A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the wall surrounding Waltham Pool, facing towards the children's playground at Waltham Park.
A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the wall surrounding Waltham Pool and faces towards the children's playground at Waltham Park.
Context of the project: On 4 September 2010, 22 February 2011, 13 June 2011 and 23 December 2011 Christchurch suffered major earthquakes and aftershocks (well over 10,000) that have left the central city in ruins and many of the eastern suburbs barely habitable even now. The earthquakes on 22 February caused catastrophic loss of life with 185 people killed. The toll this has taken on the residents of Christchurch has been considerable, not least of all for the significant psychological impact and disruption it has had on the children. As the process of rebuilding the city commenced, it became clear that the arts would play a key role in maintaining our quality of life during difficult times. For me, this started with the children and the most expressive of all the art forms – music.
Gender matters. And it’s complicated, which is why writing this blog post has been particularly difficult. Why is it so complicated, from an archaeological standpoint? Well, let me try and explain. Historical archaeology developed as a discipline in the mid-20th … Continue reading →
I’m writing this blog on the 3rd of April, 2020. It’s currently day nine of a four week (or longer) shutdown initiated by the New Zealand government to try and stop the spread of Covid-19. Over the past two weeks … Continue reading →
This is the third end of year blog post that I (Clara) have written, and just as I started writing it one of our interns dropped her lunch all over the floor as she was putting it in the microwave: … Continue reading →
A photograph of street art on the sports pavilion and public toilets at Waltham Park.
A photograph of street art by the DTR crew located on a factory wall in the central city. The artwork depicts the word "Freak" with the letters "DTR" written above it and topped with a crown. The window below the art is broken.
A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the side of the sports pavilion at Waltham Park.
A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the wall surrounding Waltham Pool and faces towards Wilsons Road.
A photograph of street art on a support pillar of the Durham Street overbridge. The artwork depicts tag writing in shades of pink, surrounded by previously written tag art in various other colours.
Archaeologists and whisky go well together. I agree with that universal truth. However, I fit in the gin lovers team at the office. So, as Jessie did one year ago, I’m writing a post combining two of my favourite things: … Continue reading →
A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the wall surrounding Waltham Pool and faces towards Wilsons Road. Behind the pool gate is a pile of building material covered in a tarpaulin and weighted down with tyres.
In writing an introduction to this post, I found myself straying unexpectedly into alliteration. This happens sometimes. I decided to run with it. So, as an aside from our accustomed analysis of antiquity, we’ve assembled an array of artefacts for the the … Continue reading →
A member of Singapore's Air Force writing a message in a memorial book in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. The book was placed there for those who wanted to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives in the Christchurch Earthquake.
This article is a critical commentary of how political documentary embodies the traits and functions of alternative journalism. I explore this notion through Obrero (‘worker’) my independent documentary project about the labour migration of Filipino workers to Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, after the earthquake in 2011. This article maps out the points at where the theories and practices of alternative media and documentary intersect. Analysing political documentary as a format of alternative journalism has links to the long tradition of film and video production as a tool for social critique. As a form of practice-based research, Obrero falls under the rubric of alternative journalism—able to represent the politically marginal sectors of the polity and report on issues underreported in the mainstream press. This article concludes that a distribution plan that is responsive to fragmenting audiences works best when alternative journalism no longer targets a niche but transborder audiences.
A photograph of some simple street art on a concrete wall. The artwork depicts a masked boy with red hair, nestled between the colourful letters of tag writing. An excavator from Mount Grey Downs Limited and some stacked concrete slabs are in the foreground.
A Transitional Imaginary: Space, Network and Memory in Christchurch is the outcome and the record of a particular event: the coming together of eight artists and writers in Ōtautahi Christchurch in November 2015, with the ambitious aim to write a book collaboratively over five days. The collaborative process followed the generative ‘book sprint’ method founded by our facilitator for the event, Adam Hyde, who has long been immersed in digital practices in Aotearoa. A book sprint prioritises the collective voice of the participants and reflects the ideas and understandings that are produced at the time in which the book was written, in a plurality of perspectives. Over one hundred books have been completed using the sprint methodology, covering subjects from software documentation to reflections on collaboration and fiction. We chose to approach writing about Ōtautahi Christchurch through this collaborative process in order to reflect the complexity of the post-quake city and the multiple paths to understanding it. The city has itself been a space of intensive collaboration in the post-disaster period. A Transitional Imaginary is a raw and immediate record, as much felt expression as argued thesis. In many ways the process of writing had the character of endurance performance art. The process worked by honouring the different backgrounds of the participants, allowing that dialogue and intensity could be generative of different forms of text, creating a knowledge that eschews a position of authority, working instead to activate whatever anecdotes, opinions, resources and experiences are brought into discussion. This method enables a dynamic of voices that merge here, separate there and interrupt elsewhere again. As in the contested process of rebuilding and reimagining Christchurch itself, the dissonance and counterpoint of writing reflects the form of conversation itself. This book incorporates conflict, agreement and the activation of new ideas through cross-fertilisation to produce a new reading of the city and its transition. The transitional has been given a specific meaning in Christchurch. It is a product of local theorising that encompasses the need for new modes of action in a city that has been substantially demolished (Bennett & Parker, 2012). Transitional projects, such as those created by Gap Filler, take advantage of the physical and social spaces created by the earthquake through activating these as propositions for new ways of being in the city. The transitional is in motion, looking towards the future. A Transitional Imaginary explores the transitional as a way of thinking and how we understand the city through art practices, including the digital and in writing.
A photograph of chalk writing on a footpath next to the Avon River, as part of Emerge Poetica #5. The text reads 'Poetica in association with FESTA, follow the stones to our floating poem..' The project was part of FESTA 2014 and included water calligraphy workshops and poetry readings.
A photograph of street art on Dyers Pass Road at the Bromley wood and demolition yard, Silvan Salvage. The artwork depicts a tree on the left and tag writing on the right. The blue text says "Teaching old logs new tricks" and the white text says "The Silvan Salvage".
The project report for Poetica, part of Gap Filler project 20, Walls. Poetica was an urban poetry project in which an interactive poetry installation was painted on the wall of 614 Colombo Street. The purpose of the project was to visualise the regeneration of Christchurch as an unwritten poem by allowing members of the public to writing poetry on the Poetica wall.
A photograph of street art on Dyers Pass Road at the Bromley wood and demolition yard, Silvan Salvage. The artwork depicts a tree on the left and tag writing on the right. The blue text says "Teaching old logs new tricks" and the white text says "The Silvan Salvage".
A photograph of street art by DTR on a factory wall depicting two green blob monsters. There is also tag writing in shades of green, blue, and brown, as well as orange text that reads "So live". In front of the artwork, there is a car parked in a parking space.
A photograph of street art by DTR on a factory wall. The art depicts two green blob monsters. There is also tag writing in shades of green, blue, and brown, as well as orange text that reads "So live". In front of the artwork, there is a car parked in a parking space.
A photograph of colourful street art by the DTR crew between Aldwins Road and Linwood Avenue. The artwork depicts an orange cityscape behind purple tag writing. The wall with the artwork on it is hidden behind a billboard for Smart Real Estate, a roadside bench, and a power box with an Elvis poster on it.
One expandable oblong brown fabric bag produced by Christchurch church group Rechurch; black and green writing on the front and back. Used to deliver lunch to Student Volunteer Army clean up parties after the 4 September 2010 earthquake. This reusable fabric bag from the church group Rechurch, Christchurch was used to deliver lunches to the stu...
One white cotton t-shirt with red printed guitar logo on front and ‘Band / Together / Concert / for / Canterbury // 23rd October / Hagley Park’ in black and red writing, guitar logo and names of performers on the reverse. This concert was a free morale booster following the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The 4 September 2010 earthquake unsettled ...
A photograph of street art. The artwork is on the wall surrounding Waltham Pool and faces towards Waltham Park. Written on the wall to the left of the artwork is, "Ironlak presents 'King of Kings' graffiti artwork competition, 24th Feb 2008. Thanks to the local community, Embassy Skate Store, Project Legit".
One green glass 500ml bottle of Three Boys Brewery ‘Aftershock’ beer. The bottle has a dark green rectangular label with white writing and the brewery logo on front and back. The bottle is sealed by a brass cap with a piece of red brick on top; brick and cap are sealed in wax. Christchurch's artisan Three Boys Brewery sustained only minor damag...
One green glass 500ml bottle of Three Boys Brewery ‘Aftershock’ beer. The bottle has a dark green rectangular label with white writing and the brewery logo on front and back. The bottle is sealed by a brass cap with a piece of red brick on top; brick and cap are sealed in wax. Christchurch's artisan Three Boys Brewery sustained only minor damag...