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237.131 Conversations in Creative Cultures 237.131 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.131 – Week #3 Notes

Week #3: Mana Tangata

Discussion on Kumera

Nutritious, can grow easily in NZ, can store very easily. Not sure what relevance this has to whakapapa.

Some traditional Polynesian plants wouldn’t thrive in NZ.

Lots of varieties of Kumera, so there’s probably one that fits in somewhere. However, there were maybe 80 varieties, but only three left.

We have selectively decreased Kumera genetic diversity, potentially to select disease resistance, reduce competitive plants, make it easier to have large scale production, consumerization, etc.

Some efforts made late in the day to increase diversity.

“How the Gok’s saved the Kumera”.

Seed stock of Kumera given away to the Japanese by the government.

Whakapapa again as a way of showing people how to live life according to traditional values.

GMO

So the difference is speed? We hybridize things all of the time.

This is not to say that we should not pursue GMO; the issues seem to be around the cross-breeding of species.

Is it OK to apply GMO to things without a whakapapa.

Wonder how agapanthus fits into this

Michael Parekowhai, The Lighthouse, 2017, installation

The Lighthouse is an artwork by Michael Parekowhai. Its exterior is in the form of a 1:1 scale 1950s family home and its interior features an installation of light as well as a sculpture of Captain Cook, titled The English Channel. It is surrounded by a wooden jetty that “floats” on Queens Wharf. The public can explore the work by looking through its windows and doors and by climbing the staircase.

The Lighthouse is the house that holds the whole universe as we know it. The interior finish is highly reflective and features clusters of neon lights that represent the star constellations which illuminate around all of the surfaces. The combination of light and the form of the fireplace implies the notion of ahi kā; that home fires are burning and the house is warm with people.

The presence of The English Channel, sitting among the stars, grounds the work. This version of Captain Cook is not the heroic figure that we often see; instead he’s more pensive and thoughtful. He faces toward the fire, as if he’s warming his feet, but his gaze and mind are elsewhere.

The Lighthouse can be viewed from Queens Wharf or from the sea on the Waiheke or Devonport ferries. The artwork is part of Auckland Council’s public art collection, and was funded by Barfoot & Thompson and anonymous donors.

The Lisa Reihana piece

Lisa Reihana: in Pursuit of Venus (infected)

in Pursuit of Venus, the panoramic video by Lisa Reihana, is a moving image interpretation of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique.

http://www.inpursuitofvenus.com/about

Done as a riff on old wallpaper:

Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (The native peoples of the Pacific Ocean), 1804-5, Mâcon, by Mr Jean-Gabriel Charvet, Mr Joseph Dufour. Purchased 2015 with Charles Disney Art Trust funds. Te Papa (2015-0048-1) – Drops 1 – 10

Connections to transit of Venus.

Colonizers view on Aotearoa and Pacific peoples.

The Assignment

Continuing to consider the Doctrine of Discovery, and how to represent this through an art work.

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Painting

Oil exercise

Practice vs Product

Getting back into oils, trying to exercise specific skills rather than completing work. This one had two aims:

  1. Mix for correct tone (less concerned about hue).
  2. Work in a painterly manner; no blending allowed.

Toned canvas panel, sketch in burnt umber with turps.

Which paint?

I have more than one set of oils. I can’t afford to use “Gucci” paint all the time, so for practice pieces I have honking big 200ml tubes of Pebeo XL.

I favour a limited palette: a slight variation on the Draw Mix Paint (alternative) palette, so a mix of alizarin crimson and cadmium light red hue, primary cadmium yellow hue, ultramarine blue, titanium white, burnt umber.

Criticisms: shadow’s too dark, pear’s a little flat, could not get the correct hue for green/blue shadow areas at the left of the pear; on the positive side: the tones are OK, no blending.

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237.131 Conversations in Creative Cultures 237.131 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.131 – Week #2 Notes

Week #2: Mana Whenua

Group work

What my table group learnt from reading “Introduction to the Oxford Illustrated History of Science”:

  1. Science has become disconnected from culture.
  2. Science explains physical and spiritual things.
  3. Science explains models and the different ways of explaining models.
  4. Science is always adapting.
  5. Science sums up the way in which we make sense of the world around us.
  6. Science is a uniquely human activity.
  7. Most of what we know now will become false in the future.

Huhana Smith interview

(Video on Youtube but unlisted)

  • Rehabilitating the stream using matauranga Maori approach.
  • Harakeke (NZ Flax) Indigenous plant.
  • Doing this to keep contact between community and land.
  • Creating “pa harakeke”.
  • Harvest the harakeke and use if for making things, e.g. fibres for cloth, etc.
  • Harakeke also has medicinal uses.
  • Getting artists and artisans involved in responding to the project.
  • Pushing the design aspects of the task through Massey, e.g. textile engineers, designers, etc.

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237.131 Conversations in Creative Cultures 237.131 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.131 – Week #1 Notes

Week #1: Mana Atua and Knowledge Systems

Introductions

There are about 50 people in this course this semester, which felt like more than the first semester’s 237.130 module. The tutors started out the session by doing an introductory exercise to get us on our feet and energised, which worked pretty well. I started out meeting the group of people who were not born in New Zealand, and then met the people in the group who are, like me, on the BFA course. There are about 8 of us, with the other students being on one of the design courses.

The main part of the session started with us watching the “Tātai Arorangi” episode of Project Mātauranga.

Project Mātauranga is a television series that investigates Māori world views and methodologies within the scientific community and looks at their practical application… This episode looks at tātai arorangi (astronomical knowledge), used to navigate the ocean, plant crops, harvest kaimoana, and to tell the time

Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao

This particular episode focussed on Māori astronomy, including connections to non-Māori astronomy.

What I picked up from the episode:

  • I need to find some Māori astronomy references.
  • Origin stories vary from Iwi to Iwi, so need to take care and not make sweeping statements like, “Māori believe …”
  • How were Māori astronomy stories translated by Pākehā into Western/mainstream concepts?
  • How do the researchers identify original sources?
  • What constitutes “raw information”?
  • Interesting: mainstream versus indigenous as comparative terms.
  • Is science not indigenous to India, England, France, whatever?
  • Not all Māori knowledge is for everyone – need to re-read the 237.130 article.

Digression on comparative terms

One of the speakers in the video used indigenous and mainstream to differentiate between the Māori and non-Māori world views. As noted above, indigenous is (to me) not a useful way of differentiating between the two, because one could argue that everything is invented somewhere, so we may as well say that the Theory of Gravity is indigenous to England. In my writing, if it’s necessary to differentiate, I will therefore use the following:

  • Traditional Māori …
  • Mainstream …
  • I’m not proposing to tag science as anything when referring to the universal subject. Science is not Western science or Eastern science or British science; it’s just “science”.
  • Where there is a need to differentiate between mainstream and fringe science, for example parapsychology versus chemistry, I will write “fringe science” and “mainstream science” respectively.

Class exercise

We split into small groups to discuss a few questions posed by the tutors on the video.

What did we learn that’s new?

None of us had heard of S.M.A.R.T, the Society Of Māori Astronomy Research & Traditions:

https://www.maoriastronomy.co.nz/

What did we already know?

Most of the information about traditional Polynesian navigation techniques – my group had come across this either at school through other sources.

I had seen information on this topic at the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland:

https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/exhibitions/landfalls

What kind of creative work could we make to help explore this?

  • An interactive experience?
  • Game-ify the traditional Māori navigation process?
  • Create an artwork that shows how the night sky would appear, and how points in the sky could aid navigation?
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Bachelor of Fine Arts Reflections on studying

Preparing for Semester 2

Some actions to follow up on. Cross out when done.

  • Plan the half year, then months, then weeks. The work this semester is not going to be as easy to fit into my “spare” time as semester one was, particularly the two Art Lab sessions. So, book holidays for those.
  • Change the blog layout to allow multiple courses. I’d locked it into a structure that only really supported one course, so need to put another level of hierarchy in there.
  • Do the independent study! I did well at this in semester one, and need to keep the same focus this semester – if only one or two weeks get away from you, it’s hard to pull it back. So, write up the group sessions, then get stuck into the independent study.
  • Critically, there are two assignments for 237.131 each one with only six weeks to plan/do/submit. I need to plan for the assignment in week one and start getting the submission set up – that was a time sink last time.
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Bachelor of Fine Arts Reflections on studying

Changing course

I wrote somewhere that what I really want to do is a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). That’s not something you can jump straight into – you either have to come out of college level arts and have your portfolio pre-approved, or apply and have your portfolio accepted.

To build a portfolio, and get back into learning, I’d enrolled in Massey’s Diploma in Visual Arts course. Seemed like a win/win option.

Now, it is possible to take some of the BFA modules as part of the DipVA, with permission from the faculty. So, I spoke to one of the BFA tutors on Zoom to ask about this. He suggested that, rather than wait, I just submit a portfolio immediately. If it was accepted, then I could switch to BFA and save a lot of time (taking my DipVA credits with me); if not, then at least I’d know what I need to work on.

So, I submitted a portfolio.

The portfolio was accepted.

I’m now a BFA student!

This is quite… a nice surprise.

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237.130 Communication for Makers Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.130 – Final Grade

Final Grade: A

Very happy to get an A (88%) for this, my first university assignment in decades.

Feedback

What the heck! For transparency, this is the feedback I got…

Kia ora Gavin. You engaged well, courageously, from welcome professional experience and have come to new insights, esp in the later part of your creative work, testing the validity of your approach of imagining the Māori invitation, and whether you could assume that position on Māori’s behalf.

Earlier, your call for ‘guard rails’, (Mutu), while understandable, does not take into account that your own view and critique on Mutu’s call for a better way to proceed together again comes only from your Euro- frame of thinking. Where slavery is generally understood to be indeed abhorrent, apply that same frame in a wider sense, to see that slavery by Europeans provided the European advantage too, and that inhumane consequences of the colony to this day mainly affect non-Europeans.

Your external review yielded good insight and you revised your work accordingly. Well done.

You have engaged very well with this course, and have contributed with frankness to the studio discussions. Thank you for that, Gavin!

Reflecting on this feedback

I’ve thought a lot about this feedback, and do think it’s fair. I do have one point of clarification. To me, it is possible to read this as slavery being “more bad” when one culture does it to another. I absolutely don’t think my tutor would have meant it this way though, and I got an A, so I’m going to view this as just an interpretation thing and leave it alone. If I run into him on campus and it seems an appropriate time, I will check on this.

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237.130 Communication for Makers 237.130 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.130 – Week #12 Notes

Session 12: Present and reflect

We gathered around, so that each person could have a minute to explain their work and get some public feedback from Matthijs and Dick.

This is a creative arts college full of people who are there to, basically, be creative, so I wouldn’t say that I was surprised to see that people had had all sorts of ideas, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t interested to see the results.

Items presented included paintings, dioramas, textile art, sound art, baking, etc., etc.

Mine was an abstract collage:

  • I wanted this piece to feel uncomfortable and unfinished.
  • I wanted to show the disconnect in my previous and current thinking about my place.
  • I don’t think I’ve achieved this, but I have taken a step towards it, and in the process of working towards it, I do think I’ve learned things.

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237.130 Communication for Makers 237.130 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.130 – Week #11 Notes

Session 11: More Making Of

This session was an other quick check in with Matthijs on my progress. Although concerned that I’m running out of time, I think I’m heading in a slightly more definite direction now. Still want to bring in the three cultures contrasted with triangular section concept, but in a less dangerous and culturally insensitive way (hopefully!). Matthijs asked me to note my conversation with a Māori person and reflect more on that.

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237.130 Communication for Makers 237.130 Studio Notes Bachelor of Fine Arts

237.130 – Week #10 Notes

Session 10: Making in progress

This session was a 1:1 session with Matthijs to discuss my concepts for the “Making Of” project.

I discussed the idea of reworking advertising from the 19th and early 20th Centuries to reflect what might have been if the activities were more integration that colonization.

Matthijs expressed a concern that this was potentially a dangerous path, because it was still bring very much a Western approach to the issues. I suggested that I could speak with a Māori person about this, to bounce some ideas around, so I took that away as an action.

I also think I might revisit the concept to see how else I might present the fundamental divisions I feel between UK/Japan/NZ life, and how that three sided thing can be reflected by the three sides of my section on land in Oruamatoro, and so on.

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