3rd nature: Mike Paulin

Still image from “Computational Visualization of the Electromagnetic Sensory World of Sharks”

Introduction

While a computer model of a shark and the electromagnetic spectrum of the Earth may seem at odds with traditional Maori knowledge, as part of the Istanbul exhibition, connections were found. Embedded in the computer model 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 Maori by Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru.

3rd nature: Te Huirangi Waikerepuru

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

Introduction

At Intercreate we are privileged to work with Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru. Dr Waikerepuru was been instrumental in getting Maori language – Te Reo – recognised, played a leading role in submissions on the radio spectrum (which led to Maori radio and Maori television) and currently is being pivotal in sharing knowledge among the world’s community. This is particularly important at this time, because many believe that listening to the indigenous voice on the subject of environment is central to resolving issues of climate change.

The animated version of Te Taiao Maori shares some of the traditional knowledge of Maori.

Wai: overview

November 11, 2012/in Other projects, Wai, Wai Exhibition /by Ian Clothier

Wai (for ISEA 2012 Albuquerque)

Te Hunga Wai Tapu consists of: Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Ian Clothier, Jo Tito, Craig Macdonald, Julian Priest, Sharmila Samant, Leon Cmielewski, Josephine Starrs, Andrew Hornblow, Darren Robert Terama Ward, Johnson Dennison, Andrew Thomas, Dugal McKinnon, Sophie Jerram and Gordon Bronitsky. Aerial imagery courtesy of Land Information New Zealand.

There are five components to the Wai project. Te Iarere (communication across vast distances) involves data from a tree in Opunake, New Zealand Aotearoa. Tree voltage, temperature and light are measured. The live data readings control audio played in the exhibition space. Ian Clothier conceived and directed Te Iarere. Andrew Hornblow made the custom data sensors. Julian Priest and Adrian Soundy created the web interface. Darren Robert Terama Ward is a Maori musician who plays self made traditional instruments and Andrew Thomas is a Navajo musician specialising in the flute.

The second component is Pou Hihiri (the womb of the universe). The Pou is encapsulated in vinyl graphics, contains woven LED’s and has an audio component. Conceived and directed by Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Craig Macdonald made the Pou graphics and structure with audio by Dugal McKinnon and Sophie Jerram.

Video is the third component. Indian video artist Sharmila Samant has contributed The Wasteland, an exploration of Wai in New Zealand. The Maori expression for ‘Who are you?’ is ‘Ko wai au’ which literally means ‘of whose water are you’ and is understood by Maori to mean ‘of whose ancestors are you?’ Jo Tito, a contemporary Maori artist currently studying science has made two videos of Wai, which play inbetween The Wasteland and Ruamoko. Ruamoko is made by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in New Zealand Aotearoa, and explores both Maori and Western scientific views of earthquakes and volcanoes, the result of of flow phenomena in the Earth.

Julian Priest contributed Sink a model of anthropogenic ocean acidification. A conceptual work, carbon dioxide exhaust gasses are piped into a tank containing brine. Carbonic acid is formed, increasing acidity, which dissolves a scallop shell in the tank.

The fifth component is an animation and audio work by Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs Puwai Rangi Papa. Projected onto the floor, the words of Te Huirangi Waikerepuru are etched into the mountain landscape of his home – Taranaki Maunga (mountain).

Wai is supported by:

Gordon Bronitsky

November 11, 2012/in Wai, Wai Participants /by Ian Clothier

Andrew Hornblow

November 11, 2012/in Wai, Wai Participants /by Ian Clothier

ETITO – industry skills partner and leader
Andrew Hornblow is an inventor, engineer and National Moderator for ETITO, an industry training organisation for the electrotechnology and telecommunications industries. It is a standards setting body whose goal is to ensure that enough skilled people are available to work in these industries.

ETITO began the Bright Sparks programme more than 10 years ago to foster the skills of young people who are keen on technology. Through a website, an online forum, one-on-one mentoring and qualifications in schools, the Bright Sparks programme has unleashed the genius and creativity of hundreds of talented young people. Andrew Hornblow tours the country giving electronics workshops as part of Bright Sparks.

ETITO created Bright Sparks in 2000 to nurture those students who will be our nation’s future engineers, electricians and programmers. At its core, Bright Sparks is about bringing together people with an interest in technology so they can exchange ideas and information, and give encouragement to those who are just strating out. It’s also about getting young people to experience electronics directly through a project-based approach.

Hornblow has also provided customised – built from the ground up including the circuit board – electronics for creative projects Te Iarere, The Park Speaks, Taranaki Fence, and Haiku robots.

Josephine Starrs & Leon Cmielewski

November 11, 2012/in Wai, Wai Participants /by Ian Clothier

Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs (http://lx.sysx.org) are artists whose long-term collaboration has produced a variety of screen-based installations. Their recent media artworks are situated at the juncture of cinema, information visualisation, and data mapping, playing off the tensions between the large and small screen, and between information and sublime landscape.

Cmielewski is a Design Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney. Starrs is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of Film and Digital Art at Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney of University.

Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions
2012 Incompatible Elements Canberra Contemporary Artspace
2011 Incompatible Elements, Auckland Festival of Arts, MIC | Toi Rerehiko, Auckland,NZ.
2010 Incompatible Elements, Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney.
2010 Land[sound]scape installation, Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney.
2007 Plaything installation, Sydney College of the Arts.
2007 Seeker installation, Artspace, Sydney, NSW.
2006 Seeker installation, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, S.A.
2002 Dream Kitchen, interactive animation, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Selected Recent Group Exhibitions
2012 Wonderland, New Contemporary Art from Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan.
2011 Incompatible Elements, Sydney and Sookmyung Exhibition, Seoul, Korea
2011 Waterways, Urbanition, SFAC Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2011 Waterways, Urbanition, Carriageworks, Sydney.
2011 a.k.a Utopia Now, MONA, Hobart, Tasmania.
2011 Kitchen Carnage<<<(((Mods&Hackers)))>>> Game Modification, Hacking,Patching, and Code-Based Practices within Contemporary Art, YoungProjects, Los Angeles, USA.
2010 Encoded, Art Taipei 2010, Taiwan.
2010 a.k.a Utopia Now Experimenta Media Art Biennale, Melbourne.
2009 sms origins, Big Screen project, Federation Square, Melbourne.
2008 Land[sound]scape installation. Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China.
2007 Seeker installation, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria.
2006 Seeker installation, Contemporary Commonwealth 06, ACMI Melbourne Vic.
2005 In the Line of Flight, Beijing, China. Floating Territories installation.
2004 Media_city Seoul 2004, Bio-Tek Kitchen, computer game modification.
2004 ISEA2004, Finland. Floating Territories installation.
2003 Bio-Tek Kitchen, House of Tomorrow, Experimenta, Black Box, Melbourne.
2003 Computerspiele von Kunstlerinnen, Hartware, Dortmund, Germany, Bio-Tek Kitchen,
computer game modification.
2003 Version03, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Bio-Tek Kitchen.
2002 Trace, installation, Sydney Records Centre, The Rocks, Sydney.
2002 Transmediale Media Arts Festival, Berlin, a.k.a. digital video.
2002 European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrük, Germany a.k.a. digital video.
2002 Contagion, Auckland, New Zealand. a.k.a. digital video.

Selected Published Reviews
J. Randerson RealTime issue#104 August/September 2011. Critical Flows: climates and peoples. Review of Incompatible Elements solo show at the Auckland Arts Festival, NZ
J. Sjaastad ArtRadar Asia interview March 2011. Words in Art: Australian artist Josephine Starrs maps rivers with poetry.
J. Hurrell EyeContact, March 2011 Review of Incompatible Elements solo show at the Auckland Arts Festival, New Zealand.
K. Gallasch RealTime issue #95 Feb-March 2010 Lake Mungo as Medium
Review of Land[sound]scape Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney.
A. Finegan Artlink Vol 27, no3, 2007 Databases: Recombinant Interactives.

Wai opening

November 11, 2012/in Wai, Wai Exhibition /by Ian Clothier

Wai opened with a Tomo Whakaari, a dawn ceremony following Maori protocol at 6.53am September 19 at 516 Arts in Albuquerque. We were privileged to have Johnson Dennison, a Navajo Medicine Man contribute some Navajo ceremony.

Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Dine’/Navajo musician Andrew Thomas and his partner, Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Ian Clothier, Johnson Dennison, Gordon Bronitsky and Rosemary Dennison just before the ceremonies started.

Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru and Ian Clothier outside 516 Arts. Te Huirangi is just about to start proceedings.

This photo was taken just after the ceremonies had ended, however during the Dine’/Navajo portion, everyone was asked to sit, either on chairs or on the floor. Johnson Dennison talked about what his words meant, then chanted a chant suitable to the occasion and recognising the land and the mountains. This was followed by prayer. The entire event was extremely special, particularly for an art work presented as part of an electronic arts event.

Wai installation

November 10, 2012/in Featured, Wai, Wai Exhibition /by Ian Clothier

In the foreground is “Puwai Rangi Papa” by Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs; on the wall is a shot from “The Wasteland” by Sharmila Samant. On the right is “Pou hihiri” by Te Urutahi Waikerepuru

Audio was an important part of the project. Click the link to hear audio by Andrew Thomas and Darren Ward. Darren Ward AndrewThomas

On the wall is Julian Priests’ “Sink”, with the Cmielewski and Starrs animation on the floor and Sharmila Samant’s piece projected on the wall.

Detail of “Pou Hihiri” by Te Urutahi Waikerepuru

“Puwai Rangi Papa” by Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs was project on the floor

Wai seen through an adjacent art work

SCANZ 2013: From second to third nature – building cultural bridges between Mātauranga Māori and Western science

November 10, 2012/in 2013 Wānanga-Symposium, Featured, SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature /by Ian Clothier

Author: Ian Clothier

Abstract

In 2011 at ISEA Istanbul “Te Kore Rongo Hungaora: Uncontainable second nature” brought together for the first time, Mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge pre-colonisation) and Western science in the context of electronic art. Kaumatua (respected elder) Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru contributed “Te Taiao Māori” and Associate Professor Mike Paulin of the Zoology department in Otago University, exhibited a blu ray disc of selected portions of his “Computational Visualization of the Electromagnetic Sensory World of Sharks”.

These two works were selected along with eight others, in accordance with five curatorial themes: cosmological context, all is energy, life emerged from water, anthropic principle and integrated systems.

This paper provides images of the works in the exhibition and describes the ways in which the works intersected the themes. An unexpected outcome of the project was to find that the interconnections were many, rather than few.

SCANZ 2013: The Art of Engagement

November 5, 2012/in 2013 Wānanga-Symposium, SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature /by Ian Clothier

Author: Jock McQueenie

Abstract

The Art of Engagement will address the role of the artist in technology mediated social participation with particular reference to partnerships between the arts, industry and communities in regional centres. This will be illustrated by examples from current projects in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Sydney. Having considerable experience in New Zealand, and in particular the Taranaki region, I would draw links between these examples and the local context.