Andrew Hornblow
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
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.
Andrew Thomas
Andrew Thomas has contributed audio to the project, adding a dimension of Navajo (Dineh) culture to Wai.
Biography
Andrew Thomas is a contemporary Dineh (Navajo Nation) flute player. He gives thanks to his extended family: Haltsooí Diné’e (maternal)—Meadow People Clan, Bit’ahníí (paternal)—Folded Arms Clan, Kin Yaa’áanii (maternal grandparents)—Towering House Clan, and Tsé Nahabilnii (paternal grandparents)—Over Hanging Rock Clan. He was born and raised in Rock Spring Chapter near Gallup, New Mexico. He is self-taught, and plays music composed from the heart. He has chosen the flute’s voice to express his way of life, heritage and culture.
The flute provided him the opportunity to create the music and narration for a video documentary about male Navajo weavers entitled Men Who Weave. He feels fortunate that his music has allowed him to travel widely, both nationally and internationally. He has performed all over the United States, including the Indian Summer Festival in Milwaukee, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Ute Mountain Casino, and over 10 years at the American Indian Powwow Gathering in Hawaii. He has performed in Mexico, Peru, South Korea, and throughout Europe, including Sweden where he had a story published in the book, They Call Us “Indians”. He was also the first Native American artist to play at the World Performing Arts Festival in Lahore. He was honored to perform for the president of Pakistan, as well.
His first venture into recording has resulted in a CD titled “Changing Woman’s Blessings”. More recently, he recorded in Perth, Australia, with a well-known Aboriginal actor and musician, Heath Bergersen. This cross-cultural collaboration has culminated in a CD mixing the sounds of the traditional Australian instrument, the didgeridoo, and the Native American flute titled “Friends for Life”.
Through his music and his life, he is an activist in preserving Native ways, creating awareness of the need for communication across cultures, and protecting all human rights. In this way, he strives to give back to the community. He most enjoys connecting with people of all cultures and sharing the musical language of the flute.
“Flutes are not political. They transcend heritage differences.”
WAI by Te Hunga Wai Tapu
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.