From The Big Idea Website, 16 January 2004

Wellington Soundpostings #1


Wellington Reveals itself Through Sound and Space
New Project by Sonic Artist Lewis Gibson to Launch in February

...Wearing a pair of headphones, you are guided through the streets by a voice. You catch glimpses of what has been before. Time splinters, illusions unfold and layers of memories dislocate your senses.
People, buildings, sounds, and frames of time converge. Schizophrenic city, you are here. Welcome to soundpostings...

London-based composer Lewis Gibson will introduce a new way to expereince Wellington's spaces, sounds, and sense of place when his Soundwalk project is launched in February 2004. This creative endeavour, officially called soundpostings#1: konei, konã, korã, involves binaural recordings from Wellington's urban and pedestrian environment. The result, which will be introduced as part of Wellington's 2004 Fringe Festival, is a creative experience designed to be listened to during a walk from Cuba Mall to Civic Square. In development for three months, and including both the voices of people in our community and natural sounds captured on location, the soundwalk was produced entirely during Mr Gibson's stay in new Zealand.

"I borrowed three Maori words for this project's title," explains Gibson, "each containing a different shade of meaning for places and frames of time. The soundwalk will enable someone in Wellington to listen to the space around them in a different way, to visit memories of the city, meet ghosts of the community and peek through cracks in time." Gibson further explains that the recording is presented, by way of headphones, in a binaural way. The result is a stereo effect, offering the same sonic reference as our ears experience live sounds and conversations.

"It is a unique idea, and one that combines a documentary approach, natural and wild sound, and an artist's touchstone," says Eric Holowacz, Community Arts Co-ordinator for Wellington City Council. "The result, a type of alchemy, will provide our community with a way to discover itself, to really hear the spaces around us, and to walk within the layers of culture and heritage that wrap around our world."

While working on his project in Wellington, Gibson partnered with the city's Community Arts Office, which is helping distribute the Soundwalk CD, build audiences for the experience, and locate creative partnerships in the community. Beginning in February, Wellington residents and visitors will be able to check out a CD copy of Soundpostings#1: konei, konã, korã at library branches and at special Fringe Festival outlets, and then undertake the journey that Gibson has created.

"Art can be a provocative and magical thing, whether it is in a film, a poem, or a sculpture", says Holowacz. "In this case, it is a recording and a simple walk about town. Lewis Gibson's sonic art gives our community, and the people in it, an opportunity to think about who we are and the spaces we inhabit. Along the way, and not without a small dose of magic, we will learn even more about where Wellington is going".

New Zealand's capital is the first city chosen by Gibson to produce soundpostings, and future projects are now slated for Kuwait City and Tokyo. This creative experience is free and open to everyone, and the public is encouraged to participate. To learn more about Soundpostings#1: konei, konã, korã , contact the artist, Lewis Gibson by email at soundpostings@hotmail.com, or consult the 2004 Fringe Festival programme. Thanks to an initiaitve of Wellington's Community Arts office, copies of the Soundpostings CD will also be available at any Wellington Library branch from early February on. Mr Gibson will be returning to England in late January, to continue working on a post-graduate degree in music.

For additional information, please contact:

Eric Vaughn Holowacz
Community Arts Co-ordinator
Wellington City Council
04-385-1929
arts@wcc.govt.nz

From Scoop.co.nz Website, January 2004

Watch out! Drive by Art hits streets of Wellington

Drive by Art - an exciting new public art programme - will be launched by Wellington City Council's Community Arts Office on 18 January.


Street banners designed and created by over two dozen local schools will be installed along Oriental Parade to help celebrate summer in Wellington and add to the community's growing public art efforts.

Participants and the general public are invited to a special preview of the Drive by Art school banners. They will be exhibited in the former BAM bookstore space in Wellington Central Library until 14 January.

"The preview should provide an opportunity for parents, young artists, and the greater community to have a close look at some wonderful new banners," said Nicole Medcalf, who oversees the Council's 450 display banner sites and schedules. "We have been working on Drive by Art, and its dozens of school partnerships, for almost six months, and the result is a visual gold mine."

The Drive by Art idea first began in June when Ms Medcalf noticed that a number of banner sites, typically on power poles and street light poles, were not being utilised. Wanting to find a creative, community-driven way to revitalise the forgotten banners, Medcalf took her idea to the Council's Community Arts Coordinator, Eric Holowacz.

Mr Holowacz was then in the midst of Artsplash, the City Council's annual festival for student creativity, youth art and performance. With more than 10,000 participants from all over the lower North Island, and a visual art exhibition of more than 1000 student works, Artsplash provided the perfect inspiration for their initiative.

"Once we finished Artsplash, and began turning our attention to Drive by Art, I knew there would be no problem involving the schools and inviting Wellington's teachers and students to make new public art," said Mr Holowacz. "There seemed to be an abundance of creative energy and talent coming from all corners of Wellington."

By September, the concept and basic premise for Drive by Art had been developed: invite Wellington's teachers and schools to dream up designs for the banner format; then provide the classrooms with paints and blank vinyl; and give them the freedom to create anything. The final step, installing these original designs as public art, will launch just in time for the Oriental Bay Mardi Gras on 18 January. The student Drive by Art banners will remain on the streets until the end of May 2004.

The designs, and the time and effort that went into them, offer ample evidence that the Wellington region is the creative heart of New Zealand and the South Pacific. Participating schools include Tawa Primary, Queen Margaret's College, Te Aro, Masterton Intermediate, Hutt Central, and over a dozen others. Many designs feature summer and beach activities, while others showcase unique things about the schools and neighbourhoods in Wellington.

Varissa Patel, Samantha Morris, and Rosie Somerville, all Year 7 students at Karori Normal School, created a banner titled City to Sea.

"Wellington is a huge contrast, hills and city and harbour, all joining up to create our unique place. We are so lucky to be living in such beautiful surroundings," said the trio of talented students, reflecting on their completed banner.

Naomi Naveh, a student at Pukerua Bay School, helped her class design a banner with images of meaningful people, places, and things. "I think Drive by Art is a fantastic idea and very creative. I like the lime green and the funny looking symbols on our banner. I also like the thought that it will be dangling right over Wellington."

Ms Medcalf and Mr Holowacz, and the Council's Recreation Wellington unit, have even bigger plans to expand Drive by Art. Local adult and professional artists are being invited to create original designs on vinyl banners to bring even more art to the city's public places. Plans are also being made to repeat the Drive by Art programme every year, giving both schools and local artists an ongoing forum for new visual ideas in Wellington.

Mr Holowacz has this to say about the success of Drive by Art: "Thanks to the unbridled creativity of Wellington's educators, young people and also the adult artists, and thanks to the blessing from our innovative City Council, we will soon be putting an entire art gallery on the streets."

Teachers and artists wishing to participate in the 2004 Drive by Art programme, or those seeking additional information, should contact Eric Holowacz on 04 385 1929 or by email at arts@wcc.govt.nz.