ABOUT US Manifesto - HB history - panoramic projection

What is this thing Horse Bazaar?

Horse Bazaar is a Melbourne based organisation involved in the production and distribution of new media and visual arts. We offer a range of media, production and design services. We also run two fine bars, Horse Bazaar and North Bazaar, which incorporate innovative projection systems for the display of contemporary visual media. Developed by individuals committed to the support of Melbourne's emerging digital culture Horse Bazaar’s bars blend lounge and exhibition space to produce a unique environment for the display and enjoyment of the arts, be they digital, sonic, conversational or dance floor. These venues provide new media artists with an unprecedented opportunity to exhibit digital works outside of a formal gallery context. Above and beyond being digital artspaces, the Bazaars are warm friendly places within which to socialise, work (we offer free wireless) or to party on and indulge yourself with a fine cocktail and a late night boogie. The cultural programming, visual arts, live music, and eclectic range of DJing are guaranteed to serve up taste expanding treats for any cultural aficionado.

Horse Bazaar run a generous annual digital arts prize, the Horse Bazaar Prize, which is fast becoming a coveted trophy and welcome addition on the international digital art circuit. The 2006 Horse Bazaar Prize will be announced in late November. In 2006 Horse Bazaar are producing the inaugural Digital Fringe, an annual web based digital arts festival that runs in conjunction with the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Digital Fringe will screen in venues, 3G handsets and on a variety of public spaces and screens all over Melbourne.

 
     
 

A Manifesto kind of thing

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Horse Bazaar is driven by keen interests in culture, technology, politics, music, and the arts. We aim to be open and accessible, and to support local (and far away) peoples doing interesting things. We are excited by works that look good, that engage with the world and contemporary issues, push alternate cultures and histories, and present challenges to the dominate paradigms that are taken for granted. Our panoramic projection set up is also ideal for the exploration of ambient visuals and the ability to reshape a social space with projection.

We are always open to proposals so if you have some great ideas and want to get involved in our cultural programming in someway drop us a line, horse bazaar. Our unique panoramic display environment is available to established and emerging artists. Melbourne’s swelling ranks of upcoming digital artists, VJ’s, designers and film-makers are starting to take advantage of our set up, whilst subjects in local New Media courses at RMIT and Monash University have introduced projects creating work specifically for our projection system into their curriculum.

As an organisation, our goal is to complement the pioneering work of Melbourne’s publicly funded cultural institutions by exhibiting digital art in alternate public contexts and to provide an alternative to the traditional ways in which screens are deployed in hospitality contexts. Melbourne is currently a vibrant hub in the global digital content production industry and is home to the world's only cultural institution specifically devoted to the moving image in all its forms - the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Melbourne is emerging as a bazaar for the visual economy, as an increasing amount of the economic activity in Western economies is associated with the production and consumption of moving images in the form of video games, films, television, arts, online and mobile media. This is reflected in the increasing focus on multimedia within many of Melbourne’s key cultural institutions including the NGV, Melbourne Museum and ACMI, and in the world-leading research being conducted at local educational institutions such as RMIT and Swinburne. Horse Bazaar is a part of this milieu of technical innovation and creativity, which is also reflected in the diversity and quality of locally produced new media content. We are currently developing modes of dynamic interaction with our screens that will incorporate the internet and mobile technologies. Proposals for interactive pieces are highly encouraged.

 

  
     
 

Some Horse Bazaar history

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Named after the once common horse auction houses of nineteenth century Melbourne, Horse Bazaar is a meeting of old and new. At one time Melbourne’s Bourke Street was lined with ‘horse bazaars’. The car dealerships of their age, horse bazaars were fundamental to the thriving horse-drawn economy of the 1800’s and provided Melbourne’s residents with the opportunity to buy horses at auction. Sadly this colourful aspect of Melbourne’s history is largely forgotten, however a small slice lives on in the name given to Kirk’s Lane, marking the location of Kirk’s Horse Bazaar established by James Bowie Kirk in Bourke Street in late 1840.

 

We initially attempted to open Horse Bazaar’s first bar in a fantastic 19th century four storey warehouse building in Kirk’s Lane, on the site of the original Kirk’s Horse Bazaar, which is how the name originally came about. Due to the vagaries of local councils and unnamed heads of planning departments this was not to be. We walked away from a protracted battle when another appropriate premises presented itself, having decided that it was better to pour our energies into realising our vision rather than to continue fighting red tape, bureaucracy, and the forces of darkness. The Horse Bazaar name followed the project as HQ migrated a few blocks north to our current location at 397 Little Lonsdale St.

 
     
 

Panoramic projection

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Screens for the display of moving images in the 20th century evolved, for technical reasons, in a rectangular format. Yet in the previous century huge panoramic painted dioramas were enormously popular sources of visual entertainment, the “virtual reality” centres of their age, these enormous canvasses were installed in their own lavish dedicated buildings and generally depicted historical scenes.

We have drawn inspiration from these popular 19th century entertainments and in the 21st century aim to reacquaint Melbournians with the power of panoramic imagery via a digital projection platform that tiles multiple video sources to create a seamless digital canvas. We hope that our projection installations will invite patrons to reconsider the role that digital imagery has assumed in society. The original 19th century canvas dioramas were not without their political edge, and we also encourage artists to explore digital media and panoramic projection as a forum for social commentary and alternate history, whilst pushing the technology and being innovative with our system.

While we believe that this incorporation of immersive projection as a permanent and integral feature in a bar is unique, as is our RPU, similar concepts are not without precedent in the cultural arena. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) regularly features captivating screen-art installations in its world-leading underground Screen Gallery.