mmm, I'm sorry for biting at and perpetuating the nasty too... + Julian is doing fantastic things, and is a great example of really working the local in a productive and enhancing way. I'm sure everyone at the last symposium found his wireless fire sensor a bit of a highlight!
On 5/10/2009, at 10:18 PM, adam hyde wrote: > hey > > ah man. why did it all have to get so nasty? I was enjoying this > conversation until it hit a gnarly bitter bend. Anyways, I want to > take > this down another road if I can. No one has also mentioned the amazing > work Julian is doing in Wanganui. Hes getting involved on the local > scene and inviting local and 'over-the-seas' artists to come and do > cool > stuff. > > this is what i (dimly) remember of NZ - it takes someone to step up > and > do something. The big problem here tho is that, often when that person > walks away the whole thing collapses. I shudder to think what would > happen if Zoe had walked away from AF in the last years...who would > have > taken over? So, my point is, I think an interesting strategy is to see > what could be done to support people already doing things, with > the hope that with some support they can keep doing it...why not, for > example, an ADA app to rally behind and support Julians work? He > clearly > has the motivation in this area and is (in my opinion) a very > community > minded and generous guy - so it might be nice to get behind him. Of > course, I can't speak for Julian, and I dont know what discussions may > have already taken place within ADA about this, so its just a on-the- > fly > thought. > > Also, thanks Zita for pointing out the non-acknowledgement of Leons > amazing offer. Pretty fantastic. I hope there is someone to take it > up. > I would if I could but wellys a bit of a long commute for me at the > mo (see next email...)... > > adam > > > On Mon, 2009-10-05 at 10:21 +1300, Zita Joyce wrote: >> well all the other posts are quite long so i just skimmed them, and >> then went and wrote a long one of my own. trying not to get grumpy, >> but failing... >> >> This has all been very entertaining, and is fairly well worn ground. >> Many of us over here have enjoyed the facilities and opportunities > of >> various spaces, residencies, and organisations in Europe and are > very >> aware that we don't have facilities that directly match them here. >> >> There are a few things we do have here that are an attempt to > address >> that lack in a way we can achieve here, and there are indeed many > more >> things that can be done. >> >> It should be relatively apparent that it's easy for people in New >> Zealand find it a bit tiring to hear what we should be doing from >> people who are in other places. Yes, sure great ideas, wanna help > make >> it happen? Cause we're pretty busy already. >> >> It's not (just) about 'funding' it's about someone actually stepping >> up and doing something. As Bronwyn pointed out earlier that's what > the >> Makerspace in Wellington is about, and it's also what the > Christchurch >> Creative Space is about (Damian you may have seen Phil present on > that >> at the ADA Symposium). They are both maybe more geek and craft > focused >> than your ideal european 'media lab / whatever', but they are spaces >> started, in Phil's case, after visiting exactly those places, in >> Vienna and such, and finding a practical way to do a version of that >> here, with dreams of making it bigger + better. The chch group has a >> space that gets used twice a week as a drop in and hang out + do > stuff >> space - it's about skill + project sharing, about coding and cross >> stitch, and about building community. >> >> Leon de Lorenzo has offered a space of his own in wellington as a >> possible starting point for something as well. That's a bloody great >> thing to see, and no-one seems to have acknowledged it (unless i >> glazed over at that bit). What helps is actually stepping up + >> offering something, not bitching from afar (not saying that's what >> some of you are doing, but it's easily read that way). >> >> I've kind of skimmed most of this discussion, but there are a few >> things that leap out that I'll pluck from the midst... >> >> Damian, >>> what is so 'unique' about New Zealand that >>> means that what works very well in more or less every country in > the >>> world >>> just won't work there? >> >> As douglas has been saying, and as is quite obvious, we are not a >> country that is attached to a whole lot of other countries, and do > not >> have the kind of people + money flow that those countries + cities >> have. As well as, and probably more difficult than that, we are > spread >> cross two pretty big islands and just cannot have the kind of >> relatively easy flow in and out of a central place as others do. >> Access to an organisation in Vienna from within Austria and a few >> other countries is a completely different scale than access to an >> organisation in any nz city is. >> >> that is not, ffs, >>> the kind of post-colonial islander vanity that >>> defaults to all-excusing apathy; of New Zealand being a land of >>> geographically >>> cursed, hard-up battlers gripped with cultural isolationism. >> it's the geographical reality that we find myriad ways to work > around >> + also celebrate, that we are enriched by and sometimes frustrated > by. >> A lot of us here travel a lot, we are actually involved with the >> world, and we come back here for many productive reasons. >> >> I think that it is more interesting + more productive in the long > run >> to find ways to make the most of that unique geography + relative >> isolation to create a different kind of distributed, mobile model of >> building community between practitioners, sharing skills, and > enabling >> access to equipment. I don't believe in concentrating all of the >> resources for a particular form of practice in a room in a city in > the >> north island. >> >> What ADA, for example, is working towards, is creating opportunities >> for connection, skill sharing, and ideally equipment access, that is >> as accessible as possible for the whole country. That's why we move >> the symposium to a different place every time, and more or less swap >> between the north and south islands. This year we expanded the >> symposium with workshops, which was hugely successful, and we'll try >> to increase access to skills + connections every time. This list is >> ideally a distributed space for building community + ideas about >> access etc, but it doesn't get used as much for that as it could. We >> have another project re equipment to announce at our amazingly >> accessible and distributed AGM on sunday that I can't speak to >> authoritatively enough yet. Basically we are about being as >> distributed as possible, and that I think is far more interesting + >> ultimately productive in this weird distributed country than being >> concentrated. >> >> The symposium is a kind of mobile lab i guess, and I'd like to see >> other more 'labby' / project and workshops-based mobile labs happen > in >> different places around the country, but I don't have time to > organise >> it. >> >> ADA isn't, and shouldn't be, the answer to this 'media lab' thing, > but >> it would be great if every city had someone who sticks up their > hands >> to create a space on some scale for connection + community building. > I >> think it would be great if there could be some funding to enable >> multiple small-scale spaces, but they need to be able to survive >> without it, because surely NAct could dismantle CNZ at any moment, > and >> the open Society Initiative doesn't see nz as a location of > interest, >> and we can't get any of the european funds etc etc. That's not >> proclaiming hard-upness, it's just pointing out that we have to do >> things differently. >> >> On 5/10/2009, at 4:45 AM, Julian Oliver wrote: >>> Anyway, as I say, you know the weather in NZ better than I. The >>> picture you >>> paint is of a country of careerists too self-interested to > publicly >>> dissemenate >>> skills and knowledge. If so, that's both boring and sad. >> >> oh, right, I see it more as a country of people with no concept of a >> 'career' (how the hell does that work?) in media art, who are unsure >> of themselves and their work in relation to the kind of work being >> made in other places, and who are not part of the flow of > exhibitions, >> residencies, etc that traverses Europe, so just don't get to see + > be >> inspired by a whole lot of stuff, and who get together every year or >> so to poublicly disseminiate skills and knowledge at ADA symposia, > and >> may not feel they have things to offer at other times. >> >>> No wonder media artists I know that've visited NZ return entirely >>> lost as to why >>> they couldn't find or connect with any local scene of makers. >>> Perhaps that's >>> because there just isn't one! >> >> No indeed maybe there isn't one. Musicians of course return feeling >> like they've just connected with an amazingly active + creative > scene, >> and I imagine that artists in other media (as opposed to 'media') >> would feel much the same. Those are long established scenes that >> thrive on little money and are well supported by art schools, >> mythology, venues of various kinds, people's homes, studios, and >> artist-run spaces, etc... none of which the 'media art' scene has or > is. >> >> I don't know what the answer is, I still hope ADA is part of it, but >> it's hard to get away from the feeling that money is. I (obviously) >> don't think that investing in a centralised resource is the answer, >> but I'd be really interested in hearing some more innovative, >> distributed, community-building, creative possibilities that could >> involve money. I'd be even more interested in hearing from people > who >> are keen to help make things happen. >> >> (there are some pretty obvious institutional elephants in this >> conversation as well of course, which probably make a lot of people >> nervous about what can happen to centralised resources, therefore, >> more distributed = better) >> >> + btw >>> Better to see public money in NZ go into a project of this kind > than >>> some >>> Shockwave Flash art on a DVD or some artist's for-sale, month-long >>> solo-show >>> somewhere in Ponsonby.. >> >> you could actually look at the cnz funding outcomes online and see >> what they do fund. >> >> + I've completely forgotten what this whole thing was about in the >> first place - cnz strategic plan anyone? >> >> zita >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> -- >>> Julian Oliver >>> home: New Zealand >>> based: Berlin, Germany >>> currently: Berlin, Germany >>> about: http://julianoliver.com >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Ada_list mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Ada_list mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/ > -- > Adam Hyde > Founder FLOSS Manuals > German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563 > Email : [email protected] > irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals > > "Free manuals for free software" > http://www.flossmanuals.net/about > > _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
