Abbeyfest Audio Visual Gig - Genesis of the idea

The idea for this project came to me during Abbeyfest 2009 but we didnt have the resources to pull it off back then and the weekend really got away from us organising other events. 

Footage from the 'Playhouse' project in Dublin - see video below - really got me thinking more about it. I'm not a huge fan of most public art in Dublin but this was inspired - interactive, real time art that 'paints' the town in a very real sense of the word. 

We had collected some footage from James Carroll, a local filmmaker who has been shooting video in the town since it was invented and has a huge collection of footage spanning 30 odd years of Abbeyleix history. 

So I thought, 'why dont we use this and paint the town of Abbeyleix with it over the weekend?' One of the big successes we had last year was a screening of some of this old footage and it brought young and old alike together. And that was very satisfying for the organisers I can tell you. Its then you know you have something special. 

I've contacted Tom Cox and Kevin O'Brien - manager of the heritage house and local historian respectively - and they are hard at work collecting old photos of the town. And I've told James Carroll to get everything he has together so we can start digitising at a rapid rate. 

We are going to have a screen in the Library viewable from the street and get as many TV's in shop windows as we can. Starting mid May. 

That should get tongues wagging. 

 More updates to follow.....