By Amy Mitchell-Whittington
Always be willing to try something unique.
That was the advice the Beatles producer Sir George Martin gave to QUT professor Andy Arthurs during his sound engineer training at AIR studios in London.
Museum of Colliding Dimensions, an interactive game, will be available to play on Sunday.Credit: QUT
It is also the running theme for QUT's CreateX festival of creativity and technology this Sunday.
CreateX creative director Professor Arthurs has had an amazing career in music as an engineer and producer and has worked alongside some of the greats, including Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Bryan Ferry, and Harry Nilsson to name a few, but he said his time spent training with Sir George Martin was one of the most memorable.
CreativeX artistic director Andy Arthurs.Credit: Robert Shakespeare
"He was always looking for new things, always looking for original things, he signed the Beatles as a novelty group than anything else because he had never heard anything like it," Professor Arthurs said.
"He wasn't sure if it would happen but he thought, 'Oh, it's different I should give this a go'.
"I think there is a tendency to try and go with things that have happened already, and you might be quite successful, but you are never going to really be successful unless you are trying to do something that is unique."
The CreateX festival will be celebrating the $88 million expansion of QUT's Creative Industries Faculty at Kelvin Grove and is filled to the brim with unique experiences - from a multi-space music-making experience to light installations and robot shows.
A work by internationally accalimed multi-media artist and performer Michelle Xen will be on display.Credit: QUT
Professor Arthurs said there would be great creative drivers at the festival to encourage people to think outside the box.
"Some of the events are pushing barriers, in a way that is attractive and exciting to see," he said.
Copernicus Challenge is the world's first festival-wide, live-action immersive adventure experience that will be on at the festival.Credit: Kara Holland, QUT
"The whole immersive world, augmentative reality, that is a great stimulant for creative people to find new ways of doing things, joining up things in new ways."
Professor Arthurs said the expansion would hopefully help foster the more unusual, weird and wonderful for the city.
The Dead Puppet Society will conduct a public workshop at QUT's CreateX festival.Credit: Dylan Evans
"Most of the really exciting things that have happened around the world come from unexpected places during unexpected moments," he said.
"They start where a bunch of people are doing something unusual and there is a critical mass of them so I think Brisbane's next phase is to be competent enough and supportive enough to be known for those sorts of innovations."
The CreateX festival will be the last stint for Professor Arthurs at QUT as he dedicates more time to his role as artistic producer of DeepBlue Orchestra.
CreateX will run from 10am to 7pm and will feature a range of events, immersive games, workshops, films, robotic displays and talks.
The night will wrap up with a concert featuring Kate Miller-Heidke, Carita Farrer Spencer and Naomi Price.
Some of the CreateX highlights:
- Dead Puppet Society Workshop
- Immersive interactive games
- Grow your own clothing using fermented kombucha curds ('vegan leather')
- Virtual reality, films & augmented reality
- Robots and performances
- Michelle Xen installation incorporating light, sound, video and sculpture
- John Willsteed on Brisbane's punk music history