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, and the arts.
The supportive environment allowed her to explore new technologies like 3D printing and biomaterials while revisiting her academic inclinations in a creative context.
This led to a pivotal career shift towards neuroscience as an MRI technologist, inspired by her past research and a renewed passion for interconnecting her scientific and artistic pursuits.
Candace’s story highlights the incubator’s role in rekindling her love for learning and inspiring a holistic approach to her professional and creative endeavours.
About Dr Candace Loy
Dr Candace Loy grew up in Singapore, enjoying art and science, and she always knew she would be involved in both. Her BSc honours focused on brain and spinal cord injury using long-term neuronal and macrophage cocultures, and her PhD explored growing NZ native marine species (shellfish, seaweed, gastropods, echinoderms) as cocultures.
She has a thriving art practice mixing scientific illustration and whimsy while continuing to work on her scientific research publications, local marine conservation efforts and medical studies. Candace lives on the Tūtūkākā Coast in Northland.
About ARG Lab 24 & Awhi Incubator
This online experience is part of the Alternative Reality Gardening Lab – a creative innovation event within the capacity-building Awhi Incubator Project. ARG Lab 24 showcased research conducted by participants and collaborators of the Awhi Incubator during 2023/2024.
Following a successful publication and symposium in 2023, ARG Lab 24 consisted of a transdisciplinary collection of exhibitions, events, performances, workshops, and talks exploring diverse perspectives on place. It occurred across Te Tai Tokerau|Northland from May 17th to the 25th.
Some sessions are designed to build capacity within targeted communities, while others are open to the general public and welcome all interested.
Underpinning the lab are themes of resilience, diversity, sustainability, and an expanded understanding of the concept of ‘place”.
Places today are formed from multiple intelligences, materialities, and lifeforms and are intersected by a rich array of alternative realities and parallel worlds. Flora, fauna, signals, and code entangle, and what is considered real, true, alive, and beautiful is negotiated. The lab explores emerging new types of gardens. What is being cultivated (internally, creatively, physically, spiritually)? What is thriving, and what needs protection? What new lifeforms and materials are emerging, and how do they intersect with what exists now?
ARG Lab 24: TV

Thanks to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage | Manatū Taonga for funding the Awhi Incubator Project through their Innovation Fund.


















