...because we humans can only work for a future we can imagine.

 

Redreaming the plains

Redreaming the plains is ITF's on-going R&D project first announced at the Altona Sustainable Development Congress in 1994. Four stages have been completed and more are planned.

Stage 1 -- 1995-97 -- pilot project Painting the future real, one of Australia's earliest web-based cultural development initiatives. Archive pages first published on-line in 1996 have now been re-published as a record of this pioneering cultural intervention.

The principle outcomes of Painting the future real included a virtual possum skin cloak created in association with the Wurundjeri Tribal Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council, Museum Victoria, and many other project partners. Sponsors included the Australia Council's CEAD Fund; the National Urban Development Program of the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Regional Development; and the Sidney Myer Fund. Other support was provided by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Training;Scienceworks Museum and Victoria University.

Stage II -- 1999-2001 -- Painting the future real becomes Redreaming the plain with funding from the Australian Film Commission. Four Victorian writers and several designers were commissioned to develop interactive content about a particular bioregion, Victoria's basalt plain.

Stage III -- 2001-2002 -- the Stage II hypertexts plus hundreds of images are loaded onto ITF's SQL database now hosted by the Environment & Planning Program, RMIT University. This stage was launched overlooking a threatened remnant grassland on 3 December, 2002.

Stage IV -- 2002-2004 - Redreaming the plains becomes a open-access e-journal (ISSN 1447-3461)

Stage V -- 2005 - to be announced.

ITF gratefully acknowledges our sponsors and project partners.