The past is a foreign climate : Shigeyuki Kihara meets the Anthropocene

A young Samoan woman stands constrained in a voluminous black dress. The black-and-white photographs emphasize a Victorian formality and sensibility. This ancestor from the past is Shigeyuki Kihara’s Salome, a young ancient who stands at the interstices of the past, present and future. Surveying diverse topographies of the Pacific nation, she looks at what was, and is, and what will be. She is the common thread in Kihara’s recent series ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’ (2013). Te philosophical undercurrent about the nature of existence echoes Paul Gauguin’s 1897–98 painting of the same name. But the self-reflexivity – a common trope in the oeuvre of this Apia and Auckland-based artist – renders Gauguin’s Pacific through a postcolonial lens. Salome has returned after centuries have passed, to see, as Kihara refects: ‘whether the aspirations that she had in her time have been realised by the descendants, only to come back and perhaps be disappointed by some of the results.

More Than A War : remembering 1914-1918

More Than a War: Remembering 1914-1918 presents a creative juxtaposition of digital platforms—a combination of audio, video, archival images, soundscapes, and social media, among others—to tell the stories from 1914–1918 in 2014. It features a collaboration between Unitec (academics and students enabled in digital storytelling technologies and methodologies), oral historians, heritage researchers, and community archivists from Auckland Libraries and Auckland Council. The project More Than A War brought a unique digital voice to the historical record in ways that allow the user to engage interactively with the content. This is a novel direction for digital storytelling in New Zealand, demonstrating the innovative quality of this work. Furthermore, the project significantly enhanced student engagement and learning; their creative responses not only contributed to the practice of transmedia and digital narrative but also to the historical record. Finally, the project exemplified the benefits of successful collaborative partnerships. Visit www.morethanawar.com to see the project in its entirety

Gen Y meets World War One : reflections on an interpretative transmedia project

The concept: students tell the story of WW1 in 2014 transmedia: audio, video, archives, web publishing and soundscapes creative digital youth voice Approaches: creative response collaboration ...we invite you to share the imaginative responses of today's generation to WW1... Gen Y meets World War One: reflections on an interpretive transmedia project Student training: Research techniques Accessing primary sources Oral history training Outcomes student learning research-informed teaching project-based learning ww100.govt.nz documentary on SkyTV Looking ahead 2015 collaborations Digital Story Centre at Unitec Strategic partnerships Outputs: exhibition Auckland Heritage Festival workshops and talks media interviews radio broadcast student inter

Creating in collaboration: reflections on a World War One transmedia project

The centenary of World War One (WW1) is being marked by a range of nation-wide and international commemorative events. Our project brings to life personal narratives of the years 1914-1918 and sets them alongside contemporary, youth-driven responses to the commemoration of WW1, with a particular focus on stories from the home front. It features a singular collaboration between Unitec (in particular staff and students enabled in digital storytelling technologies), oral historians, heritage researchers and community archivists (including those from local government). The project also encourages community participation by inviting people to share stories, documents and memorabilia of this period. Students participate by creating digital stories from a range of primary sources; this includes archived collections - oral history narratives, letters, manuscripts and images. The students, first and second years studying a Bachelor of Communication degree at Unitec, were also trained in oral history interview techniques with the supervision and support of course tutors and project researchers. The conference presentation will highlight the student learning journey - the methodologies by which students contributed to the project, the outcomes and an interim evaluation of the project. Of particular note is the growth in digital literacies demonstrated by student engagement in the project, the creative nature of their personal responses as they came to appreciate the power of story, the intergenerational dimension of the project as older generations shared their recollections with young people and the impact of community participation. The project aims to create an archive of unedited material for future researchers to access through Auckland Libraries as well as to produce digital stories, blogs, and transmedia presentations – content which will contibute to the various online resources marking the centenary of WW1. Furthermore, the student digital productions will feature in an Auckland Libraries exhibition during the 2014 Auckland Heritage Festival. It will also form one of a series of magazine-style, current affairs documentaries broadcast on SkyTV later this year