Next talk postponed
Hi all,
The next scheduled talk for Dorkbot will be postponed. We hope to welcome Melanie to join us another time.
November Dorkbot CBR x 2
This month we are very lucky to have not one, but two special guests on Skype for Dorkbot CBR!
On Tuesday 5th November, media artist Jo Tito will join us to talk about a number of her artistic projects. Jo had a key role at SCANZ2013 as a cultural guide, sharing with the residents her knowledge of culture and of the Taranaki area, her home.
A couple of weeks later, on Tuesday 26 November, we will be joined by Melanie Cheung, another SCANZ2013 participant. Melanie is a neuroscientist committed to exploring Indigenous and Western scientific approaches and will be talking to us about electricity and creativity in the brain.
Jo Tito
When: 6pm, Tuesday 5 November 2013
Where: Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman house, Ainslie Avenue, Ainslie
Melanie Cheung
When: 6pm, Tuesday 26 November 2013
Where: Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman house, Ainslie Avenue, Ainslie
Peace Mandala 29th Sept by Jo Tito
Jo Tito
Abstract for talk
Jo’s work utilises a range of media including photography, video and painting to explore her passion for life and love and caring for the earth. At Dorkbot we will talk about some of Jo’s recent works, including her “Rock a day project” and her new mandala series.
Biography: Who Am I?
I am a Māori woman indigenous to Aotearoa NZ who is passionate about life and love and bringing about change in the world. I love to write and paint and take photographs. I love to be outside in nature experiencing the elements; the sun the rain and the stars but I also love to be inside snuggled up in a blanket in front of an open fire watching a good documentary or movie!
I love to help people be their best, to help them find who THEY are and share who they are with the world.
I have experienced many things and traveled to many lands where I have felt the spirit of the people and the land, but here in Aotearoa is where I feel most at home. I am currently living on the East Coast of the North Island although my heart is with my mountains: Tarawera, Matawhaura and Taranaki who move through me and remind me of where I come from and of my ancestors who have gone before me.
But I am also this person; my own person outside of where I come from and where I have been and what I have done in my life, I am this person who is constantly searching for who I am, delving into what it is that my heart desires and trying to understand where I fit into the scheme of things and how I can help in the world.
So here I am, I am here ever experiencing the present moment because in my quest to achieve and be something into the future I have found and learnt that the power is right here in the present moment and so I be here, right here, right now. This is who I am until next time…
http://jotito-artist.com
http://facebook.com/artistinnature
Melanie Cheung
Abstract for talk
The brain is a fascinating organ that allows us to make sense of the world. As it turns out the brain uses electrochemical signals to do this. Melanie’s talk will discuss some ideas about electricity and creativity in the brain.
Biography
Dr Melanie Cheung (Ngāti Rangitihi, Te Arawa) is committed to exploring both Indigenous and Western scientific paradigms to help Māori and Indigenous people with neurodegenerative diseases. Over the past 5 years Melanie and her research team have worked closely with a large Taranaki Māori family that have Huntington’s disease, a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disease that affects movement, personality, and higher cognitive functions. Their current research projects together include: (1) Developing a model of mutually beneficial partnership between Māori families and biomedical scientists/clinicians; (2) A Photovoice Research Project highlighting the Taranaki families’ wellbeing practices; (3) Clinical and Translational Huntington’s disease research. Dr Cheung’s other scientific research projects have included: Validating a transgenic songbird model of Huntington’s disease (with Rockefeller University); The isolation and culturing of 19 novel primary human cell culture models of brain disease; Using Indigenous values and practices in scientific practice, with specific focus on developing culturally respectful laboratory practices for working with human tissue. This research has been featured internationally in Science (2007, 318:907) and ABC’s award winning All in the mind radio show (3 May, 2008). Melanie has also worked extensively on culturally-responsive science education for Māori and Pasifika students studying biology. She currently works alongside Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith as the academic coordinator of MAI ki Waikato, a Māori capability program which facilitates the academic, professional and cultural development of 71 Māori and Indigenous doctoral students at Waikato University.
Melanie has worked throughout USA, Hawaii and Australia. She undertook research as a visiting scholar at both the Nottebohm Laboratory, Rockefeller University in New York and the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute, University of Washington in Seattle. She has also been a visiting lecturer at School of Education, University of Hawai’i in Hilo and School of Indigenous Australian Studies, James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. In 2014 she will undertake a Fulbright Fellowship with Professor Michael Merzenich at the Brain Plasticity Institute in San Francisco.
Kura Puke and Stuart Foster on Skype Tuesday 17 Sept
Dorkbot CBR is on again!
On 17 Sept, we warmly welcome Wellington based artists Kura Puke and Stuart Foster who will be joining us on Skype to talk about recent projects and ongoing collaboration. Kura and Stuart both participated in the SCANZ2013 residency, creating a number of works, which we look forward to discussing.
Here is a sample of some of their collaborative work
Tipi Nga Rangi by Kura Puke and Stuart Foster. This image of the laser being tested was taken during the SCANZ2013. Photo by Kalya Ward.
They were also recently awarded the Intercreate Media Arts Project 2014.
Kura Puke (whakapapa: Te Ati Awa) has a BFA in Fine Arts where she majored in glass and holds a Masters in Maori Visual Arts. Puke utilises LED (light emitting diodes) and fibreoptic thread to create illuminated works.
The combination of traditional elements and seemingly commercial materials and technologies, bring together new and ancient knowledge transforming urban visua-scapes into vital, responsive and communicative spaces culturally relevant and resonant within Maori and bi-cultural communities.
Puke’s last significant work Muramura developed out of her investigation into how Maori visual culture continues to reflect customary values, to remain relevant and to resonate withing increasingly urban realities. This work comprised of 12 tukutuku panels which featured animated patterning with variable patterns, timing, intensity and colour.
New developments are ongoing including solar power and sensor capabilities.
Stuart Foster is a spatial designer and academic based in Wellington. Stuart lectures in the spatial design programme at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, specialising in digital interaction, digital fabrication and spatial representation practices. His research focus is on interactive technologies that operate between digital and physical environments. Other research interests include the exploration of new digital fabrication technologies and how they may be exploited within design process. Stuart is also a founding member and creative director of interrupt collective www.interrupt.co.nz.
When: 6pm, Tuesday 17 September 2013
Where: Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman house, Ainslie Avenue, Ainslie
Ian Clothier and Te Urutahi Waikerepuru – Skype chat – 30 July
This month we are very lucky to have Ian Clothier from Intercreate and Te Urutahi Waikerepuru from Te Matahiapo as our guests for Dorkbot CBR.
Ian and Tee will talk about three projects, one for ISEA Istanbul, which was the first time Te Urutahi and Ian worked closely on a project; “Wai” for ISEA Albuquerque the second project, and then “SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature” which was a partnership between Intercreate and Te Matahiapo.
Detail of “Pou Hihiri” by Te Urutahi Waikerepuru
These were all exhibition projects, and Ian and Tee will show images of the works selected as they talk. Ian was responsible for curating and fundraising and Te Urutahi provided cultural audit, networking and cultural consultancy. There are elements of working across culture, and across disciplines that were explored in the exhibitions, leading to some surprising interconnections.
Ian M Clothier is an electronic artist, a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, Senior Academic at Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT), Executive Director of Intercreate Research Centre (intercreate.org) and founding Director with Trudy Lane and Nina Czegledy of SCANZ (Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand). His projects have been selected five times for International Symposium on Electronic Art exhibitions (2004, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012) and he has held twenty international exhibitions. A hybrid Polynesian, thematically his projects involve cultural hybridity and nonlinearity, and more recently this is combined into integrated systems while working with indigenous people. Collaborative projects have involved data sensors and web applications, robotics, socio-political data visualisation, micronation creation, augmented reality, motion sensors, online survey data collection and installation. In recent years he has worked with Te Huirangi Waikerepuru on projects that explore the interface between culture and technology, old wisdom and new knowledge, traditional Maori awareness and science. His written work has been published in Leonardo, Convergence and Digital Creativity and he has given many conference presentations including to Technoetic telos, Media Art Histories and The International Conference on Thinking.
Te Urutahi Waikerepuru is a managing director at Te Matahiapo Indigenous Research Organisation, where she is focussed on developing indigenous, cross-cultural & inter-disciplinary networks to establish respectful relationships that builds rewarding & sustainable community partnerships worldwide & supports the entrepreneurship of tomorrow’s leaders today. Te Matahiapo Indigenous Research organization (http://www.tematahiapo.org/), a collective established in 2012, is committed to unlocking the potentiality of customary wisdom and knowledge located within the layers of whanau, hapū, iwi of Aotearoa New Zealand and other diverse indigenous groups and communities around the world.
When: Tuesday 30 July, 6pm 2013
Where: Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman house, Ainslie Avenue, Ainslie
Sonja Van Kerkoff – Skype Chat – Dorkbot CBR 25 June
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Kāinga a roto (Home Within) installation detail ISEA Istanbul 2011
Often Sonja’a videos, installations, interactive works, sculpture or drawings relate to a type of telling that plays with meanings or associations in lyrical ways. Viewers often need to take action as part of the experience of the work. In the original version of this installation, viewers could not experience all five videos without moving around in the space. She often collaborates with others and many individuals have contributed to “Kāinga a roto” (Home Within), in particular, Toroa Pohatu and Sen McGlinn.
Kāinga a roto (Home Within) is an art-system, consisting of five distinct videos, with sounds, lights and shadows, and a physical space. This art-system is used to represent the complex system of a particular biography (growing up in Taranaki), using a visual language composed of references to the natural world (water in particular, but also earth, wind and bird life) influenced by Māori cultural values.
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Kāinga a roto (Home Within) installation detail ISEA Istanbul 2011
When: Tuesday 25 June, 6pm 2013
Where: Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman house, Ainslie Avenue, Ainslie.
Reference: www.sonjavank.com/kainga.htm
