Opening

Research background: "Opening', a 37-minute film animation, premiered on the big screen at Federation Square on 10 September 2011 and then had a one-month season in Atrium (Fed Square). For 'Opening' Paul Carter (concept and dramaturgy) collaborated with Dirk De Bruyn (camera and film director) and Soo Yeun You (dancer and choreographer). 'Opening' draws on Carter's Nearamnew ground pattern text and poetic inscriptions at Federation Square (2002 with Lab architecture studio) to explore the storylines associated with Lake Tyrrell, a large salt lake in Victoria's northern Mallee. Research contribution: Inspired by the turbulance cobble pattern at Fed Square, 'Opening' maps a curving path that spirals out to Lake Tyrell and back to the polychrome cobbles and transposed mallee trees in the square. The film uses an innovative mix of single frame and time-lapse animation, real-time footage, environmental recordings and choreography. It builds on Carter's earlier research and creative work, especially the Naeramnew cobbles and his spatial history of the Mallee, 'Ground Truthing' (University of Western Australia Press, 2010). Research significance: 'Opening' had an extending season at one of Melbourne's most prominent public spaces. Federation Square is also, according to Carter, "Melbourne's most important location of storytelling". The film was collaboration between three migrants about finding and making a place for themselves in a new country and is aimed at providing a link to the existing stories, embedded in the cobblestones of Fed Square.