Massey’s top picks
From a cackling skeleton-filled pirate ship to a World of WearableArt masterpiece, Massey University creatives are sharing their weird and wonderful designs. Exposure Exhibition is a celebration of graduating students’ work from the university’s College of Creative Arts. Here are Capital Day’s top five picks. 1 Unfold by Sophie Douglas: A redesign of print in the digital age, providing young people with the information needed to form knowledgeable opinions. As someone who writes for print, Douglas’ design caught my eye, and then my admiration. The initial page gives a brief overview of the facts, and then opening the page up to its full size acts as a ‘‘read more’’. 2 Bloom by Anna Baines: Baines’ design was a World of WearableArt finalist, and was shown on the runway at this year’s show. The work touches on the ‘‘highly political’’ topic of depression. ‘‘The petals are seen to both shield and protect, demonstrating strength and power,’’ Baines said. ‘‘The interior representing our emotions, soft, delicate and fragile, similar to the nature of a flower in bloom.’’ 3
Elision by Greer Broadley: Elision is an intuitive language-learning platform to help people improve pronunciation.
Designed for visual learners, the platform uses 3D animated forms to demonstrate the tone and pitch of words. Broadley developed the system for Mandarin, a language that greatly relies on pronunciation for effective communication. ‘‘I definitely needed advice from native speakers and learners of Mandarin, too, to make sure it was accurate.’’ 4
(Shelter) by Sopanha Kham: Kham created a cosy corner in the industrial blankness of the fine arts building by transforming a kitchenette into a slice of home. The installation consists of a fully interactive kitchen space, which people are encouraged to use, mimicking a traditional Khmer household. It’s part of a wider project, a documentary that is a collaboration work with Jessica George, where the pair explore their confusion around their identities and living between cultures. 5
The Ship of Fools by Leda Farrow: Kudos to Farrow for creating something so intriguingly beautiful yet vaguely terrifying. After spending close to two minutes moving around one side of the boat, taking photos and staring into haunting eyes, my movement toward another sculpture to its right must have set off a motion sensor, and with a cackle one skeletal head lurched into life. I’ve never had a more effective jump scare. Farrow said she chose to use Plato’s ‘‘Ship of Fools’’ to explore the human-machine entanglement of modern life.
More exhibits can be found at exposure2019. massey.ac.nz.