DESERTsnowball Project
David Carson & Paul Houghton are artists based in WA working with new and emerging digital media. DESERTsnowball is a project that focuses on the 50th Anniversary of the Bluebird K7 Hydroplane world water speed record set in the Wheatbelt town of Dumbleyung, WA. The artists are using the residency to explore this event through the development of a digital storytelling project.
In 1964 Donald Campbell became the fastest man on land and water, gaining the double world record on Lake Dumbleyung in Western Australia, ‘flying on the water’ in the Bluebird K7 hydroplane at 444.71 km/h. An amazing 60,000 people lined the Swan River in Perth to see Campbell’s victory run. This is an event that still resonates today and had as much impact in the 1960’s as the America’s Cup did in the 1980’s.
The artists will be doing a callout for contributors to the project, crowd-sourcing memorabilia and memories from 1964. This will involve all ages, presenting different takes on the event. Digitised stories and artefacts will be complemented by additional research identifying emergent threads and micro-stories enriching the exhibition theme, experience and content.
Watch a video timeline of the project’s evolution so far HERE
 
BIO
David Carson is a new media artist based in Fremantle. He came to Australia from the UK in 1995 teaching fine art in various art schools before becoming a full time artist concentrating on new imaging technologies. His work is characterized by focusing on and exploring natural phenomena or events and producing work for installations using new and emerging digital media, such as immersive dome projection and 3D stereoscopic imaging.
Carson has toured exhibitions extensively in Australia and overseas. He has collaborated with many art and industry organisations such as Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Royal Perth Hospital, Landcare Vision Inc., Red-Ochre Productions UK, Scitech and the Sodankyå Geophysical Solar Observatory in Lapland (undertaking the world’s first moving image capture of the Aurora Borealis in 3D with UK videographer Brian McClave).
In 2012 he was awarded a Creative Development Fellowship at the West Australian Department of Culture and the Arts and a Connections Residency Grant from The Australia Council in 2010 to develop Auspex Australis. His current project DESERTsnowball is funded by a DCA Development Grant.
Carson is the Secretary of the Management Committee of ART ON THE MOVE and a founder member of DESERTsnowball Media.
 
Image courtesy & copyright the artist.