MINA in Wellington

In the midst of general election fervour, against an unusually busy time in the arts in Wellington (including our own launch for Now Future's Dialogues with Tomorrow 2010 book and e-book), Max Schleser put on the first International Mobile Innovation Symposium and Screening at the Film Archive. It was great to come along and meet others keen to democratise the technology, and revolutionise film making.

Great to be included in the MINA programme, Max, thanks for your vanguard work!

see Istanbul Gaze

ISEA 2011 preps in Istanbul

We're getting into the install for ISEA - the Intersociety of Electronic Art.  It is extraordinary to be back in a city I have been fascinated with, exhibiting a work made in conjunction with Dugal McKinnon and recorded with the generosity of Melissa Billington and Myoga students at the POWA centre in Wellington.

It is called Te Kore: Street of Breaths.  This work is an audio intervention into both a gallery environment and the street outside the gallery which happens to be one of the busiest commercial and tourist streets in Istanbul  - Istiklal Caddesi.  As I've done in previous work (as curator for Letting Space, and in Norway with Last Gasp), I'm in the process of negotiation with a local shop owner about displaying part of the work in the entrance to their premises.

For information about ISEA and the broad themes of the exhibition, see http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/other-event/uncontainable-second-nature

Update on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 01:54AM by Sophie Jerram at The Stealth Foundation

The show is finally up, and the crowds from Taksim square mixed with international ISEA participants are milling through. I'm really pleased with the sound that runs as you enter the gallery - the middle part of the work - which makes a little 'gasp' as you walk through... someone told me it seemed as if there was a mystery woman making love somewhere in the walls of the building.  And the larger spatial sound of breath in the main show is wonderful - but with so much traffic it is more of a lobby area and a less reflective space than I would have liked.  Tricky, these group shows... The outside work is intermittent, I may move it again (especially before it rains)...

Some lovely people around, including Anne Sophie Witzke (curator of Re-think); the formidable Julian Oliver who never misses an opportunity to stir things up; Saul Albert from The People Speak... it's been a blast so far.

Very appreciative of the energy of Ian and team, ISEA and Creative New Zealand.