On Friday night, an exuberant crowd filled the ground floor of University House for the School of Creative Industries' opening of Festival X. An explosive experience with extraordinary examples of exceptional creative exploits.
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This is the second year for the festival where x = ... well, so many things - excellence, expression, expectation, examination. Perhaps the X factor sums it up.
Festival X is a culmination of students' work from the first cohort of the newly established Bachelor of Creative Industries. It showcases work in design, animation, communication, theatre, music and film. Held over five days, the festival features more than 20 unique events. The students, who come from the Hunter and Central Coast, are making their mark in performances, exhibitions and screenings.
The space was glowing with rows of monitors screening digital work. There were displays of printed graphic designs, self-published books, a board game, various handmade objects and visual art.
Upstairs audiences were treated to a virtual reality experience with the world premiere of Entangled, a 360 degree VR film. This is a new medium that is unlikely to have been experienced by many. It was written and directed by Simon Weaving and filmed last year, in this room, with Andy Gallagher from VRXP alongside creative industry students. The film is predominately a one take shot that puts the viewer at the centre of the action.
The Newcastle International Animation Festival returned also, featuring talks from some of Australia's most talented animators. The emphasis here was about the journey of taking animation to the world. Newcastle going global once again in the creative field.
Also in the field, well Civic Park, there was a collaboration with Olive Tree Markets. This gave students the chance to sell their wares alongside established creative enterprises.
There has been a distinct hiatus for Newcastle creatives over the past few years as gentrification and opportunism elbows in. This has created a degree of uncertainty for the future of Newcastle as a creative city, a moniker the city cleverly exploited for over ten years. Now that the university is deploying its first round of Creative Industries graduates, perhaps we will see a resurgence of interest and investment.