February 3, 2014
Masters creativity on show
Visitors to Massey University’s Wellington campus next week will get to see and hear some intriguing exhibits at Massey
Wellington as Masters art and design students usher in another creative year next week with their graduating exhibition.
The 17 Master of Design projects on display from February 7-15, cover such diverse topics as using food to promote
democracy, how to visualise sound, a book that both blind and sighted children can enjoy, sustainable textiles, and a
visitor experience in a restored wetland. Four Master of Fine Arts students are also showing their work.
Visual communication designer Kieran Stowers drew on his Pasifika heritage and strong commitment to voter participation
to create a potluck dinner party toolkit that promotes discussion about New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements. The
project invites guests to bring allocated categories of food to dinner and they are then 'fed' a series of questions to
encourage general discussion. A second round of questions focusing more on New Zealand values geared toward what themes
dinner guests would like to see in a constitution is then served up. These thoughts are all written down on a table
cloth with the top four ideas selected for a possible preamble – the introduction to a constitution that outlines the
general goals of its draftees.
“It’s not a political tool but a team building exercise disguised as dinner,” Mr Stowers says.
“It’s an interesting area to look at as New Zealand doesn’t have a constitution as such so this is quite exciting to ask
questions about and being able to design elements of what a constitution could be.”
David Woolley’s project straddles design and art. A tutor at Southern Institute of Technology, Mr Woolley works with
digital media. His Masters investigates cymatics, the study of sound made visible through vibration, as he projects
visual patterns made by sound onto screens.
Spatial designer Jess Clarkin created a visitor experience for Wither Hills vineyards in Marlborough. The company has
been restoring a native wetland on one of its vineyards for several years and wanted a distinctive, environmentally
sensitive design to help visitors appreciate its beauty. Her design includes a series of boardwalks and tracks, viewing
tower, maimai, jetty and other structures integrated with the landscape and drawing heavily on materials found on site.
Director of Postgraduate Studies at the College of Creative Arts, Associate Professor David Cross, says four Master of
Fine Arts students are also exhibiting: David Brown, Maria O’Toole, Connah Podmore and Nigel Royal are the final class
of Massey’s one-year MFA. Ms Podmore's video performance work is timely in the lead up to World War One commemorations
in 2015. It explores the experience of remembering distant pasts and people as she responds to the memory of her great
grandfather and the war.
Massey’s art and design degrees received global recognition last year by becoming the first outside North America to be
approved by the US National Association of Schools of Art and Design – the most comprehensive benchmark of quality in
art and design education.
“We strongly encourage our postgraduate students to take creative risks and stretch themselves to come up with new
ideas, forms and modes of practice, and especially to do so in a way that makes a real difference in the world,” Dr
Cross says.
Work by students in the new two-year MFA for designers and artists, along with more Master of Design projects, will be
exhibited in November.
Masters Exhibition Details:
Open to public daily, February 7-15, 12noon-5pm, Massey University Wellington, Entrance C off Wallace Street
The exhibition is clustered in adjacent buildings: Te Ara Hihiko, The Engine Room gallery and Block 1
ENDS