scholarly journals Contemporary photography practice: expanded methodology and critical ways of thinking

DAT Journal ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-442
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Hill
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Place Making ◽  
The Core ◽  
Methodological Research ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Waikato River

Contemporary photographic practice has advanced into a broad territory of representational flux and modalities. This is a stimulating moment for lens-based practitioners and practice-led researchers willing to explore expanded modes of academic inquiry connected the medium of photography. In this article I draw key methodological insights from my Practice-led PhD project Place Imaginaries: Photography and Place-making at Te Awa River Ride. I explore relationships between photography and place-making and how photography is embedded within place-making processes. As a photographer and artist I developed a methodology based on photography practice and the iteration of curated bodies of photographic work. Te Awa River Ride is my research locale, a shared pathway that edges the banks of the Waikato River in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Photography practice or lens-based practice is located at the core of my methodological research approaches; a space, which informs both theoretical and practice-led research developments en route to expanded critical modes of academic inquiry.

Conception, construction and the cultural significance of Te Parapara Garden in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiremu T. Puke
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
The World ◽  
International Visitors ◽  
Ongoing Functioning ◽  
Initial Concept ◽  
Waikato River

Te Parapara Garden is the only complete pre-European-style Māori horticultural garden in the world. Historically inspired and empirically researched, it lies within the Hamilton Gardens on a young river terrace immediately adjacent to the Waikato River in Hamilton (Kirikiriroa), Aotearoa New Zealand. In this article, Wiremu Puke (Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Porou) – a tohunga whakairo (master carver, including using pre-steel tools) and a tohunga whakapapa (genealogical expert on his tribal affiliations) of Ngāti Wairere (the mana whenua, or first people of the traditional ancestral tribal lands of Kirikiriroa) – describes the design and development of Te Parapara Garden from its initial concept in 2003 and the construction of its many features, including the waharoa (gateway), pou (carved pillars), pātaka (storehouse), whatarangi (small storehouse), taeapa (fencing) and rua kūmara (underground storage pit), and the sourcing and use of kōkōwai (red ochre). The garden was completed in 2010. Its ongoing functioning, including the annual planting and harvesting of traditional pre-European kūmara (sweet potato) using modified, mounded soils (puke or ahu), is also covered. The unique Te Parapara Garden is of great cultural importance and a source of pride, knowledge and understanding for national and international visitors and empirical and academic researchers.

Beyond Legitimation: A Tribal Response to Māori Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huia Tomlins Jahnke
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Core ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
Tribal Region

This article describes an intervention strategy, initiated under the New Zealand Government's tribal partnership scheme, which promotes a culture-based/place-based approach to education in mainstream schools and early childhood centres in one tribal region. Through place-based education children are immersed in local heritage, including language and culture, landscapes, opportunities and experiences. The strategy is a tribal response to the overwhelming evidence of Māori underachievement in education in the tribal catchment. A case study is presented of a place-based/culture-based initiative called the Ngāti Kahungunu Cultural Standards Project (NKCSP). It is argued that the development of cultural standards offers an opportunity by which teachers and others within the education sector can develop and incorporate practice that reflects, promotes and values the student's culture. The core assumption underpinning the project is that cultural knowledge contributes to Māori student success in education.

scholarly journals Weber vs Wairua

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gregory ◽  
Kristen Maynard
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
The Core ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Do So

The essential elements of modern bureaucracy were identified by the German social scientist Max Weber (1864–1920) and remain central today to any understanding of how modern governmental systems work. At the core of Weber’s understanding was the insight that bureaucracies are profoundly impersonal, even dehumanised, organisations, which is a key element in their ability to carry out complex, large-scale tasks. However, this dehumanised character is also one of bureaucracy’s biggest weaknesses, since it inhibits the organisation’s ability to relate to people in ways that are in tune with lived social experiences. This article argues that in Aotearoa New Zealand it should be possible to draw upon knowledge from te ao Mäori, and especially the idea of wairua, to help fulfil aspirations for an improved public service, one that is more effective and humane for all New Zealanders. However, to do so will require a much greater appreciation of such knowledge than has so far been the case.

scholarly journals Post-photography: Lens-based methodology and practice-led ways of critical thinking

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-29
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Hill
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Narrative Construction ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Image Construction ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Thinking Processes ◽  
Waikato River

Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a broad field of possibilities, a ‘post- photography’ moment that comprises fluxes of representational modes to represent experiences, feelings and emotions. In parallel the depth and layering of places offers an exciting challenge to researchers and artists whom are willing to creatively explore the multi- sensorial and spatial ‘reality’ of places. These thoughts underpin my recently completed practice- led PhD research at Te Awa River Ride, a shared pathway that edges the banks of the Waikato River from Ngāruawāhia to Cambridge, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I explore notions of place and place- making by presenting an installation of photographs titled South of the Rising Sun. I offer this photography installation as a creative milestone which resulted from a methodology of iteration and artistic expression. The lens- based component of my PhD research covered the construction of a body of photographic work aiming to represent the ways photographic practices and technologies are embedded within the ways we perceive place and create place-making. My lens- based practice is primarily informed by post- photography methods underpinned by the idea that photographs do not function as pure depictions of reality or single objective representations. On the contrary, I understand photographic practices and images as sources for the construction of multiple meanings. Within this context, I explore the possibilities of a range of camera apparatuses and modes of photographic representation such as documentary, portraiture, landscape and fine art photography. Lens- based practice therefore is located at the core of my critical thinking processes; a space, which feeds both theoretical and practice- led research approaches. This is the crucial moment when I try to align theoretical frameworks with photographic image construction processes and subsequent curation, sequencing, compilation, design and presentation of images. Processes such as curation, sequencing, compilation and photo narrative construction are key to my lens-based practice. These processes are integral to an iterative methodology of place-making inquiry connected to four different creative milestones. The stepping through of the creative milestones is intended to allow an understanding of my theoretical framework and research methods and how these work together as part of a complex practice- led research system. Creative milestones are curatorial research products. They mark points within the overall research time frame. Each creative milestone involved the construction of a photo narrative. The first creative milestone covered the outputting of a photobook while the second involved explorations of digitally based platforms. The third and fourth creative milestones marked further explorations around sequencing, photo montage and photo narrative within photography installation platforms. My presentation at the 2020 Link Symposium will unpack my lens- based methodology, arguing the ways post- photography practice informs methodological research approaches en route to critical ways of thinking and outputting of artistically based research products. This research model can also be argued as an artistically informed practice- led methodology of place-making.

scholarly journals Contemporary photography practice: From landscape to expanded modes of place representation

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Hill
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Landscape Photography ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Broad Field ◽  
Waikato River

Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a broad field of possibilities, a flux of representational modes that represent emotions, experiences and feelings. In parallel the depth and layering of places offers a stimulating challenge to researchers and artists whom are willing to creatively explore nuances of land and nature as well as the multi-sensorial and spatial “reality” of places. The Waikato River is my research locale, located in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I draw on contemporary photography practice and theory to develop multimodal approaches to my research place, expanding objective modes of landscape and place representation. I trace a timeline from early landscape photography practice particularly during the British colonisation in New Zealand juxtaposing my photography practice as a counter approach to Eurocentric modes of place representation. This is informed by local Waikato Māori cosmologies and more contemporary readings on place. As a result  I conceptualised a theoretical framework around the notion of place imaginaries as a creative platform for the development of expanded photographic modalities. 

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