Kensington Community Recreation Centre is well known for its strong links with the local community. Through their enthusiastic involvement in the Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds Project, they have developed two new partnerships which I would like to focus on today.

Local Community Care Unit*

A nearby Community Care Unit (CCU) contacted me, interested in getting some of their residents involved at a local recreation centre, as well as get some use out of the onsite gym equipment they have available.

I arranged a meeting with Kensington’s Centre Manager and Health and Wellness Director to visit the CCU with me, meet the staff and have a brainstorm about what each party did and how they could come together to provide some opportunities for people experiencing mental illness living at the CCU.

Part of the focus of Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds has been to try to provide ‘stepping stone’ participation opportunities for people to slowly experience local sport and recreation opportunities within supportive and welcoming environments.

With this in mind, this is what they came up with:

:: An offsite weekly gym program at the CCU

• Kensington provide an instructor over a period of 3-4 weeks
• Interested residents join in
• A program is written up for each person to take part at their leisure
• When residents are feeling more confident CCU staff will take them to have a look at Kensington
• Connections and opportunities for interested people will be made

:: 20 minute Aqua Aerobics Classes for people with limited fitness

• Short burst Aqua Aerobics to build confidence and fitness
• Begins simply with a visit to the centre to get to know surroundings
• The following week the program begins for a period of 3-5 weeks
• At the end of the 3-5 weeks re-evaluate. Some may be ready to join in with the regular class, othersmay need to continue with shorter opportunities.

Local Community Support Group

A local support group for people experiencing mental illness contacted me looking for more community connections and health and wellness opportunities for people accessing the group.

Again, after discussing the project and the needs of the group, I arranged a meeting with two staff from the group and Kensington’s Centre Manager.

Often, before bringing a few different parties into a room and beginning a conversation, it can be hard to foresee the outcomes. While having a chat the local support group mentioned some funding they had to run a series of self-defence classes for the people accessing their groups. They had run one session already however due to limited space at their premises they only had a kitchen area to run the program. The smells from the kitchen had made some people feel sick during the session.

Kensington provided an opportunity for the support group to move the program to the recreation centre and use one of their multipurpose rooms. Three sessions were run at Kensington with small but steady participation numbers. Having the program at Kensington also meant that participants were given the chance to see inside the centre, get a better understanding of what is on offer, and also potentially be confident enough to return either independently or for a different program/opportunity.

These are just some examples of what can happen when different people are brought together, each bringing their own set of expertise, perspectives, opportunities and resources.

I will continue to share some other examples of opportunities that are arising through the Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds Project in the following posts.

Kensington Community Recreation Centre is owned by the City of Melbourne and managed by YMCA Victoria. Kensington Community Recreation Centre is located at:

Corner of Kensington Road and Altona Street
Kensington. Phone 9376 1633

* “Community care units provide medium to long-term accommodation, clinical care and rehabilitation services for people with a serious mental illness and psychosocial disability. Located in residential areas, they provide a ‘home like’ environment where people can learn or re-learn everyday skills necessary for successful community living. While it is envisaged that people will move through these units to other community residential options, some consumers require this level of support and supervision for a number of years.” Information sourced here.

Now that the Carlton Police Station has moved to Wreckyn Street, North Melbourne- what will become of the circa 1878 heritage listed stone building which has stood proudly at 316 Drummond Street for so long? Today’s AG Property blog looks at some proposals which are on the table, and revels in some retro photography of the building (inset) too.

Members of the vocal Carlton Residents Association are lobbying the City of Melbourne to purchase the disused building from the State Government, and they envision that the space will be best used as a social services and arts hub. The Carlton Local Agencies Network could be the perfect tenants as they already offer employment services, healthcare and social support to the housing estate community. The La Mama arts group may also find a home in the ex-police station. If the Carlton Residents Association are successful in their request to the City of Melbourne, this will be the second Carlton building they have encouraged the council to purchase – the first was the Kathleen Syme building (corner Cardigan and Faraday Streets).

Carlton Police Station as it stands today.

What do you think will be the best use of the Carlton Police Station?

This year the City of Melbourne has commissioned an innovative new public art work that responds to the sustainability of a building, with a pilot project dubbed ‘The 1200 Buildings Public Art Commission’. The brief for artists was to make visible the invisible functions of the building, engage passersby in the broader conversation about sustainability, and potentially contribute to actual improvements in local environmental quality.

The building hosting the public artwork, Green Spaces at 490 Spencer Street, is part of City of Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings Program, which encourages and supports the improvement of the energy, water and waste performance of Melbourne’s commercial buildings. The City of Melbourne and two building owners, Green Spaces and Fort Knox Self Storage, have jointly funded the commission.

Gavin Sade and Priscilla Bracks of Kuuki (Creative Media, Art and Design), Untitled, 2011

Globally, there is an emerging trend of artists working closely with councils and the providers of green infrastructure to bring the functioning of our built environment and our relationship with nature to the fore of the public consciousness. From Calgary to San Jose, artists are repurposing building facades into monitors of environmental risk, beautifying solar energy generation and transforming water infrastructure from the functional to the poetic.

Gyungju Chyon and John Stanislav Sadar of Little Wonder, Solar Garden, 2011

Many of these efforts are directed at celebrating a new vision of the future, educating the public and raising awareness around our use of resources and the ecosystems upon which we depend. They offer an opportunity for artists to engage in the critical response to sustainability in the urban context. Through this engagement public art can engage the broader community in ways that are playful, meaningful and revelatory.

Eleven proposals for the 1200 Buildings Public Art Commission in Melbourne were shortlisted and exhibited at the Federation Square Atrium from 28 September to 4 October 2011. The proposals were from not only visual artists, but also video game developers, landscape architects, and artists specialised in digital and data-driven media. All participated in a workshop run by Carbon Arts, a Melbourne-based organisation working for a greater role for the creative sector in addressing climate change and sustainability.

The commission winner is a team of professionals from ARUP Infomatics with their proposal for a sculptural, programmable facade that employs 500 pixels in the form of carved-up recycled street signs. The work The Green Transfer is a play on ‘The Gruen Transfer’, but as opposed to architect Victor Gruen, who invented the shopping mall as an environment to encourage consumption, The Green Transfer will use data from the building to communicate environmental stewardship and discourage unsustainable lifestyle choices.

ARUP Infomatics, team led by Jason McDermott, The Green Transfer, 2011

Carbon Arts, a partner in the Curating Cities project, is working with the City of Melbourne to evaluate the 1200 Buildings public art pilot project and explore ways in which more green buildings in the city can take up public art as a way to communicate and leverage their leadership in sustainability.

Jodi Newcombe, Director, Carbon Arts

www.carbonarts.org

House feeling a little stuffy after a long winter? Full of furniture you’re ‘keeping for a rainy day’ and jumbling with the e-waste of old mobile phones and computers? Fear not – the City of Melbourne will help you make a clean sweep this Spring! AG Property details the services available for you to help in your cleaning and de-cluttering efforts, as well as the ‘wax-on wax-off’ our city is going to undergo more generally.

From September to November, our city is going to be given a good scrubbing – with the high-pressure water cleaning of 50,000  square metres of laneways and streets in the CBD and removal of graffiti and chewing gum. But don’t worry – your own residences won’t be left out!  The City of Melbourne is offering to help you get rid of your e-waste (click here for an exhaustive list of what you can drop off) on the 22nd of October from 9am-3pm. Bring your broken computers, tvs etc to City Square and get those useless bits of technology out of your home and into the recycling system! You can also recycle your mobile phone as part of Zoos Victoria mobile phone recycling program. Zoos and mobile phone don’t seem immediately linked – but did you know that gorilla habitats are threatened by the illegal mining of coltan? Coltan is a material used in mobile phone production. By donating your old phone to the Zoos Victoria mobile phone plan you raise funds to protect gorilla habitats. Click here to request a satchel and recycle accordingly.

Graffiti popped up on your wall? The City of Melbourne will help you remove it in their spring clean drive. Click here to touch base with the Council and arrange a graffiti clean up on private or public property.

Hard rubbish collection for Carlton will be on Saturday the 26th of November- so you’ve got some time to get organised. Click here if you live in surrounding suburbs for your own hard rubbish collection days. You’ll need to book with the Council in order to ensure pick-up of hard rubbish by calling 9658 9658. If it’s more organic rubbish (from your gardening pursuits) that needs collection from your home, you can book pick-up of this waste by clicking here. In Carlton there is a diarised pick up of organic waste every 4th weekend of the month.

If you’re a long-term resident of Carlton or North Carlton, you’ll be aware of the active community group called the  ’Carlton Residents Association’. They’ve recently been promoting a public meeting on Sunday the 16th of October at 3pm, at the Carlton Football Club (Visy Park), Royal Parade North Carlton. Today’s AG Property blog is focussed on the ‘Carlton: United As A Community’ project the Carlton Residents Association have in their sights.

The community group would like to put forward a proposal for re-zoning  North Carlton into the City of Melbourne to create a united Carlton. For over 150 years Carlton was an undivided suburb – the division only occurred in 1993 when North Carlton was excised from the City of Melbourne. Throughout 2011 a ‘loose coalition’ of residents have been meeting – these renegades are called the Carlton Alliance – and they’re exploring the reunification of Carlton within the City of Melbourne. Why, you might ask? What benefit will this reunification bring to residents on both sides of the divide? The Carlton Alliance suggests that a reunification will lead to a stronger community, greater protection of heritage sites and more coherent planning laws, large number of ratepayers to lobby for Carlton-relevant issues and an effective opposition to the proposed tunnel extension along the South/North boundary (Princes Street).

Do you think that the reunification of Carlton will achieve the outcomes suggested – or do you have a different opinion on the subject? We’d really like to hear from you at AG.

Click here for more details.

The sculptures are Chris Reynolds, “A History apparatus – Vessel Craft & Beacon”, 1993 (installed 1994-5) a 24m. long series of aluminum and fiberglass forms, part of which is attached to some steel rails. And Maurie Hughes, “Ceremony and Vehicle for Conveying Spirit”, 1996, made from silicon, bronze, galvanized and mild steel. The two sculptures are separated by centre of the road car parking and some plane trees; so although Maurie Hughes’s sculpture was intended to refer to Reynolds’ sculpture the two do not appear connected. Both of the sculptures are composed of several parts as well as long titles. And they both have a strange functional appearance implied by their liner design along the median strip.

One reason for these odd sculptures can be explained in the process of commissioning the sculptures. Chris Reynolds “A History apparatus” was part of the National Metal Industry Sculpture Project, a sculpture-in-residency program. It was a collaborative effort between the artist and the Australian Metal Workers Union, Aerospace Technology of Australia and the City of Melbourne. Maurie Hughes’ sculpture was linked to the redevelopment of Telstra’s former Russell Street exchange and funded by Telstra and the City of Melbourne’s Urban & Public Art Program. It was commissioned with a brief to “incorporate the functional and visually meaningful elements of the vent”; the vent is part of a decommissioned Telstra tunnel.

Maurie Hughes, "Ceremony and Vehicle for Conveying Spirit", 1996

Maurie Hughes’s “Ceremony and Vehicle for Conveying Spirit” has three elements: totem pillars, the chimney and a gate each with their own plinth. The wheels on the chimney and the smaller wheels on the base of the gate suggest movement but this sculpture is going nowhere. The chimney flue form is presumably above the old Telstra tunnel’s vent.

Chris Reynolds, “A History apparatus - Vessel Craft & Beacon”, 1993

Chris Reynolds’s “A History apparatus – Vessel Craft & Beacon” feels disappointing as a sculpture; given the whole apparatus with the rails and vessels, you expect it to do more. The sculpture leaves me with a sense of disappointment and failure.

I have not been able to find anything more about these two artists. Like other artists who received commissions for public sculptures from the City of Melbourne their careers have not been notable.

The sculptures in the middle of Russell St. do not attract much close examination; their eccentric meanings appear impenetrable. Looking awkward and out of place they fail to give a sense of place, or excite the imagination. The problems with these sculpture stem from their location and commission before the two artists even started work.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that fashion retail in Australia is struggling.

Recent months have seen a long list of notable local designers and retailers going into administration and closing their doors. Announcements of international retail superpowers setting up shop on our shores have added to pressure on the local industry. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ recent retail figures were less than inspiring, showing a 4.2 percent decline in clothing, footwear and accessories. Understandably, the fashion sector is a little worried.

The City of Melbourne team behind Melbourne Spring Fashion Week were determined to counter this unsteady retail climate with a Business Series Program that focused on getting back to the basics: engaging with your customer, developing a quality product and creating an environment that supports and communicates the personality of your brand.

What they delivered at the Business Series forums was a line up of impressive speakers addressing the critical business elements for Australian fashion retailers today. They are:

Have a strong brand story

This was reiterated in different ways at each session. Thibaud Cau-Cecile from The Wearer’s Right says he looks for substance and personality when selecting brands to participate in his events. Both are critical when trying to engage retail buyers and shoppers who are both looking for a point of difference when stocking or purchasing your product.

Alasdair MacKinnon described the success he’s experienced with local label Otto & Spike – a family business based on local manufacture and traditional skills. Their case served as a stark contrast to the trend for local brands taking their manufacture offshore and gained positive media attention for all the right reasons. According to MacKinnon, shoppers want to know about your business and feel like they’ve bought a piece of something special when they’ve parted with their hard earned dollars. Handmade and artisan brands like Otto & Spike are reaching new markets by capitalising on their brand essence through online communication, tailored communications strategies and a consistent environment in retail stores.

Deliver a quality product

This one should be a no-brainer, but unfortunately, I seem to be saying “they don’t make ‘em like they used too” far too often these days, and I know I’m not the only one. Quality is about employing innovative design, good quality materials and care and attention to detail in manufacture. But for me, as an advocate of a fashion industry that is socially and environmentally responsible, quality and conscience are inextricably linked.

Having a clear understanding of your supply chain can help businesses understand the true impact they’re having, maximise efficiency and minimise costs. For John Condilis of Nobody Denim, this means making their cult jeans in Melbourne and having their supply chain accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia.

For Marks and Spencer, it means aiming to be the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015. According to Mike Barry, Marks and Spencer want each and every product to be accompanied by at least one positive story along its supply chain, and eventually two and three stories. And for the skeptics, Plan A delivered A$100 million in additional value to Marks and Spencer last year. Who says there’s no business viability to sustainability?

Make people feel special

At its core, fashion is about making people feel good. In a crowded market place, doing this successfully becomes a critical element to any retail business strategy. This goes for your instore retail experience, your customer service and using digital platforms to build relationships online. Lucy Feagins from The Design Files and Billie Iveson of RUSSH Magazine stressed the importance of a personal and tailored pitch when approaching print or online media for press support. Good press agents build real relationships and trust with the right people in the right places. Doing this well can be a huge asset to your business.

Similarly, personalised customer service and strong online communications (especially when using social media platforms or blogging) will help to create a personal connection with your brand and create loyalty. One of my favourite quotes of the series was from Lucy Feagins who said “have a generous spirit”. When done sensibly, this is a great attitude to take into your business.

So there you have it. The formula for success according to Melbourne Spring Fashion Week’s Business Series speakers. Fortunately, it seems the marketplace is tiring of the mass marketed, cheap fashion retailer and is seeking integrity, quality and substance. If this is true, the labels coming out of Australia have one up on the Zaras and TopShops of the world.

This year’s Melbourne Spring Fashion Week is almost upon us!

The City of Melbourne Melbourne Spring Fashion Week events team have outdone themselves this year with a really great overall program featuring some of Melbourne’s best up and coming designers and business leaders of the local and international industry. This morning’s event launch and program announcements caused a little tingle of excitement – at least for me – as sustainability is finally getting some of the spotlight at the Business Series! And for the Business Series golden trifecta – design integrity and customer engagement via online technology have also been given screen time! Hoorah!

Here is a quick summary of my Must See Events for the week:

Business Series

• Talk the Talk - Mon Sept 5, 7am – 8.45am, Savoy Park Ballroom

How to successfully engage consumers using online technology. Featuring designer and blogger Lucy Feagins from The Design Files and Erik Lavoie from cult US magazine VICE.

• The Good Fight – Tues Sept 6, 7am – 8.45am, Savoy Park Ballroom

International Leaders in the sustainability and CSR space – Marks and Spencer – will be represented by their Head of Sustainable Business Mike Barry. Bringing insight into one of the biggest retail sustainability campaigns (beginning initial £200 Million pound investment and expanding to a goal for carbon neutrality), Mike’s insights into the M&S way of doing this will provide a desperately needed reality check to the Australian industry. He will be accompanied by local sustainability superstar John Condilis from cult denim label Nobody who leading the pack in the Australian sustainability game.

• When the Market Gets Tough, the Smart Get Creative, Wed Sept 7, 7am – 8.45am, Savoy Park Ballroom

With the influx of international mega brands into the Australian market comes an opportunity for local brands to differentiate by delivering quality products developed on principles of innovative design and exceptional quality. It is also an opportunity for stores to employ innovative retail techniques and engage with their consumer base in a real way. Featuring UK design consultant Edward Church, Alasdair Mackinnon from Otto and Spike and Thibaud Cau-Cecile from The Wearer’s Right.

Designer Series

• Runway Show #2 – Boutique

Melbourne is renowned for hidden away boutiques stocking innovative designers. Runway 2 shows what’s in store for some of our best boutique labels and the stores that support them in doing things their own way.
Features: Alice Euphemia, Dhini, Fat, Gorman, Green with Envy, Kings of Carnaby, Leonard St, Life with Bird, Megan Park, Nevenka and Obüs.
More information and tickets available here.

• Runway Show #4 – Senso Uniquo

Melbourne is also gaining a reputation for out-of-the-box design thinking and innovative independent designers. Runway 4 has a great list of local emerging designers who are finding favour with fashionable Melbourne shoppers.
Features: Above, Alistair Trung, Alpha60, Arnsdorf, Carly Hunter, From Britten Product Laboratory, Kuwaii, Limedrop, S!X and Trimapee.
More information and tickets available here.

The Entire Emerging Designer Series

Seriously. If you want to see where Melbourne fashion is at – these are the events to get to. RMIT has an amazing reputation for producing some of the best design talent in the country and fittingly, students and alumni alike show their wares in exhibition and runway format. There is also a runway show of 12 hand selected up and comers. The next generation of design quality on display!

Others

• Yoga in the city with Lululemon

As a yoga fanatic I will definitely be keen to get along to this one!
So there you have it! It looks like my calendar will be jam packed! You can view the entire program here.

We will have interviews with some of the very clever folk featured in the program in the lead up to the event.

What are you most excited about from this year’s Melbourne Spring Fashion Week calendar?

Beginning on Friday, July 2 the Eau Gallie Arts District will host their 3rd Annual Star-Spangled Event.  Activities include a plein-air painting competition, farmers market, an apple pie bake-off, the human flag, and a Pptriotic window painting contest. In addition, one-off custom created motorcycles from Tempest Cycles will also be on display as well as plenty of food from participating vendors and live music. The festivities begin at 5:30pm.

Also on Friday, July 2nd, the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory will present the Star-Spangled Spectacular Laser Show presented over a 6000 watt sound system with laser graphics, video, and special effects.  Patriotic favorites include: The Star-Spangled Banner (National Anthem), William Tell Overture, Fanfare for the Common Man, Yankee Doodle, The Stars & Stripes Forever.

The first of four firework displays over water will begin on Saturday, July 2 with In the Cove at Port Canaveral.  Family activities, plenty of food and refreshements and live entertainment are planned for this street party.  Festivities begin at 4pm.

On Sunday, July 3rd, the fireworks should bring everyone to the beach as the City of Cocoa Beach continues the on-the-water celebrations with a spectacular fireworks display Along the Beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Fireworks are planned to begin at 9pm.

Speaking of wet, the City of Palm Bay is hosting Splashes and Sparks at Brevard Community College’s Palm Bay Campus Fairgrounds.  Enjoy live music, great food, bounce houses, water slides, games, and of course a beautiful fireworks display. The fun begins at 5pm.

The celebrations get an early start on Monday, July 4  with Honor America Liberty Bell Museum’s Firecraker 5K which runs through Historic downtown Melbourne. The race begins at 7:15am. American flags to all finishers.  Following the race, Honor America’s Independence Day Parade co-sponsored with the City of Melbourne will start at 11am.  The parade will also wind through historic downtown Melbourne.  The City of Melbourne will also host a firework display at 9 p.m. at Claude Edge Front Street Park, 2205 Front St., in Melbourne.

If you’re planning to stay a little further north, you should catch the City of Cocoa’s Annual July 4th Celebration in Riverfront Park. 
Expect a spectacular firework display accompanied by family activities, food and a free concert compliments of the Brevard Symphony Orchestra.  The concert starts at 8pm and fireworks begin at 9:15pm. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets.  Admission and parking are free.

If you’re more sports minded, the Brevard Manatees will also have a fireworks display directly following their match up against the Clearwater Threshers at Space Coast Stadium.  The game begins at 7:05pm.

Not to be out done, the City of Titusville will once again host the Red, White, and Boom Party.  Slated to begin at 7pm at Sandpoint Park, this popular event will stretch through two parks and will feature a fantastic Fireworks show, live performances by the Space Coast Pops. Fireworks begin at 9:00pm at Marina Park.

For more events on Florida’s Space Coast during the 4th of July weekend or any weekend, just visit our calendar at www.space-coast.com/Calendar.

I know that it’s not even Winter yet and we’re rugging up all over Melbourne and ducking into the closest cafe to escape from the chill – but here’s a ray of sunshine! The prospect of the next fashion extravaganza should warm your little hearts with Melbourne Spring Fashion Week being launched in September.

This year’s Melbourne Spring Fashion Week is set to exceed even last year’s record turnout of 80,000 attendees with an exciting seven day diary of fashion and glamorous design. Some features we’re really looking forward to include

• The Business Series – the LMFF started off an innovative trend with a series of industry specific forums. Whether you’re wanting to crack into the industry or solidify your contacts – these business events are the perfect place to learn and expand your networks.
• MSFW @ City Square. In the forecourt of the Westin Hotel and cosily near to Brunetti – the city square comes alive with fashion! A series of runways full of drama are enhanced by celebrity watching and even beauty workshops.
• Emerging Designers Series – As you may  know Jane Hayes, Director of Jane Hayes Consulting is involved in upcoming design through The Spirit of the Black Dress. Stay in touch with other projects which support new Australian design at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.

The City of Melbourne also offers an array of volunteer opportunities for involvement in Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. Would you like to see the underbelly of our local creative scene? Volunteer work in a range of disciplines from hosting through to front of house could enhance your own career prospects and put you in contact with Melbourne’s most influential and cutting-edge designers and media mavens.

The ‘old Australia’ is disappearing fast. 

This was the Australia of the ‘fair go’ and ‘she’ll be right mate’, where a bit of leeway was always given to citizens by those in authority.

This change has upsides, but also many downsides.

The upsides are increased efficiency, improved safety and less scope for corruption.

The downsides include more pressure on citizens to avoid the most minor of infractions, a nannying approach from Government verging on bullying and a simmering resentment and contempt for governments at all levels on the part of many citizens.

This is supercharged by the wasteful purposes that Government often directs its fine revenues to.

The whole idea of ‘representative Government’ is worth considering in this respect, because the notion of ‘citizen Government’ seems increasingly distant, and the divide between governors and the governed seems to be getting greater, perhaps an inevitable consequence of population growth and increasingly impersonal communications methods.

A recent example has been the Herald Sun’s extraordinarily popular campaign around speed cameras and fines for motorists doing only a few kilometres over the speed limit, with virtually no margin for error allowed.

Another is the issue of crime and how to deal with it – most people would like to see a tougher approach but elite and expert opinion, most notably the judiciary, diverges.

Citizens are also regularly infuriated when met with a wall of bureaucracy when trying to resolve an issue with Government – I remember parking in my own suburb under an ambiguous sign that could only be interpreted by a Philadelphia lawyer. 

My response to the inevitable fine was to write a letter to Council pointing this out – Council’s riposte centred on the sign being in line with ‘Australian Standards’, whatever that meant. Even as a relatively well-educated citizen, I felt quite helpless in dealing with such a response – what can one do?

The current issue de jour is the City of Melbourne’s proposed sensor technology that will detect those overstaying their allotted time in parking bays.

This will no doubt be more efficient, booking an extra 150 cars a day, or 53,000 a year.

It also raises a few questions:

• Is it appropriate to do this when retail is in the doldrums as a result of higher interest rates, a mild summer and online competition?
• How does it square with official aims to make Melbourne a retail destination of choice?
• Will this, and the increased overall charges for on-street CBD parking and reduction in free parking into the evening, drive shoppers to suburban locations instead?
• Is the City of Melbourne too reliant on parking fines for its revenue ($50m last year)?
• Is the emphasis on putting people on public transport and bicycles ‘one size fits all’ and is it fair to those who are making complex journeys or carrying loads of shopping?
• Is public transport abundant and efficient enough?
• Is on-street parking a thing of the past in the CBD? If so, are there enough economical off-street options?

All questions worth addressing in the long run.

What are your views? Have your say.

And sometimes you get an area that combines all of the above. When that happens, the site is often seen as a real ‘problem’ area.

One of these problem sites exists in the centre of Melbourne: an area covering a couple of blocks around the intersection of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street. The City of Melbourne is canvassing opinion about the area, from residents, traders, commuters and so on, and one might expect that a council would simply carry out a letter box survey and then have a few committee meetings with relevant stakeholders to work out what should be done.

Well, all of that may well be going on, but what’s exciting is that the City of Melbourne has also chosen to make one of its Arts and Participation Programs engage with this area. The result is an urban intervention that certainly has the potential to generate interesting information for the council’s deliberations, but which also constitutes urban art in itself.

The City of Melbourne commissioned a group of artists, led by Jason Maling, Sarah Rodigari and Jess Olivieri, in order to find ‘an alternative method for Council to engage with the city night experience and explore diverse experiences and views. The artistic outcomes aim to provide a counterpoint to late night culture, and is designed to activate the space with positivity, romance and humour and to create a softer alternative to an area that is quickly gaining a reputation for the inverse’. The result is an arts project called the League of Resonance.

The League describes its activities as follows:

[We] seek out the intangible and barely perceptible. We detect vibrations that form the backdrop to the mythical narrative of daily life. We situate ourselves in places of intrigue, we listen, we talk, we connect and we hum. In collecting and combining the resonance of individuals: their stories, perceptions and rituals, we unravel the backdrop to this myth. Together we create a new sound. This sound is The League of Resonance.

So what does this all mean? I met two of the League’s founder members, Jason and Jess, and went on a ‘date’ with them to discover the work of the League and to share stories with them about this particular segment of urban space.

We met outside the photo booth at Flinders Street station, on the south side of the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth Streets. Jason and Less explained how the project aimed to take seriously the idea of an area having a ‘bad vibe’ and their desire to investigate all the components of this area’s vibe, to discover where its current vibrations come from. These investigations have been historical, aesthetic, architectural, sociological and ethnographic: they have uncovered information about the precinct’s origins, the buildings that used to be there and have been demolished. They have walked and walked around the area, in different weathers and at different times of the day, trying to pay attention to everything. They have documented the businesses in the area, and have spoken with commuters, residents, the local council, Victoria Police, employees and employers, punters, and students. They have photographed the area and its buildings, and have created a dossier of information about individuals who meet with them and agree to join the League. (League members also receive membership cards.) They produce an occasional newsletter setting out tiny snippets of information and ideas about the area, and have developed a program of ‘good works’, from suggestions by interviewees as to what actions would help people in the area. These have included holding the hand of very drunk people, and assisting people to cross the road at this traffic accident black spot.

Much of these activities and ideas are inspired by the conversations generated when League founders meet with individuals on a ‘date’: which means having a cup of tea or coffee in one of the precinct’s cafés, and walking around the streets and laneways of the area, sharing stories. On my ‘date’ with Jason and Jess, I learned about the tram stop that is being used as an informal shoe exchange (people seem to leave unwanted pairs of shoes in the tram stop which are then used by the homeless) and the embankment that overflows with rats at night.

On a walk that involved many moments of delight, there were two highlights for me. The first involved a panorama. Several floors up, we gazed at what initially looked like a spread of unremarkable modern office buildings. But as Jess and Jason pointed out details of the buildings and told stories about each, the buildings revealed themselves in their singularity: a tall narrow building topped by a private swimming pool, an opulent bank, a backpackers’ hostel, a building used as a depository for pornographic magazines and books. Knowing even these small details about the buildings started to attach histories and emotion to these spaces, making me realise that even the most bland and anonymous buildings are always the products of specific desires and functions, some of which conflict with each other, and all of which participate in the resonance of a neighbourhood.

The other moment of great pleasure involved not a panorama, with its necessary sweep and grandeur, but two tiny details, easy to overlook. As we sheltered in a laneway while it rained, I noticed cigarette butts – not that unusual, since office workers regularly use laneways for smoke breaks. But here’s what struck me:

Two butts are inserted into a tiny space in the wall; others are carefully lined up on a narrow shelf. Granted, they are cigarette butts and thus not terribly lovely to look at, and of course they are environmentally problematic in many ways: they are litter, and you could say that they should be in a bin. But something about their placement arrested me: they hadn’t just been dropped and stamped out on the ground. Instead, they had been inserted or balanced in unexpected places, almost in ways that responded aesthetically to their surroundings.

A few minutes after seeing these butts, the League took me to see another unexpected moment of ad hoc art. In another laneway, this one heavily used by smokers from two nearby office buildings, there is a lot of construction work going on, with hoardings tacked on to the laneway walls. Smokers stand, wreathed in a grey cloud, in gloomy silence between these hoardings. Cigarette butts abound here, of course, and many are just dropped on the ground as one would predict. But take a look at this (apologies for the dodgy quality of these images; they were taken in haste in the rain):

It is a line of chewing gum wads, placed along a ledge on one of the wooden hoardings. It is litter too, of course, just as the carefully placed cigarette butts are. But, like them, its placement indicates something in addition to standard littering. The gradually increasing line of variously coloured balls of gum has become a visual punctuation against the bland beige wood of the hoarding. It may not be sanitary, it may not be complicated; maybe the gum wads should indeed be in a bin. But I couldn’t help taking pleasure in the fact that someone (or several people) made the small aesthetic judgment to line them up rather than drop them randomly on the ground. It’s a small instance of aesthetic intervention in urban space, but a valuable one. And I’m grateful to the League of Resonance for sharing it with me on a date that made me pay attention to the intricacies of an area that could easily be dismissed as valueless, and for dedicating their time and energies over these several weeks to the project of understanding what makes a neighbourhood resonate, vibrate and hum.

The Home Energy Saving Downlight Trial is supported by the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund, managed by Sustainability Victoria. The Sustainability Fund have already provided support for businesses, local governments and communities in over 200 projects across Victoria and have helped individuals make proactive choices on climate change.

Ecovantage is an accredited provider under the Victoria Energy Efficient Target (VEET) Scheme and has replaced over 300 thousand inefficient incandescent light globes in Victorian homes over the last two years.

Always examining new opportunities Ecovantage is now moving into the realm of downlights.  Approximately 20 million halogen downlights are sold every year in Australia.  These are responsible for around 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Public awareness of the high energy use and costs of halogen downlights is increasing.  Concern about the risk of ceiling fires caused by high operating temperatures of the lights, up to 500°C, is also growing.

The Home Energy Downlight Trial

Ecovantage is collaborating with three councils (Melbourne, Port Phillip and Hume) to recruit householders willing to trial the energy saving downlights. In return for up to 12 free energy efficient downlights, householders respond to a survey on their experiences with the lights approximately 2 weeks after the lights are installed.  Surveys are conducted by the National Centre for Sustainability. Installers are also are providing comprehensive feedback on ease of retrofit of each type of light for analysis.

The results of the trial Survey will be presented in a public report that will support government and industry achieve a broad scale roll out of energy saving alternatives to halogen downlights and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australians homes.

To date Ecovantage have retrofitted around 130 homes out of the total 170 and one of the four common areas.  Initial feedback from the first 50 of the homes, which had mostly CFL downlights installed, indicated high householder satisfaction with the lights and the trial.

Ecovantage continues to source new globes to include in the trial.  Globes must consume no more than 20 watts of energy each, cost less than $50 each and provide sufficient light to replace halogen globes.  Please contact Ecovantage on 9645 7243 if you have a product you would like considered for the trial.