ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch was a series of events held over 2013-14 addressing the role of media arts in the city – exploring key issues such as urban space, social engagement, memory and speculative futures.
Over the two-year project the ADA Network hosted two major symposia and a series of workshops and speaking tours in various locations throughout New Zealand. A beginning reference point for Mesh Cities Christchurch is the role of media arts in the rebuild of the city. The project proposed a third symposium drawing together the strands back in Christchurch in September 2015 this will be instead a collaborative writing process the ADA BookSprint facilitated by Adam Hyde.
ADA Artbase Update
The ADA Artbase a collection of historic and current media art works is undergoing a revamp. Thanks to the ministrations of Luke Munn, builder of the original site, the new ArtBase includes a way to contribute work and a featured work gallery that appears on the homepage. Written reviews of new and/or historic works that explore the range of hybrid works that fall within the digital and media arts frame will be featured September to November.
Visit it here: /category/artbase/
BookSprint: Space, Network, Memory: Media Art & the Transitional City
The ADA BookSprint will be an immersive, innovative, collaborative writing event focused on the spatial limitations and possibilities of media art, artists’ engagement with networks of all kinds, and the radical layers of memory-making that characterise lived environments. The publication will critically address the themes, outcomes, and questions of the ADA Mesh Cities project and available online via this website, as an ePub and through print on demand services.
- The Expression of Interest call OPEN details – Closed
/projects/booksprints/eoi-space-network-memory-media-art-the-transitional-city/ - Background and more details are here:
/projects/booksprint-space-network-memory/
Symposia:
Mesh Cities Christchurch symposia took place annually during the project and were held in Dunedin (2013), Auckland (2014) with a proposed event in Christchurch (2015).
The symposia will allow artists, designers, educators, researchers, curators and other interested parties to engage in critical dialogue exploring various aspects of the role of media art in the city:
2014 Auckland
- The Auckland Symposium – centred on media art and social space – took place at the Auckland University of Technology(AUT) on September 12-14 2014 and considered media art projects that involve audience participation and emphasise the density of connectedness.
details here /symposia/auckland-symposium-september-2014/ - DJ3D14 is the inaugural work in a collaboration with the Digital Art Live screen series with http://colab.aut.ac.nz/dal/ was launched as part of the opening event of the 9th ADA Symposium.
- The Call for Proposals for the ADA Auckland Symposium /meshcities/ada-symposium-auckland-september-12-14-cfp/ (are closed now)
- The local information page, includes programme overview and Eventbrite registration details can be found here: /meshcities/auckland-local-information/
- The FULL PROGAMME is available: /symposia/auckland-symposium-programme/ links to documentation and the individual artists and presenters pages are all linked from the programme.
- Relive or be introduced to the action in this three minute video.
ADA SPACE : NETWORK : MEMORY Auckland 2014 from aotearoadigitalartists on Vimeo.
2013 Dunedin
- Space : Network : Memory was held in Dunedin on 13-15th of September 2013 and explored media art and public space: public artworks and installations using media technologies.
- See the Call for Proposals for submission details & background information (now closed).
- Check out the format and local information
- The full programme has been updated to include links to papers, works & the documentation of the 3 days of symposium)
Each symposium will include a mixture of innovative discussion and presentation formats, featuring invited keynote speakers, panel discussions, open-idea work-shopping sessions, work presentation sessions for artists, and new formats specific to diverse locations, venues and communities.
Workshops:
ADA Mesh City workshops will be distributed throughout the Mesh Cities project. Workshops in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch will include practical instruction where audiences and practitioners may learn new skills as well as participating in discussions about various aspects of media art practice.
- 2013 New Zealand artist Dr Janine Randerson (Neighbourhood Hope Index)- national workshop tour including at the Space : Network : Memory Symposium in Dunedin – Programme & Links to papers, works and documentation
- 2014 tour and workshop series artists are Sound Sky
/projects/meshcities-artist-tour-2014/
artists Trudy Lane (NZ) and Halsey Burgund (USA) toured with workshops and walks in Christchurch, Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and again in Christchurch as part of the Festival of Transitional Architecture (FESTA).
Panels:
ADA Mesh City Panel at ISEA (2013)as part of the outcomes of the first year ADA Mesh Cities presented a panel at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA) in Sydney. Titled Media Art and the Transitional City it saw eight ADA members join in a discussion about their own practice and how it intersects with the Mesh Cities project. The conversations were submitted as a paper for proceedings and is shared with the community through the Sydney eScholarship repository http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9677.
National Digital Forum: Wellington (2014)
Birgit Bachler and Vicki Smith present a discussion titled Links, cables; bricks and mortar: giving a historical overview of the ADA organisation and discussing the proposed work in the development of the ADA ArtBase and how that intersects with the GLAM sector of Aotearoa.
Roundtable and Launch event
The ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch project was launched with a one-day event in Christchurch – 30 March 2013 at the Physics Room. More information about the roundtable/launch event here and contribute to the conversation Why Mesh?
ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch will receive substantial support in 2013-2014 from Creative New Zealand through the Toi Uru Kahikatea (Arts Development) scheme.
2015 and beyond…
The ADA Artbase is undergoing a revamp under the expert care of Luke Munn who built the original site. The new ArtBase includes a way to contribute work and a featured work gallery that appears on the homepage
The final ADA Mesh Cities event is proposed for Christchurch 2015, five years after the first September 2010 earthquake. A booksprint will focus a group of selected individuals on the role of media art in re-imagining and remembering the past and future city, drawing upon three years of activities and discussion.
