\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0been working with technicians, lecturers and students,\u00a0who had all been\u00a0vital in\u00a0his\u00a0creative process.\u00a0\u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I&#8217;m so privileged to be in the building with so many great minds and thinkers.\u00a0Honours\u00a0student\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=czXjrj4B9tA\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Bonnie\u00a0Grant<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0for instance\u00a0has been awesome in driving the motion capture rig here\u00a0and helping me with animation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/people\/cameron.mackness\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Cameron Mackness<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/people\/jason.bevan\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Jason Bevan<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0have\u00a0been wonderful, too. They are amazing at tackling technical issues\u00a0and\u00a0are\u00a0extremely\u00a0knowledgeable\u00a0about\u00a0Unreal\u00a0Engine\u00a0and motion capture and all these kinds of things.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/people\/dan.thorsland\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Dan Thorsland<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0\u2013 he\u2019s just got that endless enthusiasm!\u00a0My\u00a0plan\u00a0was\u00a0to mix and gel with the wealth of knowledge,\u00a0students and everyone\u00a0at Flinders\u00a0to bring this project to fruition<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d And he did.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Having 8 weeks solely dedicated to his Artist in Residence project helped Liam\u2019s creative juices flow\u00a0and gave\u00a0him\u00a0the chance to experiment with technologies such as photogrammetry \u2013 taking lots of photos and creating virtual, digital doubles or digital assets \u2013 and modelling inside of VR.\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cThe Void really is special.\u00a0I&#8217;ve had such an amazing time. It&#8217;s been great to create time and space and have the resources to work on\u00a0something without having to jump between other projects. Devoting my time and focusing on just one project has been great.\u201d<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-202\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/VR-Experience-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/VR-Experience-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/VR-Experience-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/VR-Experience-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2021\/12\/VR-Experience.jpg 1672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>The time is now<\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">With the digital media industry booming and South Australia strongly establishing itself as\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0hub within Australia, now is the perfect time to take up studies in\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/study\/courses\/bachelor-creative-arts-visual-effects-entertainment-design\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Visual\u00a0Effects and\u00a0Entertainment\u00a0Design<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u00a0\u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I think it&#8217;s such an exciting time to be involved in these new technologies. It feels like every\u00a0week there is\u00a0some revolutionary piece of code or tech or a plugin or something that totally changes our whole\u00a0workflow.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cIt&#8217;s such an exciting time to be in this realm.\u00a0Technology is moving so fast, the language around it is still being created\u00a0and as humans,\u00a0we are still evolving to work out how to use this technology, which I think is\u00a0a really interesting\u00a0paradigm.\u00a0I feel that there\u2019d\u00a0be lots of opportunities for students studying here to get a really great first step into the industry\u00a0and\u00a0creative\u00a0learning<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Besides shooting a feature music documentary and\u00a0further digital projects,\u00a0Liam himself will continue working in the Void, extending the life of his project and creating different digital outputs from Eschatech.\u00a0So\u00a0watch this space! We can\u2019t wait\u00a0to see what he comes\u00a0up with!<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Each year\u00a0Assemblage, Flinders\u2019 Centre for Creative\u00a0Arts,\u00a0hosts\u00a0an 8-week,\u00a0fully funded Artist in Residence research\u00a0program. This year\u00a0cinematographer and video artist Liam Somerville was the lucky winner of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369,1517],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assemblage","category-the-void"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/creative-performing-arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}