Watching paint dry will assume new artistic dimensions when performance art staged in Wagga Wagga is beamed around the world for the first time live via the Internet tonight.

Dreams and meditations inspired by the Declaration of Human Rights and shared cultural experiences will take shape on a canvas in the Charles Sturt University Wagga Campus television studio, under the hand of an Indonesian artist working and studying at the regional university, watched by eyes around the world.

This spiritual artistic process and the resultant painting will be exhibited internationally in a pioneering performance on the World Wide Web stage. The work, entitled Meditation, the Spirit of Humanity, will be a collaboration between visual artist, guest lecturer and honours Masters student Hajar Pamadhi, and PhD student and sound artist Ian Macdonald, both from the CSU School of Visual and Performing Arts.

To see this pioneering performance as it happens, starting at 7pm tonight, Thursday 15 June, the web address will be http://137.166.76.12/meditation.

The Soundscape will consist of improvised sounds using bells, found instruments, percussion, voices and electronics. Using a random selection process (Iching) voices in different languages, and different cultures will read elements of the Declaration of Human Rights, poetry and religious teachings.

Indonesia visual artist Hajar Pamadhi Photo: Lee Verrall

While the Soundscape is evolving Hajar, through his technique of meditation for inspiration, will create a painting based on the sounds he hears. He will call on his heritage of Javanism and his extraordinary skills as a visual artist to record and respond to the sounds and ideas presented, translating the message into images using signs and symbols based on his traditional culture. Hajar is well known for his remarkable, tactile, intricate paintings which have featured in CSU exhibitions over the past two years. The voices reading from the Declaration of Human Rights, poetry and religious/philosophic readings are mostly international students, and for many it will be a first "on-stage" performance. The event will be broadcast live over the Internet from the television studio at the CSU Wagga campus by the television production department staff and students, under the direction of Bill Fitzwater. Former CSU lecturer in movement and acting Tessa Bremner will direct the voices and movement. The entire performance is expected to take two hours.