SCANZ2013 Keynote: Nina Czegledy – reFraming Nature

Czegledy
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Abstract

Taking an ecological approach to observing patterns in time and space systems is a very current direction to tackle environmental issues. This discussion focuses attention on observations of an historical nature as well as considering emerging patterns in our individual and collective attitude to Nature, ecology and the environment. Recently, several projects – highly evolved in both concept and process- emerged. Some of these case studies are used as primary foci of exemplification in order to explain the dialectics between Humanity and the environment through artistic capture.  These dialectics also bring into relation the significance and future implications of fledgling initiatives in regions where cognition of environmental activism by artists is less advanced. Consequently, this exploratory essay has a long, complex and sometimes elastic time-line, yet nevertheless proposes an underlying correlation tying the diversity of perspective together as a way of indexing Humankind’s relation to Nature on a social and cultural basis. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the main goal of Eco-activist art to re-Frame complex issues so that they maintain essential meaning while the process itself facilitates attitude changes to the environment – mainly through positive social innovation leading to social change.

SCANZ2013: skype bridge

This special session of 3rd nature involves six presentations from Europe.  It occurs on Friday, February 1, 2013 8-9 pm, from Belgium, Germany, Spain and Austria and simultaneously Saturday, February 2, 2013, 8-9 am in Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand. This session occurs immediately after the Tomo Whakaari (Dawn Opening) for the 3rd nature exhibition has completed.

Authors

  1. Maja Kuzmanovich
  2. Verena Kuni
  3. Lorena Lozano
  4. Reni Hofmuller
  5. Annemie Maes
  6. Lenka Dolanova and Michal Kindernay

 

Vegetal culture

Maja Kuzmanovich, Brussels, Belgium
http://fo.am/search/?term=vegetal+culture

Abstract

At the epicenter of culture, gardening and technology we might be able to see how plants can become organisational principles for human society in the turbulent times of the 21st century. Although we have to scavenge the fringes of contemporary society, we can observe many healing effects that humans can have on their surroundings through a symbiotic collaboration with plants. People offer a helping hand to a struggling habitat through “natural farming” (Fukuoka 1990). Others design whole lifecycle systems inspired by natural processes, based on the art and science of bio-mimicry. However, on a systemic level, we still don’t know how to overhaul wasteful human behaviors en masse. How do we encourage a more resilient culture, so that humans and non-humans can continue living, preferably together? How do we stimulate a fertile entanglement of culture, gardening and technology that can give the rise to diverse and holistic communities of practice? Communities, are capable of forging symbiotic relationships between postindustrial human societies and the rest of the earth. Composting bitterness to grow beauty.

Maja photo

Bio

Maja is a generalist, with a background in Design Forecasting and Interactive Media. Maja is the founder, principal invigorator and chef de cuisine of FoAM. Prior to FoAM, she experimented with MR & VR in research institutes across Europe (GMD, CWI, Starlab), lectured (HKU), as well as collaborated with technological arts collectives such as Post World Industries and Pips:Lab. Her particular approach to people & technology has been recognized by the MIT’s Technology review & the World Economic Forum, awarding her the titles of Top 100 Young Innovator (1999) & Young Global Leader (2006). Her current interests span alternate reality storytelling, pata-botany, resilience, speculative culture and techno-social aspects of food & food systems.

 

Electro-Culture Revisited

Verena Kuni, Frankfurt, Germany
www.kuniver.se
www.under-construction.cc
www.gunst.info

Abstract

If technologies have always formed and informed our attitudes towards and relationships with nature, this is also true for the way we’re commuting and communicating the latter. But what does this mean exactly when looking at “human-plant relationships in the electronic circuit” – and at (DIY-) experiments with electricity, electronic media and network technologies in gardening and agriculture?

Verena Kuni photo

Bio

Verena Kuni is scholar in the field of history and theory of art and media cultures and professor for Visual Culture at Goethe University, Frankfurt Main. Since 1996 she is lecturing, researching and teaching at universities and art academies in Europe and beyond. From 1995 to 1999, she co-curated the video section of Kasseler Dokumentarfilm and Video Festival, where since 1999 she is director of the yearly interfiction summit for art, media, and network cultures. Her research is dedicated a. o. to transfers between material and media cultures; media of imagination and technologies of transformation; alternate realities; urban biotopes; DIY and prosumer cultures; games, play and toys as tools. She has published widely (print & online) on contemporary arts & media, their histories and futures. Since 1997, she also runs her own radio shows.

 

Econodos, a laboratory in the open fields

Lorena Lozano, Gijon, Spain
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/recursos/personas/lorena-lozano

Abstract

Econodos (a laboratory in the open fields) is an open platform for creators, artists and designers working on art and nature relationships. It is a knowledge exchange network that tries to visualize new ways of dialogue with the biosphere and to develop eco-technologies. In an inter-disciplinary and multi-technique way, it integrates design, architecture, biology, music and informatics. It works in the field of communication, social mediation, research, documentation and creation, developing collaborative activities (workshops, exhibitions, artistic interventions, social participation dynamics and public spaces-debates). The nodes operate as a knowledge-net, focused on the ecological, social and technological challenges that today’s society is faced with, while being anchored in three ecological registers –environment, social relations, human subjectivity. Projects developed are based upon new paradigms of the relationship between humans and nature, the increasing importance of urban agriculture and the role of art as innovative imagination and communication instruments.

Members: Lorena Lozano (biologist and artist), Rubén Suárez (designer) and Javier Palacios (marine biologist and programmer)

Projects: ecoLAB: http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/plataformacero/ecolab

Is an experimentation laboratory at the intersection between ecology, art and open electronics. It is a project that generates subjectivities and dynamics in relation to the biosphere and its ecosystems, through the implementation of eco-technologies (high-tech and low-tech). it works at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Asturias.  Greencity: Urban recepies in the limits between the urban and the rural; self-sufficiency, autoconstruction, DIY, harvesting the city, greening the surroundings. The same gardens: How are the artistic perspectives used politic tools on the praxis of social and environmental praxis? ¿Can aesthetics play a key role on these processes? How and why contemporary artists use new and emergent green spaces in the cities? To what extent are these visions another utopia fantasy? Biohacking: Reflections abut life, interpersonal relationships and philosophical meaning. How can scientific advances change the way we understand ourselves and our human beings ideals? What does the development of biotechnology mean for the human species in how we relate to each other and perceive the non-human environment? To what extent do the powerful new ways of manipulating life, separate the capacity for production and reproduction of living beings from the environment and the communities that they are historically immersed in?

Lorena

Bio

Graduated in Biology, specialized in Botany, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturias, Spain (1998). BHons degree in Fine Art, specialized in Sculpture and Environmental Art, Mackintosh School of Art, Glasgow University, Scotland (2007) Master in History and Sociocultural Analysis, Universidad de Oviedo (2012). Currently coordinates the project ecoLAB at Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijón) and is PhD Universidad de Oviedo in “Nature, Art and Society”. From 2007 to 2010, collaborated in Barcelona with the teams Ciutats Ocasionals, Sitesize and Idensitat on artistic and interdisciplinary projects on landscape and public space in contemporary cities. Have done artist residencies at Museum Manuel Felguérez (2007, Zacatecas, México) and Rubha Phoil Permaculture Centre (2005, Island of Skye). Worked for five years at The Hidden Gardens (regeneration and community project at Tramway, Glasgow). Trained in the fields of landscaping and social work in Switzerland and Majorca from 1999 to 2001.

 

Aims and objectives of ESC: Production, Work-lab/Communication/Networking, Presentation and Documentation

Reni Hofmuller, Graz, Austria
http://esc.mur.at/

Possibility Grid

This title is programmatic for all the work we (the whole ESC-Team) do on a daily basis. In daily life, the decisions we take, the way we treat our surroundings, shows who we are. It was also the title of a show in 2011.

The central task of ESC is to produce and present art; the main emphasis is on the precise observation and seismographic capture of artistic processes that examine sociopolitical developments (information technology and biotechnology, socioeconomic systems) and new technologies (hardware and software).

Connected Open Greens http://esc.mur.at/opengreensgraz.html

The topic of Connected Open Greens is the implementation of contemporary art pieces by usage of gardening situations, especially looking into micro-sociological and ecological systems related to time as starting points for the development of new artistic practices. Community gardens provide access to fresh produce and plants as well as access to satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment. They are publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access, and management, as well as typically owned in trust by local governments or nonprofits. (Wikipedia) This approach should be used to introduce contemporary time-based art into local communities and environments that usually are not part of the artistic focus. Urban gardening thereby becomes a method to find alternative communication strategies for contemporary art. At the same time, technological and organizational knowledge from artists enters into the world of community-based local work. Inspirations for these strategies are collected from other art project and the TIK-partners, especially from OKNO with their experiences with their open green experiments.

Reni Hofmuller

Bio

“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” Emma Goldman”

Based in Graz, Austria, Reni works as a media artist and activist, musician, composer, performer, organizer and  activist in the fields of usage of (new) media, technology and politics in general, engaged in development of contemporary art. Co-founder of ESC (artistic director), Radio Helsinki (community radio in Graz), mur.at, member of Institute of Media Archeology, 42 (artists group), /etc.

 

City Bee Monitoring

Annemie Maes, Brussels, Belgium
http://opengreens.net/category/opengreens/city-honeybees

It is remarkable to see how a bee population functions and evolves in accordance to the human activites we are developing around them: gardening and urban agriculture. Honeybees are very responsive to the different biotopes that we share they are good bio-indicators. Therefore we want to gather insight into what constitutes the diversity of our surrounding living place and research this on a deeper level. We developed yet different tools for identifying the specificity and relatedness of plants, insects and human activities. Adding new sensor networks to our Connected Open Greens distributed garden database, we hope to portray the surround Brussels Canal Zone, as it is changing over time into a continuous productive urban landscape. With this new project, Corridors, in which city honeybees play the leading role, we want to research how the sustainability of cities can be increased in the future, and how citizens can be actively involved.

Annemie Maes

Bio

Annemie Maes, media artist and activist, holds master degrees in fine arts and cultural studies. Her artistic research and cultural activism projects are publicly presented as ‘politics of change’ with a focus on actual topics as ecology and women empowerment. Most of the projects are linked to the problematization of new art in public space, from a socio-cultural background. Annemie Maes is co-founder of Okno, an artist-run organization working with media art and ecology. Her recent research work focuses on Corridors & Connected Open Greens, both transdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, biology and green technology.

 

KRA – Kravín Rural Arts

Lenka Dolanova and Michal Kindernay, Kravin, Czech Republic
http://yo-yo-yo.org/en/

KRA – Kravín Rural Arts is an emerging residency center based in a former cow-house in a small Czech village. Based in rural area, we are forced to work with “indigenous” people, the “locals”. The necessity to confront various “cultures” is obvious. Our aim is to use the means and tools of arts to challenge the local 3 ecologies (environmental, mental, social, as described by Félix Guattari). We fight the mortification of traditions by inserting new living traditions. We organize walks with artists sonifying fences and trees. Walking is the basic tool for acquiring pieces of local knowledge, “solvitur ambulando”, solving problems by walking and talking. We urge other artists to play on barrels, on the wind, on local broadcasting system. We construct beehives. We input ourselves as artists and researchers, into our community, using camouflage of beekeepers, gardeners, denizens, who we became. While city bees have allegedly more honey than village bees, citizens consume more products from “farmers’ markets” than villagers. The villages are losing their apples, pears and cherries. The diversity, variability and fruit-fullness is what we are fighting for, armed with unholy trinity: ecology + media + art.

– KRA = floe

– KRÁ = “caw” or “kaah”, sound of raven

– KRAVÍN = cowhouse

Lenka DolanovaMichal Kindernay photo

Bio

Yo-yo is a non-profit organization started in March 2009 by collective of artists, curators and organizers. Since 2012 it is divided into two interconnected branches – Yo-yo urban and Yo-yo rural -, based in Prague and Hranice u Malče (Vysočina). Yo-yo is initiating and supporting the experiments at the intersection of art, ecology and media, across the rural and urban contexts. Our aim is to explore the new spaces for art, outside of the official art centers. Since 2010, it has been involved in developing the KRA (Kravín Rural Arts) project of residency center in the village Hranice u Malče in Vysočina region of the Czech Republic – a space for creation, meetings, and discussion, dedicated above all to ecological media arts.

About Intercreate.org

SCANZ 2011 photo

A photo by Raewyn Turner of the SCANZ rooms in 2011. SCANZ has been the main Intercreate project.

 

Intercreate Trustees & Associates

Trustees:
Ian Clothier Executive Director, outgoing Chair
Nina Czegledy Director, International Projects
Trudy Lane Director, Programmes
Wayne Morris Executive Assignee
Christine Lee Secretary/Treasurer
Jock McQueenie Trustee
Tracey Benson Trustee
Leah Barclay Trustee

Working committee members:
Jo Tito (Kaitiaki)
Andrew Hornblow (Creative Engineering)
Ilka Blue Nelson (Social Media)

 


 

Intercreate is a community of people in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, who are interested in art, science, technology and cross cultural projects. Our major project is based on a residency with a focus on the environment.

Intercreate Trust arose from the Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) residency in 2006. The trust is an umbrella for activities that includes residencies, symposia, workshops, exhibitions and media art projects.

Intercreate Trust is a not-for-profit charity that is registered with the Charities Commission of New Zealand (our Registration Number is CC32791). For more Information about the trust including annual reports, please visit the Charities Register at www.charities.govt.nz. Trustees and associates are listed below.

 


 

Projects

Projects have included: three SCANZ events, in 2006, 2009 and 2011 involving residency, exhibitions and public presentation, workshops, and hui/symposia. Since 2011 the centre has worked closely with Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru on several projects. Wai was presented at ISEA 2012 Albuquerque Machine Wilderness. Te Kore Rongo Hungaora: Uncontainable Second Nature was curated for ISEA 2011 Istanbul and also presented in Rio de Janeiro at Cultura digital.

International Research Fellow Nina Czegledy is working with the centre on a number of projects. As well as special international sessions of SCANZ symposia she organised Space sense joint Canada-New Zealand project which included a residency period at Banff. The resultant work Atmosphere and Areosphere with collaborator Janine Randerson was showcased during SCANZ 2011: Eco sapiens, projected on the New Plymouth Observatory dome.

Interdisciplinary creative projects such as The Park Speaks involved a team of collaborators where data controlled spoken words are played over two computers incorporating dual desktop video and triple data projection. The system was built by Ian Clothier, Andrew Hornblow, Julian Priest and Adrian Soundy. The Park Speaks involved a networked botanical garden and data sensors where data readings are translated into spoken phrases. It was exhibited in Puke Ariki Museum. Haiku robots, was a robotic art work in collaboration with engineer Andrew Hornblow and Julian Priest as software author. It generates live, word lists letter by letter dynamically and was also exhibited in Puke Ariki. Branch on branch was an augmented reality artwork in conjunction with the Human Interface Technology Lab NZ.

Recent projects include exhibitions engaging tangata whenua, Te Matahiapo, artists, scientists and digital media based on themes shared by Maori and European thinking, for Istanbul and Albuquerque; SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature in Nga Motu, New Plymouth, Aotearoa New Zealand; and the Media Art Project 2014 Ko Tatou te Tangata.

 


 

Intercreate Contacts

Please contact Ian Clothier or Trudy Lane for any enquiries.

Ian M Clothier
Executive Director

intercreate.org
E: i a n . c l o t h i e r  at  i n t e r c r e a t e . o r g
W: intercreate.org

Trudy Lane
Director Programmes
Intercreate.org
E: t r u d y a t i n t e r c r e a t e . o r g

Nina Czegledy
Director International

Intercreate.org
E: c z e g l e d y a t i n t e r l o g . c o m

Intercreate Trust
144 Seaview Road
New Plymouth 4310
Aotearoa New Zealand

 

For further biographies of the core Intercreate team please see the Intercreate Team page.

 


 

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3rd nature exhibition

Below is a sample of works selected for the 3rd nature exhibition. In some cases, previous work by the same person is used. The selection of images below spirals from the projects selected for placement in the local environment, to those to be exhibited in Puke Ariki on Level 2.

Jo Tito image

Jo Tito will create in the local environment

Bird sanctuary enclosure

This is the bird enclosure in which “Brickets” by Pierre Proske and Damian Stewart will be installed. There is a walkway among trees, and several species of birds living in the trees.

Darko Fritz Reload

This work “reload_refresh_sync” has been developed out of Darko Fritz’s horticultural units.

Nigel Helyer image

Nigel Helyer will use Intercreate’s data controlled audio system which is located in Pukekura Park. The above image comes from “The Park Speaks” the Intercreate project that initiated the system.

Trudy Lane image

A Walk Through Deep Time involves a walk through 4.5 billion years of the Earth’s history. For SCANZ 2013, Trudy Lane and Halsey Burgund have developed a location-sensitive mediascape for smart devices, which weaves together thoughts from participants past and present.

 

Galactic wind image

Image above: Galactic super wind: Matter blasts out of the starburst galaxy M82 in this composite image (X-ray: NASA / CXC / JHU / D.Strickland; optical: NASA / ESA / STScI / AURA / the Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of AZ / C. Engelbracht). The project led by Nina Czegledy will visualise galactic wind data.

Kura Puke Image

“3-orange waharua a” is an earlier work by Kura Puke, who will present “Ka Wa Ka Wa” at 3rd nature. “Ka Wa Ka Wa” will be made for the exhibition.

Tracey Benson art work

Tracey Benson “Fauxonomy”. This work references places that are protected such as marine reserves, and also looks at land use around estuaries and coastal locations. The project will be hybridised to local Taranaki places for the exhibition.

Sonja van Kerkhoff image

The image above is from the proposal to create a spiral structure inside Puke Ariki. The structure will house five video works.

Janet Laurence image

This image above is a detail from “After Eden” an installation by Janet Laurence. The Australian artist is known for her work with endangered species, scientific vessels and containers, and incorporating items from the biological collections of museums in installations.

Anne Pincus image

Left: “Medusae” 2010 Crocheted slver wire; right: “Lior” 2010 Crocheted fishing line.Both by Anne Pincus.

Iwasaki image

The above scientific containers house living bacteria in a science-art work by Hideo Iwasaki

Josh Wodak image

Josh Wodak. “2 degrees before 2028.” Digital image. 450mmx650mm. The image is based on projected sea level rise in the Pacific Ocean south of the equator, indicated by the red line.Shark image Still image from “Computational Visualization of the Electromagnetic Sensory World of Sharks”. 

Te Taiao Maori

The chart of “Te Taiao Maori”, made for exhibition in Istanbul was in this version shown in Rio de Janeiro, animated with the star imagery of Paul Moss in the background.

SCANZ graphicArts Council logoGeon logoian clothier logoMatahiapo logo

SCANZ 2013: Decision making at the Interface – Mauri and its contribution to the Rena Recovery

Authors: Te Kipa Kepa Brian Morgan, Tumanako N. Fa’Aui and Robyn Desma Manuel

Abstract

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, a consistent theme of indigenous opposition reported by the Waitangi Tribunal introduces a spiritual and cultural perspective of environment that hitherto had not been considered in resource management decision making in Aotearoa New Zealand. Earlier claims made to the Waitangi Tribunal; Motunui, Kaituna, Manukau, Orakei, concerned themselves with engineering projects that were denigrating the water ecosystems and environment. Indigenous concepts raised in the Tribunal hearings for these cases included; the retention of intrinsic values / mauri; ‘Māori’ spiritual and cultural values; kaitiakitanga and manākitanga; and nga whakatipuranga / future generations of descendants.

These early claims accumulated as a series of abandoned engineering projects that represented a significant waste of engineering effort, expended with an inadequate understanding of the full social and cultural context within which these projects were being proposed. There were also significant costs for the Hapū and Iwi forced to delay other commitments to challenge poorly thought through projects. Settlements for these successful Treaty claims made necessary the introduction of legislation that incorporated the lessons being provided from Indigenous Knowledge / mātauranga Māori.

The Mauri Model acknowledges the valuable insights embodied in mātauranga Māori, and indicates how diametrically opposed cultural perspectives can be better recognised and engaged, even synthesised to facilitate better resource management decision making. This paper shows how the Recovery of the mauri to its pre-Rena state can be facilitated through the combination of scientific and indigenous knowledge, and can produce decisions that are robust and defendable from multiple perspectives.

3rd nature exhibition background

This image is of the landing on level 2 of Puke Ariki (hill of Chiefs) Museum. In the centre are native insects and birds, and to the right of the middle is the entrance to the Taonga (Treasures) Gallery.

Curatorial statement 01 – background to the exhibition

The 3rd nature exhibition consists of 11 works within the Museum, 3 works in Pukekura Park and 1 in the local environment. How to exhibit work that spans discipline and culture is of primary importance to the conception of the 3rd nature exhibition. This is more straight forward in a public park such as Pukekura or on the coastline, but is a different matter in museums. The heritage of museums is that objects are sorted into categories that match classifications. Interdisciplinary and intercultural projects are predicated on ideas around hybridity and integrated systems, conceptually diametrically opposed to classification and category. So how do we do this? This is the conversation currently underway, between the curator, artists and museum staff.

Exhibiting are: Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Mike Paulin, Darko Fritz, Hideo Iwasaki, Sonja van Kerkhoff and Sen McGlinn, Jo Tito, Pierre Proske, Damian Stewart, Tracey Benson, Nigel Helyer, Nina Czegledy, Trudy Lane, Halsey Burgund, Kura Puke, Josh Wodak, Janet Laurence and Anne Pincus. Most are exhibiting in Puke Ariki, with Trudy Lane/Halsey Burgund’s work situated inside Puke Ariki and areas immediately outside the museum, Nigel Helyer is in Pukekura Park botanical garden, as are Pierre Proske and Damian Stewart. Jo Tito will work with the Taranaki landscape.

The exhibition therefore spirals outward from Puke Ariki out into the foreshore, on to Pukekura Park and into the natural world.

The images on this page have been assembled for the exhibitors, so they can see the spaces we are talking about.

Puke Ariki

The Coastline Gallery

Puke Ariki photo

Further along the Coastline Gallery

Puke Ariki photo

Looking from the end of the Coastline Gallery to the Geology Gallery

Puke Ariki photo

A view along the Geology Gallery

Puke Ariki photo

From one corner of the Geology Gallery looking towards the end of the Coastline Gallery

Trudy Lane image

A Walk Through Deep Time involves a walk through 4.5 billion years of the Earth’s history. For SCANZ 2013, Trudy Lane and Halsey Burgund have developed a location-sensitive mediascape for smart devices, which weaves together thoughts from participants past and present.

Nigel Helyer image

Nigel Helyer will use Intercreate’s data controlled audio system which is located in Pukekura Park. The above image comes from “The Park Speaks” the Intercreate project that initiated the system.

Bowl of Brooklands

This is one of the proposed sites for Darko Fritz’s work

Bird sanctuary enclosure in Pukekura Park

This is the site for “Brickets” by Pierre Proske and Damian Stewart.

Bird sanctuary enclosure

There is a walkway among trees, and several species of birds living in the trees.

Jo Tito image

Jo Tito will create in the local environment

 

Background to the exhibition

Integrating indigenous perspectives with creative, environmental, technological and scientific views on reality is essential to a sustainable future. This is the view taken by Intercreate in regard to projects. Of particular importance in our view, is integrating the voice of indigenous people. We are fortunate to live in a time where this focus is shared in many countries.

We are therefore determined to integrate art,science, technology and indigenous knowledge in creative projects. 3rd nature is the third major exhibition resulting from engaging with Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru on projects. The first was Te Kore Rongo Hungaora: Uncontainable second nature at ISEA 2011 Istanbul. This reportedly was the first time the work of indigenous peoples had been exhibited in the ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Art) context. There were difficulties in understanding what process we were engaged with exactly, because there was no map for this kind of activity.

Not only was Māori knowledge incorporated into the exhibition, curatorially the show also crossed the boundary between art and science quite dramatically. A work of direct science rather than an art-science project was included: Associate Professor Mike Paulin’s Computational Visualization of the Electromagnetic Sensory World of Sharks was a computer model of a dogfish and a section of the Earth’s electromagnetic field.

Embedded within the computer model (as conceptual background) is the scientific viewpoint that life emerged from water; the shark’s sensory system is integrated with it’s surroundings including the electromagnetic field which is an instance of integrated systems; and clearly the forces of energy are at play. These three themes – life emerging from water, integrated systems and ‘all is energy’ or energistic conceptions – can be seen in Te Taiao Māori (The Māori Universe) chart by Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru.

Having stumbled our way through landing a first exhibition (I recall me and Te Urutahi Waikerepuru discussing honestly not knowing what we were doing) – which received some very positive feedback for it’s approach and some of the works, it was decided to attempt a second exhibition at ISEA 2012 Albuquerque.

From discussion with Dr Waikerepuru throughout and after Istanbul, we understood the importance of engaging with local indigenous peoples. Consequently at the outset, this was integrated with concept of Wai which thematically involved works that engaged with notions of water or flow. This resulted in Navajo/Dineh musician Andrew Thomas contributing to the exhibition and Johnson Dennison a Dineh Medicine Man performing ceremony as part of the opening, a Tomo Wakaari (Dawn Opening).

In terms of integrating indigenous knowledge and science, this was robustly demonstrated not by an arts organisation, but by a semi governmental research centre – The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences of Aotearoa New Zealand. They produced a video Raumoko which consisted of interviews of a scientist and Dr Waikerepuru, discussing their views on earthquakes and volcanoes.

Raumoko played through a data projector which showed a video by Indian artist Sharmila Samant, on water, and made in Taranaki Aotearoa New Zealand. It included an interview with Te Huirangi and others. Jo Tito, a contemporary Māori artist currently studying science at university, contributed two videos which played in between Raumoko and Samant’s The Wasteland. This selection reveals a multinational and interdisciplinary approach to water and flow.

Technology connected audio by Thomas and Darren Ward of Aotearoa. Data readings from a tree in Opunake controlled the audio files played in the gallery in Albuquerque, at once joining data, technology, two indigenous cultures and heritage audio. Sensors made by Andrew Hornblow of Opunake included those for tree voltage, temperature and UV on an internet framework previously built by Julian Priest and Adrian Soundy.

This then is the background to 3rd nature. Several key themes from the above will be evident in the upcoming show: integrating Mātauranga Māori, creative projects involving data, engaging with the environment, interdisciplinarity and intercultural exchange. The exhibition attempts to take the integration of art,science, technology and indigenous knowledge (in particular Māori knowledge) further, by co-locating clusters of works across cultural and discipline boundaries throughout the life and earth sciences galleries of Puke Ariki. We intend discussing with the exhibitors and the guardians of the works and galleries, ways to activate interconnections between the collection and the art/science/technology/indigenous works.

Above are images of Puke Ariki and environs locations, to assist the discussion between exhibitors, gallery and curator. They give an indication of the atmosphere of the level 2 galleries, and the way the works spiral out to the wider surrounding landscape. This page is an evolving manuscript, which will change as more information and confirmation comes to hand.

SCANZ graphicArts Council logoGeon logoian clothier logoMatahiapo logo