CPIT research month - week 2 day 2

Managed to get to about 3/4 of today's research month presentations from Department of Creative Arts tutors. Not very often I have attended presentations on art and music, so a refreshing change of scene. caught the tail end of Michael Reed's presentation on his lastest work, inspired by Pacifica motifs and techniques.

Bruce Russell presents on his work 'rebuilding the city with sound: building a arts practice community in the rubble'. Reports on work he has become involved with since the earthquakes and inspiring a move into investigating the role of sound art in contributing to Christchurch city's rebuilt. Based around the conversations taking place in the winebar / gallery 'Auricle: a sonic art gallery.'

The Auricle is the hub where performers are able to 'show' their work to the public, with the wine bar downstairs and the sonic gallery upstairs. The aim is to concentrate listeners on to the audio, so the room is bare apart from speakers. Audacious is a festival of sonic art set up  around the city in March and provided some examples.

Next up, 'Vanishing point'with Bing Dawe, who shared the work published in the book this year, of the same name. A series of photos with two other photographers of scenes from the Mackenzie and the impact and implications of increased dairy farming / irrigation on the landscape. need to consider the aesthetic pollution as an addition to other forms of pollution (visible, chemical, ecological etc.) wrought by focusing on economic gains as a measure of 'success' and 'benefit. NZ produces sufficient primary product (meat, wool, milk powder, horticultural) to feed 24 million people! However, the cost is a more degraded landscape which, without action from NZers may never recover.

Last presentation today from John Maillard on 'the other - reframing the landscape' a way to describe the local environment. Using the work of Roland Barthes to begin and deploying photography as evidence to 'reconstruct' the landscape, look at landscape as time, the community and landscape and refute some of Barthe's conceptualisations. Presented illustrated with photos as they represent the transitions from one theme to the next and discussed how these themes linked back to original objective.