Tag Archives: city of sydney

Following on our trip to Melbourne, the Holler creatives ventured outside Surry Hills (gasp!) and into the far northern tip of the CBD. Laneways by George is an initiative by the City of Sydney to bring its historic laneways into focus. A few months ago Holler pitched an idea (together with Arup, SuperCollossal, UTS DAB, the ABC and the Powerhouse Museum) for a series of installations. Sadly it didn’t get the green light, possibly because it proved way too ambitious. Our proposal included covering all the featured laneways with WiFi, connecting the places with an overarching narrative, projecting dynamically onto the walls, bringing historical footage onto the mobile…you can tell, it was the whole digital shebang.

Don’t quite know why we went overboard like this, maybe a desire to catch up with what other cities have done already (did I hear anyone say Melbourne?). Anyway, maybe there are some nuggets of inspiration in it for you – if you can decipher the tiny type.

Some installations stand out like the birdcages in Angel Place (“Forgotten Songs“), the flood-simulating trash collage (“Seven Metre Bar“) or the strangely erotic/revolting humming pieces of flesh in Bridge Lane (“I Dwell in the City and the City Dwells in Me“).

In the end, the series of installations is worth exploring. Even if the work doesn’t resonate with you – you walk through spaces you didn’t know existed and wouldn’t use (unless you are a delivery man for some of the bars and shops on the high street).