What knowledges and memories are contained in charts, lines and legends? What roads and coordinates are plotted in stories and mythologies? Maps are often presented as objective documents, but we suggest that this is make-believe.
Chart Collective invited the community to share anonymous true stories that have taken place in Melbourne CBD. Chosen stories have been printed on posters and hung near where each story took place.
When the sun sets – and it sets early now – we light the rooms of our houses and shut out the cold, enigmatic night. Perhaps we put the outside world from our minds. Perhaps if we glance out at the darkness, our imagination projects figures, colours, creatures – threats and curiosities. Or, perhaps we shine a light to discover what the night really contains; perhaps we capture it like a set of silver eyes in the headlights.
1P/Halley is the only comet you have a pretty good chance of seeing in your lifetime. Chart Collective explores the relationship between time, humanity, the earth and the sky by publishing a zine folding out to A2 poster, each work set on one of the next four nights Halley’s Comet returns. What will Melbourne look like in 2061, in 2135, in 2209 and in 2284, when the comet burns across the sky?
The Longer Light Series explores the idea that our personal rituals – from the mundane to the grand – tether us to special places and particular times. It investigates how our rituals are contingent on the places where we perform them, on the rhythm of the seasons, on the weather of any given day, on what we see and smell around us.
During the cold months of 2014, Chart Collective held a series of four film screenings at LongPlay in North Fitzroy. The series, including Storm Boy (1976), Wake in Fright (1971), The Hunter (2011) and Monkey Grip (1982), explored the intersection of narrative and landscape in Australian film. Each film was introduced by a guest, who riffed on their perceptions of the film in relation to the theme. The edited introductions are published here, with thanks to their authors.