Industrial poetry

One of the great opportunities that increased access to technologies and information has brought, is interdisciplinary practice between the fine arts and industrial design.As a student, these two pathways had at first appeared separate, and requiring different skills and temperament to study and practice. But on further enquiry into the subject of Landscape Architecture, which is considered an industrial design discipline, I discovered a past and present rich with unbounded trans-disciplinary and interdisciplinary practitioners, where fine art methodologies have helped find identity and belonging in landscape, and have been used to influence and inform design. I have based my Masters of Landscape Architecture project on how fine art practice could contribute to Landscape Architectural site analysis,and through this project demonstrate possibilities in interdisciplinary practice.The relationships between fine art practice and the articulation of “sense of place” has always been evident in map making, and it is in this cross-over that I hope to find a usefulness to Landscape architecture within my work.In this paper I describe my methods and findings from this project so far

Piki Toi: Micro credit app design

PIKI TOI: A brand that has been established to promote and market artworks created by those who have experienced homelessness. Runs workshops and stages exhibitions within the central city area. THE PIKI TOI APP CONCEPT: Mobile phone functional website. Enables micro-credits for skills attained. (Is not an NZQA approved system.) Builds a capability C.V. Creates a user profile. Connects providers with participants. Works with existing social enterprises. Works within a small geographic are

The Piki Toi

Piki Toi is a project that seeks to create artist/poet role models and heroes from within a marginalised community who have experienced homelessness and incarceration, who can go on to inspire others to acknowledge their own value and in turn create a circular system of healing

Awhina Mai Tatou Katoa Trust: Creative practice as community engagement in Auckland Central

"Lifewise, Unitec Institute of Technology, Waitemata Local Board" Piki Toi Artweek 2019 Te Whare Ngaruru Whakatū Structure for Karangahape Road project Hui te Rangi Ora (The Shed

The everyday collective laboratory: Suburban interventions

The highlights of the project were the discoveries made into inter-disciplinary research methodology and strategies for small-scale design interventions in advocating for community environmental projects. The approach was to continue to develop relationships with the community organizations that I had worked with in the previous research period in 2010. Previous findings made clear the necessity for small-scale inexpensive interventions to inform and advocate for initiatives identified by the collaboration between our researchers and the community. Two methods were considered to be the most effective. Firstly the use of QR Codes placed within the landscape that would direct visitors to both the research findings, and the community websites created to support the cultural activities existing within the neighbourhood. Secondly the use of a 30 edition lithographic print that articulated both the history of the subject sites and the agreed concept to develop a heritage walkway, this edition was distributed amongst the community stakeholders and decision makers in local government. Auckland Council Parks and Heritage expressed an interest in trialling the use of QR Codes in a test area, and we are having on-going discussions on this. Both of these interventions proved to have great potential to inexpensively deliver the ability to both record and disseminate information discreetly, as well as to lobby for legal protection, restoration and present design solutions for a specific environmental issue

The everyday collective laboratory.

How can the practice of painting and drawing contribute to site analysis in Landscape Architecture? This project investigates possible uses and applications of fine art to Landscape Architectural site analysis practice. It does this through a methodology that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration in order to advocate for sites that are neglected or contain qualities that have been lost. This advocacy is conducted through using painted and drawn representations to draw out narratives from a site, which in turn encourages community input into the site analysis process

Piki Toi

Teare: “I see Piki Toi as being a vehicle for an artist movement in the CBD, collectively using the art as a vehicle to engage with our community groups. I am involved with Piki Toi because if I can help someone else, that helps me and improves the quality of my life, it builds my wairua.

Places of special character on the Rosebank Peninsula in Auckland; a site that once contained Market Gardens, a local Horse Trainer and a significant garden that was once was used for Horticultural Science

eMedia publication documenting three examples of the Rosebank Peninsula’s remaining past uncovered using film by the everyday collective laboratory

The Piki Project : building capabilities within the homeless community

How can the application of design thinking and technology empower a creative community that has lived experience of homelessness to become economically self-determining? The Piki project is a partnership with Lifewise Trust, and is focused on building capabilities within the homeless community. The project uses primarily creative practice to engage in capability building in technology, entrepreneurship, and to facilitate educational opportunities based within chosen activities. The methodology of this research project is sourced from Matauranga Māori, and informed by a core group of individuals from the community involved with the research partners in all decision making processes. The project is testing, measuring, and pushing the boundaries of existing practices so they can be adapted and expanded and be used to empower and build individual capability. One of the key components is the development of a brand that enables and supports the collective’s social structure, and facilitates storytelling, this branding also providing a providence and authenticity for the community artists and their customers. Two parallel systems of engagement are used; Piki Toi for creative practice, and Piki for other avenues such as gardening and trade related activities. The project is supported by the design and functionality of a visual arts website, and an app. The app was designed through Datacom’s “Datacomp” hackathon with guidance from representatives from the homeless community involved with the Piki project. The app enables those who do not have a creative practice, to achieve credits and recognition for skills learned while engaged in work or learning opportunities. Key findings the project is seeking to produce are new ways to provide teaching and learning opportunities (and resources to support these), to a community that for a variety of complex reasons, are unable to engage with mainstream higher education

Avondale creative spaces : a case study in community building for social change

This case study outlines the process, delivery and outcomes of a series of public artwork initiatives undertaken through a partnership between Unitec Institute of Technology research group, the everyday collective laboratory and Avondale Community Action (ACA). To assist in promoting the benefits of participation and attracting volunteers to assist in ACA’s random household survey, a series of interconnected creative events were designed. These projects, held within the Avondale town centre, were also intended to engage the local people in community based creative processes, making this activity visibly public, and responding to an identified need to introduce public artwork into the Avondale town centre. This was intended to be a signal to, and a catalyst for, positive change – promoting the concept of having “creative space” within the community. These projects were jointly funded by the Whau Local Board, Auckland Council and Unitec, all of whom agreed to a set of specific outcomes. These were primarily to promote public engagement with the arts, data collection for the facilitation of networking, and the prototyping of small-scale, affordable, temporary public artworks as well as assisting the survey to gain traction