From 'Pukehaupa Taranaki', Te Urutahi Waikerepuru with graphic artist Craig McDonald.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Priest's The Blue Marble. Background photograph by VSZ 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simon Kaan in The Asian, Dunedin, New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from Frank, Jenny Gillam, Blue Oyster, Dunedin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drone prototype

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Dangerous songs' Brit Bunkley

 

 

 

TEZA OUTLINE

FOR ISEA 2012 NEW MEXICO

The TEZA kaupapa (intention) is to share cultural experiences created by digital media and human interaction. Working alongside the local pueblo we will share visions of customary living and new technologies. See  www.lettingspace.org.nz/teza-artists for specific artists projects and the visual layout of TEZA. For further information on the people behind TEZA go here.


Background
Since the 1980s, throughout Africa, India and Asia, economic activity has been generated by governments establishing Special Economic Zones. These are used to expedite entry by companies from resource hungry and cash rich countries. Conducting business in a SEZ usually means that a company will receive tax incentives and the opportunity to pay lower tariffs. Sometimes these zones are exempt from local environmental and human rights obligations.

International art events may parallel these SEZ, allowing artists to create practices independent of their locality. Drawing visual allusions to cultural imperialism of old, the TEZA will suggest new ways of occupying land as a form of community and connection.

Concept
The Transitional Economic Zone of Aotearoa is around 8000 square metres (3 acres) of desert in New Mexico. It may be read at first as an erratic grasp on the land from a small nation in the South Pacific. It may also be seen to echo break-away /hippy communities historically created in New Mexico, or as a nomadic tribe looking for new succour in an age of fast-dwindling natural resources.

Our intention to is to demonstrate new digital art practice whilst exploring the question of how we can best enter another land and introduce foreign cultural ideas with integrity and respect for those that are already present.  We would make a video link and documentation of the TEZA into the main exhibitions in Albuquerque.

We intend to continue the TEZA into 2013 (Sydney) and 2014 (Dubai/Vancouver).

Aesthetics
Visitors will be welcomed at prescribed times during ISEA. From a distance TEZA may call to mind refugee detention centres or zones of resource extraction. Visitors will discover a far more generous world: one interested in the sustainable exchange of ideas and resources for the betterment of the planet. It will prove equally reminiscent of the village feel of major festivals. However, rather than the principal goal being to provide entertainment, TEZA will push community models to the fore in inviting artists and scientists to work for the benefit of all.  

Practicalities
New Zealanders are highly experienced at making camp and the TEZA is quick to assemble and has a makeshift, transitory feel. We will utilise digital communication to maintain contact with our host peoples. With students from Auckland University of Technology’s Interactive Technologies and Albuquerque exchange programme we aim to drive the project with sustaining principles including using photo voltaic cells for power and light.

We welcome visitors to the site (eg local communities or bus tours from Albuquerque/Santa Fe) to visit the culture and discuss the art works, hear and share discussions on the cosmological, digital and practical basis of society in New Zealand and in New Mexico.

Process
TEZA’s seminal Zone was fleetingly declared by a small generative group in response to the experiences of ISEA Istanbul 2011.

Feb/March 2012. The next step following acceptance of this project is to visit two or three suitable sites in New Mexico and meet the people of the land on whose soil we will temporarily inhabit (sites near Albuquerque and Santa Fe preferably). We would need the assistance of ISEA to introduce and facilitate the first meetings.

March-August 2012 Relationships are crucial to this project and we will set up regular meetings to be held digitally between our steering group and the local community in New Mexico.

August 2012 we would return to the land to create the TEZA.  We plan to work with New Zealand businesses based in Santa Fe and possibly Mexico to construct the site with ‘kiwi know how.’ We are also working with students in Interactive Technologies from the Auckland University of Technology to develop content within the Creative Technologies curriculum to feed into the TEZA both in terms of New Zealand and Albuqueque-based participation (see support letter).

September 2012 TEZA will run as a two-three week project which is open to visitors during the day and into the night. A schedule of events and participatory online content will be developed.