present-tation

the day of our presentation dawned fine and sunny, and we were honoured with a rare glimpse of taranaki. all seemed good - until we knocked on the door of number 6 and got no reply. it quickly transpired that no-one had seen karla and leena since the exhibition opening at just art the night before ... trying to look on the positive side of things, vicki and i set off for the gallery to finish preparations for our presentation, and sent texts to try to locate our missing collaborators. it was a bit disconcerting that we didn't hear from them during the day, but we were busy with everything else and as they've never let us down before, we were confident that they would show up in time.

once things were set up at the gallery, we managed to squeeze in a spot of op-shopping and vicki scored a stunning copper-coloured frock, the perfect compliment for my own velvet number. then we dashed back to WITT to assist becca wood with her presentation - a choreography performed by herself and a dancer in auckland, using iVisit and playing with the space between the windows. it was really interesting to see a dance-oriented use of iVisit, the way they were playing with the space, and points of commonality with our own work.

but still no word from karla or leena! by 5pm we were getting pretty worried, as we headed back to the gallery laden with everyone's computers for the final set-up. dan supplied us with liquid comforts while the rumorologists administered rescue remedy to vicki - hard to know whether it was the pressure of the tight frock sleeves on her toned muscles, or the anxiety over karla and leena's whereabouts, but she was starting to go white and trembly ...

7pm came and we were up. given the evening's tight schedule we had to say "the show must go on!" and bravely took to the floor. i was chatting to the audience while we waited, desperately hoping for a last minute appearance, when my phone started going and the texts came in thick and fast from karla - they were in auckland!!!! unbelievable!!! over several text messages we learned that, after the exhibition opening on friday night they had gone with some locals to brooklands zoo and scaled the walls, so that karla could get to the otters. not surprisingly, they were caught by security and once their alien status was identified, the police were called in and before they knew it they were being whisked off to the detention centre at auckland airport, for immediate deportation!!!

incredibly, leena still had one last bottle of high quality finnish vodka with her. she cleverly used this to bribe the immigration officials into giving them internet access and so they were both able to be online for the rest of the present-tation. we cast our shadows onto the mountain and discoursed about our study of presence and absence during the residency, before the time-keeper intervened and we were forced from the stage, amid rousing cheers and thunderous applause.

later as the audience left the auditorium, they encountered the installation part of our work. this was a test run as we will use it in a slightly different context during intimacy and in-yer-face next week, and it was encouragingly well-received. finally, we retired with the rest of the scanz artists to punkawalla for an indian banquet.

as for karla and leena, they must be in the air now, winging their way back to their homes. i'm not sure what became of the otter(s). it has been an incredible and memorable two weeks, we have all been changed forever by this experience.

our thanks go to ian and trudy for organising scanz and offering us our first group residency, to the govett brewster for their support in set up, to adam for being a total network dude and to the rest of the scanz artists for the wonderful group collaboration that you all entered into with so much enthusiasm and generosity.

too brief a connection

the end of SCANZ is fast approaching and now the ADA [Aotearoa Digital Artists] crew are here to join us for the last couple of days of Presentations and discussions. we have been lucky to be party to the work and thoughts of all the artists here and although we arrived with a plan in mind this two weeks has seen our work evolve and expand and gain in layers and richness


after working hard all day to get the set-up happening in the gallery we were looking forward a relaxing evening. starting with the Opening of the latest exhibition at jUStart [the exhibition space run by Justin ]– Justin and Kim are students at WITT, documenters of the SCANZ residency and willing if sometimes unwitting accomplices in the nefarious deeds of the SCANZ participants..

It was a great way to start to wind down [although it seems this is always the time that Karla and Leena are winding up because while Helen and i went back to the Gallery, it seems that after the opening the others hit town [in fact they were not in room 6 at all last night!] – our only concern now is that they make it to the gallery in time for the evenings events...

Verdigris

On arrival at the Govett Brewster today the verdigris on the door reminded me that i have some more green images to contribute to Raewyn Turner’s project – in exploring and photographing the environment i have in mind the work that others are doing to respond to the strands at SCANZ [environmental response and for us to explore the notion of dis/connection] really on reflection the connections happening through this residency are really quite phenomenal


to illustrate - even today, as we were working in the auditorium the Govett Brewster education programme was about making shadow puppets – for the ability to re-create dancing with the stars [we too are exploring shadows, for the notion of presence the ability to cast a shadow confers]

one of the fabulous tech people who helped us with the set up today was Leonie Smith who has just had a show at the Govett was discussing the work she is doing on flux
or ‘satellite gaps’ as she called them which is the very area Becca Wood [who we are sharing a space with] is exploring - and which is of course what any work that happens live over the internet is permeated with

and then there is the fact that Stella has a beer named after her… and so does Karla! which is really what we needed after scaling Paritutu today…

real and virtual vertigo

as the residency draws to a close it feels like we're emerging from the shadows into a sunny clearing, ready for work. this morning at the govett brewster the internet functioned perfectly, and the four of us established a local-but-remote working methodology that seems promising for our creative processes. things clicked into place as we stepped back from the proximal precipice ...

to celebrate our morning's achievement, we opted for another kind of vertigo, and scaled paritutu rock; it was a bit of a scramble but i managed it - in a skirt, bionic hip and all! the views from the top were amazing - although taranaki remained hidden behind his shroud of cloud.

the vertigo of proximity

now that we are finally all together, the work is intense and unexpectedly hard. some things are much easier to communicate over email and chat. moving alongside karla's petite and agile body, i am suddenly overtly conscious of my own lack of grace and co-ordination; my new-zilind twang jars against leena's sexy accent; and i am a complete sloth compared with vicki's ability to function on minimal sleep and go for long walks. the vertigo of proximity throws these physicalities into high relief, and i find myself secretly yearning for the intimacy of distance ...

Dis-traction

it is interesting how many of the themes and ideas from the range of projects are appearing in other projects, these recurrences are forming patterns that are beginning to reflect the response to the environment that we are all attempting to make [and in some cases the Location – Dis-location we are feeling] some of the patterns to _our_ work seem to be recurring – the struggle with the internet and life [work, health, family] influencing the progress made


an environmental response i enjoyed is under one of the bridges on the hike down to the beach. The grafitti I had photographed and appreciated [thanks to New Plymouth Kids] was rollered over in buff on today’s jaunt – so fresh that we covered our fingers in paint checking. but by the return journey the silver scriber had already started afresh and left a comment for the perpetrators of bland


and talking of fabulous patterns I found this woman in downtown New Plymouth yesterday who makes great slippers [am happily wriggling my toes in the faux leopard skin interior of the ones i bought yesterday]

AND finally, we found some enthusiasts willing to climb taranaki with the C5 guys - will their quest finally meet with success?!

dis-connected

this morning the four of us went to the govett brewster to test the internet connection ... which didn't work at all. not to be deterred by a mere technical hitch, we spent some time playing with the data projector, then went to lunch and had a good session on our work-in-progress for intimacy and in-yer-face then did a spot of shopping.

in the afternoon we met up with dale copeland who took us to real tart; she hit it off really well with karla and has taken her out to her home and studio at puniho for the night. i'm not sure whether leena has gone with them, or with other scanz artists to the new plymouth observatory. unfortunately it's cloudy tonight - obscuring the full moon ... but was enough of a breeze for ken to test-fly his night kite:







tonight we had new zealand's first ever faces meeting, involving much laughter and wine. nina has promised a full report ... and now it's storming, winding, lightning ...

Grouphug

Finally were are all here and working together as a group. We are hugging a lot to make up all those years when couldn't but virtually ")kiss" & ")pop".

The working issues are usual regradless of the physical or virtual presence: internet was down at the gallery. Well, ok, it is easier now because it is easier to be present when you have a body, not just an avatar that doesn't get access.

But we have been playing with the projectors and developing an idea but that is still a secret...

kicking up your heels

today we heard from Lynne and Grant, they were up at Turoa skifield [Lynne reports that it was fun looking after Karla and that they are looking forward to seeing K, Dan and the girls in London] - on Mt Ruapehu looking west they tried to cast their shadows on Taranaki for us.
i think we missed them because it was about that time we were doing Adam’s FLOSS 101 workshop

Caro and i went for a walk in the early evening and were blessed with sighting two Ruru [Morepork] on silent wings, the moon came out and lit sparkles all along the black sand beach, turned the ponga ferns to silhouette and the edge of clouds to paua

later at Matinee we were treated to a sonic event that at first seemed to be messing with internal organs – a noise creating vibrations that distorted bar-room conversation in an interesting way – next came a driftwood symphony, repeated clicks and tocks prompting one punter to comment “it needs a baseline”…

me i watched the reflection of the mirror ball and imagined it was winking back last night’s party – as Caro Bossy in Second Life says “when in doubt just dance”

some reflections

it's just after midnight, and through the wall in room number six i can hear leena snoring peacefully while karla talks in a loud whisper on her mobile phone to one of her daughters back at home in london. we have spent the day working intensively in our little blacked-out space - we are now more than half way through the residency, and every one is so engrossed in their projects that people seem to have barely registered karla and leena's belated arrival.

the moon is almost full and we are all hoping for wind tomorrow, so that ken can launch his kite. maria and norie are busy collecting breaths for their exhibition at the govett brewster, wolfgang is off taking a 24-hour web cam view of taranaki, and nina is gathering one-word descriptions of the aurora.

in fact everyone is operating in their own little world, and we have had to resort to strong signage in order to avoid further accidents and injuries. even so, it's hard to avoid the occasional bodily collision. Fortunately no-one has perished yet, but were that to happen, we are happily handy to the cemetary.

SUNday

again the SCANZ team disappeared off to the four corners of the compass, the Govett Brewster gallery, the beach, the mountain and a farm - while we celebrated the arrival of the sun, as well as Karla and Leena, with a picnic at the accommodation [it was wonderful to be all around the same table and really there’s nothing better than a quiet Monteith’s Pilsner in the sun]

Stretching the legs and checking out the neighbourhood revealed glimpses of Taranaki and while down at the beach we finally found out where Leena had been staying all this time – although it’s a lot better knowing they are safely tucked up in number 6!

after the superb indian feast [thanks to Sara and a dedicated crew of helpers] there was the opportunity for SCANZ and non-SCANZ people to ‘swaray’ with the assembled crew here


after joining and orientating at the swaray stage participants could check in the luxury Caroshotel in preparation for the attending the Conference of Rumorology [and in a set-up closely resembling life here at WITT there was an adjoining paddock full of sheep!]

things started off well and all the stages were busy with visitors then some strange bug hit the network! – the staff and guests were left in a state of confusion when the manager got locked out of her hotel, a particularly wet and dispersed conjecture hit the conference and the delegates all left [although its rumoured they will return next week] the GE specialist in the pink lab coat was last seen forlornly counting sheep - there was a whisper she was endeavouring to herd them in an effort to get into Alex’s SCANZ film project

Sore muscels

O boy, biking 40 km was way too much all of a sudden for me. I am totally exhausted. I have arrived to residency many hours ago but I have been resting. Helen kindly brought me orange juice and rubbed my calves but I can't stand up yet. I will write more later on, now I must sleep.

out and about

yesterday while half the SCANZ people were out in the wilds of taranaki counting sheep we held another UpStage workshop. This time we limited the numbers to just the Out-of-Sync team Norie and Maria. They learned about the online environment and we set about creating a stage for them to hold the Conference of Rumourology as part of the ADA – Swaray [tonight Sunday at 9pm NZ time]

we were so busy we didn’t notice the bomb scare when this bag was discovered in the Carpark outside the accommodation block – closer investigation revealed it was from some well meaning but shy person dropping off a range of Pharmaceuticals to assist in getting Trudy out of her room and back into the Swing of SCANZ things [there have been so many disappearances and mystery illnesses this last week - is this a mutant computer virus sweeping through the group? people are dropping like flies! where is everybody i mean has any one seen Andrea Polli the last few days?]

After all that excitement it was time to head down to the Govett Brewster and check out the performance part of the 'What Colour does Sound make' exhibition. Pity Karla and Leena had to miss the eerie sound of the Nguru played by Richard Nunns [by just looking at her bicycle you can tell Len would have loved the Japanese ‘Rock-n-Roll’ as well….]


helen and i are extremely excited Karla and Leena are going to be back with us again – and luckily with Gillian Fuller on the job as ‘Quarter Mistress’ we definitely have enough sugar to cope with Len’s sweet tooth!

Biking to New Plymouth

I have been in one the greatest party in my life! Amazing group of absolutely crazy people arrived yesterday and we have been dancing and singing and laughing and eating and dancing and singing...

But now it is time to go back to the 'camp scanz'. My hostesses asked me to take a design bike to New Plymouth to their friend who will paint it 'pimp my ride' style. It is only about 40 kilometres (so they say) so I will be cycling back to Helen and Vicki, and hopefully also Karla has returned by the time I get there. Shouldn't take to long unless the road is still flooding.

See you soon!

devising despite dispersion

while it's frustrating to be so close to each other yet still not working physically together, we Colliders aren't letting a few little mishaps stem our creative flow. after 5 years of working remotely, our distributed methodologies are so honed that it makes little difference whether karla and leena are in london and helsinki, or raetihi and flooded south taranaki.

at least in these circumstances we're not having to deal with different time zones (although both k and len have suffered badly from jetlag and other substances messing with their notions of time) - this in itself has had a massive impact on our working methods. time that would normally be spent juggling schedules and time zones is now able to be devoted to the work. removing time conversion from the equation has definitely simplified things!

and the challenge of the physical journey and attendant adventures is proving to be hugely stimulating for all four of us. synergies, coincidences and convergent tangents are binding us together from all directions, achieving an intense cohesive creative force that i have not experienced in our 5 years of much great geographical dispersion. we're sparking ideas off each other and it feels really good to be in this heightened mode of productivity again after a relatively quiet year while all four of us were busy with other projects. we've been offered a special energy here in taranaki.

flashing lights

Well SCANZ people certainly are causing their fair share of controversy in the Taranaki region - First there was the search for the missing Avatar Body Collision members at Waitomo caves and the road block at Awakino... maybe that set the tone?

Since then there has been ‘the incident in the bar’, the dramatic episode of visual and sonic artists getting ordered off Port of Taranaki land [for apparently trying to engage with a group of seals] the same artists were later chased out of a disused fishery building downtown

there was some CCTV of furtive goings on in the local supermarket but the MOST remarkable event was pulled off by one of the project team

in a spectacle not to be topped, our very own Ian called forth not one but two fire appliances! this was not an act of frivolous wrong doing, no, our master of misdemeanour was merely trying to get the smile back on the dial of the lovely but poorly Trudy

will the accounts of hullabaloo cease here? probably not - for only this evening how many times did the bathers at the Pure One get scolded for talking too loudly?

shadowing events

this was an impromptu performance where Caro recreated the twin shadow towers by taking a cell phone image of Wolfgang’s projection – it was definitely a sense of place shifting and time distorting as we worked into the night…

woke up this morning thinking about where i am and looking at my feet on the carpet, so far away from the place i usually stand and yet i am feeling strongly here and focused - this of course set me wondering about len but she seems to know how to always land on her feet…]

here is a picture of karla’s feet that lynne sent me [apparently k said it was a picture of the inside of her head – at least it looks beautiful] looking forward to when we can all point our toes at each other

as you can see helen and my feet very much off the ground as we sorted out details for the presentation at the Govett Brewster next weekend. We were assisted in our technical quest by the very helpful Bryan and the space looks fantastic!

there is such a sense of the community that are supporting the group of SCANZ artists in their endeavours here – in the shifting clouds and sun even the sky seemed to be indicating a revelation

Ukelele Duet

Woke up to find some things were real, some not.
I love it here with Grant & Lynne. Perhaps I'll do my part of the residency from taranaki....

out of sync

this post is a bit out of sync - i thought lynne was going to post it but obviously she's being kept pretty busy entertaining karla. anyway, it's a photo she sent back on wednesday when she got to the hospital to collect karla.

by all accounts she's doing much better than this now. in fact vicki is getting email from raetihi right now - looks like they might be having a bit of a party!

friday in new plymouth has dawned sunny and still - hard to believe that there is flooding chaos just down the road. vi and i have to check out our technical requirements at the govett brewster this morning, in preparation for our performance on saturday 15th. we have decided to go ahead on the assumption that karla and leena will make it here for the performance - after all, they are so close! and if they can survive everything this far it seems not much of an effort at all to get back to new plymouth.

Wolfgang Dream

The Wolfgang Dream:
It was 1971, New York, and the towers were still under construction. Me and Wolfgang were on the wharves in New Jersey, looking across Hudson at the golden columns. He said we were the wharf rats, the indigenous survivors that would watch the towers fall. I kept coughing; Manhattan seemed very far away and he laughed: 'No distance at all' . Remembered then what Artaud had said about the plague making "...its presence known in those places, to have a liking for all those physical localities where human will-power, consciousness and thought are at hand.." In the background someone was singing 'Donna Donna', and Grant was playing the ukelele, fast, tenderly, and I rose up to join him.

Bad Weather

I got caught in the middle of storm while trying to hitchhike back to New Plymouth. The road collapsed and I fell in the ocean. I managed to swim to a beach house and the group of ladies who live there insisted that I stay there and wait until the weather gets better. Actually, this is not any old beach house but pretty fancy villa. I've been fed and got clean underwear too, which feels really great after being travelling for days without any extra clothes. My hostesses are organizing a party today and are expecting some great musicians and other artists that will come if the weather allows. BBQ is hot already.

Don't worry Vicki and Helen, I will get there, and I am sure Karla is on her feet already.

swimming or drowning?

during her presentation tonight, janine referred to the “intimacy of proximity & the vertigo of distance”; in the latest issue of the open page, i write about devising with distance while jill writes about practising proximity. i feel these two apparently opposing concepts – proximity and distance – intensely right now, pulling us together yet forcing us apart. this current work-in-progress is such a delicate balance of proximal distance, distant proximity. another exercise in remote intimacy perhaps …

lunch – a performance in itself…

but in the afternoon we began to fulfil the brief of our Digital Strategy application and ran our first funded UpStage workshop!

Here is Caro who got in ahead of the crowds clamouring to join and worked toward the creation of her Virtual Hotel, by end of the afternoon she had some rooms operating and even some unruly staff - by the end of the day she had created an environment so real it was like being there!

Best food event of the day was finding this group who in the guise of funding a group from the local Kura Kaupapa to Rarotonga have set about creating the BEST seafood fritter [ingredients include Paua, Crabmeat and Fish – delicious]

Karla and Leena well we know they are ok [at least we know Len is still breathing but she is… well there was this guy who heard some funny sounds in the bushes and tried to discover her at least through her sonification]

and again in the evening the eclectic mix of presentations exposing what a diverse and interesting group have been assembled for this residency


with an earpiercing whistle umatic started the evening with their journey into video and sound [I think Leena’s travels so far will make an interesting path through sound transit [once a few kiwis upload some sounds!!!]

xiu li and jim lead us through collaging paper to performance to video and sound [one page of images exploring the culture of self for xiu li through to jim’s solar powered machine feeding back collaged language]

Trudy who is tirelessly working to make life here at WITT as productive and rich as she can - has always been working in connecting artists – her interface with this group of artists has been unfailing. Works i want to check out further are sonicflux and the educational tool built around distributive justice [OR you could also always just go make babies in Embryo]

Janine showed us systems of observation, her work with remote perspectives and invited us to try and attain the meeting between the ‘intimacy of proximity and the vertigo of distance’. Ian introduced us to hybrid cultures [lei, bastard children and the bite of consciousness [he also ADMITTED to stickering a town during an exhibition – could he be the one pasting new Plymouth with the heart len stickers?????]

Finally there was Wolfgang… we forgave him for sleeping through our presentation on Tuesday night and honoured him by staying awake through the THIRTY SEVEN minutes [accurately timed by hen] of his

actually i was transfixed by the journey through BBS, monkeying around with installation and video and the first media art repository in command line – he works with our sense of _being_ here

And strangely now we are watching the 24 hour loop from his office window where in a short time the twin towers will play out our collective absorption of mass media [in ‘real’ time video] we are left 'looking at the work until the work looks back at us'