Thursday, 10 August 2023

Salty Science and Culture Collide at Port Pirie City Park Projection

Did you miss the enriching immersive animation, The Salty Forest, at Port Pirie SALA Winter Festival? All is not lost at sea, you can still catch this stunning sensation ~ glowing on in the heart of Port Pirie as a part of Port Pirie City Park Projection’s permanent roster of extraordinary content. Every night during August 2023 this beautiful ecological feature joins the fun science fact and future fiction stories, ‘Constellation’, as well as cultural collaboration ‘Many Hands’.

Where: Port Pirie City Park Projection
Time: 6.30pm – 10.30pm throughout August 2023.
Content loops several times during the evening.

The Salty Forest
Get inside a unique cluster of South Australian tidal estuaries and salty mud flats where dense Mangrove forests grow.  Enjoy the lush biodiversity that helps make this place so important.  Bird habitats, fish hatcheries and the wonderful cycle of seasons are all explored and appreciated through community collaboration, artistic expression science education and cultural narrative. Illuminart are thrilled to be able to honour the rich biodiversity of this environment with its beautiful squelchy mud, fascinating creatures and wild textures.  We pay our respects to the Nukunu community and extend our gratitude for the sharing of knowledge and traditions that are so intricately woven through this intimate environment.

Constellation
Port Pirie’s Constellation Program uncovers the secret depths and hidden glory of the Spencer Gulf and reveals a fun and enlightening possible future for the region.

• ‘Tides of Life’ explores the unique environments found just beneath the gulf’s waters, home to an incredible abundance of species that tops the tally against many other coastal habitats. Take a deep dive into one of the most unique marine ecosystems in Australia, and learn how it came to be this way.
• In ‘Bridge to Somewhere’ we are flung thousands of years into the future. Port Pirie has become a tourist hub with a portal to the rest of the galaxy. As a holiday destination for the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit the Milky Way, Port Pirie hosts a myriad of extraordinary activities for the discerning interplanetary traveller, as well as Earth-dwelling creatures. You’ll be introduced to some of these fascinating future beings during their intergalactic visit. Come and see what they love about Port Pirie’s rich heritage and fascinating past.

Constellation received support from Arts SA and National Science Week.

Go to full Story Credits and Constellation activity trail details.

Many Hands
This project was part of a significant series of collaborative works that generated community content according to a theme and brief and included the mentoring of participants of the John Pirie Secondary School Art Excellence Program with guidance from illuminart Leading Light mentee Kellie Higginbottom.  Kellie was selected to become a Leading Light, recognized and guided as one of the select group of rural and regional creatives who were mentored in digital creative arts practice for the touring element of a statewide project called Port to Port.  The Many Hands animation was produced by illuminart Australia, with film making by Kellie Higginbottom and animation by Luke ‘Zero’ Shaw. Original mural artwork by John Pirie Secondary School students in 2017 during the school’s Art Excellence Program, mentored by senior artists Judy Napangardi Crosby, Annette Lawrie Dodd Walyingka and Karen Williams.  Find out more about the project from Port Pirie Regional Council’s perspective.

Return to the Salty Forest project page.

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