Aotearoa's biggest demolition job has entered its final stage. This morning media were given a final chance to walk through Christchurch's Lancaster Park before it is completely brought to the ground. The park's grandstands were badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake, and in 2017, $12 million was set aside for it be pulled down. Nicholas Pointon was there.
This article explores the scope of small-scale radio to create an auditory geography of place. It focuses on the short-term art radio project The Stadium Broadcast, which was staged in November 2014 in an earthquake-damaged sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thousands of buildings and homes in Christchurch have been demolished since the February 22, 2011, earthquake, and by the time of the broadcast the stadium at Lancaster Park had been unused for three years and nine months, and its future was uncertain. The Stadium Broadcast constructed a radio memorial to the Park’s 130-year history through archival recordings, the memories of local people, observation of its current state, and a performed site-specificity. The Stadium Broadcast reflected on the spatiality of radio sounds and transmissions, memory, postdisaster transitionality, and the impermanence of place.
TVs, shopping trolleys, beds, mattresses, even a gun. That is just some of the rubbish found by residents surrounding Christchurch's residential red zone. The area used to be filled with houses, but damage after the Canterbury earthquakes forced thousands of homes to be demolished. While many of the old suburban roads remain, the area now resembles a park. But it is now attracting those wanting to dump their rubbish for free - and Land Information NZ, which controls the land, has removed 25 tonnes of trash since January. Residents have had enough as well - with some taking matters into their own hands. Checkpoint reporter Logan Church has the story.
After years of disruption caused by the Christchurch earthquakes, two schools have finally started moving into their new state of the art facilities. Avonside Girls' High School and Shirley Boys' High School have begun moving students into their new shared but separate campus on the grounds of the old QEII Park in north New Brighton. Some of the features include, a moveable gym, bike stands with spanners and air pumps, and a rock climbing wall. It will be the first time in New Zealand two single-sex schools have been on the same site. Guyon Espiner speaks to Avonside Girls' High principal Sue Hume and Shirley Boys' High School principal John Laurenson.