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                    David Williams

                    Test Sites Online: Round 1

                    Illustration of a tree
                    David Williams is a leading Australian theatre artist whose works open spaces for public conversation about political and social issues.

                    David was the Curator of ATF2015, and his theatre works have won Helpmann, Green Room and Drovers’ Awards. David holds a PhD from UNSW, is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, and is the director of Alternative Facts.

                    He was the founder and artistic leader of the performance group version 1.0, and co-created and produced all of the company's work from 1998-2012, including CMI (A certain maritime incident), The wages of spin, This kind of ruckus, The disappearances project, Deeply offensive and utterly untrue, The Bougainville photoplay project, and The table of knowledge.

                    Over the past decade, he has almost exclusively created documentary theatre, crafting evocative performances from found materials such as interviews, archives, and transcripts of public inquiries. He is currently developing Smaller for Take Over! 2020 (Arts Centre Melbourne/Melbourne Fringe) and Sincere Apologies for Vitalstatistix’ Adhocracy program.

                    Snow in Summer

                    Snow in Summer (and other significant trees) will be an immersive augmented reality experience for solo audiences built from evocative portraits of significant trees within the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria. Created by David Williams, Snow in Summer responds to the aesthetic, cultural, historical and political significance of the National Trust-recognised trees within the boundaries of the Melbourne Gardens. From the perspective of the late Anthropocene, Snow in Summer will explore the lost stories and speculative futures for these trees in a changing climate.

                    Audiences will wander the Melbourne Gardens and encounter a series of stories, images and experiences at selected tree sites.

                    Snow in Summer will feature narrative content built from interviews with gardens users, RBGV arborists, and National Trust records, blended with an immersive binaural soundtrack triggered by proximity to specific trees, and augmented reality video responses to the tree sites. Snow in Summer will be a quietly evocative and continually surprising journey through the forest.

                    As well as being inspired by the Melbourne Gardens site, Snow in Summer is driven by an interest in time – not only the connection to the past via long-lived trees, but also possible futures. Given that they manage a large botanic collection, it is perhaps no surprise that future climate trends are a matter of key concern for RBGV.

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