AQUA LOCI: Greg Giannis
Guerrilla Gardens on the Verge
Exploring the theme of ‘guerrilla gardens’ in Melbourne's northern suburbs - private garden extensions on the verges of local waterways including Edgars and Merri Creeks...
About the artwork and interactive map
Photography, interviews, music and online locative technologies will be used to creatively explore the theme of ‘guerrilla gardens’ in Melbourne's northern suburbs - private garden extensions on the verges of local waterways including Edgars and Merri Creeks. These gardens have been created by the locality's post-war migrant communities - and are now disappearing due to generational change. The gardens represent a community whose energy and ingenuity built productive new lives in an unfamiliar land, bringing with them enriching cultural practices, food, and ways of living.
The project will involve creative online mapping of Darebin’s guerrilla gardens, photographs of the gardens pinned to locations, text-based community responses to the gardens and instrumental musical pieces recorded in Darebin and inspired by the gardens and related culture.
View Greg's artwork by interacting with the map...
About the artist
Greg Giannis is an artist, educator and researcher. He has a diverse artistic practice, experimenting with many mediums and in many contexts. He explores walking as performance, cartography, autoethnography, bespoke software, critical making, ethics of coding and more. Currently exploring the ethics and creative application of machine learning. Past creative projects include photographic work, installations, public projections, net.art, collaborations with living creatures and generative art. In addition Greg has worked in a range of commercial environments as a software design engineer, web designer, usability consultant, technical consultant, makerspace and education consultant.
Greg has taught for over 25 years in TAFE, HE, and more recently Primary and Secondary schools running makerspaces and is involved in an international digital literacy in the early years research project. Currently, he is a sessional teacher/lecturer/subject coordinator in the School of Education at La Trobe university, ACU and UNE in the areas of Digital Technologies, Design and Technology, STEM and Media Arts.
