Description
FESTA responds to the conditions and possibilities of an extraordinary situation: after a devastating earthquake on 22 February 2011 and a swarm of seismic events in the months that followed, 80% of inner city Christchurch was demolished.*
A new culture dedicated to grassroots urban recovery has emerged in response to the challenge of reviving New Zealand’s second largest city. This movement has adopted the label ‘transitional’ to reflect the intention that these projects should not only offer immediate renewal but also inform and influence the long-term ‘permanent’ recovery of the city.*
*festa website
Role
In 2012 I had the privilege to be one of the sixteen contributors for the main event, LuxCity. I was paired up with an architecture studio made up of second year architecture students and we were given the theme ‘illusion’. I used my musical knowledge to bring in another element to the space. The concept was to create a protest site in response to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority blueprint.
In the 2014 Festival I was invited back to contribute towards the main event, ‘CityUps’. This time each installation was created around a large scaffold frame. I joined up with an Auckland University group to develop a collaboration with their ‘Daze Maze concept’. We created individual stages placed at different points throughout the maze for musicians to perform on. Each performer was then amplified in a different part of the maze as well as having an acoustic presence in the immediate area of each performer’s stage. This created an interactive setting where the person would try to mix what they heard by being led around the space whilst exposing themselves to different sounds and images.