After studying fine art and printmaking at Monash and RMIT, Walton went on to discover a whole new digital world of artistic possibilities beyond university. “I wish I could have studied projection. I don’t even think there was media art available when I did my undergraduate, it was that long ago,” Walton remembers. “They didn’t even teach computer skills or anything! So [in regards to projection] I kind of just taught myself everything I know.” Walton’s first projection 12 Exits was created for the Centre of Contemporary Photography Melbourne over six years ago and she has created a slew of installations since. A regular artist at the annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival, her works and collaborations have also been seen in international artistic hubs like Berlin and New York.
A relatively new form of art, projection is something that completely fascinates Walton for the expression this versatile medium allows. “I’m really interested in using new technology to convey ideas; mixing the virtual with the actual,” she explains. “A lot of my work is using projection within architectural spaces or even mixing in projection with actual objects, and a lot of it blurs that distinction between what the viewer thinks is real and what’s not. I also really love the fact that using new technology intrigues the viewer.”
Another huge attraction for Walton is the huge opportunity for collaboration that comes with media artworks. Because she’s essentially self-taught in projection and animation, Walton recognises the huge significance in working with other artists and specialists to further both her own knowledge and the value of the work. “I find it really important working with people with a whole different skill set and a different knowledge. You can create awesome works that you wouldn’t be able to [by yourself],” she affirms.
Teaming up again with long time collaborator Tobias Edwards, and software developer Jayson Haebich, the trio have been working together tirelessly on Walton’s upcoming installation, Human Effect.
Like most of Walton’s artwork, the concept behind this newest installation was inspired by death, mortality and the cycle of life. Nestled away in Melbourne’s unassuming Lingham Lane, Human Effect will bring a little piece of the natural world into our comfortable concrete jungle. Projected into the laneway will be a collection of growing plants, moving leaves and even a smattering of butterflies. But akin to the effect that man has had on nature since the industrial revolution, the plants cannot survive in our presence. When a viewer approaches the piece, the plants will brown, shrivel and die, only to be reborn again once the ‘human effect’ has moved away. Despite the potentially perceived eco-warrior message Human Effect might initially portray, that is not necessarily the story Walton is trying to tell. “I suppose it is sort of gently reinforcing the mark that we have on the environment,” she concedes. “[But it is also] looking at the ephemeral nature of things, of us, of the world around us. A lot of my work is all about what constitutes human experience; looking at emotional responses to the world we live in. [Human Effect] is about the connections we have with each other and the world we live in, and life and death overall. I’m not necessarily preaching an environmental theme.”
Running as part of both Melbourne Festival 2012 and Experimenta’s fifth Biennial of Media Art, Human Effect has been almost two years in the making. After eventually receiving funding last year, the daunting task of creating her first interactive projection became a reality. “[Human Effect] is the first responsive work that I’ve done. I haven’t done interactive works before because, as a viewer, I find that they can be too playful and sort of naive,” Walton explains her apprehension. “I really aim to affect the viewer, to make them think and feel and consider ideas. And a lot of public interactive work tends to not to that; it tends to just sort of be playful and engaging in other ways.”
Reworking their initial prototype which was part of this year’s Gertrude Street Projection Festival, there is an enormous amount of work involved in fitting the piece into Lingham Lane. “We’ve mapped that whole laneway,” Walton explains, “so the work will actually interact with the features specific to that wall. We want it to be really site specific; we want the shadows and movements interplaying with the windows and the surfaces. I can’t wait to see it actually up in that laneway!” Logistics aside, the challenge of successfully creating an artwork that is meaningful as well as responsive is what Walton has most enjoyed about this development. “It’s been a really great challenge to create a public interactive piece that can still be in line with my work, and hopefully still make people feel something.”
BY KATE MCCARTEN
