Introducing Materials (Part 2)

What’s compelling to me about the Kākahu is it’s rich history in tradition and spiritual awareness, the harness of energy and respect for the makers.

Construction of the garment in itself is incredibly powerful- with every hair or feather hand woven, the care, precision and skill that goes into each garment gives it it’s own mana. While the maker is weaving the cloak for the wearer, it holds mana of both parties. Unlike modern clothing production, where it is an impersonal process, the maker of the kākahu creates patterns and symbols to announce different meanings and powers. Tailored for the wearer. If modern day clothing businesses adopted a similar ideaoligy, you wonder if we would care and recycle our clothing with more care and empathy.

Tribal Pride is projected in the symbology of the patterns and the materials. I look at this with a type of jealousy. I wish I could wear a garment that projects my whanau proudly and status, with huge dignity and respect.

The Kākahu conveys power and authority, and is now worn for maori (and non-maori) functions. It can be used at significant public and personal occasions or ceremonies, and often draped over caskets at funerals, to make sure your loved ones are safe and warm, and prepares them for the journey to their ancestors.

In Western society and religions, we have flags or maybe sheets to drape over a casket, but none are as personal or woven for this specific purpose. It is a practice I wish I could see more of, as it’s so humbling to think a maker precicely hand stitched every hair, knowing it would serve such an important and moving purpose. Transfering their mana, to help another soul.

Threads of the past adorn the cloak, the spirit of the weaver deep within the fibers. Local materials threaded through, embedding the mana of home. With Modern influences, the materials adapted (much like all garments throughout history) to become more functional and sustainable, meaning it became less labour-intensive. This is reflective in todays society, we went from making our own clothes, to the rise of capitalism where mass production and machienery boomed, although I believe we are starting to slow down, we are becoming more aware of sustainable fashion and educating ourselves on tradition of our cultures.

Introducing Materials (Part 1)

Clothing is something that has adapted to trends, styles traditions and functionality through-out the centuries- I don’t really have a favourite piece of clothing, in fact I find clothing restrictive and isolating. However there is one garment that drifts to mind- My denim jacket, faithfully serving 3 years of wear. I wear it until i physically can’t stand the cold as it’s not very warm. Denim is so practical also, hoping to get a few more years out of it yet!

Me in my denim Jacket, living my best life.

Everyone has a favourite, and no one can fully understand the connection, but this garment makes me feel confident.

The Bucket Fountain

Bucket fountain on Cuba St, Wellington NZ

Standing outside cosmic, looking over to the fountain, I get wafts of insense and coffee, circuling behind me, the sounds on splashing water comes from the buckets. Groups of tourists and locals are dotted around the sculpture, as one of wellingtons most well-known land marks, it brings a sense of community and gathering. When you walk past the water splashes on to you and the hussel and bussel of street noises and surrounding cafes and construction makes the space confusing.

Non-Western culture in Wellington

Bodhinyanarama Buddhist Monastery- Close to wellington – photo credit to Theravada Buddhism Facebook page

Bodhinyanarama monastry, located in Stokes Valley Lower Hutt, is a place of gathering and people practicing the monastic lifestyle.

The architecture of this building is unique and uncommon in Wellington, located in the hills of stokes valley away from busy city life. It also serves as a public meeting area and the hall is used for religious ceremonies and festivals.

In class we also discussed a variety of spaces around wellington, not subjected to “western” culture. Or the facade of “western” culture. The Ataturk memorial located in Breaker Bay is a memorial to the turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The memorial sculpture overlooks the peninsular which immitates the view of the coast of gallipoli, and was our response to Turkey’s gesture of their memorial on Anzac cove. This space is seen by many as a non-western space as it holds a physical aesthetic and promotes an environment away from western society.

Image: Jamie Mackay, 2011

‘Atatürk memorial in Wellington’, URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/ataturk-memorial-wellington, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 18-Mar-2015

We also talked about the Hindu Temple in Kilbirne, also home to the Wellington Indian Association.

This is significant as it provides a space in Wellington for a large culture of Indians and Hindu practices. We mostly talked about it’s architecture for cultural context, and how again, the aesthetic of the space is the key of seperation from “western society”.

We discussed the Te Wharewaka function centre on Wellington waterfront, a large Maori influenced space right in the middle of the city, and it’s conflicts of culture and insitution. The architecture of the building is representing a body, and inside hold a waka house (Te Wharewaka), an eating house (Te Wharekai) and a function house (Te Wharewaka Tapere). Traditionally, none of these things are meant to be near eachother, especially inside, where you can open up the body of the building to connect each part of the Te Wharewaka. This shows a conflict in culture and design, and commercialises a very sacred culture. The entrances are wrongfully placed for a Body building, with the Te Wharekai cutting into what would be seen as the rib of the body. While the designer has tried to encorporate cultural significance, we talked about how it’s actually taken away significant parts of what is okay in a culture where traditional practices are still practiced.

Using Experience in Creative Work

Kedron Parker’s observations of the Terrace are one I deeply connect with, after spending the better part of 9 months trapped in what felt like a damp and suffocating environment.

In the first part of the interview, she talks about the Terrace’s dull atmosphere and how the people who work there, use small pathways that tunnel down to Lampton Quay, elevators from other buildings or follow the “corridor” that is the main street from the beehive. The Terrace is refered to as a corridor as it is tightly lined on either side of the street with tall box-like buildings, closing it off from the rest of the CBD and giving it a sense of disassociation.

The Terrace has a rich history of early settlers and the Maori Community, as the Terrace was founded on the Kumutoto Stream, which is why the Terrace is built so ridged and narrow… It is essencially the body of the stream. This in turn adds to the feelings of disconnect and disassociation. We have paved over a beautiful part of the Wellington history, and I know a lot of people are unaware of the stream that runs through pipes underneath the terrace. When she talks about the stream still flowing, it gives hope of freedom and greater atmosphere to one of entrapment and disembodiment.

Audience experience is a key thing to think about when you’re not explicitly viewing an artwork for the experience. Public display or a work you “stumble” apon, means you need too be mindful and critical of the execution to make sure it impacts people in the right way.
Here, the artist wants to give people a chance to re-connect with the history and give people a sense of nourishment, hidden from the entrapment and suffocating environment of the terrace.

She has used sounds, to connect with the organic naturistic environment of what once was, or what the terrace should be. Bringing nature to the terrace, gives nourishment, it’s the basis of our existence. She asks why she’s mourning this stream thats been blocked over, so she instead tries to give the burried stream and the ghost of the past a personality and body, for people to re-connect with.

The project can embrace people who don’t know anything about the history or the reason behind the artwork and still feel a sense of joy, encouragement and appreciation, and if you understand the project, you can appreciate why they chose their materials and understand the importance of it being there, and regardless of being connected or not, anyone can take away what ever they want from the artwork, and it’s not limited to a particular demographic.

Kedron Parker’s way of making us connect with the history of the terrace, not only is a distraction from the disasociation of day-to-day life, it influences us to choose carefully and really think about what we could do now, or in the future to project our roots and history into the public eye, rather than covering it up.

How do we live creative work?

Atmosphere is influenced on our surroundings, and how those surroundings influence our senses. The Techno atmosphere heavily relies on its organisational context (club) that produces the illusion of social power. You’re placed into an environment that aligns a demographic of social alignment, influencing a social memory. This could be politics, which sparks a passion in a lot of people regarding historic events, in this reading it was refered to as the event of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Human Movement , Dance and proformance, needs consideration and forms of socail understanding, to clarify the momental atmosphere in a social environment. Dance is often used as a medium of expression and communication in a disembodied message, that needs to be re-embodied, and is clarified with movement. A medium of social and cultural practices.

Sound, is carefully moulded and informed by historical styles of music, not limited to any particular culture or era, but is used to create a sonic identity for artists, who want to push the political and social agenda to produce the social power I described above. The sonic identity acts as a reminder to and for historic events and political movement, and it embodies a greater understanding of socio-cultural contexts.

The aesthetic of the Techno club is a collective unity of political reform and memory, which is then mirrored in the space around you, from visual lighting to space layout, pictures and sound.

Reflecting and Consolidating

Class environments can provide it’s challenges for many people, a social class such as ours can throw people into uncomfortable situations (a mentally- disabling environment)- while I see being ‘thrown in the deep end’ as a positive way of over-coming social insecurities for myself, it creates unnecessary stress and discomfort for other individuals, which isn’t what a tertiary institution should promote. I think our class environment should have other methods of discussion, so that people who do struggle with social anxiety can be abled in the learning environment, and doesn’t exclude them from participating. Everyone in our class should feel their participating but shouldn’t be made to feel uncomfortable or distressed.

As a maker, I think it’s so important to look at the education system in a way that treats every student as an individual, who have different ways of learning and progressing. Putting discussions on online forums is a fantastic way to include everyone and it won’t push a social interaction which many people will struggle with, and in turn hinder the progress of that individual.

Principles of Ethics

Ethics in research, is to share the knowledge respectfully of all parties involved. Researches carry the responsibility to ensure that the collection of local knowledge is kept sacred to communities (tapu) and isn’t commerciallised. It involves a mutual respect and trust between parties that knowledge isn’t being exploited and is seen as regaining control over the knowledge and resources of our cultural communities, while critically reflecting on what is right and how research is respectfully conducted.

The ethics of research are there to provide a guideline to a respectful relationship, and every code of ethics is culturally subjective or relative to the subject.

Universal ethic principles purpose is to draw consideration to ethical significance as a guide not rules, however I think that universal is the wrong word, as every culture and society around the world has their own expectations or “laws” over how information is shared.

Process of Haiyan and Jude

Haiyan’s design process was to first meet with Emma and research her condition. They met her at her workplace and had a conversation about her position to understand why she needed a solution. This was the beginning of the project and started to experiment with different ideas and concepts. She got Emma to draw a square to see exactly what her difficulties were. Speaking to Emma’s partner, Haiyan was able to put the project in perspective, and realise the importance behind it to push her thinking to the next level.

Haiyan then went onto have a discussion with physics professor at oxford to get a specialised opinion, leading her to experiment with movement and different objects. Speaking with a professional would have given her valuable information about tremors and how physics can be used to improve symptoms. She tested various objects with Emma and observed her movements while she tried each idea. Although there was no successful outcome, this took her to the next stage and got her thinking about how this could be approached from a different angle. She then went on to have a team discussion about possible solutions, based on what she had tried, and what other ideas could have potential.

She had collected research, information and inspiration about products that were already on the market for parkinson’s sufferers, specifically a vibrating spoon that counteracts the vibrations from tremors and ‘distracts the brain’. This discussion inspired her to experiment with vibrations and gather information about the science behind vibration technology.

She came up with a prototype wristband, which was then tested on a focus group, all with parkinson’s at different stages. The results gathered from the focus group showed what was working and and gave her further ideas on how she could take her ideas further. She began to refine her ideas by working with different rhythms. She had the idea to personalise vibration patterns for Emma’s unique tremor based on feedback from an individual in the focus group. This lead her to producing an app which allows her to adjust the rhythm to meet her needs. This entire process led her to producing her final product and performing her final test on Emma, which turned out to be a success.

Cohesive Communities

The objective is to order the community projects on a scale of most engaging to least engaging- and why…

• Calypso (turtle) sculpture: Impacts a large part of communities hearts, as plastic is a huge issue in ALL cultures and societies. End result provokes conversation among groups, and doesn’t exclude other people in communities.
• Le Corbusier’s building: Considering the time of this idea, I believe it was meant to consider a large amount of people in a community and offer support. It has left a lasting impact of the structure of todays society.
• Stop Collaborate Listen from Mata Aho Collective: Powerful to a minority, inclusive to a majority. A mindful and beautiful expression of cultures and connecting women/people.
• Chinatown Art Brigade: Wholesome intentions, doesn’t include as many people as I think they intended.
• The Big Life Fix, camera: a “niche” market for a small community. while potentially life changing, doesn’t include a huge market and excludes more people who might actually benefit from a similar product.
• The Big Life Fix, wrist band: *As above*