FEMINISTA

Gordon Crook: A Life in Art

2010-06-22T18:40:00.001+12:00

Our doco on Gordon Crook has been selected for this years film festival. Come and check it out in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin.

Ladyhawke at the Fillmore San Francisco

2009-10-20T12:02:00.004+13:00

I saw Ladyhawke at The Fillmore in San Francisco, awesome concert. Amazing vibe and she was super excited to be where her heroes and pop history had been born...Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix...all the greats of music through the ages. Then she comes back to NZ and wins heaps of awards for the year. Go Ladyhawke!
The work of Sarah Larnach, the artist who did the drawings for her album and the cool music video Delirium is from NZ too, but lives in Sydney. Check out more of her work on her blog.

Narrative in Documentary Design

2009-09-10T12:11:00.003+12:00

I did a lecture this week up at the English Department with Brian Opie and James Meffan.
It was pretty interesting stepping back into academia and I think I quite like it. While I've been working on a PhD proposal this year, I've had second thoughts about my topic so am putting it on hold for a bit while I do some more research.

Also, I've been away for several weeks in Europe - went to the Venice Biennale and have loaded up a little film featuring the sculpture garden of Peggy Guggenheim. Check it out
Gogo Media.

Helen Clark's valedictory speech

2009-04-09T18:51:00.005+12:00

Well, Helen has finally signed off and good luck to her. The media still couldn't resist one last dig as Guyon Espiner worked up an Ice Queen headline to attract people to his blog...it's a pity they couldn't for once just honour this amazingly intelligent woman who has done so much to raise the profile of NZ internationally as well as be an incredible role model for women in this country.

She will do an excellent job at the U.N. although I'm sure it will be challenging for her to shift into a new mode of living.

Anyway, despite the misogyny and homophobia of the NZ media, she got to where she was heading and noone can ever take that away from her. I ordered a copy of the full video speech from the Parliamentary library for free... it is supposed to be on the government website but takes a week because of the Easter break!

Good luck and Kia Kaha Helen...we'll be watching....

Photo of Helen from The Dom Post...

David Byrne

2009-03-01T16:06:00.001+13:00

A most awesome concert.

Robotic Music

2009-02-20T08:05:00.005+13:00

I went to Mighty Mighty last night and outside the venue was a robotic drumber, The Drumber. This was put together by local Wellingtonian, Rupert...
The gig began with the robotic drummer, then was followed by Doteyes and then The Trons, an awesome robotic music experience. Check them out on Myspace.

ANIMFX 08

2008-11-15T17:56:00.006+13:00

I spent the day at ANIMFX 08 today listening to amazing artists and technologists talking about everything from creating light within computer games to puppeteering for the feature film Waterhorse.

Local and international speakers sat together on panels discussing future trends in film, animation, sfx and games and the recurring theme was the effect of social networking, user generated content and new forms of digital cinema and distribution.

Last year I interviewed Warren Franklin, Producer and founder of Rainmaker Productions. He was also involved in the early days of animation and sfx at Industrial Light & Magic and worked with George Lucas for many years.

In the meantime its back out into the fray to party at the Sidhe Interactive party.

NZ On Screen goes live!

2008-10-22T09:54:00.006+13:00

Well, it's finally happened. NZ On Screen has gone live today in preparation for a formal launch tomorrow. The site features short film, television and feature trailers to begin with, and more diverse content will follow. Check it out NZ On Screen, register and enjoy the show.

The project began at NZ On Air in late 2007 when Aileen O'Sullivan was asked to scope an online television project. She visited Australian Screen and wrote a report to the board. I got a contract at NZ On Air iln 2007 to develop their digital strategy and this project was one of the things to scope. I wrote a paper to the board and they were very into the whole idea. This was in addition to a broader digital strategy for NZ On Air which I worked on and this also resulted in the Digital Content Partnership Fund which was established.

The project really took off once the NZ On Air board okayed the budget and Brenda Leeuwenberg was contracted to manage the design and development of the site. We both left NZ On Air when an independent trust was established, The NZ On Screen Trust; Brenda became Manager and I have been the Content Director.

The design of the website has been beautifully realised by Chrometoaster and the back-end by 3Months.com

Now a whole team of specialists in different fields, from content coordination, rights management, writing and editing and editors of the actual footage all contribute to make NZ On Screen what it is today.

People have come and gone over the last year and a half and all have made an impact on the successful design and development of the project.

Now I'm heading off to do my PhD but will continue to produce ScreenTalk for the site, interviewing a variety of people from actors and directors to writers and crew people. So, check out the site and enjoy.....

Azalia Snail & Sandra Bell at Mighty Mighty

2008-10-11T10:18:00.007+13:00

This week we were the basecamp for touring musos, Sandra Bell and Azalia Snail with drummer from The Vibraslaps, Dianne Civil. Both artists are signed with local record company Powertool Records. They were supported by the breathy solo voice of John White who later also played violin with Sandra and Azalia. The other support band was the eclectic showman, VORN.
Mighty Mighty
was the perfect venue for the night and it was the early hours of the morning that we finally made it home.

Farewell to Sr Paula - a radical nun

2008-09-07T13:27:00.004+12:00

Sr Paula Brett-kelly died this week after a long struggle with cancer. She was an amazing woman and Catholic nun who devoted her life to service in the community. Sr Paula worked for the AIDS Foundation for several years and established the first Womens Support group for women affected by HIV/AIDS, initially this was women whose partners were diagnosed with HIV, or family members and friends. Over time it grew to include women also diagnosed with HIV and Sr Paula's love and affection spread throughout the queer community. She was actively involved in supporting the sex worker community and encouraged other churches to work together for the decriminilisation of the sex industry. She also worked closely with Tom O'Donoghue who established the People Living with HIV/AIDS Union.
Sr Paula spoke to many church and community groups to open peoples eyes and hearts to those living with HIV/AIDS and to accept family members from the queer community.
Her work lives on in the people that she worked with and the families and friends she made along the way. Her faith assured her she would be welcomed by those gone before her into the spiritual realm. She will be sadly missed.
There is a memorial service for her next Friday in Wellington.
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_6458.php

Interview with Sima Urale

2008-08-07T09:57:00.002+12:00

Last Monday I had the privilege of interviewing the lovely Sima Urale as part of the WIFT panel at the International Film Festival. It was a great night with Sima just pouring out stories left, right and centre. Her vivacious manner made interviewing her so easy and she really made filmmaking sound easy!
Her film, Apron Strings, opened the Ak Film Festival and screened across the country. This was Sima's first feature film, having already risen to fame with her short film, O Tamaiti and subsequent documentaries (Velvet Dreams) and short films (Coffee & Allah) amongst others.

It was a small but appreciative crowd and we moved on afterwards to a great dinner at CHOW - which was 2 for 1 night, so we had to wait a bit for a table but as always, the food was worth it!

Writing for New Media

2008-06-28T13:49:00.004+12:00

I was invited to MC a panel in Auckland last week, Writing for New Media, by Simon at Script to Screen.

The panel was made up of interactive media producer, Bevin Linkhorn from Gibson Group , game designer, Maru Nihonioh of Metia Interactive. Ana Samways, of the blogosphere, SpareRoom and journalist and internet writer/raver Nigel Horrocks (whose day job is at The Herald).

It was a wild ride across new media design, production and devleopment and with a small but eager crowd, we covered a lot of ground in a couple of hours. These sessions are regular gigs organised by Script to Screen, in support of promoting debate and dialogue about the changing world of media and narrative.

Simon was a great host and took us all out for dinner, except for Maru who had to get home to her kids....but a great night was had by all. Thanks Script to Screen!

The Datsuns

2008-03-18T19:28:00.003+13:00

Well, although this blog officially started off as a new technology, new media thinkpiece from a feminist perspective,it's morphed into a kind of 'whatever i'm doing and thinking' blog which is o.k. as thats what the beauty of the web is, right.
That it can change and evolve.
So, last Friday night we went to see The Datsuns at the San Francisco Bathhouse and it was a totally hot night, featuring the Dirt Bombs from Detroit as the support band.
Once again SFBH did it's thang and offered up a great venue for the punters and although most of them were slightly - well, a lot, younger than me....a great night was had by all....including the Dirt Bombs drummer who hung upside down at the end of the gig and kept drumming while the rest of the band body surfed into the crowd....
ahh yes...rock and roll will never die!.....

Happy New Year!

2008-01-10T09:12:00.000+13:00

Well, no geek talk - just holidays, beaches, swimming and listening to music. Waiheke, Papamoa, Foxton Beach, Breaker Bay...bliss.

Back to work creating content for the NZ On Screen project - www.nzonscreen.com nothing there yet, but there will!

Hope you all out there had a great xmas and new year and look forward to touching base on the web or face to face out and about...enjoy 2008!

over and out...

Chris Knox & Bill Hammond

2007-12-14T16:37:00.000+13:00

Well, Chris Knox does it again - attracting an eclectic mix of old and new fans to the Wellington City Gallery to hear his xmas special. I havent got the sound that goes with it but i have some great pics...just working out how to add the whole album but in the meantime here is the maestro...

WIFT Xmas Party!

2007-12-14T16:05:00.000+13:00

WIFT again proved it could create a fab night out with all the other guilds and here are the photos to prove it. Note the line up of the ukelele players....

Merry Xmas Everyone ...

Geek Love at ANIMFX 07

2007-11-19T16:44:00.000+13:00

Well, ANIMFX was yet again an amazing showcase of digital design and technology with a great line up of guest speakers. Warren Franklin from Rainmaker, Vancouver showed his student film from the seventies that got him a traineeship with George Lucas. He went on to create Industrial Light & Magic with George and now is the CEO of Rainmaker, a sfx studio in Canada. They make films but he is also actively involved in sfx himself and in creating synergies across the film sector to attract work into Canada. He was wowed by Park Rd Post and all that resides within it...and it was over all too soon...its a pity Peter Jackson doesnt show up for these things - even as a gesture...people would really love it...

Another great veteran and Emmy Award winner of sfx was Dan Curry. Dan created sfx for the the Starship Enterprise, Since then, he has worked on over 70 features, including "Star Trek Generations" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."

Dan has worked on the Star Trek TV series since 1987, first as visual effects supervisor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then as Visual Effects Producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, while also directing second unit for all three shows. Dan also has done extensive artwork for the shows, including conceptual design, motion control photography, animation, electronic and optical compositing, matte painting, space ship design, storyboarding, and martial arts choreography. His martial arts work includes developing the Klingon martial arts form "Mok'bara" and inventing the Klingon weapons the "bat'leth" and the "mek'leth".

Rita Street who founded ANIMATION magazine spoke about her new venture into producing animation series for television and film projects with her new company, RADAR cartoons. Rita fell in love with Wellington covering the Return of the King for the international magazine...

There were heaps of fabulous locals as well, Mario from games studio Sidhe Interactive, the Weta Digital crew, Dr Roy Davies from NEXTSPACE, a virtual reality lab in Auckland and expat VR expert, Dr Mark Burry, from SIAL, the Spatial Information Architecture Lab at RMIT, Melbourne. Not to mention the fabulous animation studios in Wellignton KARACTAZ Cobalt FX and Weta Digital.

Another very cool international speaker was Jason Manly from animation and sfx studio MAssive Black. Jason has also set up an amazing creative social network of artists around the world to foster dialogue and debate about art and design, Concept Art. with over 80,000 members worldwide. He also had some very interesting advice on setting up a studio in China...hard work but worth it to be on the inside, rather than just trying to engage....

It would be good to see more people at next years event - so more media and talk up before hand...

ANIMFXNZ - Games, Animation & SFX Symposium

2007-10-26T11:48:00.000+13:00

The second ANIMFX is coming up on November 5th and 6th and the Prime Minister has just agreed to open it! ANIMFX will feature a number of international speakers including Tim Johnson from Dreamworks SKG, founder of Animal Logic in Australia who the fx for Happy Feet.

John Passfield is the Creative Director of Pandemic Studios Australia and has just finished work on the highly anticipated Destroy All Humans! 2.
He recently sold his studio for $860m.

Local speakers include Professor Roy Davies from Nextspace a virtual reality lab in Auckland.
Mario Wynands, GM of NZ's largest games studio, Sidhe Interactive and creatives behind the animation and fx teams of Weta Digital.

as well as our talented pool of local creatives. Check out the website ANIMFX now!

40 years of Unity Books party!

2007-09-15T15:02:00.000+12:00

Tilly and the crew at Unity Books once again put on a great party to celebrate readers, writers and independent bookshops. At the entrance was a display of small press publishers in NZ - featuring my bro's publishing empire, The Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop in association with Mark Pirie's Headworks too. Homage was paid to Alan - the founder of Unity who passed away a few years back, as well as to author Nigel Cox - whose partner read an excerpt of his final novel...other Unity 'shopgirls' as Tilly called them - yes that means the boys too - read from favourite books and Jenny Bornholdt read a poignant poem about pain and surreality...a frail but beautiful gesture.

Wine and food flowed around the usually pristine bookshop shelves and people sprawled across the floor and chairs to chat and reminisce. A great night was had by all and three chairs for the independents who keep supporting local writers and looking after guest writers as they cruise through Wellington and Auckland Festivals....

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! ...go buy your books from local bookshops....

The Great Blend

2007-09-04T18:45:00.000+12:00

So, we cruised into Auckland on Friday morning from a gorgeous sunshine day in Wellington to a cloudy rainy bumpy landing...it was like - are we in Ak or Wn? Heading out to Muriwai to stay in my friends new motel unit with spa just installed, we cut out from the digital life and only came back to Ak and connectivity to join in the Great Blend at this really cool venue in Auckland which Russell Brown organised...
William Cooper from InformITV did his thang before leaving to catch his plane back to the U.K. and then Mr Brown from Singapore presented his blogs and life in Singapore...'So say we all....so say we all..." it was a blast and heres some photos to prove it.
The Auckland audience i felt was a bit more timid than the Auckland throng...and the L.E.D's did a great set that got me back in retro style band gal status....the lead singer even remembered our band, the Vibraslaps. I have to say - i was impressed and our drummer Dianne was with us too...so we had a groupy from over 20 years ago..
now thats a little cred. if you ask me....
Eric Kearly form TVNZ talked about the future...and Nik Torkington who i might add, designed the first website in NZ said all he wanted was to see Seven Periods with MR Gormsby and 24....we all have our little foibles...
Russell Brown was the host with the most, as usual and kept the conversation flowing along, provocative and incisive....Mr Brown showcased the nuances of alternative media in Singapore and once again, Ginny, his wifes digital story about being Singaporean was a crowd pleaser....say it again...
"....and so say we all..." yay Mr Brown and Ryan, we are your fanbase now...check out the photos and keep connected.

The Great Blend - the digerati

2007-08-31T12:03:00.000+12:00

Russell invited me to participate in The Great blend last night and I had great raves with people. russell brown does it again - bringing people together to talk about all things digital. We started the night off with a virtual haka courtesy of local Wellington games company, Sidhe Interactive. (thanks mario!) they worked with local iwi and a Maori adviser throughout the whole project to develop a true to life version of the haka inside the NRL game for PS2. It was a world first i reckon.
then mr brown, blogstar from Sinapore, wowed the crowd with his life as a blogger/commentator in the constraints of Singapores political climate - makes you realise how free we are in nz to say what we think...an often forgotten privilege. Mr Browns final digital story from his wife was a beautiful poetic gift.
The crowd got rowdy in the bar before the panel of new media aficionados...the new GM Content & Interactive at TVNZ, Tom Cotter eloquently outlined thier new strategy - decorporatisation of TVNZ was high on the agenda.
William Cooper (who did a fab presentation at the New futures conference) talked about working to develop the new media strategy at the BBC...
Mark Cubey brought nz music to the fore when he took on the Kim Hill show and now he's driving the web strategy too.
Russell wrangled the outspoken digerati with ease and we're glad to have him on board the newly announced NZ On Screen Trust - which i talked a little about ...as part of nzonairs digital strategy. also, minister maharey announced that amendments to the legislation to broaden the definition of broadcasting. these things take time but hopefully ministers will realise it must be passed to allow us to truly embrace the digital future.
I had a great time and i hope the crowd did too...looking forward to the different audience in auckland tomorrow night - so hope to see y'all there. I'm off to lie around at Muriwai beach ....a far cry from the digital life...

ciao ciao

Happy Poetry Day! In Your Eyes

2007-07-27T10:22:00.000+12:00

In your eyes
I see a light producing laughter
In your eyes
I see the world in a haze

Your eyes - go deep within me
Your eyes - touch my heart!

In your eyes
the lights shines brightly
In your eyes
The words are left unsaid

[Lyrices by Clare O'Leary from Vibraslaps Live album, 1985, produced by Flying Nun]

The Benevolent Creator

2007-07-17T15:10:00.000+12:00

O.k. so i succumbed to a personality test that Brenda sent me.
That means, I'm a Benevolent Creator folks.

G3 Games Girls & Graphics Symposia

2007-07-16T15:25:00.000+12:00

The G3 event attracted over 100 people on both days in Auckland at the Town Hall. Expat kiwi, Andrew Flavell presented the best of next gen. games that the Microsoft Games Studio is working on and about to launch. He runs the studio in Tokyo and listened to many of the game developers presentations throughout the event - not to mention the afterparty on Friday where VJettes projected images on two walls and Vicki from Upstage did her cyberformance with Helen linked to the MEdiaplex at the Film Archive in Wellington. www.upstage.net.nz
http://www.vjette.info/

Other presenters included Frances and organiser extraordinaire of the G3 event. Frances Valintine established SHOKO in 2006. Check the interactive walls, floors and experiences they have to offer at www.shoko.co.nz Frances has also been an active member of NZGDA and is the current Chair.

Mario Wynands, GM of Sidhe Interactive now has a studio of over 70 people in Wellington. He gave an update of where the games industry is at in NZ and forecast for the future. Their biggest challenge is talent, along with most IT/digital companies in NZ. www.sidhe.co.nz
www.nzgda.com

Game developers for other platforms presented - Dan Millward from www.instinct.co.nz
Joseph white, mobile games devleoper www.lexaloffle.co.nz

Emily Loughnan from Wellington interactive studio, Clicksuite www.clicksuite.co.nz and Gillian Vosper, from Chrometoaster www.chrometoaster.co.nz

Other presenters can be found on the G3 programme - to follow up. Some of the presentations will be on the www.nzgda.com website in the coming days...

Check it out - consider games as part of your new online marketing, television/film project and web/interactive installations. Games can be designed for entertainment, education and the dissemination of information.

In particular, more girls and women need to consider this as a career option. So check out www.womeningames.com and www.gamegirladvance.com for more info ...

Ciao Ciao

Clare

Kiwi Advanced Research & Education Network

2007-07-08T13:25:00.000+12:00

A week of geeks, digerati and inspiring presentations and ideas for collaboration across the global network that is KAREN. Only recently 'lit up' in New Zealand we finally have an uber fast pipe for the research and education community to partner with international researchers on projects relevant to our own research and education contexts.

It's an exciting time but needs a great communication strategy so that people out there know what it is, what it can and can't do and how to really make it work for individuals, projects and organisations across New Zealand.

The first challenge is to engage and 'show up' on the KAREN network and to start talking about it outside the IT world....

Work locally and globally with the KAREN network.

Some very cool stuff happening on the horizon..

see presentaions by Laurin Herr, Rick Stevens, early internet entrepreneurs....

www.karen.net.nz

Michael King: A Moment in Time

2007-06-24T08:52:00.001+12:00

My documentary about Michael King has been accepted for this years International Film Festival: 'Michael King, a moment in time'. It has been 16 years in the making - from concept to final production it has been through most of the funding agencies...now it has finally come to rest thanks to involvement of Executive Producer Glenis Giles with post-production funding from The NZ Film Commission. Thank you!

I returned to NZ from living overseas for several years at the end of 1990 with my son Samuel. This documentary began as a road trip from Auckland to Wellington to cover the 1991 Writers Week and combine it with a trip to see my brother Michael; poet, book shop proprietor and publisher. Mike had a shop with Brian Harold in the Octagon in Dunedin called O'Books: the Mother of All Potatoes! with an art gallery downstairs. The crew were friends; associate producer, Ana Foreman, her partner Kevin and 6 week old son Jack. It was shot by cameraman Rewa Harre with sound by Dianne Civil and Kevin Barton.

Michael King: A Moment in Time screents at the Telecom 36th Wellington Film Festival
Film Archive – Thursday 26 July at 12.15 pm
Film Archive – Thursday 26 July at 1.30 pm

As part of Uncovering Icons
Telecom 39th Auckland International Film Festival
Academy – Saturday 21 July at 1.00 pm
Academy – Sunday 22 July at 11.00 am
http://www.enzedff.co.nz/
See you there!

G3 Games Girls & Graphics Symposia

2007-06-17T17:12:00.000+12:00

Hey there....
Well the latest event to be aware of, apart from another mini-Webstock on 19 June in Wellington is G3: Games, Girls & Graphics.... This is an event to encourage girls and women into the games, animation and computer graphics industry and follows on from the first GAmes & Girls Symposia we organised after FUSE, the first computer games conference held in Dunedin in 2004. http://www.nzgdc.org/.

The three orgranisers, me, Mario (http://www.sidhe.co.nz/) and Frances of SHOKO have all been actively involved in creating dialogue across the computer games, academia and industry and players world over the last 8 years....or so. Sidhe Interactive just celebrated their 10th anniversary and more companies are fast moving up to be alongside them in scale and future direction.

G3 will profile women working across digital arts and design, illustration, animation, computer games design and production and technology innovation. It will be spontaneous, fun and targetted on the first day Friday 13th July at students and the second day, 14th July at industry.....so put it in your diaries and see you there!

Also check out http://www.upstage.org.nz/ for cyberformance.
Links:

www.shoko.co.nz www.metiainteractive.com www.webstock.co.nz

Sidhe Interactive - 10 years of gaming!

2007-05-31T17:06:00.000+12:00

Well I missed two significant events in the last week just because i couldn't pack everything in.
The 10 year anniversary party of Sidhe Interactive, New Zealand's largest games studio and the launch of NEXTSPACE, a new R & D lab for virtual reality and next media....i guess photos of the party will be on www.sidhe.co.nz and photos of the launch will be on www.nextspace.co.nz

So, anyone who went to either - let us know how they went!

and in the meantime check out this interesting little creative publishing software, UMAJIN, by Palmerston North company, Unlimited Realities. www.ur.co.nz Its got some great little features - they've used it with a number of schools and focus groups and are keen to see what people do with it...

let us know what you think...

Jane & The Dragon

2007-05-08T20:47:00.000+12:00

Moving on from the sexism of Convergence 07 to a strong female progatonist in childrens telveision - last night I went to a special WIFT event where the creators of Jane & The Dragon previewed some wonderful design and development processes that Weta Workshop were involved in in the devlelopment of the kids animation series, Jane & the Dragon.

Wow, the dragon is a pretty cool character and if anyone wants to take on Jane, they better be ready for a feisty red head.. Stereotypes have been criticised in the past, but red head power rocks in Jane & the Dragon.

Weta Workshop have really come up with a wonderful array of characters with series writer and creator Martin Baynton and we will see it soon on TVNZ this weekend.

Watch out for it and log in to the website for many more additional features.

Go NZ content!

Clare

Convergence & Sexism is Alive & welll......

2007-05-08T20:44:00.000+12:00

Hi
Well i"ve just been to the Wireless/Broadband convergence Oceania event and was horrified to see NO women on any panels. What's with the IT industry? Are all you guys still stuck wearing black suits and white shirts and where are all the women ?
I'm sure they are out there. Women In Technology were there - but Carol Lee hosted the IT leaders breakfast - it was as though no women were involved in the creation of applications or services and yet, 'wives' were mentioned throughout as users of broadband services...get with the programme guys - y0u have to talk to women as peers if you want to know where the future lies....

Clare

My Story

2007-04-19T20:50:00.000+12:00

Bevin, producer of "My Story' mobisodes at Gibson Group has totally moved into a new space for television production, introducing a new short short genre of soap opera style mobisodes with thriller overtones.

My Story was launched at Gibson Group last week to accolades from the viewer audience and claps on the back for innovation and risk taking in this new digital era.

As the more mainstream broadcasters work out what digital means for them, Dave Gibson has been brave enough to show that if you give the younger generation their creative head, they will come up with the content that younger viewers want.

A deal with both major Telcos, Telecom and Vodafone show that collaboration with competitors is possible, not to mention the spin off relatioship with Family Planning to integrate safe sex messaging into the programme as well as into the additional web based material provided around this youth oriented programme.

Watch this space in terms of what will come next....

mobile tv, interactive narratives etc....

clare

Wai Scott-Murray

2007-04-06T09:32:00.000+12:00

On the day of Wai's funeral a visitor settled on the rocks at Breaker Bay, farewelling her as people came to the Breaker Bay hall to say goodbye. Arohanui Wai....

Police in the Eighties

2007-04-05T09:00:00.000+12:00

Well, now that Margaret Bazley's report has finally come out its not surprising that what we have known about a few cops goes a lot deeper into the sexism, misogyny and 'power over' tactics of police culture in the eighties. It mirrors what has happened to Maori and Pacific Island people at the hands of police also...(see full report at www.cipc.govt.nz) or press release at http://www.stuff.co.nz/4015111a10.html

American feminist Adriene Rich talked about the collussion through silence of abuse in our society in her book, 'On Lies, Secrets & Silence ' in which she says:

"The liar has many friends, and leads an existence of great loneliness..."

This is the tip of the iceberg...the eighties was a period in our social history where cops were disempowered by the power of the people, the Springbok tour, the rise of feminism and the Maori renaiisance influenced peoples perception and knowledge of social power dynamics, class consciousness within a New Zealnd context.

In some ways, the police had never faced such criticism or been so exposed as bullies, or enemies of 'the people', the perception of the NZ copy as the friendly bobby was more prevalent...as long as you'd never come up against them personally you probably would have believed it was still true...

I don't envy the job of cops, telling people difficult news about family memgers or friends, picking up the pieces at car accidents or natural disasters....but at the same time, there was obviously a cutlure of inhouse behaviour that was accepted and those that remained silent were colluding in the behaviour continuing, just like incest, domestic violence and other forms of psychological and sexual abuse behind closed doors...

In Rotorua in particular, some cops regained their sense of authority by having power over women who were not just vulnerable, but naieve, ...offering private parties, alcohol and no doubt other things that were seen as 'perks of the job'....

I feel sorry for the women not only for the women who have been in relationships with these guys all these years and the hell they have had to put up with personally, and probably more now through their association with them. It's not easy to forgive a perpetrator of violence, but domestic violence is a recurring theme with women staying with 'the devil they know'....life is full of contradictions and these 'pillars of the community' in uniform, are one of them.

The women who have come forward have started something, not only for themselves but for all the women who have been in situations where they feel the power has shifted...and the result is often not what had been intended....but can create real change once people begin to speak about the truth that lies beneath....

Kia kaha

Clare

TVNZ On Demand Launches

2007-03-21T03:24:00.000+12:00

Well, it's a momentous day in the history of television. TVNZ launched its ONDEMAND service where you can view classic television, download favourite shows and catch up with all those shows you missed in your busy week. After TUI, the 14 year old schoolboy on www.throng.co.nz TV Watching community accessed his favourite Shortland Street episode on the beta test, maybe it fasttracked the launch date. So here we have the beginnings of interactive television - innovative narratives to follow...
watch this space...www.tvnz.co.nz

The Clean

2007-03-19T19:55:00.000+12:00

Well,
as an old punk rock chic from the eighties i had to see The Clean. Flying Nun afficionados were spotted about the crowd at San Francisco bathhouse in Wellington. It was refreshing to go out to see live music and see a few of the old crew, not just the young'uns who had rediscovered the retro cool punk scene of 25 years ago. Gulp!
Seriously cool gig and the crowd were all in love with them....fans rule...
www.flyingnun.co.nz
www.sanfranciscobathhouse.co.nz

Tech Angels

2007-03-13T18:40:00.000+13:00

The tech angels are a group of young women devoted to digital media and technology learning. They mentor younger students and also teach the teachers digital media skills, from basic word, excel and powerpoint to web design, dreamweaver, flash and video making. They are also part of KAREN with an inspirational board at Wellington Girls College and they are also part of the local LOOP project linking schools together with the KAREN project. www.techangels.co.nz

KAREN - Kiwi Advanced Research & Education Network

2007-03-13T18:22:00.000+13:00

Hi
So, ships have girls names, the Mothership is a feminine name of sorts, now we have KAREN, giving birth to an amazing resource connecting NZ to the world through the Kiwi Advanced Research & Education Network. (thats enough femme metaphors for now!)

An upcoming event should be a great way to see it working in action. You can participate at one of the access grids already set up to encourage collaboration across the research and education networks and hear PRofessor Marcus du Sautoy, voted one of the top 40 minds of the U.K. as he espouses on the glory and beauty not to mention value of prime numbers...recently interviewed by Kim Hil if i'm not mistaken...

so check it out at www.karen.org.nz
or his personal very cool website at http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~dusautoy/flash/flashindex.htm

happy counting, viewing and experiencing...

Webstock! and more cool stuff of the week

2007-03-07T18:56:00.000+13:00

I went to the mini-webstock last night at the Paramount. It was like seeing the new wave of web developers come out of the closet and meet and greet. It was definitely a sea of twenty and thirty somethings with a few wise few on the sides...this was overemphasised by Jo Halls admission that the internet had not changed her life, since she had been using it since she began doing her homework and research for projects on the internet since she was 7. The bell for time up tinkled loudly as the audience laughed and groaned at the same time....yes, the digital natives have arrived and they are here to transform the web in ways we have no idea of just yet...
Jo was the senior Tech Angel project i have been documenting over the last two years. www.techangels.co.nz at Wellington Girls College.
The project is part of the new LOOP project being launched on Thursday night at Te Papa...
Rod Drury profiled XERO and the full presentations will be available via Richard Naylors amazing 'i am everywhere' documentation of the event via CityLink. www.citylink.co.nz
So, another plug by one of the audience was for the Thursday night Wellington Flickr nights where people come and see each others photos uploaded on their flickr sites...the Wellingtonistas out in force...Jan Bieringa tlaked about the World Summit Digital Content exhibition briefly coming to NZ and this woman profiled her web kids clothes company...www.babylicious.co.nz

Other exciting moments of the week...are...i talked to the new guy heading up NEXTSPACE in Auckland, Roy Davies- a Right Hemisphere lab of the future... www.righthemisphere.com

I have a new job at NZ On Air developing their digital strategy - amongst other things...as we head into the digital television landscape. www.nzonair.govt.nz

I caught up with digital guru and font of all IT knowledge John Houlker and we met up with the new Cyberfellow at VUW through the Internet NZ funding, Philip Greene...and his colleague from the US, Fiona who is on a Fullbright Scholarship at MED looking at convergence policies...
will do another post specifically on next gen television....

I saw Russell Brown on breakfast television this week too talking about his son with Aspergers Syndrome, and his wifes breast cancer - he's just had to take his son out of school as it wasnt working out and special treatment for his son is going to cost a lot of money. You can see the post on www.publicaddress.net today - and they are promoting a fundraising event for Russell and his family which should be amazing and an incredible way the web community can give back to Russells high profile webtalk over all these years...

ANIMFX

2007-02-27T21:34:00.000+13:00

Hi
Well i forgot to tell you about ANIMFX which i attended last year...i wrote a piece for WIFT newsletter so thought i'd just put it here as a post and then you can follow the links yourselves. It was an awesome collection of heads and ideas around animation, sfx and games in nz with some interesting international guest speakers as you will see....

ANIMATORS & SPECIAL FX GURUS STRUT THEIR STUFF!

The first symposium of animation, games and special effects was held in Wellington this weekend and many creative and technology wizards came out of the woodwork to show and discuss their work.
Eric Roth, Executive Director of the Visual Effects Society (VES) opened the event and led an exciting array of speakers from leading feature film studios around the globe specialising in feature animation and sfx.

Eric Roth, Kim Lavery with ‘Mr Fix-it” Jeff Okun at the ANIMFX Symposium. The VES provides members with a platform for communication, education and recognition of the current and future state of the visual effects industry. As Eric Roth says, it aims to be “the international glue that connects all the world's top visual effects artists to one another".

Shelley Page, European liaison for DreamWorks SKGshowed many new works by European filmmakers, predominantly graduate work – some of whom have gone on to become animation directors of shorts and feature films. Shelley has a particular interest in graduate animation and hosts student events at all the major European animation festivals. She sits on the graduation juries of leading animation schools Les Gobelins and Supinfocom in France and on the advisory boards and selection juries of many international animation festivals including: Imagina (Monte Carlo), FMX (Stuttgart), Brief Encounters(Bristol), Animex (Teeside) and SAND Swansea).

The symposium had several keynotes from VFX Supervisors and animators from large studios such as Warner Bros. and DreamWorks SKGand several talks were focused around digital technology innovation and software development behind the scenes.

It was great to see some of the local innovators in digital design and technology front up to discuss their design process and some of the complexities they face as they strive to innovate on each new project.

Dr Mark Sagar, Special Projects Supervisor of WETA Digital discussed the research behind the psychology of gestures in the development of facial animation for major digital characters such as Gollum and King Kong. In the same session, Mario Wynands of local game development studio, Sidhe Interactive, showcased the emerging games industry projects he and his team have been designing for Playstation 3, XBOX and PSP.

Cristina Casares, immigrated from Argentina in 2002 to tutor animation at the Media Design School. She then joined Huhu Studios in Northland as an animator and now has established her own company, La Luna Studios developing interactive media and a feature, The Magic Shoes in association with Kelly Park Films. Cristina talked about the process of dreaming a big project and finally seeing it begin to come to fruition – she has the support and mentorship of actor, Robert Duvall on the project.

Kim Lavery, SFX Producer at Weta Digital , championed the event in her role as executive of the international Visual Effects board and co-chair of the Visual Effects Awards. WETA Digital and Park Rd Post provided many of the speakers and the whole event was spearheaded by Positively Wellington Business who brought in the major sponsor, IBM alongwith the Foundation for Science Research & Technology, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

WETA hosted a party Saturday night at the Brewery, and as luck would have it, the city put on a fantastic fireworks display for the guests. (Guy Fawkes had something to do with it!).

The ANIMFX Symposium attendees all agreed they would return for a bigger and brighter event next year which PWB has already agreed to support. There was an excellent buzz at the event and many new relationships were brokered. The overall feeling was that this was the beginning of new conversations and international relationships and that there is still a huge interest in the creativity coming out of New Zealand filmmakers and digital technology innovators.

For further information about the event contact Sally Thorburn, Positively Wellington Business. sally@pwb.co.nz and check out the websites for more info. www.animfxnz.com www.visualeffectssociety.com

Clare O’Leary (Clare is a researcher in the digital content sector and documentary filmmaker based in Wellington) oclare@paradise.net.nz www.evebaystudio.co.nz

bloggers

2007-02-21T20:14:00.000+13:00

I met Richard MacManus when consulting on the New Zealand Digital Content Strategy.
see www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz

Richard is well known in the web scene in Silicon Valley and was just listed as 51 on the top blogging sites in the world...from Lower Hutt! check out the latest thinking on web projections and future technorati thoughts at www.readwriteweb.com

Of course, other blogs of note are found at www.publicaddress.net

and cyberformance artists helen varely jamieson at www.creative-catalyst.com

happy blogging....

clare

The New Dowse

2007-02-19T10:43:00.000+13:00

I went to the opening of The New Dowse on the weekend. It was a great vibe! Johanna Sanders invited me out to see her VJ installation - alongwith Rachel Tempest and sounds by the infamous Disaster Radio as well as Nick McGowan with his amazing Theramone! (sp?) an awesome machine that your body gestures create sound with, very Brian Eno'ish...the screen they had constructed had a number of weather balloons in front of it which distorted the vision, abstract, pictorial, text...it was a great show...surrounded by new space to breathe and see old works from their collection and new innovative design. Go check it out. www.dowse.org.nz
Next stage development is to build more interactivity with the audience into the experience...like it! Beautiful architectural work by Athfield Architects too - a kind of retro contemporary and eco-friendly design with solar power integrated into the panels...have some pics to upload sometime too...

Games & Girls

2007-02-15T10:17:00.000+13:00

I'm re-reading Sheri Graner Rays book, Gender Inclusive Games Design - she has so many references to early female protagonists in the games world, starting with the first female characters like Ms Pacman and interesting weblinks like the Leather Godess of Phobos and Rosellas Peril as the first female protagonist who had a mission, rather than just being rescued by strange prince characters...she is still a princess however, but one who saves her father by finding a magical fruit...see the cover art at http://www.mobygames.com/game/covers/gameCoverId,16927/gameld,129/.

kiwi company next window has just landed a big deal with HP for their touch screen technology, they are reputed to have designed the largest touchscreen in the world - featured at Kelly Tarltons....also of interest is the NextMedia research lab set up by Right Hemisphere in Auckland..watch this space. www.righthemisphere.com www.nextwindow.com

the interactive narrative

2007-02-14T20:55:00.000+13:00

hi
so, i've been thinking about the interactive narrative idea and today i was researching a paper for the animation journal, a peer reviewed journal in the U.S. ...i am writing a paper on the nz games industry history and i came across an article on the Hollywood Reporter about peter jacksons announcement of the Weta Interactive Studios deal with Microsoft Games Studio...that was September 06 and since then HALO the film has been on hold after initial excitement in nz over its presence....wonder where its at now...but this is what pj had to say at the time in Barcelona...." "My vision, together with Microsoft Game Studios, is to push the boundaries of game development and the future of interactive entertainment. From a moviemaker's point of view, it is clear to me that the Xbox 360 platform is the stage where storytellers can work their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books but taking it further with interactivity." Peter Jackson, September 06

I hope thats still the case...in regards to other writers on interactive narrative, one of my most favourite is Glorianna Davenport, who heads up the Interactive Cinema faculty at the MIT media lab...doyens of innovation in media and new forms, digital and cultural... check her out at www.media.mit.edu search Glorianna Davenport and you will find not only her but a whole community of researchers dedicated to digital worlds and culture....

an expat kiwi, Dr Barry Vercoe, was actually a founding member of MIT's Media Lab - he's still the Professor of Music at MIT and has been to NZ several times...we should embrace him more...he comes from Paeroa! and is part of the $100 laptop scheme Negroponte is developing...the scheme was recently profiled on the kim hill show...Radio NZ, National...'Sounds like us'... a little too often methinks....anyway - heres' his homepage
http://www.media.mit.edu/~bv/

connect with him..he's been back a few times but we should get him back again somehow...in connection with www.medialab.co.nz ...

also see www.hitlabnz.org mark billinghursts innovative research lab in chch...
goodnight

Media NZ

2007-02-11T21:15:00.000+13:00

Well - two full on days at the medianz conference in wellington means now i know what is going on the media studies world...of secondary school teachers and tertiary media studies ...seems there's a need for more dialogue across the secondary/tertiary divide and could be more sharing of resources as well.
I found it really inspiring though - everyone was revelling in being on the edge of things in some ways, in a kind of interdisciplinary way from early days of media studies not being taken seriously - and even now - compared to some more traditional faculties such as classics or management..despite the fact that more than ever media and communications studies is affecting how society is changing...
I presented in two sessions: A kind of personal/professional narrative of my work as a lesbian feminist researcher/documentary filmmaker in regards to a panel "The Cultures of Production and the Production of Culture"....and then my own history in a way of being invovled in nurturing and working with the early days of game development companies in NZ and pushing to raise the profile of the computer games sector....so nice to finally start to document things and get some response...too...lots more work to do however...

Games Industry History at Media NZ

2007-02-08T17:27:00.000+13:00

Tomorrow I'm giving a talk at the MediaNZ conference in Wellington about the emerging computer games industry in New Zealand. The programme seems pretty full but hopefully there will be a few punters in the theatre by the end of the day.
Also on a panel "The Cultures of Production and the Production of Cultures" alongwith Deborah Jones, Rob Strathdee and Sarah Proctor Thomson from Victoria University of Wellington.
www.vuw.ac.nz No website for the event as far as I know tho'.

Kia Ora!

2007-02-02T14:19:00.001+13:00

So, I finally succumbed to the blogosphere.
I'm a documentary filmmaker and researcher interested in new forms of engagement with digital media.I'm just starting to prepare for my PhD to explore a feminist gaze on the interactive narrative - from computer games to virtual and immersive experiences.
This blog will document what i find, what amuses or disturbs me or just catches my attention online, offline and out in the big wide world.
Take a trip into youtube, second ife, bliptv, artificial intelligence and human interface design....
see you out there...