Fractal Blog

For those suffering from Apple Fever, today is the day: Apple's 215th store in the world opens in Sydney at 5pm today. This is the site, in the middle of the CBD. It's been under wraps for months. Some people have been queuing since yesterday to be first in the new store. (It's winter here, and temperatures do drop to something like 13C at night.) While I will admit to having a weakness for most things Apple I can't imagine going that far. And the new iPhone 3G isn't even out yet (another hotly-anticipated event).

Having chortled at the queue I went to find evidence of the other event that is just starting: The 2008 Biennale, billed as "Australia's Festival of Contemporary Art". Contemporary Art is one of those terms that holds very limited interest for me, evoking as it does images of unmade beds and rooms with a light switch but no furniture a la Tate Gallery in London. However, there is supposed to be an Art Walk all the way from Wooloomooloo through the Botanical Gardens via The Rocks (basically, along the Southern coast of the harbour) to Cockatoo Island (the latter via free ferry). This Walk is meant to "surprise" and "challenge" Sydneysiders on their way to work so I was hoping for photo opportunities. I found nothing Art-related while strolling through the Botanical Gardens, so either I don't recognise Contemporary Art when I see it or they haven't finished putting up the art works. Still, on a sunny winter day, the fountain in Hyde Park (that's Hyde Park Sydney, not London) caused an artificial rainbow which was very pretty.

Since I clearly had to create my own Contemporary Art on this walk I took some more photographs. This is a detail of the same fountain.

This is a fairly standard shot of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House seen from the Domain. The difference between a snapshot and Art is the removal of all colour, followed by applying a gradient filter to the result.

The Leaning Tower of Sydney. Or, if one wants to be prosaic about it, the Sydney Tower shot at an angle.