This proposed project hinges on a fascination with the location (the novel, film and other related literature) of Hanging Rock in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria, Australia. The novel Picnic at Hanging Rock was written by Joan Lindsay and first published in 1967, the film of the same name was made in 1975 and directed by Peter Weir and related literature includes the unpublished last chapter (The Secret of Hanging Rock) and a book containing various 'theories' about the disappearances (The Murders at Hanging Rock).
During my time in Australia in 2006 (while on the ACE Oxford and Melbourne Fellowship), I collected super 8 film, digital stills and DV Cam footage of Hanging Rock on the ground as well as aerial footage (from a flight in a light aircraft). The intention was that this aerial footage could assist in constructing the topography for a virtual landscape. In brief, this multimedia work would use Hanging Rock as the basis for a video game that would play with ideas of immersion, shape shifting, temporal anomalies and geological impossibility. I am intrigued by the mythology which has built up around the novel/film - but specifically what this suggests about our relationship with anomalous geological formations. The book for example expands the levels of the rock to fit the narrative. For me, this suggests the virtual multi-leveled space of a computer game in turn and would be the starting point for this piece.
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