Media Release
Auckland Bioengineering Institute – The University of Auckland
8 December 2009
Artist brushes up on science skills to make art come alive
Contemporary Māori artist Katharine Ngatai is drawing on cutting-edge technology developed at The University of Auckland
to create indigenous sculptures that “come alive”.
Katharine has received a Smash Palace Creative New Zealand grant to create Māori painted designs (kōwhaiwhai) made of
plastic and electro-active polymers at the University’s Auckland Bioengineering Institute. She will use technology
developed by the institute’s Biomimetics Laboratory for creating artificial muscles to make her original designs move.
Creative New Zealand’s Smash Palace grant supports collaborations between artists and scientists on an art project.
Katharine’s artwork is part of a project called “Live Sculptures and Soft Machines”, a joint initiative between
Industrial Research Limited (IRL), the Biomimetics Laboratory, Creative New Zealand and the Ministry of Research,
Science and Technology.
Katharine, who goes by the pseudonym “KatyPie”, is an Aucklander of Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Rehua, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti
Haua descent. She graduated from the University’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 2004, which is where she became inspired
to adopt the unique language of kōwhaiwhai to communicate her own stories.
Kōwhaiwhai are mainly used by Māori in meeting houses to communicate stories about iwi, tūpuna (ancestors) and legends.
Katharine says she wanted to use artificial muscle and sensing technologies to breathe life into her artworks.
“Spirituality is an important part of Māori society. I want to find out how I can get the feeling of life force into my
art. I don’t want my artworks to move in a robotic way. I want them to move in organic ways, like skin and muscle.”
The artworks Katharine is developing are made using a polymer membrane that is stretched onto a plastic frame. The
membrane is coated on both sides with black grease that contains conductive materials such as carbon. Charges are then
applied to the grease.
“The membrane tenses and relaxes as the charge flows through it, which causes the black grease designs to shrink and
grow. This gives the impression that the design is pulsing.”
Tokushu Inamura of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Biomimetrics Laboratory and Drs Emilio Calius and Chee Kit
Wong from IRL are helping teach Katharine how to use electro-active polymer technology to build her art.
“When certain polymers are electrically stimulated, they can shrink, expand or change shape. These polymers are also
known as artificial muscles because their characteristics are closer to that of human muscles than any other smart
material or conventional technology,” says Tokushu.
“Katharine’s learned very quickly how to work with the technology to create a flexible and moving sculpture.”
Dr Calius says part of the project team’s research will be to assess the philosophical and spiritual ramifications to
Māori of having their art objects and patterns infused with artificial life.
“This active art should be capable of much richer movements than previous kinetic art,” he says.
At the moment Katharine’s designs are smaller than an A4 piece of paper, but she says her long-term goal is to create
much bigger, colourful installations that could fill a whole room. “These designs are just a starting point. I’d
eventually love to take an active sculpture around the country in an exhibition to show people this technology in
action.”
ENDS