SCANZ 2009: Raranga tangata

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 this place: Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, Pacific Ocean (1).

Residency
January 26th–February 8th

The residency themes are Environmental Response and Participate/Display. Occurring along side 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, Jacques Sirot, Sarah Cook, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Melinda Rackham and Dominic Smith of 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.

Residency 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.

Symposium
February 7th–8th

The symposium theme is Interconnections. Papers and presentations were gathered that locate interconnections between Pasifika, Maori or Polynesian knowledge and belief systems, and a view based on integrated systems.

Presentations are intended to refer to:
–  Pasifika, Maori or Polynesian knowledge and belief systems
–  Integrated systems, including ideas around chaos, complexity and/or post-structuralism
–  Interconnections between the above
–  Digital media and Pasifika, Maori or Polynesian context
–  Digital media and Pasifika, Maori or Polynesian projects
–  Intersections between Pasifika and digital media context
–  Cultural hybridity and digital media practice context and projects

For further information, please see the below:
Schedule of Presentations
Symposium Registration
Travel & Accommodation
Venue Information

Exhibition
February 7th–29 March

For further information, please see the below:
Exhibition Information
Venue Information

Note
1  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.