Project proposal – Nigel Helyer

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Nigel Helyer has been invited to develop an audio project utilising data sensors and Open Meshwork in Pukekura Park with a custom online data to audio translation. The system is permanently installed in New Plymouth’s botanic garden.

Currently, temperature, UV and people count data is collected. Other projects involve sensors monitoring tree voltage, the electromagnetic field, moisture and penguin data. Working out how to creatively utilise data is problematic and fruitful.

The system in Pukekura Park is the basis for a number of projects including Wai in Albuquerque for ISEA 2012. The Park Speaks established the system and was a collaboration involving Adrian Soundy, Andrew Hornblow, Julian Priest and Ian Clothier.

WAI by Te Hunga Wai Tapu

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The Pacific Ocean from space
Image credit: Detlev van Ravensway Science Photo Library

 

Te Hunga Wai Tapu roughly translates as the group of people for whom water is sacred. They are: Ian Clothier, Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Jo Tito, Craig Macdonald, Julian Priest, Tom Greenbaum, Sharmila Samant, Leon Cmielewski, Josephine Starrs, Andrew Hornblow, Darren Robert Terama Ward, Johnson Dennison, Andrew Thomas, Gordon Bronitsky. Aerial imagery courtesy of Land Information New Zealand.

This group consists of people from Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States of America, Australia and India. A global community representing many cultures, including the indigenous.

The works presented consist of aspects of traditional Māori knowledge; five videos shown through two data projectors; a Pou Hihiri (which reflects the womb of the universe that holds unrealized potential ); and traditional Māori and Navajo/Dine audio generated live by data sensors in New Zealand.

 

Contributors and roles

Ian Clothier is the curator for the project and is project manager.

Wai rests on Mātauranga Māori provided by Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru. Mātauranga Māori refers to traditional knowledge, pre-colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand, which means before 1840. At the SCANZ 2011:Eco sapiens hui-symposium, Dr Waikerepuru spoke about Wai as central to Maori world view. Wai connects air, atmosphere, mountains, rivers, beaches and humans via breath.

Te Urutahi Waikerepuru has contributed strategy, networking and core creative activity – the Pou Hihiri was created under her direction. Craig Macdonald made the Pou Hihiri graphics which involved  interpretation of traditional stars and concepts into contemporary form and materials. Julian Priest and Tom Greenbaum created the custom electronics LED control system.

Jo Tito is a Maori artist who exhibits internationally. Her contribution is a video concerning Maori notions of Wai.

Sink was created by Julian Priest and is a model of anthropogenic ocean acidification which is based on a scientific view of the interaction of humans and natural systems: a shell acidifies on exposure to greenhouse gases. Priest is well know for his work in open source, open networks and creative projects.

Sharmila Samant is a well known contemporary artist from India. She recently traveled to Taranaki in New Zealand to make a work for the exhibition Sub Tropical Heat: New Art from South Asia. Given her interest in water issues in India, she created a video work in which Te Huirangi spoke about water while standing on the banks of the Waiwakaiho river.

Sydney based Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs are collaborators on an animated video and highly regarded for the work with text and landscape. Their video for features the words of Te Huirangi digitally etched into Taranaki maunga (Mount Taranaki_. Cmielewski and Starrs are fr0m Australia and met Te Huirangi Waikerepuru at the SCANZ 2011 Eco sapiens hui-symposium.

In Aotearoa New Zealand in the small Taranaki town of Opunake are situated three data sensors. The sensors are custom made by Andrew Hornblow. Data from the sensors runs to the project website, where each data reading is correlated to an audio file of either traditional Maori sounds or traditional Navajo sounds. This system was made by Julian Priest and Adrian Soundy for The Park Speaks. Julian Priest also provides server support.

Darren Robert Terama Ward is a contemporary Maori artist who also makes his own traditional musical instruments. He is contributing the traditional Maori audio. Andrew Thomas is a Navajo/Dine musician and is contributing the Navajo sounds, played on traditional instruments.

Johnson Dennison is Navajo/Dine Medicine Man and will contribute to the dawn opening ceremony led by Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru. Te Huirangi Waikerepuru considers it important to contact, respect and collaborate with local indigenous people.

Gordon Bronitsky is a cultural producer and has assisted us by providing connection points to local indigenous peoples and advice of a cultural nature.

wai exhibition

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Wai visualisation

Visualisation of the Wai installation

About Wai

Humanity and Earth are at an important juncture: the intersection of past unsustainable approaches to environment and the potential for a sustainable future. An important factor in these issues is listening to the voice of indigenous people on the subject of environment. It is quite clear that the West will not by its own means resolve climate change issues.

Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, a highly respected Māori Kaumatua (elder) from Aotearoa New Zealand has provided the core concept and ideological underpinning for Wai (which means water or flow). The project is selected for exhibition at 516Arts during ISEA 2012 Albuquerque Machine Wilderness.

Wai is an integrating focus – embracing rain and snow in the mountains, rolling downward via rivers to the beach and into the human body via breath. Māori worldview involves seeing an integrated whole with humans in direct relationship with nature.

Notions of integrated systems will be familiar to many, and the connection to electronic art is found in the words of Associate Professor of Zoology Mike Paulin “Scientists, artists and others are transforming the environment into an organism, as Māori and indigenous peoples have always known it to be.” Wai consists of data sensors in Aotearoa New Zealand, integrated with works by Maori, New Zealand, Australian, Indian and Navajo/Dine artists in an electronic art installation.

SCANZ2013:Digital Anthropophagy

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Digital Anthropophagy

Author: Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez

Abstract

The background of my Digital Anthropophagy theory comes from the “fair use” conundrum of the Information Age. One of my own art practices is to create films from found footage and openly exposed media online. I metabolize these materials into new contexts. In the creative process of this practice, in the age of the Internetworked Information Society as the producer of culture also engaged in remixing, offering a rich self-serving online buffet, I often thought of the Anthropophagic practices of some Brazilian indigenous tribes when they came into contact with their colonizers. The indigenous cannibal honorably eats the foreign in order to incorporate his strength, experiences and qualities and to see through the cannibalized foreigner’s eyes. But I find that in today’s digital culture, we unceremoniously consume the world around us in a globalized structure, thus quickly acquiring worldly references and spitting them out in a personal but also somewhat homogenized way. We have thus become both the cannibal and the cannibalized because of the wide and immediate access to information and the incredible reduction of time it now takes to consume that widely available culture. It no longer takes a passive person watching the ships arriving on the shore in order to consume what they might bring aboard, and conversely, for the colonizer in those ships to take away the riches they “discover” in far-away lands. Over five hundred years later, that exchange has now become cross-pollinated and more equal, and happening in an inhuman speed cycle. And the paradigm of power acquisition has now shifted from land ownership of colonies to ownership of information and creative property, especially engendered by the virtual world. This virtual world has started to disintegrate former imperialisms and push toward a “democratization of access” and “freedom of use” of information. And so I offer an analysis of Information Metabolism which drives human experiences. I hope that this theoretical essay furthers the discussion on “fair use” of media, leading to a simplification of global “fair use” cultural models and practice in the age of digital culture.

Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez

SCANZ2013:He Poi, pattern, collaboration and electronic art installation

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He Poi, pattern, collaboration and electronic art installation

Author: Deborah Lawler-Dormer

Abstract

“The melody is very simple (it has only three notes, all of which are within the range of a single tone) so that most of the musical interest is in the rhythm. Each repetition of the melody has two phrases, each with eight quaver beats. Unlike Western music which would organise this in a regular 4 + 4 throughout, ‘Tangi a taku ihu’ often substitutes an additive grouping (usually 3 + 2 + 3) for the 4 + 4. And the rhythm is still further complicated by syncopations between phrases. These syncopations may also be considered to be additive groupings over a period of 16 quaver beats instead of 8. In other words, the rhythm of the words gets out of step with the rhythm of the poi balls and two bars are needed before they coincide again. Thus the song is really an example of cross rhythm.”

Taking the words of Mervyn McLean describing the He Poi chant (1963) as an inspirational starting point, this paper will explore a collaborative research project that explores pattern generation and pattern recognition within the specific framework of the perception and experience of spatiotemporal phenomena within new media installation art. The methodology and practice of collaboration will therefore be at the heart of the project. The melodic and rhythmic composition of He Poi can also be seen as an analogy for dialogue – a practice of cross rhythm at times in synch and at others out of synch.

Advisors, who will also have the potential to be full collaborators, will be drawn from the neuroscience sector, local iwi from Parihaka, technical communities relating to sound and media installation and conceptual aesthetic theory. This project will be exploring aspects of an investigation that will be occurring in my creative practice PhD currently underway at the University of Auckland. Through this project I am seeking to create a dialogue between scientific and philosophical/spiritual concepts relating to time, memory and space; to explore experiential synthesis within media art installation and other real-time environments; and to create a critical practice informed by recent neuroaesthetic studies. This project is primarily relevant to the strand of 3rd Nature – namely engaging the sciences and hybrid arts.

SCANZ2013:the biotechnologies of the 3rd Nature

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Make, Do, Mend and Hack (MDMH) the biotechnologies of the 3rd Nature

Author: Brian Degger

Abstract

A Paper on The Biotechnologies you already Live with, and the Ones you Should. We propose that next ecology sees it’s citizens embracing biotechnology from the point of view of having ‘the good life’.

There is already a group of pragmatic individuals(call them biohackers, or DIYBio geeks) that are imagining this future, where science and model organisms aren’t confined to the laboratory, but are free to live and enrich our lives. We play, grow and eat science. We use organisms on a small scale to support, to inform, to gain information from our environment. We use the old biotechnologies of fermentation and pickling, but are not afraid to consider mixing it with genetic testing and engineering.

The next ecology we deserve is the hybridization of heavy lifting industries (metal work/genetically manipulated organism production, cancer treatments, trauma medicine) with light self-replicating technologies(yogurt making, general fermentation activities, genetic testing). Reintroducing the affordable domestic biotechnologies to the public releases them from buying what is essentially free. Through this process we can decommodify food and medicine and learn skills that can feed us and keep us healthy.

This paper explores examples of where this is being used already, and where it could go in the future.

SCANZ2013:Un Litro de Agua

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Un Litro de Agua

Authors: Ana Terry, Don Hunter

Abstract

Number 8 Collective (Ana Terry and Don Hunter) will present part of their collaborative community arts-based project, Un Litro de Agua, undertaken during their arts residency in Medellin, Colombia in 2012. The Un Litro de Agua premise was to initiate discussion and critical thinking around sustainable water practices through urban interventions and myth rejuvenation / reinterpretation through various artistic formats – focussing on river rejuvenation. The workshops and associated activities – both digital and non-digital – involved working with NGO’s Mi Sangri, Casa Tres Patios, and several youth groups of Comuna Tresé (Community Thirteen). During this process it became apparent that while the project’s sustainable thematic was the initial focal point, the very foundation to sustainable practices (whatever the ultimate focus) can only occur through collective agreement to work together negotiating cultural boarders – at micro and macro levels. In this instance boarders between discrete facilitators involved, ourselves as gringos/foreigners, and between families within a community. The later became of particular significance as the young workshop participants are victims of the last 20 years of drug gang violence that has resulted in displacement and a constantly shifting hierarchy between gangs and their associated families within the community. The Un Litro de Agua community project was, after considerable negotiation, embraced by the community leaders; as beyond introducing concepts of environmental care, it introduced and supported new ways sharing and retelling diverse cultural narratives, involving teamwork, valuing individual points of view, sharing of resources, and learning to use tools creatively rather than as weapons.

SCANZ2013:the very loud chamber orchestra of endangered species

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The very loud chamber orchestra of endangered species

Author: Pinar Yoldas

Abstract

Modern technology and culture has disconnected us from the rest of the world’s biota. Having built entirely man-made environments, we have distanced ourselves from the rest of the organisms on the planet. Having created the technology to control nature, we have alienated ourselves from the interspecies culture of mother earth . Feeling elevated, we have lost respect for other life forms, which have no less value than our own.

The VERY LOUD CHAMBER ORCHESTRA of ENDANGERED SPECIES is a collaborative art-science project, which explores the impact of environmental degradation on non-human animals. More specifically, it is a spatial data visualization and sonification project that aims to communicate environmental data on pollution, species and habitat loss to the general public in an engaging, non-technical manner. The spatial installation consists of skulls from various species. Each ‘cranial unit’ will be equipped with a servo motor and speakers and generate sound and movement in response to changes in the relevant data sets. By literally giving a VOICE to those whose habitats and lives are jeopardized by human activities, the project will initiate a subliminal emotional dialogue between viewers and the life forms that they often overlook. In essence, this project is an audible attempt to restore the dignity of other organisms that inhabit this planet and is an aesthetic amplifier of the negative consequences of our cultural choices. Alternatively, this project can be understood as a memento mori for those whose existence has been threatened, and a roaring wake-up call to the human race.

SCANZ2013:Balance-Unbalance

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Balance-Unbalance: Arts + Science x Technology = Environment / Responsibility

Authors: Leah Barclay, Ricardo Dal Farra

Abstract

We are living in a world reaching a critical point where the equilibrium between a healthy environment, the energy our society needs to maintain or improve this lifestyle and the interconnected economies could pass more quickly than expected from the current complex balance to a complete new reality where unbalance would be the rule and human beings would need to be as creative as never before to survive.

The arts could become a powerful tool of awareness and transformation in times of ecological threats, economic uncertainty and political complexity. Artists, scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, engineers, management and policy experts were sharing their knowledge, debating over different perspectives, exploring new projects and starting to build paths with the intent of engendering awareness and creating lasting intellectual working partnerships in solving our global environmental crisis during two conferences, one organized in Buenos Aires (2010) and the other in Montreal (2012). This panel explores outcomes and ideas from both conferences and introduces the framework for Balance-Unbalance 2013 (Future Nature, Future Culture[s]) hosted by Noosa Biosphere in Queensland, Australia.

 

SCANZ2013:SONIC ECOLOGIES

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SONIC ECOLOGIES: Practice-led intersections of sound art, science and technology in global communities

Author: Leah Barclay

Abstract

The dramatic advancement of technology has truly cultivated a paradigm shift in how artists interact in both physical and virtual worlds. These changes have evolved and expanded our tools of expression but most importantly they have opened the ability to communicate at a higher level in an interdisciplinary context.

In a recent addition of Musicworks, Joel Chadabe stated that the current artistic practices of electroacousitc composers are rooted in the idea that new technologies, unlike traditional musical instruments, can produce sounds used to communicate core messages, including information about the state of our environment. He claims that we are all participating in the emergence of a new type of music accessible to anyone, which can be used to communicate ideas that relate more closely to life than those communicated through traditional musical forms. He believes we need to think of ourselves as “leaders in a magnificent revolution rather than the defenders of an isolate and besieged avant-garde” [1].

In a world where the catastrophic effects of climate change are rapidly becoming a bitter reality, there must be a role for sound in generating a shift in consciousness towards a sustainable future. The author explored this notion through practice-led doctoral research that involved conceiving and delivering seven original electroacoustic projects for dissemination in multi-platform environments. The divergent projects were created in cultural immersion, spanning from ambitious sonic explorations in the center of the Amazon Jungle to sounding the rivers of the world through India, Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout these projects it became evident that the environmental interconnectedness the western world has been seeking is still prevalent in many first nation cultures globally. These ancient knowledge systems argue that the process of simply listening to the environment could answer many of the world’s problems. This shares synergies with Attali’s seminal 1985 text where he refers to music as not just simply a reflection of culture but a “harbinger of change”. He states, “For twenty-five centuries, western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible” [2].

World leaders now looking towards the validity and possibilities of creative methodologies as tools for change, this presents both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity for composers to gain a critical understanding of the situation, and take action in devising new processes for a sustainable future. Electroacoustic music, with the use of natural sounds, has a profound ability to ignite an awareness and connection to the environment. But is the role of the artist purely to comment on the crisis? To create awareness? Or can provocation extend beyond expression to create a behavioral shift in deeply engrained unsustainable ways of thinking?

This paper explores these questions and introduces Sonic Ecologies, a multi-platform methodology that could provide a framework to facilitate cultural change for a sustainable future. The core of this methodology pivots of a site-specific creative project embedded in a multi-layered community cultural engagement process. The research outcomes are introduced through three case studies of projects recently produced by the author in Australia and India and concludes with the conceptual design of Biosphere Soundscapes, a major international project developed with Sonic Ecologies highlighting the future possibilities of this model. These projects are ultimately acting as a catalyst and represent an unparalleled opportunity for artists reconnecting to the environment and taking action as agents of change in environmental emergency.

[1] Chadabe, J. “A call for avant-garde composers to make their work known to a larger public,” Musicworks, 2011. 111: pp. 6.

[2] Attali, J. Noise: the political economy of music. 1985, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.