SAM LAWSemi Permanent is a creative festival held at Carriageworks every year. It has become a key destination for many creatives across the globe, attracting innovators and leading creatives to present and display, and partnering with some of the world’s biggest and boldest brands.
The Semi Permanent lineup this year was nothing short of amazing with:
Aaron Rose, Aidan Sarsfield, Alan Liao, Ashley Avci, Ben Wright, David Caon, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Emma Morris, Fiona Herse Woo, Gemma O’Brien, Glenn Cole, Henry Wilson, Ian Wong, Jacqueline Bourke, James Jean, James Pearce, Janne Ryan, Jay Manley, Jess Miller, Jim Moriarty, Jonathan Briggs, Josh To, Katherine Keating, Kelvin Ho, Kevin Coatman, Leo Faber, Lisa Havilah, Luke Lucas, Mollie Hill, Moth (Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits & Ifor Ashton), Oliver Stone, Paul Stafford, Ron Dumas, Saurabh Datta, Sharni Spencer, Stuart O’Brien, Tarik Abdel-Gawad, & Toby Walsh.
There were also installations, interactive displays, workshops, set designs and titles by:
Google, Toby & Pete, Lexus, Facebook, Dropbox, Moo, AWARD, Hyper Island, NIDA, Autumn Co., WeAreTriibe, and FrameStore.
These amazing titles were done by FrameStore. The directors of the titles; Akira and Dan, have some extra detail about the piece over on their site
The Space
Carriageworks is an amazing space. A place entrenched with design and creativity, where trains were built for the majority of the 19th century, before closing down in 1988. In 2002, what is now known as Carriageworks was purchased by the NSW Ministry for the Arts with a vision for the space to become an artistic hub, and now it houses gallery exhibitions and hosts markets, workshops, concerts and international events like Semi Permanent and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
During Semi Permanent, AWARD, Dropbox, Facebook and Google Tilt Brush setup interactive displays.
Dropbox
Facebook invited people to tell their story
Moo
AWARDHidden Artistry
Lexus collaborated with Semi Permanent to present Hidden Artistry; an exhibition inviting a series of artists to create an artwork inspired by a unique design detail of the Lexus LC 500.
Sculpture by Dion Horstmans
These amazing tail lights inspired the installation by Toby & Pete.
The Talks
Talks and panels are one of the main features of Semi Permanent. These have been evolving over the 15 years that the conference has been running. In the early years, the majority were presentations of work, with some process, but these have evolved to include panels, and this year we even had a live brief.
Founder and Curator Murray Bell
Gemma O’Brien; legendary illustrator and typographer was our illustrious MC
Katherine Keating from VICE Impact was due to speak in person, but due to personal reasons, had to dial in; it was 2am where she was. 
Future State Panel on ‘Immersive Storytelling’ with Tarik Abdel-Gawad from Google, Aidan Sarsfield from Animal Logic & Leo Faber from BADFAITH.
Google’s Josh To was a late addition to the lineup, and warranted a secret session. He is the founder of multiple companies, including The Hattery, which was purchased by Google, and also of WellDone, which helps to build clean water wells in developing countries with some interesting technology.
Paul Stafford gave us insights into two rebrands that DesignStudio did for a couple of brands that you may have heard of: The Premier League & AirBnB.
“Optimism is badass. It keeps you in the exploratory mindset you need to make s#!t happen.” – Glenn Cole of 72andSunny
“Buy a prison, I highly recommend that” – Jonathan Briggs from Hyper Island
“Content Matters” – Elizabeth Ann MacGregor; Director at MCA
Director of Carriageworks Lisa Havilah has turned the venue into an artistic epicentre
Integrating Technology into your Craft gave us some insight into the use of Googles Tilt Brush and a couple of colaborations that took place during Semi-Permanent.
Fiona Herse Woo – Concept Artist and Designer for VR and AR projects at Google Daydream.
James Jean
Sharni Spencer – Soloist at The Australian Ballet
Luka Lucas – Typographer
Kelvin Ho – ArchitectFuture State Panel on ‘Artificial Intelligence’; some interesting & scary thoughts came out of this – self driving cars, no work, and the next creative renaissance?
Toby Walsh – Professor & Leading AI Expert AKA “The Rockstar of AI”
Ian Wong – Digital Strategist at IBM
The men from NIKE – Kevin Coatman; Creative Director & Ron Dumas; Global Brand Director, who has been with the company for over 40 years.
The live brief
A collaboration between 72andSunny, Sea Shepherd, ATFRS, and Semi Permanent, is a mission to get the shark fin trade banned in Australia. A trade that is killing 38 million sharks a year. They invited everyone to #killtheintrade by getting involved in the movement, utilising assets and creating more, and taking political action. If you want to get involved, or learn more, head to killthefintrade.com.
Jim Moriarty – Director of 72andSunny
Ashley Avci – Sea Shepherd Crew
Mollie Hill – Strategy Director at 72andSunnyOliver Stone
The other highlight for me was an intimate interview with Oliver Stone, by founder, curator & mega-fan Murray Bell. It was amazing to hear real stories, influences and anecdotes from the legendary storyteller, including his first acid trip on Bondi Beach.
Saurabh Datta, Design Technologist at Frog, and also Automato was like the mad scientist of robotics.
The ‘Frog Bot Panel’ with Gemma O’Brien, Frog Bot (host), Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon) and Google Assistant (Google) answering questions to the best of their ability.
I have nothing to do with Skynet – Amazon Alexa
James Pearce – Lead Architect, Katsalidas
Jess Miller – Program Director, City of Sydney
Stuart O’Brien – Founder, Houston GroupSome amazing insights in the final Future State Panel on Redesigning Cities.
David Caon – Caon Studio
Kelvin Ho – Architect, AKIN
Henry Wilson – Studio Henry WilsonThese three are fortunate enough have international reach within their fields of design, but stay local with their offices/studios.
Ben Wright from DesignStudio talks about rebranding Deliveroo
The Deliveroo jacket has been repurposed to be worn at raves, and has been seen selling on Ebay and other online stores.
Marie-Margaux Taskiri-Scanatovitis –Director at Moth
Ifor Ashton – Producer at Moth
Jay Manley – Senior Technical Program Manager at Tesla dialled in from the USA
Panel with Western Sydney University on ‘Contribution of Creativity in Future Work’
Sarah Gilbert – Host
Aaron Rose – Director & Curator
Emma Morris – Producer, ABC
Alan Liao – Founder – TzukuriWell that’s another Semi Permanent done and dusted, with plenty of inspiration, and some intuitive insights to ponder about the future. I can hardly believe that it’s been running for 15 years, and that our own Mr Fox spoke at the inaugural one way back in 2003 with Australia Infront. Here’s a few more images from around the conference. Mark it in your diaries for next year, and drop by their creative portal at semipermanent.com
