Media and Press Releases

Face protector inspired by hard knocks

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A protective mask being exhibited as part of the opening event of Massey’s creative arts festival BLOW 09, is the result of learning the hard way on the hockey field for its creator.

Caption: Annabel Goslin with the protective face mask modelled by fellow student Morgan Terry.

Wellington industrial design student Annabel Goslin, 22, literally suffered for her art before coming up with the design for a mask aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of injuries experienced at penalty corners.

Ms Goslin, originally from Temuka, says the idea was based on thorough market research and painful personal experience. “I’ve played hockey for the past 15 years and have suffered some bad injuries," she says. In her final year at secondary school a hockey ball broke her nose and left eye socket, temporarily blinding her and leaving her with two black eyes.

Penalty corners are a notoriously hazardous part of the sport, she says. “My research found that ACC spends over a $1 million a year on hockey injuries.”

The prototype, which she describes as “aesthetically pleasing", forms part of the Exposure exhibition of work by graduating fine arts and design students, which opens tomorrow.

The mask includes a split overhead strap to allow for players with long hair or ponytails, though its main features are out of necessity more functional. The design also includes a detachable sweat lining, eye holes positioned lower than other protective masks to improve peripheral vision, and extra holes to provide better hearing and ventilation.

As well as investigating the marketing potential for her streamlined sporting product, Ms Goslin also surveyed 40 players from Wellington’s premier men's and women's leagues to find out what they wanted in a hockey mask. The results of that research are on show, along with quality exhibits by fellow students working in textile, typography, illustration, fashion and photography, till Sunday November 15.

BLOW 09 photo exhibition turns lens on dance

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Dance photography takes centre stage from Friday November 13 with the opening of a BLOW 09 exhibition that showcases both arts disciplines in the best possible light.

Dance/Objectif is a unique collaboration between final year photography students from Massey University and dance performance students from the New Zealand School of Dance.

Dance photography from the exhibition Dance/Objectif, a collaboration between final year photography students at Massey University and dance performance students from the New Zealand School of Dance, which features at BLOW ’09. Photo credits Laura Crombie.

Dancers are photographed in a whirlwind of movement and in less traditional backdrops such as a supermarket aisle and even a men’s toilet block.

The exhibition, part of the BLOW 09 creative arts festival, coincides with the annual New Zealand School of Dance Graduation season – a selection of classical and contemporary dance works performed by NZSD students at Te Whaea Theatre. It also runs parallel with Exposure, the exhibition of graduating students’ work from Massey’s College of Creative Arts.

Dance/Objectif is open Monday to Friday 8.30am-6pm at Te Whaea, National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, and Wellington, till November 27.

For further information please contact Rebecca Galloway, marketing manager, New Zealand School of Dance, tel: 381 9216 or 027 257 7348.

Design and dance celebrations launch BLOW 09

Saturday, November 7, 2009

A hip hop group featuring Massey design students ensured the University's creative arts festival BLOW 09 opened in style last night.

The group called Infinite wowed a huge crowd gathered in the Great Hall of the Museum Building on the Wellington campus to also celebrate the launch of the festival's opening event which explores all aspects of design taught at the College of Creative Arts.

Wearable art, crochet modelled on the snaky moves of a boa constrictor, a make-shift tramper’s hut and re-designs of the traditional fire-fighting nozzle are all examples of the innovation on show at Exposure

The exhibition by graduating fine arts and design students brings together top quality work from textiles to typography, illustration to industrial design, fashion to photography.

Blow Festival director Drew Naika called Exposure a "signature event" of the fortnight-long festival, which is now in its third year.

Elements of this year’s festival celebrating the best in arts, fashion, dance and design, include exhibitions, screenings, performances, workshops and public lectures.

"It has grown from strength to strength …creative thinking and environmental sustainability are two threads that weave throughout this year’s festival," Mr Naika says

industrial design student Caitlin Begg with a model of her makeshift trampers hut.

Design student Caitlin Begg’s model of a halfway hut for trampers needing shelter between destinations incorporates both threads.

It takes the form of a bench which folds out into a bed, and poles which can then be pulled up to form a tent. It also includes compartments for a first aid kit and emergency locator beacon.

Other examples of design innovation at Exposure are on display till Sunday November 15.
BLOW 09 continues till November 21.

Hall of Fame inductees join illustrious list

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Three illustrious alumni from the University's College of Creative Arts and its forerunner institutions have been named as the latest inductees into the college's Hall of Fame.

Graphic designer Grant Alexander, photographer Jane Ussher and (posthumously) painter and print-maker John Drawbridge will be formally inducted at a special ceremony on November 20 as the final event of the BLOW 09 creative arts festival.

Instigated in 2007, the Hall of Fame recognises outstanding contributions through art and design to New Zealand's economy, reputation and national identity by former students or staff of the college and its predecessors the School of Art, Wellington Technical College and the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design.

Mr Alexander graduated from the polytechnic in 1969 with a diploma in graphic design, made his name as a designer of books and magazines, and then as co-founder of Designworks. The multi-award-winning company was one of the first major strategic design practices in New Zealand, and has offices in Auckland, Sydney and Wellington. He subsequently established creative design company Studio Alexander in Kingsland, Auckland, with his daughter Kate.

Mr Drawbridge (1930-2005) was one of one of Mr Alexander's tutors and one of New Zealand’s most defining visual artists, for his influence on generations of young designers and his own work. He enjoyed a 50-year career working in a variety of media, including intaglio prints, oils, watercolours and large-scale murals. These include the Expo '70 mural for Osaka, Japan (since rebuilt in Wellington's National Library), and the three-dimensional aluminium mural in Parliament's Beehive in 1980. In the 1960s he designed and created the 15-metre mural on 10 large canvas panels for New Zealand House in London, with which generations of New Zealanders have become familiar. Drawbridge’s passion for art and education drew him home in 1964 to teach printmaking and creative design at the Wellington School of Design. He retired in 1990.

Photographer Jane Ussher’s career flourished after training in photography at the Wellington Polytechnic in the mid-1970s. In 1977 she was appointed chief photographer at the New Zealand Listener and for the next 30 years photographed almost every major figure including Sir Edmund Hillary, Helen Clark, Janet Frame and Jonah Lomu, while documenting the changing social and political landscape of New Zealand. Since last year she has worked as a freelance photographer in New Zealand, the Antarctic and the Pacific

College Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Claire Robinson says: "We are celebrating these great alumni for their role in visually defining and reflecting upon ourselves as nation, and for what they have contributed to New Zealand’s economic, intellectual and cultural growth. Our students today truly stand upon the shoulders of giants.”

Previous Hall of Fame inductees include the late Len Lye (artist and filmmaker), Richard Taylor (special effects designer at Weta Workshop), Rebecca Taylor (New York-based fashion designer), the late Gordon Walters (artist and graphic designer), Mark Pennington (Formway industrial designer) and Kate Sylvester (fashion designer).

Portraits of the latest inductees will join images of recipients already mounted on the wall above the foyer of the Old Museum Building, Buckle St, Wellington.

BLOW 09 programmed to impress

Monday, October 19, 2009

With less than a month to go till the opening of Massey's creative arts festival BLOW 09, the full programme promises a feast of arts, fashion, dance and design.

Crammed with more than 60 pages of exhibitions, lectures, shows and workshops, this year's programme for the event, from November 6-21, is complemented by the launch of the official festival website www.blowfestival.co.nz

Tickets for one of the festival highlights, Tenth Edition, a show by graduating fashion design students from the College of Creative Arts, went on sale today.

Dance photography from the exhibition Dance/Objectif, a collaboration between final year photography students at Massey University and dance performance students from the New Zealand School of Dance, which features at BLOW ’09. Photo credit David Seumanutafa.

For a print quality image please email p.mulrooney@massey.ac.nz

Festival director Drew Naika called the festival programme line-up the most diverse in the three years since its inception.

"Alongside our signature events Exposure 09 in Wellington, Design Exposure in Auckland, and the Fashion Show, there is a fantastic range of exhibitions and installations across the city."

The sheer variety of events featured includes dance and drama at Te Whaea, concerts by the New Zealand School of Music and plays from Massey's School of Media Studies.

The public lecture series features international arts specialists speaking on subjects like typography, open source creativity and entrepreneurship.

Professor Sally Morgan, who is head or pro vice chancellor of the College, which is host institution for the festival, says the programme reflects the innovation represented by many of the artists.

"What is particularly unique about the BLOW Nga hau e wha Festival idea is the way it highlights not just creativity but creative thinking. Creative thinking is a strong focus across the Wellington campus and beyond through the university," she says.

"Massey regards creativity as an attitude, as something to value and nurture, as a mode of enquiry that results in fresh creative perspectives on everything we do."

What makes the phone ring? Answers at BLOW '09

Friday, September 11, 2009

Ever wondered what makes your cellphone ring or your toaster pop-up? Design Demystified, a highlight of the University's creative arts festival BLOW '09, has the answers.

It is an exhibition by staff in the School of Design that shows what is involved in the making of everyday products.

The festival, from November 6-21, will see the Wellington and Albany campuses pulsating to large doses of arts, fashion, dance and design.

Another exhibition it will feature is Surplus and Creativity, where pre-loved objects are reinvented. A hot water bottle becomes a garden watering can; a computer monitor is turned into a chicken coop.

Fresh creative perspectives will be the theme of the annual exhibition by graduating students, called Exposure, featuring innovative work from textiles to design, fashion, photography and much more.

There will be an opportunity to see the city of Wellington through typographer's eyes with Type Walk, a stroll through the capital's streets led by local typographers Catherine Griffiths and Sarah Maxey who will tell the story of its facades and street art, with Stephen Banham of Melbourne providing an international perspective.

Mr Banham is one of six international art and design specialists Ð from the Netherlands, the United States, Australia and South Africa Ð who will be part of the festival along with staff from the College of Creative Arts.

More traditional art will be evident on Armistice Day, November 11, with an exhibition at the War Memorial Carillion beneath Massey's Museum Building, by British painter Paul Gough who specialises in large-scale history paintings with a strong military theme.

Lateral thinking is to the fore during an evening seminar on cultural entrepreneurship Welcome to the Ideas Economy led by Dutch academic Professor Giep Hagoort and the South African founder of Addictlab, Jan van Mol.

Their discussion will consider how strategic management and creative leadership are a priority in the creative economy Ð something BLOW '09 director Drew Naika calls an attractive cocktail for all creative professionals in difficult economic times. The sheer variety of talent on display and the artistic debate likely to result show how relevant Massey is to the wider artistic community, Mr Naika says. 'That these people are coming to us is a sign of the importance of Massey in defining creativity.'