InterPlaceWebPdf - Intercreate.org

inter/place
art in the space of puke ariki
Contents
Prelude
5 The works in detail
All Packed Up (nowhere to go)
Integral Theory
Haiku Robots Video 1-4
Series 1
9 The genesis of inter/place
Ian Clothier
12 Place, space and art
Robin Martin and Ian Clothier
The works
Photography by Chris Hill
18 All Packed Up (nowhere to go), 1997 - 2010/Jon Geehan
30 Integral Theory, 2010/Donna Willard-Moore
42 Haiku Robots Video 1-4, 2010/Ian Clothier
54 Series 1, 2010/Vicki Catlow
3
Artist statements
27 Jon Geehan
38 Donna Willard-Moore
50 Ian Clothier
62 Vicki Catlow
63 List of works
65 Artist biographies
4
Credits
Curator and visual designer/Ian Clothier
Photographer/Chris Hill
Writer/Robin Martin
Sponsors
Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki, Puke Ariki,
Intercreate.org
Publisher
Intercreate Press ISBN 978-0-473-20410-5 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-473-20411-2 (pdf) © Ian Clothier 2011
5
6
7
8
The genesis of inter/place
Ian Clothier
Recent research programs in computer science, cognitive sciences, artificial
life and artificial intelligence have argued for a view of the human so different
from that which emerged from the Enlightenment that it can appropriately be
called “posthuman.” Whereas the human has traditionally been associated with
consciousness, rationality, free will, autonomous agency, and the right of the
subject to possess himself, the posthuman sees human behavior as the result of a
number of autonomous agents running their programs more or less independently
of one another. Complex behavior in this view is an emergent property that arises
when these programs, each fairly simple in itself, begin reacting with one another.
Consciousness, long regarded as the seat of identity, in this model is relegated to
an “epiphenomenon.” Agency still exists, but it is distributed… [1]
While the degree to which consciousness is an epiphenomenon is contentious to
some and the meaning of distributed identity may not be precise, the memes of
distributed and multiple identity are clearly recognisable. It is possible to observe
this in many situations.
All of the people taking part in this exhibition have multiple names: birthname,
usernames, facebook pages, network identities, login and passwords for webmail,
user accounts at work. This range of names is widely applicable across that portion
of humanity that has access to network and the internet.
The singular relationship between person and name has all but dissolved. Instead
we now have categories of names related to purpose: the passport for travel,
the photo driver’s licence or rail pass for transport, log in for network based
communication, website url for portfolio, online names for social networking, and
numbers for mobile communication. Online users are free to explore constructed
identities for entertainment and lamentably sometimes illegal purposes.
9
Within this web of identities creative practices exist today without central points of
origin generating discourses. The era of modernism has past and with it the notion
of a singular discourse driving Fine Art.
The works put forward in inter/place along with their location are a reflection of
this. There is no central connective discourse but rather a number of separate
creative regimes are in operation simultaneously, generating a complexity that
must wait until the exhibition space for resolution and explication.
Tackling the issue of distributed consciousness and multiplicity in identity within the
context of a contemporary exhibition in a public museum became a rationale for the
dispersal of works throughout the building. This approach is in contrast to gathering
all within a single space, the logical consequence of singularity in identity.
10
Puke Ariki itself is not a singular space as it holds the unique identity of being an
integrated library and museum, joined by a symbolic and architectural airbridge.
Information and cultural artefact are intertwined and as a result the works in inter/
place are located throughout both buildings.
In 1994 Homi Bhabha wrote in The Location of Culture of the construction of
identity in contemporary society. Authorised power in a hybrid culture [2] does not
depend on the persistence of tradition; it is resourced by the power of tradition to
be reinscribed through conditions of contingency and contradictoriness…
Notions around hybridity provide a second major context for the selection of spaces
to exhibit. The unused back of stands in permanent display areas (Vicki Catlow),
unused architectural cul-de-sacs (Jon Geehan and Ian Clothier) and a large ramped
open corridor (Donna Willard-Moore) were negotiated by the curator for the
positioning of works and these suggestions were enthusiastically adopted by Puke
Ariki Exhibitions Manager Gerard Beckinsale and the exhibitors.
The above forms a pool of contention out of which the concept for the exhibition
was formulated. Following the installation of the works and their documentation by
photographer Chris Hill, [a member of staff of the Western Institute of Technology
at Taranaki (WITT) as are all the exhibitors] a longer contextual essay was written
with a view to creating a publication that documented inter/place. The use of colour
for quotes in this text among other strategies including a nonlinearity the Contents
section, are also reflective of the approach taken to the exhibition.
Rather than place an interpretive mechanism over the works each artist was
asked to provide a statement about their work. This reflected the intention to move
away from centralised authoritarian approaches and into a distributed space with
multiple points of entry and orientation.
All of those taking part are grateful for the support of the Research Committee of
WITT and staff of Puke Ariki as the project would not have been possible without
their input.
Notes
[1]. University of Chicago, An interview/dialogue with Albert Borgmann and N.Katherine
Hayles on humans and machines 1999. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/borghayl.html accessed May 4, 2010.
[2]. Homi K Bhabha, The Location of Culture. London: Routledge 1994, p2.
11
Place, space and art
The history of the exhibition space in Western European culture since the Renaissance
has a strong correlation to the development of art itself. As patronage of the arts
transferred from the church to the landed gentry, then to wealthy industrialists
and onto modern art institutions - the museum and gallery - the physical space that
artwork is exhibited in and to whom, have evolved correspondingly.
This is the context within which inter/place is located. The exhibition deliberately
blurs the lines between exhibit and exhibition space, leading to a reinterpretation of
the relationship between the audience and the work.
12
A brief history of place and space in Western Art
Throughout the Renaissance, the predominant clients for art were the church
and the nobility. As the seat of power in Italy, this centred around the popes and
ducal aristocracy and their surrounding entourages. Artists such as Piero Della
Francesca and Michelangelo Buonarroti created major works for the decoration of
sacred spaces. Pope Julius II for example, commissioned the Sistine Chapel ceiling
painting from the reluctant sculptor Michelangelo. The collection of this Pope would
form the beginnings of the Vatican Museum.
The Duke of Milan, Ludovico Il Moro was a parton of the arts as was Galeazzo
Sanseverino, a commander of Sforza armies. Sanseverino is a dedicatee of the well
known Divine Proportions by Luca Pacioli, illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci. [3] and
telling of the connections between sources of power.
As a result of increasing trade among nations with resultant prosperity and the
slow emergence of the independently wealthy individual, a gradual spread of art
occurred. These wealthy individuals would typically enhance their public profiles by
commissioning works which contained portraits of themselves and their families.
This became an increasing part of an artists’ daily work.
Up until the late Renaissance much art work continued to be seen in the context of
the church, but slowly through the 17th and 18th centuries and into the industrial
revolution there arose a class of nouveau riche, who commissioned works of the
spaces they owned - the landscapes of England for example, and portraits of their
families for their households.
This period also saw the emergence of middlemen who operated between the
wealthy classes and the artists. These middlemen became a force in the world of
art and had salons from which many of the works were commissioned or bought.
The 1700s onwards also saw the rise of the notion of the public art institution
endowed by wealthy individuals made rich by commercialisation. It became an
expression of culture and status to bestow works to museums and this was popular
up to the 20th century in the United States.
The first truly public museum is acknowledged to be the Louvre in Paris which
opened in 1793 during the French Revolution and for the first time allowed access
for everyone to treasures collected by the French monarchy and aristocracy. Prior
to 1800 it was necessary to apply in writing for admission to museums which
effectively acted as a barrier to many people.
Through the 19th and 20th centuries many of the European landed gentry capitalised
their assets and sold masterpieces to dealers who would on sell the works to US
collectors. These collectors later gifted them to museums and galleries.
Andrew Mellon - a banker who became US Secretary of the Treasury - financed the
establishment of the US National Gallery of Art and endowed his personal collection
of art in 1937, mostly obtained from Joseph Duveen, who had purchased the works
from European families. [4].
Gradually then, over a period of 500 years from the Renaissance to the 20th
Century there is a slow move from the Church as a location for viewing art to the
public gallery space.
Art and the audience
Throughout this period from the Renaissance to abstract expressionism in the
1960s the role of art and audience was primarily the same. Art functioned as
13
something to instil in people a sense of reverence. Art, if you like, was a plateau or
a window into the world of the eternal, the world of God, or the world of gods. It was
the artist’s role to create a place where this essence of spirituality or the spirituality
of art could be experienced.
This sense of spiritual communication was something felt by many artists
through the centuries, from Giotto to van Gogh through to 20th Century abstract
expressionists Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhart and Mark Rothko who all sought to
locate a spiritual element and provide a connective point for the viewer. Sometimes
this was provided by a discharge of energy that broke stylistic conventions, but with
many artists the intention of attaining a deeper experience persisted.
14
At the same time in the 20th Century, artists such as Marcel Duchamp were
questioning fundamentally the role of art and the audience. Duchamp’s significant
input into contemporary art was to state the case unequivocally that art was a
matter of the context in which it was placed, rather than being an inherent
characteristic of the object.
Duchamp’s thinking lead to the work of a number of artists post 1960 - John Cage,
Robert Rauchenburg, Allan Kaprow and many others - who all engaged with art on
different terms and placed the audience in a new space in relation to the art. Allan
Kaprow in particular had the audience take part in his artworks thereby generating
the concept of the ‘performance’ and the ‘happening’. The audience was no longer
outside the art object gazing toward it. The audience was in the art work [5]. Kaprow
developed this approach after using mirrors in early installations and noting that
occasionally the audience would appear in the installation.
At around this time in the 1960s and 1970s something else really important to
society was occurring and this was the development of computing and digital media.
It is perhaps a less widely understood fact that the development of the computer
went hand in hand with the development of the network and it is this development of
the network which has marked the current generation more than anything else [6].
For within the notion of the network we have entities like the internet, social media
such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube: these all put the audience in a completely
different space in regard to art where in many ways the audience has actually
become the producer of the art. So rather than passively viewing the work, the
audience is now intimately involved. This is particularly telling with the YouTube
generation where users are making movies with no formal training and publishing
the movies online.
The second impact computers and digital media have had on our lives is to put
forward an enormous multiplicity. What computers have done is allowed for a huge
variety of expression to take place on the landscape that is the internet and this has
lead to the development of diverse or distributed notion of what it is that human
kind is.
inter/place
The works in the exhibition inter/place present an attempt to come to grips in
some way with the notion of multiplicity and a sense of distributed identity. Rather
than gather all the artworks up in one area and present them as a selection of
works on one theme, the artists taking part in this exhibition have been free to
create their own work and explore different exhibition locations for that work.
Subsequently none of these works have been placed in the conventional sites for
exhibitions in Puke Ariki museum. There is no claim to novelty in this approach but
rather the determination that the view outlined above has been hybridised to the
Puke Ariki location.
The backs of display stands have been used, suspended walls have been built, blank
areas of wall outside gallery spaces and unclaimed sections of the library have been
utilised as locations for the exhibits. Consequently, the audience for these works is
in a completely different relationship with the art. Instead of going deliberately to a
particular location to view the works and to experience the art work as separate
entities, the audience may simply happen across the artworks in these diverse
spaces around the museum.
Jon Geehan’s work All Packed Up (nowhere to go) was suspended from the
infrastructure of the building, requiring the artist to locate a floating wall from a
beam of the building superstructure. This approach was ideally suited to a work
15
where parts were held in literal suspension: two metal pins sandwich several pieces
of glass, with the pins and the glass held in a pincer grip forced to close by wires
from which the entire piece is suspended.
Donna Willard-Moore’s Integral Theory 2010 can be seen on the ramp between
the Discovery Centre and the first floor of the library. Given the artists determination
to inform her audience of the four quadrant seven levelled Integral Theory, a library
location is ideal. “Preservation and verification… falls on the person citing the
information” which according to the artist “describes both a problematic and a
strength.” Information has been revolutionised, and in no place is this clearer than
a modern library, where internet access points now form the busiest sites of public
engagement.
16
The reason for the inclusion of four videos that utilise Haiku Robots output was
the intended audience for the work: the YouTube generation. As well as utilising an
interstitial space between collections in the museum, this form of the robot project
output directly addresses the near mania world wide for moving image media. Video
has become the lingua franca of contemporary society, breaking language barriers
in ways conceived but never achieved by proponents of Esperanto.
Perhaps the most subtle intervention in the museum space for this project was
Series 1 by Vicki Catlow. These framed pencil drawings were placed on the back
of existing display panels, in the same area as biological specimens, which included
the artist’s subject: weta.
There is in a sense a fifth participant in the project: Chris Hill whose photographic
works are contained in this publication in the form of documentation of the space
and the works. Hill is renowned for architectural photography, and this skill is in
abundance in the images of the spaces of Puke Ariki and subsequent views showing
the works.
Puke Ariki itself is a statement of the opening of museum and library spaces to the
public. Its complete Moa skeleton (a specimen type that once held pride of place
in New Zealand museums) stands in a half open display case. Several species of
bird and wildlife are not contained in any form of display case. Network track, air
conditioning ducting and other functioning components of the building are open
and exposed to view, simply subdued by a coat of dark grey paint. As a venue the
integrated museum and library was ideal for a set of works engaging with multiplicity
and distributed identity, features of the networked world.
Notes
[3]. Martin Kemp and Pascal Cotte, La Bella Principessa. London: Hodder & Stoughton
2010, p 80.
[4]. See the Wikipedia entries on Lord Joseph Duveen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Joseph_Duveen,_1st_Baron_Duveen and Adrew Mellon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Andrew_Mellon.
[5]. See Allan Kaprow at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Kaprow.
[6]. Steve Jobs remarked on visiting XEROX Palo Alto Research Centre that “they had over
a hundred Alto computers all networked and using e-mail” during his famous visit in 1979,
where Jobs saw the graphical user interface for the first time. See Christian Wurster,
Computers An Illustrated History. Koln: Taschen 2002, p231.
17
18
19
jon geehan
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
All Packed Up (nowhere to go)
Jon Geehan
All Packed Up (nowhere to go) is one of a series of works which investigates the
viewer response within the gallery/museum environment, whilst incorporating and
responding to lines of enquiry about the concept of ‘home’. The work sets out to
manipulate viewer response by combining formal, tactile and contextual elements
within a structure consisting of major and minor elements.
Flat glass is a major element within these works. As a construction material
(windows, glass bottles etc.) it is a medium which is trusted in its manufactured
state, to perform safely. In the context of these pieces, this confidence is questioned.
The material is used in its raw state, unfinished edges are exposed, delicacy and
fragility fragment the aura of safety.
Broken Glass 1974 was a British Public Information film exposing the
dangers of littering glass bottles on British beaches. The effectiveness of this
short film is achieved by the frozen moment of the final frame, which shows
a child’s foot hovering above an upturned broken bottle. The film succeeds
by allowing the viewer to continue the scenario to its painful conclusion.
The glass in All Packed Up (nowhere to go) is attempting, in the gallery/ museum
environment, to mimic the effectiveness of this film. In early experimental pieces the
glass was used in shards (like those from a broken window) to exploit our natural
reaction to broken glass, while perpetuating a reference to the film.
As the works developed, the glass was cut square. Structure became formulaic
in an attempt to delay viewer response to the fragility of the piece. This formulaic
structure has proved successful as it manipulates the viewer response by
suggesting a contentious state of equilibrium or safety, while the distinctive glass
colour attracts the viewer. In the context of All Packed Up (nowhere to go), the glass
although much smaller in physical scale, continues to play the role of manipulator by
suggesting vulnerability through its intrinsic delicateness.
27
The inclusion of a containing structure (in this case a timber box) is also a major
element within the work. Confinement or restriction of movement is a construct
which strengthens a sense of unease by inducing feelings of frustration or
containment.
This is a metaphoric reference to firstly the ‘Illizarov’ apparatus used in surgical
procedures, whereby broken or ill-formed limbs are constrained in movement to
aid healing. Wires are passed through the bone and skin and attached to a steel
structure surrounding the limb.
Secondly, Nelson’s ship ‘The Victory’, the oldest ship in the British Navy still in full
commission is itself constrained in continual dry dock by concrete and mooring
ropes, literally tied down. The implements and structures used for confinement in
the aparatus and in containment of the ship are strong, recurring elements in the
narrative of these objects.
28
This line of inquiry into confinement is evident in early sketch book notes which make
reference to the way in which artefacts are displayed in museum environments.
The artefacts are constrained by implements (case mounts) and locked in position
in glass display cases.
The inclusion of All Packed Up (nowhere to go) in the inter/place exhibition within
the Puki Ariki museum emphasises and asks questions of the relationship between
artefact and art piece. The boundaries between museum/gallery are blurred and
the notions of artefact/art work are juxtaposed.
Emotional associations around packaging are also evoked. The box or container
can function as metaphor for packing cases and cartons - vessels for the moving
of valuables from A to B - be it in a mover’s truck, as a traveller or through the
postal system. Questions are raised about concepts of ‘Home’, objects and place,
or of leaving home on a journey. The box invites speculations of glazed windows or
of rooms within, at the same time inviting reinterpretations of what a display case
properly should contain.
References to the display of artefacts/artworks within the museum environment
are strengthened by minor elements within the piece. Occupying various positions
across the museum wall or stage, these minor elements combine to pull the
aforementioned major elements together.
All Packed Up (nowhere to go) as exhibited in inter/place, constructs these major
and minor elements to form a discrete unit. The two major elements are centred:
the glass and the containing box. The glass is small in scale, and suspended by the
minor steel hanger element.
The steel hanger hangs from other minor elements, which allow the glass and its
hanger the ability to move. The glass would move were it not for the constraining
box element within which it hangs. This is evocative of strategies to suspend or
mount artefacts in museum displays (and of course the ‘Illizarov’ apparatus).
Constructed from various materials such as steel, piano wire, threaded rod and
nylon string, there are visual as well as physical connectors between the glass and
its containing box. The eye scans the arena of the artwork and, following the outlying
minor element structure, is brought centre (where the audience must stoop down
to see clearly). The concentrated gaze is led to the fragile glass element and hanger,
all ready and packed up but with nowhere to go.
29
30
31
donna willard-moore
32
33
34
35
36
37
Integral Theory, 2010
Donna Willard-Moore
Library as location
Libraries are very special places for scholars: by preserving words and images they
changed civilizations. The transmission of knowledge across generations entails
selection. The selection and storage of knowledge has involved the development of
libraries. By the 20th century, public libraries existed in most places in the world
and are considered essential to having an educated population.
Today, the electronic aspects of libraries and other digital information sources
extend access and availability. Information is now available on demand, quick,
sourced by many, constantly changing and being added to by anyone connected to
the system.
38
However, at the same time the presentation and verification of fact or truth falls
on the person citing the information, rather than the more traditional reservoirs
of authority such as publishers, professional institutes, universities and the
government – all of whom once controlled verification. This is of course an outcome
of information revolution, and describes both a problematic and a strength.
I was really pleased when the space selected for my artworks was the library. This
was a particularly compelling idea and space for an exhibition, given the content of
my works.
Content
Two components of Integral Theory informed the work for this exhibition. First are
the worldviews as presented in Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics, and secondly in Ken
Wilber’s All Quadrants All Levels (AQAL). Integral Theory informs my practice, and
Wilber and Beck are significant theorists in this burgeoning field.
Following Beck, the painted ovals represent worldviews which in Integral Theory
corresponds to the developmental stages of cultures. Each stage has an associated
colour, which is prominent in the oval paintings. Beck [7] gives the stages as follows:
1. Instinctive survivalist (magenta)
Express self to meet imperative physiological needs through instincts.
2. Tribal view (purple - top left painting of set)
Sacrifice personal goals or self to the ways of the elders and customs. Tribal
cultures are focused on family groups.
3. Power gods (red - upper left painting)
Power gods are found as the school bully and most dictators.
4. Rule and role conformist (amber)
Sacrifice self for reward to come through obedience to rightful authority.
5. Scientific-Rational (orange - lower right painting)
Modern world, and its fascination with science and technology.
6. Pluralistic-Relativistic (green - bottom right painting)
The post-modern world cultural and social relationships create all meaning.
7. Integral (teal)
Express self for what self desires, but to avoid harm to others so that all life, not just
own life, will benefit. An awareness of the other six worldviews.
Secondly Ken Wilber’s AQAL [7] is also an influence on my work. Wilber provides
four related ways to look at any issue - from the context of I, IT, WE, ITS. Following
are four headings and how each aspect influenced the production and presentation
of my work for inter/place.
39
I
The intention of the artist
The artist’s individual concern is contrasted, reinforced or extended by the exhibition
space. My interest in Integral Theory and the opportunity to share this in a public
space drove my involvement in the project.
IT
40
The facts of the space
The space placed the artworks directly in relationship to other modes of information
thus a direct comparison of value could be made. Similarly there was a contrast in
modes of understanding and differing information types in the same area.
WE
The cultural component
The people viewing the art would not be looking at the work from the context of
the gallery framework. The thinking that “I’m about to go to a gallery, thus all the
cultural rules of the gallery are in place” does not dominate perception.
The isolating effect (where the art is separated from the audience) of the traditional
gallery space is removed. Absent is the ‘holy ground’ effect cultivated by formal
galleries.
ITS
A view of the system
Installation systems and procedures had to be customised to the specific location,
which did not have existing hanging structures. Consequently the space in which the
works were exhibited involved a refresh of the process, outcomes and expectations.
Notes
[7]. See Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, Spiral Dynamics, Oxford: Blackwell 1996.
[8]. See Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, Boston and London: Shambhala 1996.
41
42
43
ian clothier
44
45
46
47
48
49
Haiku Robots Video 1-4, 2010
Ian Clothier
The twin heritages of electronic arts
The use of computers in art means that the resultant works have two heritages:
the traditional Fine Art context and the history of intelligent machines. The Fine Art
context traces back through movements like Fluxus, with Yoko Ono creating works
that were instructions: “look at the sun between your knees” for example (9). Fluxus
follows a trajectory orientated in Dada and Duchamp, with conceptual approaches
to art.
50
While art in Western culture is often traced to the Renaissance, obviously there is a
line of the development of civilisations leading back to the Abyssinians. The heritage
of intelligent machines is of a similar length. It flows back to the development of
the graphical user interface at Xerox Parc in the 1970s, and the invention of what
we regard as a computer - Conrad Zuse with the Z3 in 1942 (10). The trajectory
follows a line going back through automata to water clocks, the abacus in China and
originating in ancient Egypt with levered servants of the dead.
The root of the video art work: Haiku Robots
The four videos exhibited in inter/place were made predominantly for the YouTube
audience, as a means of spreading the data collected as part of the Haiku Robots
art work. Haiku Robots was an installation where two robotic cars traversed a
space demarcated by eight posts. If a robot came close to a post, it would detect
the post and send the post’s corresponding number to the project computer.
Over time, a sequence of numbers is generated and these can be translated into
words in the same way as a phone works. So what you get from the installation is
the creation of words, letter by letter. Each day would result in a long list of words
being created.
This dynamic creation of ever-changing outputs using really simple rules, points to
one of the contexts for my projects: nonlinearity.
In simple terms, nonlinear processes are those where the relationship between
cause and effect is not constant. Nonlinearity occurs in natural processes such as
the weather and also appears in post-structural concepts such as the rhizome of
Deleuze and Guattari. It has been studied as a branch of mathematics going back
to Poincare just before the start of the twentieth century.
Perhaps the clearest instance of nonlinearity in natural systems is the weather,
where conditions are similar but never the same as previous states of the weather.
The weather today is similar to, but not quite exactly the same as, the weather
yesterday. Sometimes there are large changes from day to day. At random,
patterns are generated.
The generation of patterns as a result of random processes can be seen in
exemplary form in Lotto. Looking in retrospect there are numbers that are selected
more often than others - there is a pattern. However these numbers are useless as
a predictive set, as the draw each week shows.
This type of process occurred in the Haiku Robots installation. It was speculated
that over time, patterns might arise and these patterns may cohere into sets of
words resembling English. A very simple sorting process involving maintaining the
word by word sequences of the word lists, and then selecting potential phrases was
used. Some of the word lists could be filtered out to make short poems:
god
hugs
yes
fern
51
And:
red
is
my
ace
bird
Or:
nick
scow
is
so
oh
52
At first it might appear astonishing that such clear and sensible phrases can be
generated from such a project. This was indeed a second aim of the project: to test
whether the intelligence embedded in all things could be exposed in a fairly simple
scheme.
Haiku Robots played for five months in Puke Ariki museum, generating hundreds of
pages of word lists. Following the exhibition, I decided to put the project further out
into the public arena by making short videos using some of the created phrases. All
the phrases, like those above, are in the same order as they were generated.
Subsequently a story line was developed that spread across four videos, which tells
the story of a person who has a great summer, then gets quite reflective, has to go
through a process of renewal before again visiting a positive summer. The Haiku
Robots output is interwoven through the story.
The audio soundtrack mixed diverse components related to machines, numbers and
nature. There is audio from Saturn (kilometric radiation recorded by the University
of Iowa in the United States), the sounds of storms and rain, aeroplanes flying by,
helicopters and space age sound effects.
The images are of Subaru or the Seven Sisters, Ireland and Norfolk Island, Julia sets
and fractals, telescope installations, trees to which rotational symmetry has been
added, and clouds from planes. My belief is that everything in the universe is alive
and interconnected whether animate or not. One aim of my projects is to create
works of art that expose this.
Notes
[9]. Akio Obigan et al. Yes Yoko Ono. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Company 2003, p49.
[10]. Christian Wurster, Computers An Illustrated History. Koln: Taschen 2002, p39.
53
54
55
vicki catlow
56
57
58
59
60
61
Series 1, 2010
Vicki Catlow
This is the first in a series of what I anticipate will become a body of work
documenting New Zealand’s insects. Series 1 is of the weta, one of our much
maligned yet harmless creatures. Due to our unique environment New Zealand
is a weta paradise and according to the Department of Conservation the weta is
older than dinosaurs with more than seventy differing species of this extraordinary
creature living in New Zealand. Many of them are at risk.
62
Many humans appear to suffer entomophobia, an unexplained fear of insects, and
show little compunction when it comes to killing one. However these creatures,
many of which are totally harmless, are vital to our ecosystems. So these works
are an active dialogue with the issues of conservation and in my attempt to record
their beauty I am hoping to encourage viewers to come to appreciate one of our
national treasures. By drawing them larger than life I allow the viewer to explore
their intricacies and examine their spectacular markings.
inter/place list of works
Jon Geehan
All packed up [nowhere to go]
Glass, borosilicate, steel, aluminium, nylon, piano wire, re-cycled timber
2440mm x 2440mm x 300mm
Donna Willard-Moore
Tribal View (purple)
Acrylic on aluminium
1500x1000
Power Gods (red)
Acrylic on aluminium
1500x1000
Scientific-Rational (orange)
Acrylic on aluminium
1500x1000
Pluralistic-Relativistic (green)
Acrylic on aluminium
1500x1000
63
inter/place list of works continued
Ian Clothier
Haiku Robots 1-4, 2010
HD video 16:9
Running time 3 minutes 10 seconds each (12 minute 40 second loop)
Vicki Catlow
Series 1, 2010
Polychroma pencil on hot press paper
455mm X 560mm (each of four drawings)
64
Artist biographies
Jonathan Geehan
Born in Portsmouth, UK, Jon Geehan achieved First Class Honours in Design at the
University of Portsmouth. After a period as workshop technician and as a kitchen
designer he went on to be an assistant to British based sculptor Pete Codling
working on large scale urban sculpture projects throughout the United Kingdom.
In 2008 he moved to New Plymouth and since living there has worked on a
number of successful projects including the newly opened Terewarewa Bridge
and a number of projects for Boon Goldsmith Bhaskar Brebner Architects. He
now devotes time to his technician role at the Western Institute of Technology at
Taranaki; exhibition construction/install for the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and
Puki Ariki Museum; continuing his sculpture and paintings; and the design and handcrafting of contemporary furniture for commission.
65
Donna Willard-Moore
Donna Willard-Moore, BFA., MA., MFA., is both an art educator and practicing artist.
Currently, Donna is a principle academic (PASM) teaching at the Western Institute
of Technology at Taranaki in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Working with Integral
Theory since 2001, she is exploring the creation of integral art. In 2008, she
presented “Integral Theory and Art Education” at the first Biennial Integral Theory in
Action Conference: Serving Self, Other, and Kosmos August 7-10, 2008 at John F.
Kennedy University, San Francisco CA. She is currently involved in creating both an
academic and public awareness of the developmental potential of Integral Theory.
Artist biographies continued
Ian Clothier
Ian M Clothier (MA Hons) is an artist, Senior Academic at Western Institute of
Technology at Taranaki, founding Director of Intercreate Research Centre and
founding Director of SCANZ (Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand) residency,
exhibition and symposium. Working in diverse collaborative media, projects have
involved data loggers and web applications, robotics, socio-political data visualisation,
micronation creation, augmented reality, motion sensoring, online survey and
installation. His projects have been selected for international exhibition in Istanbul,
Belfast, upstate New York, San Jose, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Tallinn, Dublin,
Hobart, at ZKM, and for net.net. This includes four ISEA (International Society for
Electronic Art) exhibitions. He has also published papers in leading international
academic journals Leonardo, Convergence and Digital Creativity.
66
Websites: www.ianclothier.com, www.intercreate.org
Vicki Catlow
Vicki Catlow MFA(Hons), BA(Hons) has a varied professional background that has
given her exposure to a wide variety of artistic situations and stimuli, each needing
to be processed and interpreted in a different way. Her approach to work is in an
organised and efficient manner coupled with a high level of professional expertise.
Working in multiple media, she regularly uses stitch as a basis for her work. Her
most recent art works have reverted to the more traditional method of mark
making through the medium of drawing coupled with an interest in botanical art.
urls
Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki
www.witt.ac.nz
Puke Ariki
pukeariki.com
Intercreate
intercreate.org
67
Ian Clothier
ianclothier.com
Chris Hill
www.hillphotos.co.nz/