'60 Springs will provide opportunities for young people to develop innovative solutions towards a sustainable Taranaki'
SCANZ
Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) is New Zealand’s premier art, technology, culture and ecology event and involves a symposium, creative residency, and public events and exhibitions. Occurring bi-annually, it has typically involved a mix of Aotearoa New Zealand and international artists, producers, theorists and curators many of whom are leading practitioners. 60 Springs has been involved in 2009 and 2011 SCANZ residencies.
• SCANZ 2011 Eco sapiens. Two Year 10 students worked with Leah Barclay and Keith Armstrong
• SCANZ 2009 (Raranga Tangata: The Weaving Together of People)
SCANZ 2011 Eco Sapiens – Extinction or Adaptation? Evolution or Revolution? What are we facing?
Eco Sapiens was held in the city, parks and surrounds of New Plymouth from 17-30 January 2011. 60 Springs was again involved this year through the participation of two students, Megan Smith and Nick Jones, working alongside Australian artists Leah Barclay and Keith Armstrong. Keith is a multidisciplinary artist who recognized in the development of collaborative, mixed reality productions that merge site/location with performance and multimedia practices. Leah is an award winning composer and interdisciplinary artist who has been recognized for her distinctive sonic language.
Their project was called Remnant Breath which resulted in a late evening 20 minute sound walk on the Te Henui Walkway with the participants blindfolded and led as a group through the ‘sound experience’. Megan and Nick worked alongside the artists to learn about the process of developing a sound walk from understanding the technology and concept to capturing, manipulating and placing the sounds in the landscape. The added dimension of removing sight to heighten the listeners’ awareness to sound was valuable for the students and participants on the walk. The sounds they used in the walk included a combination of water, bird song, waiata, plants and rocks. Megan and Nick really enjoyed the experience of working with Leah and Keith and have a fresh opinion of art as being so much more than painting and sculpture.
As a result of this relationship Nathan, Megan and Nick were able to so some further work with Keith’s equipment, specifically his night vision camera. The camera was set up in Pukekura Park and Urenui Beach camp to capture animal/penguin activity at night. Images at Urenui showed a Little Blue Penguin leaving a burrow under a bach and two cats entering the same burrow later in the morning. This footage will be used in the Penguin Experience II (October 2011).
SCANZ 2009 Raranga Tangata: The Weaving Together of People
The relationship with Intercreate and 60 Springs was began in 2008 through planning for the SCANZ 2009 residency. Intercreate is a project based research centre which consists of an international network of people interested in interdisciplinary creativity. Its main activity is to host the biannual SCANZ international artist residency and symposium, next planned for 2011.
In January 2009, under the banner of 60 Springs, five students worked with four artists attending SCANZ and explored the creative use of GPS and other technologies in Pukekura Park. They also explored the integration of customised community software and innovative use of locative, animation, film and gaming technologies in the works created.
The artists and projects were:
Brett Stalbaum: Pukekura Park Demonstration/Environment and Sustainability GPS Tours.
This project was a concept demonstration for Walking Tools, an open source platform for GPS enabled mobiles.
Nina Czegledy: “What Will You Do?”
“What Will You Do?” is an art installation that addresses the issue of individual and collective responsibility for making social change.
Dominic Smith: Random Information Exchange.
The Random Information Exchange (RIE) is a means of examining the philosophy, derivation and modification of information.
Andrew Gryf Paterson: Taranaki Platform Ecologies.
This project set out to nourish the online platforms surrounding Puke Ariki, and in particular Pukekura Park, by exploring, documenting and bridging online/offline aspects of the former regional Taranaki wiki, and soon to be kete.
60 Springs will be involved with SCANZ 2011 (Ecosapiens).
For more information on Intercreate and SCANZ,
click here