Aotearoa’s largest annual Earth science festival, EarthFest, is taking place this Saturday. The event is designed to spark curiosity about Earth science concepts and careers through hands-on exhibits, engaging demonstrations, and interactive displays that appeal to all ages.
bFM News teamer Leilani spoke with University of Auckland PhD student and EarthFest committee member, Annahlise Hall, about the festival’s goals, the value of making science accessible to the wider community, and why events like this play an important role in shaping public understanding of Earth sciences.
EarthFest takes place this Saturday at the Fickling Convention Centre in Mount Albert from NINE to THREE. This event is free and open to everyone.
Mitchell McGrath is a Tāmaki-based designer and artist, whose work explores notions of spatial perception through these embodied material explorations of imaging techniques. That is then transferred into works of embodied materiality in spaces, experiences, and objects.
In his current exhibition at Window gallery A VIEW FOR EACH EYE McGrath presents this beautiful luminescent installation of colour and its shifting movements through space. An exploration of these fluxing wavelengths of chromatic colours in relation to our own bodily position.
The colours and form shift, and pivot as one moves throughout the space. A dance of colour that rewards a lengthened viewing—a viewing individual to each eye, person, and body, as one devels into the exhibitions shifting chromatic landscape.
Maya had a chat with Mitchell about the show and overall practice.
Today on Dear Science, we have a guest covering Steve - his name is Allan Blackman, he teaches Chemistry at AUT, and he’ll be with us for the next few weeks until Steve gets back in February. Ximena chats to him on the show today about the death this week of the last person to walk on the moon, how the US army want to design biodegradable plant-growing bullets, and also about how it’s just been confirmed that carbon can exceed its four bond limit.
The Act Party announced a policy of rewarding self-improvement in prison at their conference in the weekend. The policy is designed to give prisoners the opportunity to gain literacy and numeracy skills, which will reduce their prison sentence as well as help give them a better chance when they are released from prison. However the policy has been critiqued by some, who say it only will be applicable to a small portion of the prison community, and also that’s counterintuitive to ACT’s punitive three strikes polic. 95bFM reporter, Tess Barnett, speaks with ACT Party leader David Seymour about the policy.
Artbanker Theo set a bit of a record for us today, talking to 11 GUESTS IN THE HOUR. Ka pai. Firstly we heard from Amy Weng, Kalee Jackson and Rebecca Lal, three of the minds behind Te Tuhi's latest publication THE HIVE HUMS WITH MANY MINDS. This 130 page full colour limited edition printed publication features essays by Tessa Laird, Gregory Kan & Ruth Watson, and Bruce E. Phillips, plus additional contributions by exhibiting artists such as a foldout page work by Monique Jansen and texts by Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh and Charlotte Drayton, all complemented by graphic design by Kalee Jackson.
Then we had the Bulgasari Aotearoa crew in studio. Throughout June and July, Lee Hanjoo (이한주), Lee Bong Gyo (이봉교), Yukie Sato, Taekyung Seo (서태경) and Soojung Kae (계수정) will be in residence at the Audio Foundation HQ in central Auckland where they will collaborate with local musicians – producing concerts and recordings while working toward an exhibition for the Audio Foundation gallery. Travelling with the Korean artists as key collaborators are renowned NZ musician John Bell (vibraphone/percussion) and sound artist Ian-John Hutchinson (prepared harmonicas). These two artists have been based in South Korea for over 5 years and are established figures in the Korean experimental music scene.
Director Paul Oremland talks to us about his new documentary, 100 Men, which looks at 40 years of gay history via the lens of (and honest interviews with) Oremland’s list of past lovers. As people, societal norms, and countries age, how does that affect identity, community and freedom? Penelope Noir also joins us in the studio to review a doco that contains her specialist subject: feshun. Not just for couture hounds, the story of fashion designer Zac Posen is a classically American rise-fall-rise tale as told by Sandy Chronopoulos in her new documentary, House of Z.
Murray 'Legend' Cammick stops in to talk Iggy Pop's pajamas and his latest photography exhibition, AK 75-85.
“I tried to document the music and the scene as a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary photographer. You either contribute to the myths/bullshit of rock n roll or you try and show some of the reality of the grind of touring and promotion. I recall being the designer at Craccum in 1976 and being delighted that our music editor John Robson came back from a press conference with a photo of Frank Zappa drinking a cup of tea. How sublimely un-rock n roll!”
In December it was reported by Child Poverty Action Group that ethical lending schemes should be a model for adoption nationwide. They referenced Ngā Tangata Microfinance, a not for profit organisation designed as an alternative to the more merciless loan shark type models of lending companies.
Loan sharks often force families into an endless cycle of debt. Ngā Tangata Microfinance on the other hand provide no-interest loans to qualifying clients for family well-being and relief from high interest debt. A report from the organisation says this type of loan has improved people’s well being and reduced stress. It is estimated the loans have saved recipients collectively over a million dollars in interest and other charges. Lillian Hanly speaks with Robert Choy, the Executive Officer of the organisation.
On The Wire today we have Dear Science where Allan tells us about damaging dietary supplements, the paintings underneath Picasso's paintings uncovered by X-Rays and a brilliant award winning photo of an atom from a regular camera.
We then hear from Russell White who is part of the Check It campaign designed to get young drivers more aware of the safety checks they need to make on their cars.
Max Richter tells us about his eight-hour long concert Sleep (where you can sleep while you listen), which is part of the Auckland Arts Festival.
And Lisa Boudet investigates the restrictions on men who have sex with men for blood donations as part of Wire Worry Week.
Deep Fake videos, where people’s faces can be edited onto a completely different person’s body in a video, can be harmful. There are several YouTube videos of Barack Obama saying things that Barack Obama has never actually said, and of actors performing sex acts that they have never done in front of a camera. Why were deep fakes invented? Do they offer positive aspects? Mary-Margaret Slack asked Victoria University’s senior media design lecturer, Tom White, if we have sufficient legal framework to deal with deep fakes.
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