Queensland Flood and Cyclone Mosaic

Help build Queensland’s Flood and Cyclone Mosaic
By Ursula Skjonnemand, 22 December, 2011 11:13AM AEST, ABC Local

Around Queensland there are tens of thousands of photographs of the 2010-2011 flood and cyclone disasters. Contribute yours and help bring the whole story together.

The State Library of Queensland is collecting images from anyone and everyone to create the Flood and Cyclone Mosaic; an interactive collection of digital photographs that document and explore the disasters.

Project artist, Jason Nelson says photographers of all levels are welcome and quality is not an issue.

“Really the stories lie in all of these individuals,” says Jason.

“We’re looking for people’s messy, half-way out of focus photographs because those really capture the heart of what people’s experiences were.”

Head of the project, Linda Pitt says they want to capture the depth and breadth of experiences throughout the state.

“Of course we want lovely images of people helping each other out but we also understand that there will be images of absolute devastation and we want to make sure that we acknowledge and recognise those experiences as well.”

One of the early contributors, Angela Ritchie is a teacher and hobby photographer who documented the floods for Grantham State School.

Angela says she decided to participate in the project to help give people a sense of understanding about what went on in the Lockyer Valley.

“It’s such an important event in Queensland’s history and I think there’s a sense that things related to that event should be shared in a community way.”

Angela says it was incredibly sobering to see the amount of debris throughout the Lockyer Valley after the flood swept though.

“There were all sorts of household belongings just scattered all through the town,” she says.

“Sometimes an image may only be of something very small or insignificant but it can strike at the heart of people.”

The images will be continually re-organised within the mosaic and artist Jason says the random connections mirror the way strangers met and interacted during the disasters.

“Every time you play around with it you see different connections between the images… and you draw different stories together,” says Jason.

“I think that’s kind of what people experience during times of disaster, you find people that connect to other people in unexpected ways.”

Jason is also encouraging people to draw and write on their photographs.

“We want to know from the perspective of the people who took the images what their thoughts were… in that way, each of the images becomes a little narrative, a poetic tile,” he says.

Linda is hoping that once the project is finished, visitors will be able to spend one or two full days exploring the images.

“As more and more images are contributed, the zooming feature becomes more and more dramatic,” she says.

Viewers will be able to explore a particular suburb and search for their own images.

“We have a Google pin map… so we’ve got the ability then when we’re in the mosaic to see where that image was taken and by who,” says Linda.

The Flood and Cyclone Mosaic will be on display at the State Library of Queensland from the 7th of April and there are plans to tour the exhibition in late 2012, early 2013.

In the meantime, you can already explore an example of the mosaic.

“You’ll be able to see it as it grows, which is fantastic,” says Linda.

To contribute to the Flood and Cyclone Mosaic, you can visit the State Library of Queensland website (which has instructions, upload facilities and a tuturial video), or go to one of the 53 participating public libraries for assistance.