Conference Programme
You will find daily programme information below. Please note, the programme is subject to change.
Programme Details
Click the links below to find out more about our presenters and the:
Presentations
The Medium
Edward Hanfling
A consideration of the extent to which attending to characteristics and developments of specific media is compatible with a tertiary arts environment based on intertextuality and interdisciplinarity.
Practitioners routinely combine different materials and methods, while the meaning and value of an artwork, or any cultural product, has been shown to emerge from its relationship to wider social issues and influences rather than being confined to the supposedly intrinsic qualities of the medium or discipline. Qualities relating to a medium, or materiality, are now seen to be subsumed, like any other meaning or value, by the overriding systems of language, the “text” and relationships between texts. In my own art-writing and research my approach has been to build on or extend Greenberg’s ideas, not to reject them outright or merely reverse them. This leads me to ask whether some sense of the specificity and materiality of the medium remains pertinent to contemporary tertiary arts education.
Dr Edward Hanfling teaches at Wintec’s School of Media Arts. He is also an art critic, art historian curator and co-author of Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation.
From vision to sense: When TV becomes a game
Joe Citizen
Preliminary findings from a research project that attempts to explore the convergence of interactive video games, cinema and emerging immersive technologies.
This paper will discuss some of the possible implications regarding the convergence of digital media technologies such as those created by the hybridisation of immersive 360 degree video, interactive environments and moving image. It will also attempt to raise some questions of its own in relation to these new representational technologies and address some of the broader theoretical implications that immersive interactive technologies pose for both practitioners and educators alike.
Joe Citizen teaches on the Bachelor of Media Arts programme at Wintec and has a background in making and screening short films and other moving image works.
The Stony Rises Project
Lisa Byrne
The Stony Rises Project (RMIT, 2007 – 2010) was developed in order to experiment and explore the manner in which research outcomes might be generated for creative practitioners in the current Excellence in Research Australia policy of the Federal Government of Australia.
In its entirety the project was transdisciplinary, and translational, but not always in the ways one might have set out to be.
This paper will present certain key ideas of my project-based research into what the curator might bring to the current research environment in Australian Fine Arts School/Faculties and possibly what use this contribution would be beyond that of the ‘state sanctioned’ arts funding and research environments.
Lisa Byrne is currently undertaking her PhD at RMIT University. She has worked as a director and curator for several public art galleries in Australia.
Pūrākau, International Poster Research Project
Xavier Meade
In 2009 Xavier Meade (NZ) and Flor de Lis López Hernández (Cuba) invited twelve artists from Aotearoa, Cuba and Mexico to produce posters in response to the theme of ‘Pūrākau’ (myths, legends and “lessons for life”).
The artists activated a diverse range of indigenous myths and legends: “The Tangler”, “the Disappearance of Matias Perez”, “Origin of the Poisonous Guao Plant” among others. The stories are deeply embedded in their cultures or origin, but the underlying themes resonate across cultures.
All posters are made in their country of origin, through screen-print and lithographic processes.
This paper will describe the process and outcomes of the project, including the trilingual publication and the exhibitions in Cuba, Mexico, Spain and Aotearoa.
Note: the project will be exhibited at the Waikato Museum during the conference.
Xavier Meade; born in Mexico City, resident in NZ since 1980, tutor in Visual Arts, Eco Design and Intermedia at Wintec. Exhibiting widely nationally and internationally.
Suburban interventions
Paul Woodruffe
How can a socially defined project facilitate meaningful knowledge transfer from institution to community and corporate?
This paper focuses on an ongoing live project in suburban Auckland New Zealand undertaken by post-graduate students and researchers. The project is in the process of creating subtle interventions sited within local landscapes and cyberspace, and employs impermanent and small-scale design to advocate for neglected and disputed sites. It explores the value and impact the presence of educator artists and designers working within a socially and environmentally conscious framework can have on local communities. It also examines the possibility of the methodology being transferred to under-graduate study, as a tool to promote multi-disciplined collaborate project briefs that focus on community well-being.
Paul Woodruffe is a UNITEC design lecturer. He has been involved in landscape-based fine arts since 1981, and completed a Masters in Landscape Architecture in 2010.
Created creators – praxical knowledge and systems theories in cultural production
Matthew Bannister
This paper will examine ideas around creativity and cultural production beyond Romanticism; auteurism on the one hand and poststructuralist “death of the author” theories on the other. Two possibilities are explored – Bolt’s praxical knowledge, derived from Martin Heidegger, which argues for the poverty of a purely theoretical approach to creative practice, and systems theory approaches influenced by Gilles Deleuze. Both are attempts to explain creativity as a collaborative system in process rather than an ends-directed enterprise driven by an individual author and both connect to Non-Western approaches to creativity, Chinese aesthetics for example. The paper will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both positions and their implications for the teaching of art and cultural production in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Dr Matthew Bannister is postgraduate theory supervisor in Media Arts at Wintec. His main research interests are gender, identity, the theory/practice relationship and popular music.
Indigineity: Empowering through Tatau
Ian George
Using the practice of traditional tattooing, its patterns and motifs to initiate pride in being indigenous tatau (tattoo) signified status; it was the mantel of the Ariki (chiefly) class. The impact of the colonization of the Cook Islands resulted in the loss of both the ritual and art form. Today programmes have been developed that tutors young Cook Islanders of the historical importance tatau had in the traditional Cook Islands society. It also targets youth at risk. The programmes aim to turn around low self esteem and poor social skills and develop a sense of identity of being a Cook Islander.
Ian is an arts advisor for the Cook Islands Ministry of Education, co-director of The Arts Studio Gallery in Rarotonga and a practising artist.
Renaissance Art
Patrick Tyman
This paper puts the Renaissance in context, focusing on key works by artists of the era.
What are the key events which distinguish the Renaissance from the Middle Ages? In this paper I investigate this question by evaluating Neo Platonism and humanism; the influences of antiquity on art; literature, architecture, science and mathematics; new subjects in art; the new mind set formed during this time of transition; where, when and why the Renaissance happened. I trace the causes and effects of the Reformation’s influence on the era; Martin Luther, indulgence selling, iconoclasm and its effects, discovery and scientific inventions, books and printing, the threat of Islam.
The presentation is based on research developed in the writing of an art history book.
P. J. Tyman is an art and art history teacher at Iona College. He was educated in England and has been teaching and researching art history in New Zealand for twelve years.
Making your Gallery Visits Count: Building purposeful art gallery learning experiences
David Bell
LEOTC and locally funded programmes offer engaging and challenging art gallery experiences for students at every level. Some anecdotal evidence suggests however that one-off visits could be richer, and much more constructively contextualised into broader classroom learning. This paper draws on research in 16 US and NZ art museums to explore ways of making the gallery visit count.
David Bell teaches pre-service art programmes at the University of Otago College of Education. He has researched extensively on ways of talking about art with young people, most recently in his study of museum educator practice in NZ and US art museums on which this paper is based.
Inquiry Strategies for Learning about Art in the classroom
David Bell
An introduction to inquiry-style strategies for learning about art in generalist and specialist visual art programmes. While many teachers are able to draw on different media skills for their visual art programmes, some are less confident helping young people to talk about art works. The CI and UC strands of the curriculum seem to get less attention than art making. This paper looks at some readily accessible inquiry-based models for inter-curricular and art focused experiences in generalist and specialist settings.
David Bell teaches pre-service art programmes at the University of Otago College of Education. He has researched extensively on ways of talking about art with young people, most recently in his study of museum educator practice in NZ and US art museums on which this paper is based.
Reality Transfer
Mark Liu and Simon Nicholls
“Reality Transfer” is a teaching experiment that closely applies a simulated Graphic design industry scenario to the tertiary teaching environment. The aim of this simulation is to identify the gap between vocational-based tertiary education and industry entry requirements in the graphic design sector.
The presentation addresses five distinct phases of the research: Identifying the missing link(s); industry placement and interviewing; reviewing, the results; conducting and refining methodology; applying and testing.
The problems encountered will be discussed: What does the industry really want from a tertiary education provider? What are the restrictions we face as educators? How can we prepare our graduates / students for the future? How can educators transfer practical experience and knowledge gained from placements and interviews? What do educators do when faced with problems outside their expertise?
Mark Liu and Simon Nicholls teach on the Bachelor of Media Arts programme, Wintec. They specialise in graphic and digital design education.
Reflections on teaching TV: Collaboration, Immersion and Ownership
Joe Citizen and John Mandelberg
Television production is a multi-disciplinary collaboration that has long and frequently complex processes. By using a self-reflexive model, we wanted to learn more about how best to teach by doing, without losing student engagement. Students need to learn to engage with an overview, collaborate with other disciplines and organisations, understand how their role works as part of a team environment, and employ a range of technical skills.
How can this be achieved in such a way that students feel that they maintain a sense of ownership, particularly when popular culture exemplifies an auteur or lone practitioner? How can these industry skills be replicated in an art education environment, within low or no budget constraints? How can this be achieved within changing class dynamics from to year to year? What might be some possible obstacles and solutions found when working with other disciplines within the wider institution? How can we as action-practitioners reflect upon our own pedagogies so that these goals best be achieved?
Joe Citizen teaches on the Bachelor of Media Arts degree programme at Wintec and has a background in making and screening short films and other moving image works.
John Mandelberg has over 30 years’ experience in moving image production as a director, producer and senior editor. He is Moving Image Co-ordinator and tutor in the Bachelor of Media Arts programme, Wintec.
Connecting curriculum: possibilities and challenges within arts based integration
Graham Price
This research follows primary generalist classrooms where the arts are positioned as key contributors to the engagement and meaning making of students across multiple learning areas. A methodology for mapping students’ cross-curricular meaning making is explored.
Efland, 2002 suggests that “the arts should be centrally located within the curriculum as an overlapping domain” based on the reciprocal relationship between art and culture. The potential for such cross curricular overlap invites examination through the lens of students’ meaning-making and not just teacher intention. Connecting curriculum, connecting learning; Negotiation and the arts is a sustained research project funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. This research seeks to explore the potential of the arts based integration through investigating: What connections are made between the arts and other curriculum areas a) by children? and b) by teachers? What influence does integration appear to have on motivation, engagement and learning a) for children? and b) for teachers?
Graham Price is a Senior Lecturer in art education at the University of Waikato. His current research interests include exploring art pedagogies for novice learners in art.
Making art the stART
Penny Deane
This paper uses examples from a primary school context to illustrate the power of connecting the arts with learning across the curriculum, to engage, enthuse, enlighten and enthral students and their teachers. Levels of disengagement are increasingly an issue in our schools, beginning with students as young as eight years and peaking with students between 12 and 14 years (Wylie, 2009). The New Zealand Curriculum invites schools to examine their pedagogy, practice and school organisation in order to maximise the learning potential for all students. When artificial barriers between curriculum areas are removed and art works become the catalyst and continued motivation for learning, the content of the curriculum learning areas becomes relevant, the Principles, Key Competencies and Values of the New Zealand Curriculum become ‘real’ and connections between school and whanau, families and the wider community have far reaching benefits.
A teacher with 27 years service, Penny is currently completing her M. Ed. She is a teaching partner in the University of Waikato TLRI project Connecting Curriculum; Connecting Learning.
“Our Artists” Artists inspiring Artists at Tamahere Model Country Primary School
Kate Darrow
Six contemporary artists from around Hamilton were invited into a primary school to work with the teachers and students. The aim of the project was to give students and teachers the opportunity to meet and learn from professional artists.
Central to the project was the notion of an art world, and wanting to provide the children with a better understanding of professional artists and what they do, how they do it, and to what end. (The project gathered a great deal of support and was warmly embraced by all involved. Supported by some of the most exciting artists currently working in Hamilton (many with a growing national reputation) it also inspired others in the art world to lend their expertise, including a fine art framer, graphic designer and an the auction house).
More than simply making art in the classrooms, students were given the opportunity to meet artists, see contemporary art in a gallery, encouraged to talk about art, and learn more about some of the activities that surround the producing of art that help it on its journey towards an audience.
Kate Darrow (BA, MA; arts management and education) has held senior positions at the Auckland Art Gallery and City Gallery Wellington. She currently works as an independent art consultant in Hamilton.
How to Make Mistakes
Tara Winters
Risk-taking and experimentation, and their association with perceived failure, are high-risk activities for learners. They are also fundamental to learning in art and design. Students are encouraged to work in open-ended ways, embrace chance and value the unexpected in a subject context where instability and uncertainty prevails.
In this paper I explore how we can encourage students to work with perceived failure in a productive way and create a learning environment which understands mistakes as a positive and necessary part of inquiry. I suggest that a shift in educational approach away from the celebration of final outcome to an emphasis on process supports this endeavour. A corresponding review of our ‘assessment for learning’ practices is also shared.
Tara Winters is a Lecturer in Design at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Her research interests include various topics in art education theory and practice.
The rollercoaster ride of teacher despair and delight in delivering the art curriculum in 3 New Zealand primary schools
Michael Irwin
This paper reports on a pilot study on the delivery of The Arts curriculum within three primary schools within the Auckland area. The attitudes, experiences and perceptions of teachers delivery of The Arts in their classroom and school were gathered. Data was collected using a survey, focus group and individual interviews from 52 participants. Research issues included teachers’ specialist knowledge to teach the arts, teachers’ attitudes to The Arts, the delivery and participation of the Arts in the classroom and school, and the emphasis given the arts within the school.
Teachers are under more pressure than ever before to achieve higher standards with a greater diversity of student within the classroom. New Zealand’s National Monitoring standards introduced in 2010 clearly place a greater emphasis on numeracy and literacy. Leading educationalists and government policymakers have identified creativity, innovation, collaboration and higher order thinking skills as attributes that the 21st century learners and workers require to be successful. This paper compares teachers’ responses to these pressures and the place of the arts within today’s classroom.
Dr Michael Irwin is a senior lecturer at the School of Education, Massey University. He has been a primary teacher and Art Curriculum leader before lecturing in visual art and drama.
How I learned about the world - The contemporary child’s art and connection making experiences within an increasingly visual world
Jannie Visser
This presentation shares the findings of a narrative inquiry research project that explored pre-school children’s art drawings in order to develop an understanding of the impact of visual cultural texts on their representations and their social and cultural sense of self – at the time of the art experience and in later years.
The findings indicate that to understand children, their narratives and art experiences, one needs to know the context in which these are embedded. This is especially important as visual cultural texts appear to have both the potential of empowering children by acknowledging their ways of being, and of disempowering them through stereotyping and imposing certain predefined social and cultural roles.
Jannie Visser is a senior lecturer on the Diploma of Teaching (ECE), Waiariki Institute of Technology. Current research is focused on art and its role in children’s development and identity.
Asian art and culture: Asian students’ perspectives on visual arts education in New Zealand
Jill Smith
This paper reports on a research project (2010) which showed that Asian art and culture is noticeably absent in visual arts education in secondary schools in New Zealand.
The perspectives of twenty pre-service teachers of Asian ethnicity who trained to be secondary school visual arts teachers between 2001 and 2010 are shared. They provide insights that are important for art teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and policy makers in nations with culturally diverse students, including those of Asian ethnicity.
Dr Jill Smith is Principal Lecturer, School of Arts, Languages and Literacies, University of Auckland-Faculty of Education. Her teaching and research interests include the relationship between art, culture and curriculum.
Pedagogy informed by research: Strategies for strengthening an Asian presence in visual arts education in New Zealand
Jill Smith
Pedagogy informed by research: Strategies for strengthening an Asian presence in visual arts education in New Zealand.
A scaffolded approach to five strategies that I use with pre-service visual arts teachers is designed to empower them to engage in culturally inclusive pedagogical practices. This begins with 'locating themselves', in which attitudes and positions in relation to the art and culture of 'others' are examined. The second strategy, scrutinising national curricula, alerts pre-service teachers to the embedded meanings in documents. Third, literature is used to acquaint them with claims that teachers' cultural knowledge and awareness, and their curriculum and instructional accommodations can make a major difference. This leads to an engagement with a range of modernist and post modern conceptions of multiculturalism and a critical approach to policy and pedagogy. The fifth strategy requires pre-service visual arts teachers to make the connections between critical theories, socio-political contexts, and practical realities – the 'doing'. Examples are given of how they apply theory in practice in visual arts programmes at years 9-13.
Dr Jill Smith is Principal Lecturer, School of Arts, Languages and Literacies, University of Auckland-Faculty of Education. Her teaching and research interests include the relationship between art, culture and curriculum.
Lessons from Toledo: A report on the 4th International Art in Early Childhood Conference
Lisa Terreni
This presentation will report on the 4th International Art in Early childhood Conference held in Toledo, Ohio, USA, June 2011. The paper will highlight research and key messages that are relevant to early childhood teachers in New Zealand.
The theme of this conference “Art...Play...Children...Wonderment” , served as a platform for discussion and the exchange of ideas to guide the way for the present and future of early childhood art education.
Lisa Terreni lectures in Victoria University’s College of Education. She is a professional development advisor in early childhood centres, maintains an arts practice, and researches ICT in arts exploration.
Textiles can stimulate children’s creativity and imagination
Jo Dean
New research affirms the value of textiles to young children’s holistic learning. This paper identifies one particular key finding drawn from a 2008 research project; that using textiles can stimulate children’s creativity and imagination. Exploring textiles creatively supports a child to express their thoughts, comprehend, respond and represent perceptions and understanding of the world, such as dressing up with textiles through role-play.
The central research question is “How do children use textiles within their kindergarten environment”? To answer this question, research has been carried out in one kindergarten and focused on four year olds. By textiles the researcher refers to a wide range of woven, knitted and felted fabrics that are natural or synthetic such as wool, cotton, lace, ribbons and cord. Textiles play an important part not just through creativity but also in children’s overall learning. Positive opportunities to explore textiles can enhance children’s textual awareness, visual and sensory development, a sense of identity and self-expression, imagination and exploration.
Jo Dean has a Diploma in Fashion Design and Technology and a Bachelor of Education (Birth to eight). She is a fulltime kindergarten teacher based in Palmerston North.
The Making Meaning and Migration of New Zealand War Art Produced in the Pacific in World War Two
Clive Stone
This project investigates the art made by New Zealand war artists and servicemen in the Pacific during World War Two through an investigation of images and objects held in the collections of The Auckland Museum, Archive New Zealand, Army Museum, Navy Museum, Air Force Museum and other public and private sources. It involves an in-depth study of the iconography and iconology of the New Zealand war art produced in the Pacific, and not only how such art is a reflection of the men who made it and the society that created them, but how the meaning of the imagery they made has changed and been adapted over time.
I shall discuss examples of the major categories of war art produced by New Zealand servicemen, providing a context for the production of the works and the ways in which motifs and images were used and reused during and after the war.
This research was conducted under a Royal Society of New Zealand Teachers Fellowship awarded in 2010.
Clive Stone is Head of the Visual Arts Department at Mount Roskill Grammar School in Auckland.
Family, Food, Faith
Nellie Wallace-Ward
This is a photojournalist project which required Hamilton Girls’ High School students from year 9–13 to photograph their lives outside of school over eight months.
The girls participating in the project came from a wide range of cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. The resulting exhibition, an exhibition at conference has provided thought provoking insights into the often hidden personal lives of students, their families and communities. Feedback includes: “These images have changed the way I see my students and has already affected the way I teach them”; “I am really truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to share my life and culture with others”.
This paper is an orientation to the project from its initiation to the final exhibition. The project is exhibited at the conference.
Nellie Wallace-Ward is the teacher in charge of Photography and the year 13 Dean at Hamilton Girls High School.
Learning together in the visual arts in the New Zealand Curriculum: a collaboration with a teacher of special needs students to develop curriculum, pedagogy and assessment that promotes belonging and community
Helen Moore
In this paper the processes and outcomes of a project to develop the New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars for Students with Special Education Needs through and with the visual arts are described. This is one story from a wider 2 year project focussed on advisers and teachers working with students described as working long term at level 1 (of 8 levels) in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). Earlier research had shown that teachers in regular classrooms in NZ were often puzzled about how to include students with special education needs in their planning, teaching and assessment. Many teachers saw the NZC as irrelevant for students with special education needs. The development of the Exemplars provides a very practical example of a framework that supports educators and families to work collaboratively; as well as the positive outcomes that are possible when working in this way.
The wider project team paid particular attention to new understandings about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment that emerged as together we learned to use narrative assessment. Narrative assessment reminds us of the complexity of life and of learning and offers a means of better describing some of this complexity. As we engage in conversation about the narrative, all participants are together constructing, and re-constructing the student’s identity as a learner. This paper will share the story (also including project film clips), of a class of diverse students engaging with the visual arts to become a learning community and achieving in relation to the New Zealand curriculum.
Helen Moore’s recent roles have included Adviser in the New Zealand Curriculum, Arts educator, and Education for Sustainability adviser.
Engaging students with disabilities through visual channels
Annick Janson
Statistics show that 20 to 30% of secondary school students have diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disabilities. Increasing student engagement rate is an ongoing teaching challenge, but if handled successfully it also becomes an effective method to reduce behavioural classroom issues. Juggling between time and curriculum pressures, teachers are keen to find highly effective methods of engaging students with communication disabilities. This Case Study describes how a special education student engaged through visual media in a mainstream class and how, in turn, this initial engagement opened a keyhole for verbal and social interactions which were previously underused. Central to class engagement was how the student’s passion was revealed.
Working to develop the key competencies described in the NZ Curriculum, teachers engaged the student in a visual study of the Sustainability and Climate Change topics. The Case Study is evidence-based detailing how each of the key competencies (Thinking, Using languages symbols and text, Managing self, Relating to others and Participating and contributing) were developed in class. As to the Participating and contributing key competency, teachers reported that benefits accrued by the student spread class-wide in unpredicted ways such the special education student being recognised for leadership qualities and acting as a role model for his peers.
Former MicrosoftNZ ‘Partners in Learning’ and University of Auckland New Zealand Leadership Institute Research Director, Dr Annick Janson is passionate about the transformation of teaching and learning.
From PRECIOUS OBJECT to SIGNIFICANT THING: the power of hot-wiring words and practice for visual arts students
Joanne Drayton
In the late 1990’s when I was teaching art history to foundation and degree level visual arts students, I realized something had to change. The historical/theoretical/socio-cultural material I was delivering to contextualise students' studio practice seemed to function like a prosthetic limb. It supported their studies but was not a naturally integrated part of an organic system of learning. The challenge was to intimately connect, or ‘hot-wire’, historical/theoretical/socio-cultural research and writing with the iterative and reflective processes of practice.
This paper looks at the Precious Object project, a course assessment designed to identify a historical/theoretical/socio-cultural context, research and write about this context and then use this to inform the iterative and reflective process of making art. It looks at the evolution of the concept, and how and why it changed over time. Finally, it considers the issue of how we make words and ideas as powerful and intrinsic to learning as pictures and practice for tertiary, studio-based, visual arts students.
Associate Professor Joanne Drayton (Unitec) is the author of books on Edith Collier, Frances Hodgkins, Rhona Haszard, and Ngaio Marsh. She has worked as a commercial illustrator and has been a bone carver for 20 years.
Sustainability and the Visual Arts in Education
Bridie Lonie
This paper considers models of sustainability that focus specifically on the visual arts. Cultural revival, resilience and creative adaptability have increasingly come to complement the more pragmatic aspects currently brought together under the term sustainability. New models for thinking through the nature/culture relationship and concerns with the socially cohesive aspects of the arts are important as we re-think the place of the arts within a society still prone to think of artistic work as an individualistic process wedded to a hierarchical exhibition and funding structure.
The paper considers the thinking of theorists including Tony Fry, Bruno Latour and Timothy Morton on nature and ecology. Elinor Ostrom’s work on theories of the commons provides a model that may help. New generations will need to be able to work collaboratively and recognise differences of opinion and position.
Bridie Lonie is Section Manager of Art History and Theory and Drawing at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. She has an MA in Art History and Theory.
Marketing an Art School: How to establish your own identity within an institutional brand
Suzette Major and Anthony Chiappin
At the heart of an art or design school is the concept of creativity. Whether articulated through graphic design, painting, sculpture, moving image, music or fashion, our teaching and practice falls generally within the field of the creative industries. So, should the branding of an arts or design school reflect that creative spirit? And perhaps more significantly, do prospective students judge the creativity of the school through the artistic and design merit of the marketing material?
This study considers the branding identity of art and design schools relative to their overall institutional brand. It questions whether art and design schools should develop their own branding identity to specifically reflect their creative style and thereby co-exist alongside but distinguishable from the full institutional brand.
Our study is couched within the rebranding of the School of Arts and Design at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. We will highlight its immediate cultural and environmental circumstances and how this feeds into a global positioning of the brand, demonstrating ultimately how this investigation is linked to its 2013 relaunch, based on new programming paradigms and objectives currently underway. As such, this paper argues that presenting a distinguishable brand is particularly significant for an arts and design school, where the clients or students themselves are artists or designers and will therefore be critical and discerning in their assessment of the brand.
Dr. Suzette Major is the Head of School, Arts and Design at Eastern Institute of Technology. She has published and consulted widely in the field of creative industries.
Anthony Chiappin is a lecturer in graphic design at the Arts and Design School at the Eastern Institute of Technology. He has over 20 years of industry experience in graphic design and brand management.
Culture Shock: From Diplomas to Degrees
Sean Castle
This paper discusses the challenges of degree accreditation within the context of 3D animation and interactive media, from the perspective of an Auckland PTE.
Of critical importance for the introduction of a degree programme at Lifeway College's department of Digital Media, is the necessity to develop a sustaining culture, in terms of research-lead teaching and balanced emphasis between higher learning, industry and personal development. While Lifeway College offers a strong vocational programme in 3D animation, missing from the curriculum are art, theory and local (national) environmental and cultural influences. Teaching at Lifeway College has not been informed by educational models in the past, but by what works in an industry context. This paper aims to discuss these challenges and stimulate discussion on the appropriate balance of scholarly engagement and skills against the vocational demands of post-education employment.
Sean is the programme leader for Digital Media at Lifeway College, Snells Beach, Auckland.
Writing the Short Film: Concept and Process
Paul Judge
This paper will present some aspects of my pedagogical practice for short film concept development and the writing process.
It is a practice developed over seven years of teaching screenwriting at tertiary level. The approach has been successfully trialled at secondary level.
My approach is to engage with New Zealand content in terms of film and screenplay models. I also place an importance on the language of speech in the immediate surrounds of the students' culture. This enables some theoretical discussion of Saussure's distinction between langue and parole and the notion of realism in film dialogue.
I will outline my approach to story concept and the development of ideas from story sources in the culture. From there I discuss character and character arc, the importance of change and identification with an audience, story structure and conflict, setting and genre, and approaches to writing dialogue involving research techniques and rehearsal workshops.
Paul Judge is a moving image lecturer on Wintec’s Bachelor of Media Arts programme. He is a writer, director and producer of both drama and documentary films.
Recording in progress-don’t forget to unplug the phone
David Gardener
An effective resource, is one by which there is consideration for usability, its quality of content and accessibility. With that in mind this paper is an examination of specific resourcing support strategies that we employ as educators when delivering a technical rich subject along with strong theoretical underpinning, as evident in Graphic and Digital design degrees across the world. One such strategy that is becoming increasingly popular is the teacher generated instructional movie that demonstrates both technical, (mainly) and theoretical processes. The creation of such a resource allows an audio and video element to be added to the myriad of resource types and an opportunity for students to revisit and reinforce content. So what are the benefits (and pitfalls) of these instructional videos. Are there lessons that we can learn and do they make us more effective academic practitioners?
David Gardener is a senior academic staff member of the School of Media Arts, Wintec. He specialises in graphic and digital design education particularly in the area of 3d software.
Community support for visual art education
Ian Bowell and Margaret Tolland
This paper examines the expanding role of Museums and Galleries in providing support for the teaching of visual art.
An expanding curriculum, a reduction in visual art content in pre-service teacher education and a reduction in the schools advisory service threatens visual art education in New Zealand. As traditional support for the teaching of visual art is either changing or disappearing is it time to look at alternative models of teacher support for the teaching of visual art in early childhood, primary and secondary school settings? Drawing from the experiences of Pataka - Museum of Cultures and Art (Porirua) in providing a range of community education programmes and involvement in teacher community support projects this paper will explore the untapped potential of community visual art expertise to support and develop the confidence of teachers to teach visual art. Included in the presentation will be examples from the following two projects:
- Collaborations Exhibition Pataka 2010, working with Robin White and Leba Toki on a Masi collaborative work
- Research project investigating ways for developing primary teachers’ expertise in the teaching of visual art.
David Gardener is a senior academic staff member of the School of Media Arts, Wintec. He specialises in graphic and digital design education particularly in the area of 3d software.
Why visit a contemporary art gallery?
Chris Barry and Rebecca Fawkner-Egli
This paper investigates ways an art gallery visit can motivate and inspire students. When we, as art gallery educators, look at the aims teachers have when visiting a gallery we often hear terms such as “inspirational” and “challenge student thinking”. How can art galleries and teachers ensure this actually happens? We discuss strategies for engaging students within the context of recent exhibitions at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Session participants then trial a range of flexible “conceptual” hands-on activities that help students make creative connections, encourage active participation and model how to generate and transfer ideas.
Chris Barry and Rebecca Fawkner-Egli are the education team at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. They have been connecting students to contemporary art under the LEOTC programme for 8 years.
Pasifika Visualisation Project: Communication Strategies for Educational Information
Frances Joseph, Eden Potter, and Isabella Rasch
This paper discusses the development of communication design strategies and systems to make information for and about Pasifika people more accessible to Pasifika communities.
The Pasifika Visualisation Project, currently underway at AUT University, was initiated on the recognition of difficulties often experienced by Pasifika communities in accessing and comprehending information, particularly through government and institutional reports and policies. In developing the project, it was decided to focus on communicating information about education and the development of educational opportunities and resources.
Dr Frances Joseph is an associate professor of design and director of CoLab, Creative Technologies Research Centre and of The Textile and Design Laboratory at AUT University.
Eden Potter is a communication designer and educator at AUT University. She has recently completed her Master of Art & Design thesis on the discipline of information design.
Isabella Rasch is member of AUT’s Pasifika Student Support Services team. She is also a visual artist with a Master of Art & Design degree from AUT University.
Key Issues with the New Level 1 Standards (Same cake cut a different way)
Geoff Harris
This workshop presents an overview of the revised level 1 standards for Visual Arts. The history and rationale of the standards alignment project will be outlined to help teachers understand the reasoning behind the changes made to the Visual Arts Matrix. The key differences between the old and new standards at level 1 will be identified with expected performance levels illustrated through the discussion of exemplars for each standard at each level of achievement.
Geoff Harris is the current National Assessment Moderator for Visual Arts and was previously HOD Art and Assistant Principal at Tikipunga High School in Whangarei. This National Art Moderator role includes responsibility for overseeing the Visual Arts moderation team, providing feedback to teachers about national trends in secondary assessment, and managing the development of exemplars and resources for internal standards.
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Workshops
Another Universe – Breaking down the curatorial process
Karl Chitham and Leafa Wilson
This is an opportunity for those that are unsure or curious about the process of curating exhibitions to get first-hand information from two curators Karl Chitham and Leafa Wilson. This workshop will begin at the Calder and Lawson Gallery, University of Waikato and will explore the exhibition Another Universe through various venues across the campus. The exhibition “offers a snapshot of nature in the 21st Century, an age of technological advancement and environmental self-consciousness”. The curators will talk about the development and production of a curatorial project making reference to the different works in the exhibition and how each was selected and adds to the project. Some of the artists featured in this show include Richard Orjis, Roberta Thornley, and Kim Meek with site specific installations by Sara Hughes, Niki Hastings-McFall and Jason Hall.
Participants are encouraged to come with questions and to discuss any curatorial project they have seen or would like to develop themselves. There will also be a chance to talk through how the curatorial process can be applied in an educational setting. Or you can just enjoy the exhibition and the University of Waikato environs.
Karl Chitham is the Art Collection Curator at the University of Waikato and an artist, educator and writer.
Leafa Wilson is the Visual Arts Concept Leader for the Waikato Museum. She is also a practicing artist and musician.
Stop-Motion Animation workshop
Dawn Tuffery
This workshop is a practical introduction to the use of stop motion animation in an educational context. To set the context Dawn will survey the creative and technical aspects of stop motion, showing examples from her own portfolio.
The workshop will introduce the technical basics of model-making, clay-mation, sand animation and cut-out animation and camera work. This will be followed by an introduction to the use of iStopMotion software in the editing process.
Participants will gain hands on experience in a studio, working in groups to creatively craft a stop motion sequence. To participate in this introductory level workshop no prior experience is necessary.
Dawn is a stop motion specialist. Her recent short film ‘Swing’ featured at various international festivals, and she has several animated music videos to her credit.
Digital Workflow: An overview
Naomi Williams
This workshop is an overview of programmes used in digital photographic workflow: Adobe Bridge and Photoshop (CS5). Through practical demonstrations and hands-on experience participants will gain a basic understanding of the digital photographic image. The workshop will explore file management, file types and a range of enhancements and effects.
The workshop is based in a dedicated digital lab, ensuring that all participants have access to a computer. Bring a laptop if you prefer to work with your own computer. Techniques will be tested using images provided, but participants are welcome to bring a selection of images.
The workshop will conclude with an illustrated account of the diverse possibilities of this media.
NB: The workshop is pitched at a beginner/introductory level; it is aimed towards those familiar with darkroom photographic techniques and looking to transition to a digital workflow.
Naomi Williams is a photographer and lecturer at Wintec, teaching first year papers in photography and visual arts.
A brush with destiny – promoting sparks of creative brilliance
Lynne Paul and Margie Meleisea
This workshop is based on outcomes of a three year ECE research project which radically changed children’s and teachers’ engagement in the Arts at Nayland.
At Nayland Kindergarten collaboration is the key – teachers, children and the community are co-creating the curriculum together.
At this workshop we will illustrate how visual art, ICT and creativity are vital for children to be critical thinkers in a world of constant change. There are two distinct journeys highlighted throughout this workshop, as teacher sand children debate “does art really happen here?” and “who are the teachers and learners in this journey?”
Come along and explore some of the provocations, tools, processes and research that challenged and informed teachers’ pedagogical practice.
Lynne Paul and Margie Meleisea are ECE teachers in the Nelson region. They accepted the challenge to explore how “the arts happened for children in our kindergarten”.
“Dinosaurs eat blue berries that they catch when they fall out of the trees in their mouth”
Gaye Jurisich
Collaborative drawing processes are powerful and effective means for understanding our complex and diverse emotional, spiritual and cultural lives.
This two hour workshop is focused on teaching techniques tried and tested in early childhood settings. Participants will engage in a collaborative drawing experience, inside and outside the classroom. There will be time to view examples of work and reflect on process. Discussions will cover:
- Creativity and self-efficacy
- Reality, fantasy and unpredictable outcomes
- Being there in the moment when ideas, narratives and symbols come pouring out
Gaye Jurisich is a Hamilton based artist of many years experience. She exhibits internationally and nationally. Her work includes painting and sculpture in a variety of media. She is well known for her use of plastics, utilitarian materials and other forms of waste.
Re viewing art
Yon Ankersmit
In our increasingly visual world where much of what we ‘read’ is in image form, it is increasingly important for visual arts teachers to enable secondary students to become aware viewers, users and makers of visual culture.
Visual arts students across all sectors come to us with different levels of visual and word-based literacy, with different learning styles, with wide ranging pools of general knowledge, and with varying interests in making sense of their visual world. Workshop participants will explore how they can develop effective approaches and learning activities for visual arts students to ‘read images for meaning’. The workshop offers opportunity to:
- discuss ideas around current changes in (visual) interaction with the (visual) world and
- • participate in scaffolded learning activities which encourage students to become interested and confident viewers and consumers of visual culture
Yon Ankersmit is Leader Arts Faculty and HOD Visual Arts at Lynfield College in Auckland. She was a RSNZ Teacher Fellow researching visual and technological literacy in 2008, is a workshop presenter for Team Solutions, and is currently a writer for the Senior Sector Arts Teaching and Learning Guidelines.
Flying Fish: Practical Demonstration
Heather Derbyshire
Flying fish would have to be one of the most successful and engaging projects that I have taught children. This is a creative and imaginative process that will extend all students, helping them to develop an inventive piece of art. The process and story starts with obtaining a cup, be it a slightly chipped ‘Royal Dalton’ from grandma, or a lovely find from an op shop! Heads and tails are made using the pinch pot method in clay and decorative markings added. From the start of the project, old cd’s, metal lids, nugget tins, pin wheels etc are collected by the children. The cup becomes the body and the handle the fin, and with the aide of Selley’s no more nails, the fish is assembled.
Heather Derbyshire is a ceramic teacher at Southwell School in Hamilton and a practising artist.
The digital handmade print image
Steve: Lovett
Following on from the gel medium print and paint workshop delivered at the 2009 Dunedin ANZAAE Conference this practical workshop furthers the opportunity for the use of accessible, low cost digital technology in the delivery of the art and design programme. In this 2 hour workshop there will be practical demonstration of how to easily combine traditional notions of printmaking involving screen print with low cost, readily accessible digital technology to link print, photography, drawing, design and painting.
The workshop provides an introduction to applying digital grounds to a variety of papers and fabrics, painting and drawing on these grounds then over printing digital photographic images. This process can be further enhanced by also employing traditional screen print processes to over-print and transform images. The process is chemical free, non-toxic and involves relatively low cost materials and equipment.
This diverse approach to image building can be seen in the work of local artists Kate Woods, Dane Thomas, and internationally in the work artists, Wade Guyton and Christopher Thomas.
This approach to practical image making facilitates student development of aesthetic awareness and conceptual thinking across a range of practices through the manipulation and transformation of digital and analogue visual media.
Steve Lovett is a practicing artist and art educator specializing in interdisciplinary approaches to print, book arts, and design. He teaches at Manukau School of Visual Arts in South Auckland.
Drawing & Printmaking Today
Shelley P Ryde
This practical demonstration will explore the growing use of digital media, including photographic, computer generated & manipulated imagery in the context of drawing & relate these developments to a multi disciplinary approach that includes printmaking at levels 1, 2 & 3
Digital technology is now part of established practice & students in secondary schools are using new technologies with increased skill & understanding across the visual arts fields. Examples from multiple technologies will be shared and discussed.
The use of photocopies, found print media & collage to make prints or paintings, the release of computer enhanced photographic images as photocopies onto canvas or other surfaces to form the ground of a painting, or as part of a print collage, reworking photocopied images & translating images from one media to another.
Practical demonstration will cover new print techniques including photopolymer (solar plate) and polyester (pronto plate) print processes.
Shelley Ryde is the HOD of Art and Teacher in Charge of Visual Arts at Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland.
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Chaired Panel Discussion
“Moving Image; the field, its pedagogy, its place in the curriculum, its place in NCEA and beyond.”
Chair
Tim Croucher, Academic Leader, School of Media Arts, Wintec
Panel
Polly Thin-Rabb, National Assessment Facilitator, Visual Arts, NZQA
Quentin West, Moving Image Media teacher, Hamilton boys High School
Jay Pressnell, Pukekohe High School
The field of Moving Image is increasingly one that deserves some clarification in respect of its place in the curriculum in New Zealand schools. With the rapidly increasing accessibility, affordability and malleability of moving image media, the popularity and currency of time and screen based practices is growing fast.
The field extends across conventional domains of Film and TV drama, short film, documentary and animation, across time based installation and video art, and digital/web design. Practices in Painting, Photography, Design and Sculpture are being examined and re-phrased using moving image conventions and techniques. Established subject based departments in New Zealand secondary schools in Visual Arts, Media Studies and English are developing programmes for students in which moving image practices can be learned. The results are exciting.
NZQA has recently initiated a working group to develop assessment specifications for NCEA in Moving Image related subjects.
This panel discussion seeks to explore the implications of these developments in Moving Image education in New Zealand, providing a forum in which teachers and practitioners in the field can draw together and refine accounts of the relationships between the body of knowledge, its pedagogy, assessment parameters and standards for and in the interests of the subject and its students.
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Seminars
Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Visual Arts
Tracy Murray and Di Smallfield
Visual Arts or (Visual Art Culture) teaching needs to be responsive to the cultural diversity in our classrooms. Our actions as art teachers have the most profound effect on our learners. Di and Tracy have been art advisers in the upper North Island for many years and will share their experiences around what effective teaching strategies they have seen, heard and felt that support Maori student’s success, as Maori.
Tracy Murray has been an adviser in effective teaching and learning in the Visual Arts for School Support Services, University of Waikato for over 8 years. Prior to that she was an HOD Art. She became a Te Kotatahitanga facilitator 5 years ago.
Di Smallfield is the Visual Art Facilitator for Auckland and Northland, Team Solutions, University of Auckland. She was the Visual Art Adviser for the “Artists in Schools” project 2008 -2009.
Destination McCahon: An Interactive Art Museum
Naomi McCleary, Cynthia Smith, Chris McBride, and Anna Boyd
The McCahon House Interpretive Museum is located in the restored bach (French Bay, Titirangi) where Colin McCahon based his art practice, and lived with wife Anne and their four children during the 1950s.
McCahon was a gifted teacher who made an important contribution to the lives of many New Zealand artists, He was an admired and respected mentor to many emerging artists. This project not only recognises McCahon and his work but also offers artists an opportunity to develop their careers through a residency programme in an adjacent purpose built apartment and studio.
“Destination McCahon” will present
- an overview of the project from initiation
- the history of the McCahons in Titirangi
- governance and the current programme to develop the cross-curricula educational programme for secondary, tertiary and adult students of contemporary art and art history
- an introduction to the residency programme
- a short visual presentation of the museum and residency and
- why educators should make the McCahon House a destination of choice when programming out of the classroom learning activities
Naomi McCleary is the Chair and co-founder of the McCahon House Trust. Arts Manager for Waitakere City Council for 17 years; now a free-lance arts consultant; trustee of the Corban Estate Arts Centre.
Cynthia Smith is the Secretary McCahon House Trust, artist, art teacher, lawyer, past manager of the Trust and currently arts administrator at Artspace.
Chris McBride is the Manager McCahon House Trust, graphic artist, founding member of the Wellington Media Collective – a community arts-based collective active in the 80s and 90s.
Anna Boyd is the Arts Administration Assistant McCahon House Trust (on internship), artist and Elam graduate.
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Showcase
"Paranesia": Arts Practice, Teaching and Social Intervention
David Green
The film "Paranesia" was constructed from interview material originally gathered for a web delivered course on Art in the Pacific aimed at tertiary students. We found much of the material we gathered to be highly relevant to groups outside the original target, particularly art educators and arts practitioners. In order to share the material we constructed a conversationally structured film document. Artists discuss their engagement with arts practice, social interventions, innovative teaching methodologies as well as the complex and pervasive impact of colonisation on the work and thoughts of contemporary Maori and Pasifika arts practitioners. Also discussed are the financial, intercultural and political problematics posed by being an artist in Aotearoa New Zealand.
David Green is a collaborative filmmaker and lecturer in Electronic Arts at the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic. ‘Paranesia’ was assembled in collaboration with the featured artists and art historian Peter Stupples.
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Demonstration
Golden OPEN Demonstration
Evan from Gordon Harris
A practical demonstration using the revolutionary OPEN Acrylic from Golden. The unique properties of OPEN Acrylic combine the best of acrylic and oilpaints – it dries slowly enough to allow blending but also allows over-painting much sooner than with oils, and being a professional artist’s acrylic, OPEN washes up with soap and water. Artist Evan Woodruffe will demonstrate how both oil and acrylic techniques can be united in one painting, allowing a greater versatility and faster results. FREE givaway bags!
Evan is a respected tutor of artist's materials and techniques, winner of the 2011 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award, the 2003 Becroft Premier Award, and is represented by OrexArt Gallery in Auckland.
Golden Digital Mix Media
Gordon Harris Stand
This new product allows inkjet-type printing to be incorporated into painting and montage techniques. Golden Digital Grounds are paint-on inkjet coatings which allow you to apply a receptive surface to any grease-free material, from cloth to plastic, paper to metal. The only limitation is what you can feed through a printer! FREE giveaway bags!
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Sector Forums
Sector Forums are designed to give participants opportunities to voice their experience and thoughts on a range of important issues in current art and design education, especially in New Zealand and the greater Asia-Pacific region. Introductions, frameworks and key points for discussion will be developed by the chair of each sector group so as to facilitate focused and critical discussion.
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