Today, we’re diving into the innovative world of “Enzymecomplex,” a digital event organized by Melbourne-based collective Minorarc for the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival. Running from October 1st to 20th, Enzymecomplex brings together independent artists to showcase their work in a virtual space. The event features a diverse range of contributions, including videos, music recordings, writing, and artwork, with each artist having their own unique space in the online “complex.”
Minorarc has a long history of supporting independent music, having organized live performances since 2005. Now, they’re taking a bold step into the digital world with Enzymecomplex, creating an immersive and boundary-free experience for both artists and audiences. With no restrictions on genre or theme, the event promises an unpredictable and exciting journey through a wide array of creative expressions.
We’re thrilled to sit down with Minorarc to explore the inspiration behind this ambitious project, the techniques that brought it to life, and their vision for the future. Let’s delve into the creative process behind Enzymecomplex and discover how this unique digital event is pushing the boundaries of artistic collaboration.
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Could you share the inspiration behind “Enzymecomplex”? ”
Enzymecomplex is a digital event ( www.enzymecomple…ex.art ) for Australia’s Melbourne Fringe Festival this year (1st – 20th October), where independent artists have contributed videos, music recordings, writing and artwork. Each of the presenters has a virtual space in the event’s online “complex”, where they have had free reign to stage whatever their hearts desired. The compilation album at Bandcamp to support the event, came about in much the same way. We purposely left out any boundaries regarding genre or theme, in the hope that each space in the complex would be a new and unpredictable experience.
We’ve always operated like this since the first Enzyme live performance concerts in 2005, which carried on around Melbourne until 2015. The aim was always to showcase a really broad spectrum of musical styles that exist outside of the mainstream. It has always been about introducing the public to new things, and giving artists a platform without barriers.
During conception, I had a vision to tie all the spaces together with an overarching written story (akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure), but in the end we popped this idea into the “maybe next year” basket. If we made the artist’s presentations sequential, in order to follow a storyline, it felt unfair that some would be visible early on, whereas others would need to rely on guests making quite a way though the site before their work was seen. It was a complexity to the complex that just seemed to complex for a first try at something digital!
Thus, the stories, emotions, and ideas are purely that of the many artists who shared their work with us. We are very thankful to them all for their support and faith in the project.
What techniques did you incorporate into “Enzymecomplex” to make it a reality?
For the compilation album, all that was needed was some gentle mastering on a few of the tracks. Other than that, we left the audio files just as the artists had supplied. Instead, our efforts went into working out the best sequence for the music. Dawn Industry and Darkstereo (our two independent music community sites) have released quite a number of compilations over the years, the first being in 2008.
The early ones were CD media, distributed in the pre-streaming age, until around 2013 when we started distributing work digitally. I still miss those CD days! Working digitally is just a more streamlined process though, and it is preferable to ensure that the presentation of the artist’s works match with how the public prefers to “consume”.
This same idea lead to the Enzymecomplex digital event. A way to reach as many people as possible, taking into consideration the big shift in people’s behaviour post-Covid. The aim was to make it easy to access, and able to be enjoyed by guests whenever they wished.
The Enzymecomplex site is quite a simple one really. We went through a stage of research to find the best solution, and finding that nothing pre-existing really did exactly what we wanted, we decided to let the whole thing function much like any other website. The point of difference is really the varied artist’s work within it, and I guess the way we wanted the contributors to flavor things via text and imagery. I really hope that the simple approach worked! A 3D virtual experience would have been really wonderful, but… well, there were of course time limitations, and the limits of my own skill too.
Were there any challenges or breakthroughs during the creative process?
There were plenty of challenges along the way, but none of them were really worrisome. The biggest concern all along was doing justice to the fantastic music and art from all the contributors! I really hope we got it right, or at worst, can learn from this experience for next time. Working with multiple artists has its own challenges too of course, but everyone was really nice to coordinate with and supportive of the concept. I would say that it was a lot less stressful than organising real-life music performances, as we did in the past.
How are you feeling about the release of “Enzymecomplex”? Are you excited to share it with your fans?
Well, I hope that the artists who contributed are as excited I am! Quite nervous about it too, to be honest. Doing an online event is something completely new to us. We’re sure that the artists are sharing the work with their fans, and we’ll see how everything went once the event closes on the 20th October. We’ll collect some feedback and then think about how we might approach such a project again in the future. It has certainly been fun!
Can you give us a hint about what’s next for Dawn Industry, Darkstereo or your other community arts projects?
Honestly, I’m not sure what comes next. I’d really love to present a real-life concert series for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2025, with a focus on neoclassical, ambient and crossover music. The rest of 2024 will kind of determine if this can become a reality, as we reach out to artists and test the landscape so to say. I have no doubt that we “could” do it, and we’ve already uncovered a wonderful venue for such performances. Now the difficult part though… the logistics. It is a long road even once these things a committed too of course, with marketing and promotion requiring a lot of organisation and planning.
Musically, folks who know me well always assume that some recording is happening behind the scenes. They wouldn’t be wrong! I have projects currently working with a live bassist, a violinist, and also a 20 year anniversary album to finish off by 2026. It is nice to always have something to chip away at.
What are your long-term goals for your music career? Are there any specific milestones or achievements you’re striving for?
That’s an interesting question. I’m getting older by the minute, so long-term is a tricky thing to consider. Ideally, my hope is always just to continue exposing underground and independent art for as long as I am able. Playing, recording, and working on music is a life-long love too. I can’t imagine not doing it in one form or another!
As for achievements, in the near future it would be wonderful to be able to perform live again (with Minorarc’s new band-mates), maybe work on a new music video or two, and then put an album together.
