Speaker & Event Profiles

Speaker & Event Profiles

Tuesday 10th August

10am LISA REIHANA (NZ) Lisa Reihana (b.1964, Auckland, New Zealand) lives in Auckland and has affiliations with Nga Puhi as well as English and Welsh ancestry. Reihana works with a range of materials including video, photography, sculpture, sound and fashion. She has exhibited extensively, representing New Zealand in the 2000 Sydney Biennale, the 2002 Noumea Biennale, the Art Asia Pacific Triennial in 1996 and 2003, and Science Fictions at the Singapore Art Museum in 2003.

Reihana’s Native Portraits has been shown in Wellington, Auckland and New York. Digital Marae has been exhibited in Auckland, Lower Hutt and Whangarei. This year Reihana exhibited three works in Public Private: Auckland Triennial (2004) at the Auckland Art Gallery. Reihana is also involved with the Love Will Make Love Foundation, whose short film Fantastic Egg screened at Soliton Regent Theatre in Auckland and was part of Iki And Thanks For All The Ika, a group show that has travelled to Lithuania, Rarotonga and Sweden. Reihana has completed residencies at the Institute for Modern Art in Brisbane and The Banff New Media Center in Canada. For more information please visit http://www.reihana.com/

1pm MATT OWENS (USA) Volumeone was established in 1997 by Matt Owens. It strives to synthesize visual exploration and smart design solutions while maintaining the highest level of design expertise and freshness of approach. All design challenges involve a dialogue between client, creative and the needs of the project and Volumeone works to illuminate and open up this dialogue in an effort to develop the best solutions possible.

Tuesday 10th August

Volumeone clients include Ride Snowboards, Levi's Europe, XLR8R Magazine, Sizzle clothing label in Japan, Leo Burnett and the American Institute of Graphic Art. After graduating from the University of Texas in 1993, Volumeone founder Matt Owens went on to earn his MFA in graphic design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. From 1995 to 1997 Matt served as the creative director at MethodFive in New York, devloping projects for clients such as National Geographic, Apple, the American Lung Association, and Toshiba. From 1999 to 2003 Matt joined with Warren Corbitt to establish one9ine, a design firm specializing in visual communications for print, broadcast and interactive media. Matt worked with Sony, Nike, The New York Public Library and Blue Note Records. Matt is also a partner in The Riviera, a small gallery in Brooklyn that focuses on up and coming artists, designers and photographers. Matt's work has been recognized by the Art Directors Club and American Center for Design. For more info see http://www.volumeone.com

3.30pm TIM CORBALLIS (NZ) Tim Corballis is a Wellington writer whose two novels ‘Below’ and ‘Measurement’ (Victoria University Press) came out in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Tim is also the author of numerous short stories and essays, which in essays such as 'Against Creativity' (Landfall 205) have turned towards the problem of political writing in apolitical times. A third novel, which is nearing completion, starts from events in the life of the early colonial administrator and scientist W B D Mantell, and, while dealing with history, aims to avoid being an historical novel. In addition to writing Corballis has worked as a library assistant, pictorial researcher, curator and science communicator.

6pm RAMP GALLERY Lisa Reihana installation & Sunbathing under Beanstalks launch Exhibition opening of an installation by the artist Lisa Reihana (see listing for further information about Lisa Reihana) plus the launch of a Ramp Magazine’s “Sunbathing under Beanstalks” at Wintec’s Ramp Gallery.

9pm THE ORDER from MATHEW BARNEY’s CREMASTER 3 Mathew Barney's legendary Cremaster Cycle was hailed by the New York Times as "An inspired benchmark of ambition, scope and forthright provocation for art in the new century". Nine years in the making, the five films that comprise the Cremaster Cycle came to a brilliant finale with a 31 minute sequence at the close of Cremaster 3 called "THE ORDER". Featuring a tartan clad Mathew Barney, legendery sculptor Richard Serra, a pair of dueling hardcore bands, a ravishing model (Aimee Mullins) who transforms herself into a cheetah, cabor tossing with a flayed ram, and a troupe of tap dancing girl scouts all in the Guggenheim Museum. Music for the ORDER is by Jonathon Bepler.
Wednesday 11th August

10am STUART SHEPHERD (NZ) Stuart Shepherd was born in the Waikato, in 1954. He studied a Bachelor of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato and later studied at Canterbury University, Alexander Mackay College in Sydney, and East Sydney Tech, gaining a MFA from RMIT, Melbourne in 1999. From 1981 to 1995 Shepherd was a model-maker and set designer for TV commercials in New York. Upon his return to New Zealand, he became involved with community art projects, and in 2000 undertook a survey of self-taught artists and visionary art. His own work has been exhibited extensively within New Zealand; The active eye survey of N.Z. photography Wellington City Gallery; “Goodwork” video work, the Jim and Mary Barr collection, Art Space Auckland; “Flesh and Fruity” Video, Dowse Museum Lower Hutt; “This Other World” photography and video, Pataka Museum Porirua; “It’s a small world” installation with video, Enjoy Gallery Wellington; “Save the Robots” Kinetic sculpture, Upper Hutt Arts and Entertainment Centre. Shepherd currently resides in Wellington, where he lectures at Massey University in painting, drawing and design.

1pm LOCATION: Academy of Performing Arts – University of Waikato CHRISTINE JEFFS (NZ) Christine Jeffs was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, and has a BA in Sociology and Geography from Massey University. She entered the film industry to work in post-production sound before becoming an assistant editor on many New Zealand documentaries and feature films including Melanie Read's Send a Gorilla, Gaylene Preston's Ruby and Rata, John Laing's Absent Without Leave and Alison Maclean's Crush. In 1990 Jeffs completed a diploma in editing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and began cutting films as well as commercials. Her first short film (as writer, director and editor), Stroke, was screened at many film festivals including Cannes and Sundance. Jeffs then adapted her first feature film, Rain, from Kirsty Gunn's novel of the same name. The film was selected to make its world premiere during the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2001 – where it was received with great acclaim – and went on to screen at numerous other international festivals including Edinburgh, Melbourne, Toronto and Sundance. Jeffs was named one of Daily Variety's ‘10 Directors to Watch’ in 2002. For more information go to: http://www.citizenrobot.com/moviecentral/sylvia.html (Transport from Wintec to The Academy will be provided) 1pm ATA TE KANAWA (NZ) Ata Te Kanawa's involvement in print media began on the former iwi owned and operated tabloid Kia Hiwa Ra, where she worked in sales before stepping into the editors’ position. As a director and partner in the company Tu Mai Media Ltd, Te Kanawa launched TU MAI magazine in 1999 at Wellington's Te Papa Museum. She continues to work as Managing Director, Editor and Sales Representative for TU MAI Media PLUS Ltd, and has now worked in communications for over a decade. Te Kanawa’s priority is ensuring that TU MAI magazine maintains a balance of both positive and provocative content, enabling it to simultaneously assure and enlighten its readership. For more information go to: http://tumai.co.nz/ Wednesday 11th August

KUI PAKI (NZ) Kuiarangi Paki (Ngati Whawhaakia) has a Bachelor of Media Arts and a National Diploma in Journalism from Wintec. Paki has twice been a recipient of the Nicholas Irwin Hunt Scholarship for Maori journalists and has won several other awards during her studies, including the 2003 Waikato Times Award for Top Journalism Student. She worked as a journalist for the North Waikato Tatler before joining Ata Te Kanawa on the staff of TU MAI magazine. For more information go to: http://tumai.co.nz/

3.30pm ZOE BELL (USA/NZ) Zoe Bell has worked as a professional stuntwoman since 1997. Between 1998 and 2001 she worked as a double for Lucy Lawless on the hit television series Xena. After Xena died, she landed the role of Uma Thurman's stunt double in Quentin Attention’s two-film epic Kill Bill. For her work on Kill Bill Vol.1 she was nominated for 2004 Taurus World Stunt Awards in the categories of Best Fight and Best Stunt by a Woman. Since finishing work on Kill Bill she has doubled for Sharon Stone in Catwoman, which will be released in late 2004. Zoe is also the subject of a documentary, Double Dare, which has been screened at a number of international film festivals. For more information please go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/04/16/zoe_bell_kill_bill_interview.shtml

6pm PLATFORM 01 - NEW MEDIA SHOW OPENING LOCATION: Platform01 Gallery, 467 Victoria St, Hamilton Platform 01, Hamilton’s number one artist-run space, has commissioned Maree Mills to curate a series of four exhibitions showcasing the rise of new media and digital art in the Waikato. Complementary courses in digital media are offered by both Wintec and the University of Waikato, and the exhibitions celebrate this fact by focusing on artists, lecturers and graduates from the two institutions. The second exhibition in the series of four will take place during Spark 04, and features new works by Margi Moore and Maree Mills.

9pm WINTEC STUDENT FILM SCREENINGS A selection of the best short films made in 2003 and 2004 by second and third-year film students at Wintec. This one-hour screening will include drama, documentary, experimental film and music clips ranging from 2mins to 15mins in length.

Thursday 12TH August 10am SARAH DE JONG (Australia/NZ) Sarah de Jong was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1961. She trained at the Melbourne State College studying music and drama, then at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with Brian Howard and Barry Conyngham. In 1986 de Jong participated in the Australia/New Zealand Professional Choreographers and Composers Dance Course. Since 1978 she has played an important role in Australia, crossing artistic boundaries while creating music for theatre, dance, radio and film. She has worked in many musical forms and takes great pleasure in exploring disjointed dancing rhythms and unexpected harmonies beneath lovely melodies. Her music is particularly noted for its ability to intensify the emotions created in texts and in performances, and she finds collaborating with artists in different fields very rewarding. Kurt Weill’s music and his ability to survive while writing music for theatre has been a major influence on her. de Jong enjoys composing for strings, saxophone, clarinet, piano, percussion and voice in various combinations, as well as for instruments such as koto, theorbo, glass harmonica and dan bau.

PHILIP HOWE (Australia) Philip Howe lives and works in Australia and has more than 30 years’ experience in the cinema and television industries as a producer, director and editor of drama and documentary. He is an animator for cartoon and live action feature films, and is also a special visual effects designer, director and implementator. Howe studied Botany and Zoology at school and obtained a BSc in Pure Botany from London University. This led to drawing plants for animation with NIPP, Harlesden. Howe learnt cartoon, diagram and composite optical imagery animation as well as front and rear projection, and blue screen matting techniques – techniques which have found an outlet in many films. Howe has adapted many studio animation processes to live action shooting, thereby achieving visual effects away from the laboratory or video production house. He has since edited, directed, written and produced in England, France, Germany, New Zealand and Australia on just about every subject possible for both cinema and television, using nearly every medium.

1pm DAVID HAINES (Australia/UK) David Haines was born in London and now lives and works in Sydney. Since the mid-80s Haines' work has focused on combining time-based art forms such as video, sound and computer animation with static objects and images to create dynamic environments. Concerned with the intersection between hallucination and landscape, and the architectural as a site of psychic disturbance, Haines has produced technologically innovative and rarefied works for museums, festivals and galleries both in Australia and internationally. His exhibition history includes: the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art (2004); Remembrance and the Moving Image, ACMI Melbourne (2003); The World May Be Fantastic, the Sydney Biennale (2002); Te Papa National Museum of New Zealand (2002); Deep Space – Sensation and Immersion, ACMI Melbourne (2002); Space Odysseys – Sensation and Immersion, AGNSW (2001); The Physics Room New Zealand (1998); Artspace Sydney (1997); ZA MOCA Foundation Tokyo (1996); and VideoPositive at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool (1993). For more information go to: http://www.sunvalleyresearch.com/ Thursday 12TH August

1pm (also) JOYCE HINTERDING (Australia) Joyce Hinterding was born in Melbourne, Australia and now lives and works in Sydney. Hinterding produces works that explore physical and virtual dynamics. Her explorations with acoustic and electrical phenomena have produced large sculptural antenna works, sound-producing installations and experimental audio works, while her collaborative work has produced remote event based works for the web plus explorations into video and 3D graphics. At the heart of her practice lies an examination of the seemingly invisible phenomena that pervade our daily existence – phenomena like electricity, weather and electromagnetic fields. Hinterding has exhibited extensively – including: Liquid Sea, MCA Sydney (2003); Remembrance and the Moving Image, ACMI Melbourne (2003); the Sydney Biennale (2002 and 1992); Deep Space – Sensation and Immersion, ACMI Melbourne (2002); Te Papa National Museum of New Zealand (2002); Space Odysseys – Sensation and Immersion, AGNSW (2001); the Istanbul Biennial (2001); the V2 Institute for Unstable Media, Holland (1998); and Ich Phoenix, Eine Kunstereignis in Oberhausen, Germany (1996). For more information go to: http://www.sunvalleyresearch.com/

3.30pm HORI AHIPENE (NZ) Since Hori Ahipene graduated from the NZ Drama School in 1989 he has worked consistently on groundbreaking theatre and television. Working in Te Reo and English, as a writer and director as well as an actor, his work crosses easily between Pakeha and Maori cultures. On the big screen Ahipene has had roles in The Piano, Jubilee and Perfect Creature (currently in post-production). His theatre experience includes directing Mapaki (2001), which was a finalist in the Chapman Trip Theatre Awards for Best Original Production, and writing Hide and Seek, which won Best Original Production and Best Taki Rua Play in 1993. For television, Ahipene’s performances in the comic series Skitz and The Semi-Si were a huge hit. Other television acting includes Xena, Hercules and Shortland Street, and he directed the Te Reo children’s show Pukana. He is currently writing and directing for the highest rating show on Maori television, Korero Mai.

6pm MARKETING & CREATIVE INDUSTRIES STUDENTS Panel discussion Over recent years, we have witnessed the rise of the creative industries, to the point that the creative sector is now recognized by government and industry as being vital to the nation's economic and social wellbeing. While this increasing attention brings rewards and credibility for those participating in the creative industries, it also raises concerns. What does it mean to refer to creativity as an industry? What are the implications of applying business thinking to the process of artistic creation? From March to July, a graduate class at the University of Waikato - Marketing & Creative Industries - explored such issues via a range of research projects. This presentation brings these projects together and, via a panel, critiques the nature of the New Zealand creative industries as a way to develop an understanding of the complex relationship between commerce and creative ventures.

Thursday 12TH August

9pm ONEDOTZERO (UK) onedotzero was one of the very first digital film festivals, established in London in 1996 as desktop digital filmmaking was beginning to take off. The first such festival to focus on cross-media, interdisciplinary work by non-traditional filmmakers, onedotzero highlights the impact on filmmaking of a diverse array of media including graphic design, illustration, computer gaming, fashion design and more. The programme from onedotzero, which will be screened during Spark 04, is Wow + Flutter 04. This programme presents a broad spectrum of visual work spanning animation, motion graphics and abstract experimentation. Several of these works were produced specifically for onedotzero. For more information please visit: http://onedotzero.com/

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