ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch was a series of events held over 2013-14 addressing the role of media arts in the city – exploring key issues such as urban space, social engagement, memory and speculative futures.

Over the two-year project the ADA Network hosted two major symposia and a series of workshops and speaking tours in various locations throughout New Zealand. A beginning reference point for Mesh Cities Christchurch is the role of media arts in the rebuild of the city. The project proposed a third symposium drawing together the strands back in Christchurch in September 2015 this will be instead a collaborative writing process the ADA BookSprint facilitated by Adam Hyde.

ADA Artbase Update

The ADA Artbase a collection of historic and current media art works is undergoing a revamp. Thanks to the ministrations of Luke Munn, builder of the original site, the new ArtBase includes a way to contribute work and a featured work gallery that appears on the homepage. Written reviews of new and/or historic works that explore the range of hybrid works that fall within the digital and media arts frame will be featured September to November.

Visit it here: /category/artbase/

 

BookSprint: Space, Network, Memory: Media Art & the Transitional City 

The ADA BookSprint will be an immersive, innovative, collaborative writing event focused on the spatial limitations and possibilities of media art, artists’ engagement with networks of all kinds, and the radical layers of memory-making that characterise lived environments. The publication will  critically address the themes, outcomes, and questions of the ADA Mesh Cities project and available online via this website, as an ePub and through print on demand services.

Symposia:

Mesh Cities Christchurch symposia took place annually during the project and were held in Dunedin (2013), Auckland (2014) with a proposed event in Christchurch (2015).

The symposia will allow artists, designers, educators, researchers, curators and other interested parties to engage in critical dialogue exploring various aspects of the role of media art in the city:

2014 Auckland  

ADA SPACE : NETWORK : MEMORY Auckland 2014 from aotearoadigitalartists on Vimeo.

2013 Dunedin 

Each symposium will include a mixture of innovative discussion and presentation formats, featuring invited keynote speakers, panel discussions, open-idea work-shopping sessions, work presentation sessions for artists, and new formats specific to diverse locations, venues and communities.

Workshops:

ADA Mesh City workshops will be distributed throughout the Mesh Cities project. Workshops in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch will include practical instruction where audiences and practitioners may learn new skills as well as participating in discussions about various aspects of media art practice.

Panels:

ADA Mesh City Panel at ISEA (2013)as part of the outcomes of the first year ADA Mesh Cities presented a panel at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA) in Sydney. Titled Media Art and the Transitional City it saw eight ADA members join in a discussion about their own practice and how it intersects with the Mesh Cities project. The conversations were submitted as a paper for proceedings and is shared with the community through the Sydney eScholarship repository http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9677.

National Digital Forum: Wellington (2014)
Birgit Bachler and Vicki Smith present a discussion titled Links, cables; bricks and mortar: giving a historical overview of the ADA organisation and discussing the proposed work in the development of the ADA ArtBase and how that intersects with the GLAM sector of Aotearoa.

https://t.co/Tpl6qc7GBJ

Roundtable and Launch event

The ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch project was launched with a one-day event in Christchurch – 30 March 2013 at the Physics Room. More information about the roundtable/launch event here and contribute to the conversation Why Mesh?

ADA Mesh Cities Christchurch will receive substantial support in 2013-2014 from Creative New Zealand through the Toi Uru Kahikatea (Arts Development) scheme.

2015 and beyond…

The ADA Artbase is undergoing a revamp under the expert care of Luke Munn who built the original site. The new ArtBase includes a way to contribute work and a featured work gallery that appears on the homepage

The final ADA Mesh Cities event is proposed for Christchurch 2015, five years after the first September 2010 earthquake. A booksprint will focus a group of selected individuals on the role of media art in re-imagining and remembering the past and future city, drawing upon three years of activities and discussion.

 

 

 

cnz-logo