The Orcon Great Blend 2010: Creative Collaboration
The Orcon Great Blend 2010: Creative Collaborations | Sep 10, 2010
It's been a while since the last Orcon Great Blend – December, in fact – but I can confidently say that this one is worth the wait. We have a new venue, the Civic Wintergarden; a new partner, The Edge; and a new theme: creative collaboration.
The doors of the Wintergarden will open at 7pm, Friday September 10 and the event forms part of The Edge's Deep and Meaningful series.
Stage presentations will begin around 7.45 with some old chat from yours truly, and a preview of the forthcoming revamped Public Address website, courtesy of CactusLab.
Then Russell Brown'll be conducting an onstage interview with Simon Grigg (we're flying him in from Bangkok) on the theme of creative management in general and what really happened with 'How Bizarre' in particular, drawing on the book Simon is preparing. I wanted the presentations this time to be richly visual, and Simon is even now digging through boxes of old photographs. You won't hear or see this stuff anywhere else.
There'll be a break, then 95bFM's ukulele queen Silke Hartung will introduce the second part of the programme with a musical collaboration of her devising.
There follows the centrepiece of the evening. In keeping with the theme of collaboration (and many thanks to The Edge's Bronwyn Bent for distilling the idea there), I've arranged the following works.
Emily Perkins and Dylan Horrocks have been creating a comic-book "conversation" – a page a day, turn-about – about writing. They'll "perform" the conversation on stage, and I'll ask them some questions about it.
And painter Karl Maughan and graffiti artist Askew One are preparing a large-scale collaborative work to be presented on the night, along with Askew's video journal of the work's creation.
The idea in both cases has been to bring together talented people in different but related disciplines to see what new things emerge.
That will mark the end of the formal part of the evening, but it will be anything but time to go home.
Simon Grigg will be exercising his DJ muscles in a purpose-built "nightclub" we're building for him – drop-in parquet dancefloor and all -- in the main Wintergarden room. Bring your dancing shoes.
In the adjacent Safari Room, there'll be another bar, and a relaxed conversation space.
And in the Taj Mahal Room, NZ On Screen (who are about to be added to Orcon's O-Zone scheme for zero-rated traffic) and Flying Nun Records are working together on an intriguing project that will directly involve you all as punters. I'll let you know about that when we have all the details together.
It's also our intention that you will be able to take away, in some form, the collaborations presented on the night. Stay tuned for details on that.
And, I need hardly add, the cost of entry for all this will be the same as all the other Great Blends: FREE.
You can thank Orcon and The Edge for that.
Civic Wintergarden
All you need to do is complete the Orcon Great Blend RSVP form, come along on the night and stick around to meet people, participate and shake some booty.
Yowza.
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The EdgeTHE EDGE®
THE EDGE® manages three of Auckland’s landmark buildings - Aotea Centre, The Civic and Auckland Town Hall – as well as the city’s largest outdoor CBD space – Aotea Square. THE EDGE® is New Zealand’s leading performing arts, commercial entertainment and convention facility, and a central feature of Auckland’s Aotea Quarter.
As a business our focus is less on bricks and mortar and more on delivering experiences that engage, delight, inspire, educate and inform. We work to provide a diverse range of commercial and non-commercial activities within the conventions, performing arts, cultural and entertainment sectors.
Our non-commercial activities, or Public Programmes offering, is the result of a funding agreement with the Auckland City Council. This agreement requires us to deliver a wide range of arts and cultural activities to ratepayers and residents of Auckland City in fulfilment of part of the Council’s Arts Agenda policy objectives.
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THE EDGE® website enables you to view and search on events taking place at the Aotea Centre, The Civic, Auckland Town Hall and Aotea Square and to purchase tickets for these events (excluding events still ticketed by Ticketek) online.
