Delayed Response (N.B.original title was Stay or Leave)

Research Background Sue-Anne Ware uses the term 'anti-memorial' to describe memorials that "challenge the inflexibility of permanent memorials and accepted collective notions of history" (2006). Her anti-memorials are transient, incomplete, provocative, interactive, and offer each viewer/participant a unique experience. Delayed Response, an online project, embraces Ware's anti-memorial concept in responding to the 2009 Victorian bushfires. The website also incorporates new media practices evident in such works as Dries Verhoeven's response to the Sri Lankan tsunami (Life Streaming 2010) and online narratives such as Welcome to Pine Point (Simons & Shoebridge 2011) and Memory Loops (Melian 2008). Research Contribution The innovation lies in utilisation of online technologies to create a new form of remembrance and commemoration. The work incorporates a sonic landscape (audio interviews of bushfire-affected residents, found/created soundscapes and composition), supporting visual material (found/created photos, animation, text and videos), poetic texts by local poets, and cutting-edge interactive technologies, and builds upon existing contemporary art including performance, media, sound and digital art. The project is also unique in that it was designed to utilise the NBN for rapid software and plug-in installation, high-speed data download and the delivery of high-resolution audio and video files. Research Significance The project was funded by the Australia Council's Broadband Arts Initiative which invited artistic teams to demonstrate the opportunities opened up by the NBN for Australian culture. Unfortunately, with the 2013 Australian federal election, plans to rollout the NBN were scrapped, and so for most viewers, the site is not accessible in its intended form. Nevertheless, the site was made live in 2014 and will become fully operational when adequate bandwidths are achieved within Australia.