Semi 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.2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 001

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.

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During Semi Permanent, AWARD, Dropbox, Facebook and Google Tilt Brush setup interactive displays.

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 046Dropbox
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 047Facebook invited people to tell their story

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 048Moo
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 054AWARD

Hidden 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.

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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.
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 004Founder and Curator Murray Bell
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 013Gemma O’Brien; legendary illustrator and typographer was our illustrious MC
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 005Katherine 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. 2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 006Future State Panel on ‘Immersive Storytelling’ with Tarik Abdel-Gawad from Google, Aidan Sarsfield from Animal Logic & Leo Faber from BADFAITH.2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 010Google’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.

2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 012 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.
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 014“Optimism is badass. It keeps you in the exploratory mindset you need to make s#!t happen.” – Glenn Cole of 72andSunny
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 015“Buy a prison, I highly recommend that” – Jonathan Briggs from Hyper Island
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 016“Content Matters” – Elizabeth Ann MacGregor; Director at MCA
2017-05-25 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 01 017Director 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.
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 019Fiona Herse Woo – Concept Artist and Designer for VR and AR projects at Google Daydream.

2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 020James Jean
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 021 Sharni Spencer – Soloist at The Australian Ballet

2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 022Luka Lucas – Typographer
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 023Kelvin Ho – Architect

Future State Panel on ‘Artificial Intelligence’; some interesting & scary thoughts came out of this – self driving cars, no work, and the next creative renaissance?

2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 024Toby Walsh – Professor & Leading AI Expert AKA “The Rockstar of AI”
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 025Ian Wong – Digital Strategist at IBM

2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 027The 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

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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.

2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 035Jim Moriarty – Director of 72andSunny
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 037Ashley Avci – Sea Shepherd Crew
2017-05-26 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 02 038Mollie Hill – Strategy Director at 72andSunny

Oliver Stone

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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.
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2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 066Saurabh Datta, Design Technologist at Frog, and also Automato was like the mad scientist of robotics.

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 067The ‘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

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 069James Pearce – Lead Architect, Katsalidas
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 070Jess Miller – Program Director, City of Sydney
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 071Stuart O’Brien – Founder, Houston Group

Some amazing insights in the final Future State Panel on Redesigning Cities.
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2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 073David Caon – Caon Studio
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 074Kelvin Ho – Architect, AKIN
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 076Henry Wilson – Studio Henry Wilson

These three are fortunate enough have international reach within their fields of design, but stay local with their offices/studios.

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 077Ben 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.
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2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 080Marie-Margaux Taskiri-Scanatovitis –
Director at Moth
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 081Ifor Ashton – Producer at Moth

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 083Jay Manley – Senior Technical Program Manager at Tesla dialled in from the USA

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 084Panel with Western Sydney University on ‘Contribution of Creativity in Future Work’

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 086Sarah Gilbert – Host
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 085Aaron Rose – Director & Curator

2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 087Emma Morris – Producer, ABC
2017-05-27 - Semi Permanent 2017 - Day 03 088Alan Liao – Founder – Tzukuri

Well 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

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