Bioluminescence @ Towamba

Day 1: 10 students from Eden Marine High, with some of them Towamba locals, turned up on a frosty morning to shake off the cold, share stories of close encounters with wildlife and learn about different types of cameras before heading down to Towamba river to explore the local ecosystem. Some amazing footage was captured including some spectacular imagery of under the water.

After lunch was a crash course in video editing on how to add effects, trim clips and exporting them ready for Saturday night. The day ended with a quick test of the projectors on the two sites we chose for the main event. Tomorrow we learn video projection mapping and start planning the event, selecting the locations and testing the projectors.

Day 2: With the sun shining outside the crew took over the main space inside Towamba Hall to learn the process of projection mapping while testing the set ups for Saturday night. Two stations were set up so everyone had plenty of practice after a short introduction. It’s amazing how quick they picked it up! Before long the hall stage was full of animations, colour and light. We had special guest Chris Korvin who brought in his hybrid experimental video set up including a video modular synthesiser, an infrared camera, video mixers and an oil water and dye set up for that authentic 60s feel.

We also got to use a video microscope loaded to us from the Sapphire Coast Regional Science Hub. After a BBQ dinner it was outside to set up the big projectors and put all we had learned in to action. Again the students took control and mapped the two locations and started to build their set for Saturday night.

Day 3: A later start at 4pm which we kicked off with a crew BBQ and toolbox talk about the plans for the evening. We talked safety, being good hosts and roles and responsibilities.

We had two operations centres set up with the large pine trees being mapped and the historic canteen at each end of the sportsground and hall area with the water tank in the middle for the Bioluminescence logo and a compilation loop for the 40 or so short video clips the crew made. 

The trees had the MicroEye video microscope  set up with a variety of interesting things collected by the crew to look at plus the amazing coloured dyes, oil and water set up from Chris Korvin. The microscope was fed out via HDMI in to a video mixer to add effects to and then projected onto the trees for an amazing technicolour organic 40m image! One of the young people had the idea to created a variety of insect shapes on the trees. The butterfly with massive animated wings was a hit!

The other ops station lit up the colonial canteen with a riot of colour as well as featuring the videos the young people made. Perfectly mapped by them it glowed and strobed all night constantly being changed by the young operators.

Bioluminescence facilitator Issac brought along his Beyard – a wrist mounted projector system with touchscreen controller for an extra level of light fun during the eventing. The guests had a great time holding a parasol while the young operators projected their videos on them from the Beyard.

With the amazing catering by the local Towamba community and the musical talents of Corrine Gibbons leading singalongs in the hall and around the fire Towambas own VIVID festival was a fun time for all!

A big thanks to the Towamba Community Progress Association and the Mumbulla Foundation. Also thanks to the teachers from Eden Marine High – Michele Polach and Nikki Challman for organising the students, cooking BBQs and lugging massive first aid kits everywhere! Bioluminescence is supported by the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation.