ARG Lab 24
Opening a Portal to Creative Innovation and Resilience
From May 17th to May 25th, Te Tai Tokerau delivered the Alternative Reality Gardening Lab 24 (ARG Lab 24) – a showcase for our Awhi Incubator Project. It featured an exciting mix of new enterprises, innovative art forms, and technological advancements across various sectors.
Alternative Reality Gardening is a central theme across several incubator projects, including a transdisciplinary symposium and publication in 2023.
Alternative Reality Gardening Lab was a team effort:
Production Manager: Jarred Taylor
Creative Technologist and Co-Facilitator: Kim Newall
Graphic Design: Luna Media/Jessica Keesing
Curatorial Support and Mentoring: Megan Dickinson
Web Support: Gray Media
Creator/Director: Dr Maggie Buxton
Event Highlights:
Diverse Programming: The lab featured a rich program of workshops, performances, and installations, each showcasing innovation and creativity. Each session offered a glimpse into the future of creative and commercial practices, including our Central Garden, which has a range of installations, international research projects, and experimental practices.
Premiere Performances and Prototypes: The premiere performance, ‘Portals to Venus’, was a multimedia dance work by Sharyne Lewis that integrated digital media with traditional choreography. The experimental performance, installation and exhibition by Chris Brady ‘Unofficial Nature’ critically examined weeds in our ecosystems and ‘Deep Phosphene’ by Elise Konscek’s was an interactive, immersive experience exploring alien life.
Support for Creatives: A range of specialist workshops educated and built capacity in creative innovation regionally. This included a specialist 3D Printing and PrintMaking workshop and a public seminar on 3D Printing. In addition there was a Future Fibre Wananga alongside a harakeke paper-making workshop – both celebrating traditional techniques supported by leading-edge innovation.
LAB Events
Events, workshops and documentation
ARG Lab 24: Adrienne Kyd – VR Showcase
VR Showcase Adrienne Kyd showcases work her students have created in virtual reality using knowledge gained through her teaching. As a teacher of creative technologies, Adrienne has kept well on track with…
ARG Lab 24: Talk by Dr Candace Loy
Dr Candace Loy and The Awhi Incubator This talk shares Candace's transformative journey through the Awhi Incubator, where she found a foundational platform to integrate her eclectic interests spanning oceanography, biology, technology,…
ARG Lab 24: Talk by Tanekaha Creative
Tanekaha Creative and The Awhi Incubator Tanekaha Creative have been working with AwhiWorld as part of our Awhi Incubator Project. In this short video, Teina and Lili share their experience, discussing how…
ARG Lab 24: ARG Central Garden and Artist Talks
Creative Innovation Lab: The Alternative Reality Garden The Central Garden is a bustling creative innovation hub at Shop 30, The Strand. It's a working lab where the public becomes part of the…
ARG Lab 24: Unofficial Nature by Chris Brady
Unofficial Nature Unofficial Nature was an installation and performance exploring the role of weeds within a healing system that has swayed from its natural course. Drawing inspiration from the local, Chris drew…
ARG Lab 24: Sensory Subtle or Surreal -Tracey Willms Deane
SENSORY ~ Subtle or Surreal ~ This sensory experience was a prototype for Tracey's emerging research into sensory processing styles and the effect these different styles have on how we experience the…
ARG Lab 24: Future Fibres Wananga with Professor Frances Joseph
Future Fibres Wananga This workshop on the 22nd of May at Geoff Wilson Gallery explored the cutting-edge of future fibres and e-textiles, including thermo-, hydro-, and photo-chromic pigments and threads, Arduino sensors,…
ARG Lab 24: Kōrari Paper Making with Reva Mendes
Crafting Tradition: Exploring the Art of Kōrari Paper-Making The kōrari paper-making workshop took place on 20 May 2024. It blended traditional Harakeke/kōrari techniques with modern technology to teach participants to create magical…
ARG Lab 24: Dr Roy Davies – Converging Technologies
Converging Technologies The world of emerging technologies can be overwhelming, with so many advancements to keep up with, such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain. It's crucial…
ARG Lab 24: Portals to Venus Performance and Talk
Portals to Venus: Calla Lily Choreographic Scores Parts 1-3 In her multimedia dance performance' Portals to Venus', multidisciplinary artist Sharyne Lewis presents her Calla Lily digital dance drawings as choreographic scores. This…
ARG Lab 24: 3D Printing Workshop at The Art Loft
Explore the Future of Creativity This public workshop was hosted at the Dargaville Arts Loft by Dargaville Arts Association - a key AwhiWorld partner organisation. Presented by members of the Warriors Lodge…
ARG Lab 24: Neo Botanica by Liam Martyn Astbury
Purr-fect Plants - Crafting the Future With Liam Martyn Astbury NeoBotanica was Liam Martyn Astbury’s plant propagation laboratory, a window into the reality of gardening in the future. He created cat-related houseplants…
ARG Lab 24: 3D Printmaking
Cutting Edge PrintMaking in Practice The 3D Printing and Printmaking Workshop explored the interface between traditional printing techniques and 3D printing. It presented research undertaken by Hamish Oakley-Browne of Te Kowhai Print…
ARG Lab 24: Deep Phosphene by Elise Koncsek
Step Into An Alternative Reality For the ARG Lab 24, Elise Koncsek opened a portal to the Shazeqi via a hab unit deposited at Quarry Arts Centre, Whangarei. Participants could solve the…
Publication Available Now
AwhiWorld’s Alternative Reality Publication is now available in limited edition hard copy form! Please contact us if you wish to acquire a copy.
The publication is a miscellany, a diverse collection of writing and images blurring boundaries of mindset, discipline and practice.
Stay In The Loop!
Learn more about this and other projects – subscribe to our news hub today.
Alternative Reality Gardening Lab 24 is part of the Awhi Incubator project kindly funded by Ministry of Culture and Heritage, New Zealand.
