Betweenland

A Community Creative Technology Exhibition

A painting that plays music and poems that write themselves. Just two of the works that were on display as part of ‘Betweenland’. The exhibition took place 27 May to 25 June 2021. It was curated by digital artist and former NorthTec tutor Jade Morgan and Dr Maggie Buxton, co-founder of Creative Technology Northland and Director of AwhiWorld.

‘Betweenland’ took us on a journey into the unfamiliar, uncomfortable and uncanny.

The exhibition had seven installations, all interactive, showcasing a range of creative technologies (e.g. augmented reality, motion sensors, Arduino, projection mapping). Some played with themes such as gender identification, the death of the loved one, and the impact of COVID.  Many sit in the space between disciplines or artistic mediums -. subverting the need to put art into strict categories. Most works used sound as a core element.

Ren Lunicke’s installation explored the inherent bias around sound and gender through the experience of gender-diverse individuals using the phone. It provokes the listeners to expand their acceptance of natural vocal diversity for all genders.

Jade Morgan (one of the curators of the exhibition) also played with sound. She shared nature recordings taken during a liminal time in her life just after her husband died, exploring the place in between dimensions where they still communicate.

Nearby, a painting that could be played like a musical instrument disturbed boundaries between visual arts, music and digital technology. Tracey Willms Deane’s interest in sacred geometry is evident in the playful relationship between science, colour and sound.

Erena Donnelly’s work was an augmented reality experience playing in the boundaries between sound, image and imagination. The viewer observes the sound movements associated with a famous musician (presented in portraits she has drawn) but does not hear them. Stimulating the mind’s ear rather than the mind’s eye.

Two immersive installations reflect on artistic practice. One, by Sonja van Kerkhoff, was an interactive work exploring her and other artists’ experiences of COVID. Displayed as a Zoom meeting, the work allows the viewer to engage with the artists and her own experiences of feeling in-between.

The other, by Kim Newall (AwhiWorld partner), wove together projection and sound. It is an intimate insight into his practice as he constantly dances between analogue and digital realities.

The final work, by Dr Maggie Buxton (also a co-curator), was a visual interactive work playfully exploring her poetic collaboration with an algorithm. Poetry fragments are randomly selected to create a work that then disappears forever. Much like the tides washing on Onerahi Beach – the place that inspired the words.