Visual Art
Tank and the Bangas
In term one, 3RRR FM generously gave Year 10 Media students free tickets to see a live gig by Tank and the Bangas in their broadcast studios. The class learnt about the role that independent radio stations have in building creative and inclusive communities and supporting diverse music.
Students then produced a music review reflecting on their experiences on the day.
Please read the review below by Ally Cameron to learn more about the band.
Tank and The Bangas
4 out of 5 stars
The voice behind the unique and captivating Tank is Tarriona Ball, the lead singer and award-winning performer from New Orleans. The group met at an open mic night show called Liberation Lounge at the New Orleans ‘Blackstar Cafe and Books’, later forming as Tank and The Bangas in 2011. New Orleans is the birthplace of blues and jazz and has genres such as rhythm, blues, hip hop and jazz prominent throughout street music and culture. The band consists of Joshua Johnson (musical director) on drums, Norman Spence on bass and synth keys, Jonathan Johnson on bass, Merell Burkett on keyboard, Joe Johnson on keyboard, Anjelika Joseph and Kayla Buggage as background vocals, Albert Allenback on alto saxophone and flute and Etienne Stouflet on tenor saxophone. Since forming in 2011, the group have won a number of awards such as RAWards best New Orleans artist in 2014, Offbeat Magazine’s emerging artist award 2014, Afropunk’s festival contest winners 2016 and the NPR tiny desk contest winners in 2017 where they bet 6,000 other competitors. The dynamic group combine funk, r&b, jazz, spoken word, gospel, scat, hip hop, rap and soul creating a flawless sound full of energy and power. Tarriona’s strong, passionate vocals are perfectly combined with the dramatic and playful instrumental accompaniments.
On the 8th of March I attended a Tank and The Bangas gig at the Triple R broadcasting studio. Their live performance was theatrical and exciting. Their seamless mix of genres flowed on effortlessly, considering the varieties and differences amongst some of the genres the incorporate. They create a warm and empowering atmosphere, immersing the audience through Tarriona’s idiosyncratic vocals swinging from a high pitch creating an upbeat, happy, vibe which then moves to her emotional, heavy, deep lyrics that provoke thought using improvisation and poetic lyrics. ‘I'm everything that a flower is, I plan to make about 30 kids’; a lyric from the track ‘Oh Heart’. Tarriona constantly keeps listeners on their toes with the quirkiness and creativity behind her vocals. ‘Three, forgive your dad, he has Alzheimer’s. Four, shut up, your little brother looks up to you’. These are lyrics from the track ‘Instructions on Being’, which demonstrate the seriousness and soul-stirring lyrics she can produce. She follows up the intense lyrics with something more light hearted: ‘Five, you should try finger-painting sometime’, giving listeners a sense of relief. Before and throughout the majority of the songs Tarriona incorporated scat into her performance as well as spoken word, which was particularlly prevalent throughout the course of the group’s performance. Spoken word is a genre derived from hip hop. It is a performance art focused around word play using pitch and tone to convey emotion. From their first album ‘Think Tank’ released in 2013, in the track ‘Rollercoasters’ from 0:45 seconds we can hear a spoken word verse. It’s clear to see that the group, particularly Tarriona’s vocal style, is highly influenced by genres like scat. Scat is a vocal style using onomatopoeia and nonsense syllables instead of words. It originates from a west african practise which involves assigning fixed syllables to percussion patterns. This was made popular by Louis Armstrong in 1927 with his hit song ‘Heebie Jeebies’.
The group’s approach involves a complex use of stylistic vocal variation and characteristics of a wide range of genres, which captivates listeners by combining these with their mesmerising and theatrical performance skills. Personally, I found Tank and the Bangas enthralling to watch and listen to, whether it was via a live performance or through a screen. It left me with the same feelings both ways, happiness crawling through my bones. Tank and the Bangas deserve to wallow in glory.
--Ally Cameron 10A
Media Leap Challenge
Year ten media students have been mastering the art of manual DSLR photography. After undertaking a series of short exercises designed to build their technical understanding of the relationship between aperture, ISO and shutter speed, students have explored composition and theme through the Canon Leap Photography Challenges.
https://www.canon.com.au/explore/challenges/leap/how-it-works
Their remarkable work can be seen in the movie attached
The Maker
Year ten media students recently had the opportunity to film a documentary on the award winning local playwright and author Michele Lee http://www.michelevanlee.com.au/about/.
Students will work in various production and post production roles to apply their understanding of the engaging and empathetic media form of documentary.
This documentary will be uploaded to the next edition of this newsletter, so please watch this page!
The theme of the documentary unit this year is The Maker. Working in groups, students will investigate how creative individuals in the local community enrich our lives (as well as their own) by making art works in a wide variety of disciplines across the arts
Thank you to Luke Hickmott for organising this special guest.
Top Screens
Year ten media students looked ahead to the future as they headed to ACMI this week for an excursion to see Top Screens. This incredibly inspiring screening featured the 14 best films made by VCE students last year. It was followed by a presentation by renowned media teacher and state assessor, Brett Lamb http://lessonbucket.com/ who discussed the SAT undertaken by these students to produce these wonderful films and media projects. Thanks to Gef Senz for organising this excursion.
Year 9 Architecture
Over the term in Year 9 Architecture students have been researching and exploring architectural structures, their purpose and connection to community and environment. Students have also been engaging with architectural design ideas and building techniques to apply and understand the importance of critical and creative thinking strategies towards student created architectural structures.
Year 9 Architecture students attended an excursion on Thursday to some of Melbourne City’s major landmarks (RMIT University, State Library, Federation Square along with others) to explore first hand the significant role architects have played in the structural and aesthetic developments in architecture throughout Melbourne’s CBD.
Year 12 Visual Communication Design
Over the last few weeks Year 12 VCD students have had the opportunity to engage first hand, with industry professionals Alex Trevisan (Graphic Designer), Daniel Guglielmino (Building Designer @ BBDesign) and Melissa Lunardon (Interior Designer - melissalunardon.com) to discuss design practices, techniques and processes as part of their Unit 3 Design Industry Practice assessment.
It has provided for Year 12 students a first hand account and insight into the world of local and international design practices across a range of domains and industries. These guest speakers, one of them a past design student from Coburg High School, have enthusiastically shared through their personal work and experiences of the design industry factors influencing their design today.
Counihan Gallery
On Friday 23rd March, 12 Year 10 students attended a program at Counihan gallery guided by the exhibition curator and artists through the process of making collaborative exhibitions, the realities of being a contemporary art maker and the current climate for issues addressing women in the arts.
This was followed by a zine making workshop run by Jess Knight, which got our students curious and they experimented with zine making in the true Coburg spirit.
Just quietly, our visual art department is hoping for an underground zine scene to take off at CHS.
