Case Study

July 2011

Creating a New Society
from Scratch

Case Study was a multimedia interactive art installation created by Perran Costi, Jesse Cox, Emily McDaniel, Adam Parsons, Damian Martin, Justin Harvey in collaboration over a two-week period in the Blade Room, Cockatoo Island.
The artists imagined the discovery of a new land, exploring what it would be like to be the first-wave of settlers – free from the controlling force of a motherland. Given the chance to start over, the artists asked themselves ‘how would we set up this new society and what would we change?’
The collaborative work explored ideas about how societies are created, colonialism, colonisation, migration, utopianism, as well as discussing Australia’s own response to migration, refugees, population growth, Australia’s Indigenous histories and the way white settlement and Aboriginal people have interacted.

Exhibition

Underbelly Arts
Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour NSW

Collaborators

Perran Costi
Jesse Cox
Emily McDaniel
Adam Parsons
Damian Martin
Justin Harvey

Supporters

The Kerr Foundation
The Neilson Foundation
Artline

Medium

Experiential, Site-Specific, Interactive, Multimedia Art Installation

Working together you create something you would never create on your own

With much of the Australian public feeling disenfranchised, frustrated with governments doing little to address significant social issues, the artists saw the project as an opportunity to trial all the different things that can be done – to create a place, open to the public, where fresh perspectives can be voiced and things can be judged on merit without the influence of political alliances, corporate interests, lobby groups, media spin and electoral manipulation.
Sydney’s history of migration was also given special emphasis with Perran and his fellow artists inhabiting the island with only that which they could carry in suitcases. Over 16 days the artists created their new world together in the Islands Blade Room, a 20 by 20 meter space in which the blades for the propellers of big ships were once made. Aside from what they brought, the artists scoured the island for resources and bartered with other Underbelly artists outside their collective.
The artists built a town hall and houses for all the artists from shipping crates left on the island by the Sydney Biennale the year before – the packaging of contemporary art from all over the world. The houses had beds, delightful gardens, private studies, laboratories, dining rooms and kitchens, in styles combining the expected with the unexpected and with beauty forged into every detail.
Perran describes Case Study as one of the most enjoyable artistic processes he has been involved in. “There’s something really nice about working with other people,” he says. “By working together you create something you would never create on your own… Everybody had different skills. People who had never built anything before learnt how to build their own shanty hut. Someone would start something then someone else would finish it. It was a collaborative process all the way…”

Case Study Interview with The Canvas Project

A Society Evolved

All the while, the artists engaged with the dense social study they had set themselves. 

There were regular town meetings from which the new society took form, with numerous discussions around how things should be done: a flag, for example, was deemed likely to unite the group, but create a barrier between it and the outside world; a policy on how to interact with other artists and those who were there before (the island’s caretakers) was devised. 

The idea of passports was discussed; and a communication system enabling contact with the outside world was created: The artists would type out requests on to shipping labels and drop them down to the Underbelly Arts office where they would be tweeted. If they got a response, a Perspex hash symbol the artists had created would be placed in the window signalling the artists to collect it.

The artists also opened up a care package. People would send them such things as thumbtacks and books on society building, but mostly biscuits, chocolate biscuits (packets and packets of them), which they skillfully used to barter for other materials. The artists didn’t have teacups or a kettle, but had a gas cooker, so ended up making tea in science beakers, a process that became a ceremony: the Beaker Tea Ceremony.
An overriding theme of the Underbelly Arts Festival is the opening up of the artistic process, inviting the public to see how art is made and interact with the artistic process. Case Study was highly successful at this. As their society evolved the artists created videos, audio recordings, slides, maps, drawings and photos that went into building their society. Visitors would explore these little intricacies, wandering through the space, crawling inside things and spending considerable amounts of time with individual works. Some would participate in town meetings, contributing their ideas, only to return days later to find their idea had manifested.

What would you do if you could start a new society from scratch?
It’s a question artist Perran Costi pondered before he gathered a group
and set sail to an island location to start a new life.

Victoria Hannaford,
The Daily Telegraph

Victoria Hannaford,
The Daily Telegraph

What would you do if you could start a new society from scratch?
Part of Underbelly Arts 2011, Case Study is a work-in-progress by six artists who have decamped to Cockatoo Island. Keen to begin a new strand of civilisation, Perran and his new settlers decided to put a few rules in place before they could proceed; the first was they could only take one trip, taking only what they could fit into suitcases.
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“We packed up all the stuff we could out of our artist studios, and then documented what we brought with us,” he says. “It’s a resource list, because every society has a finite amount of resources until they figure out what they can trade or they explore and find more.”

Cockatoo Island has a rich history of its own and its uses have changed over time – it’s been everything from a colonial prison to industrial school, and most recently a shipyard. Perran says it’s a prime location to begin again. “Everyone who’s come to Australia – except for the Aborigines – came here with whatever they could carry to start a new life,” he says.

“They’ve come with their history, but they’ve also come to this new land with all of these ideas of a grand new society, starting from scratch with what they could carry.”

The six founding members of the society bring with them a wide range of skills, which Perran says was ideal for the project.

“When you’re starting a new society, you need a diverse pool of people. There’s a prosthetic artist, Damian Martin; Emily McDaniel, who’s a sound artist with an Aboriginal background and she works at MCA and the Art Gallery Of NSW; Jesse Cox, a sculptor with a history degree; Justin Harvey who lectures at UTS in new media and Adam Parsons, a landscape architect.”

Newcomers will also be welcomed into the society during the festival. “We’re thinking of setting up a border control, signing people in with visas, taking fingerprints and checking for fruit and veg,” Perran says.

While the project hasn’t turned Lord Of The Flies just yet, Perran says part of the appeal is nobody knows what will happen. “We don’t know what it will mean.”

The Underbelly Arts Festival features more than 150 musicians, dancers and performers showing their work on Cockatoo Island.

The most impressive installations,
and perhaps the most intensive process
at Underbelly Arts was Case Study

Gail Priest,
RealTime

Naomi Gall,
The Near And The Elsewhere

The most impressive installations and perhaps the most intensive process at Underbelly Arts was Case Study in which six artists — Perran Costi, Jesse Cox, Emily McDaniel, Adam Parsons, Damian Martin and Justin Harvey — moved to the island for the 16-day lab, taking with them only a suitcase.

If there were any Survivor-style power plays during the development the final installation was a picture of harmonious communal living. A series of makeshift huts and lean-tos were scattered around an old workshop, each with bedding, curtains, found objects and text curios. Some hummed with quiet sound installations and most glowed hauntingly with projected stills and videos. 

Plant and moss specimens from around the island adorned surfaces like miniature gardens and small assemblages were to be found in nearly every crevice. Exploring issues of inhabitation, colonisation and migration, Case Study offered a wabi-sabi micro-environment of wonderful intricacy.

Case Study Photos

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