Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ)

The Research Centre’s major project, a two week residency for artists, producers, writers, theorists and curators will be held in New Plymouth New Zealand from January 26th to February 8th 2009. Project partners are the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Puke Ariki integrated library and museum. Raranga tangata refers to the weaving together of people, a phrase used to describe the internet and adopted by Sally Jane Norman and Sylvia Nagl in their work. The aim for SCANZ 2009 is to weave an enduring fabric of people and technology, located in Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, Pacific Ocean*.

The residency themes are Environmental Response and Participate/Display. Occurring alongside the residency are a two day symposium (February 7 and 8), presentation evening & opening event (February 7), and curatorial workshop.

Participants International attendees include Nina Czegledy, Brett Stalbaum, Sally Jane Norman (NZ/UK), Sarah Cook, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Melinda Rackham and The Polytechnic. New Zealanders attending include Lisa Reihana, Stella Brennan, Sean Kerr, Rachel Rakena, Natalie Robertson, Danny Butt, Alex Monteith, Naomi Lamb, Caro McCaw and Jon Bywater.

Themes

1. Environmental Response This theme involves responses to the human, natural, or technological environment of Taranaki, New Zealand Aotearoa, South Pacific Ocean, Earth.

2. Participate/Display This theme involves projects where the audience is involved in the art work in a way that changes the art work.

Note *. The phrase raranga tangata, the weaving together of people, used to denote the internet, is a term with potentially powerful resonance amongst artists and cultural theorists by virtue of its dual evocation of craftsmanship and social patterns. It has become a core concept for Sally Jane Norman and Sylvia Nagl, underpinning their approach to complex cultural and interdisciplinary dynamics which was first presented publicly at the HASTAC conference in 2007. The etymology of the term was described by Sally Jane Norman as follows: "Charlie Tawhiao, who elucidated these terms for me, sees network language as follows : «I prefer the metaphor approach, so I consider a network of people such as that presented by the internet to be a weaving together of people similar to how a mat is woven : raranga or whiriwhiri refers to the weaving of a whariki (mat) or kete (basket). The internet community could therefore be described as raranga tangata or similar to describe the weaving together of people.»[Personal correspondence]

See also "Intertwinedness. Reflecting the Structure of the Net." Ars Electronica Centre Conference Series 2000, ed. by Margarethe Jahrmann, Christina Schneebauer. Vienna: Ritterverlag.