AMPED in the Park

NICAI will be showcasing the creativity of our young emerging artists as part of Auckland’s Rugby World Cup festivities.

Students from Architecture, Music, Fine Arts and Dance have created unique installations and event experiences in Myers Park as part of Auckland’s Fan Trail – the walking route from the waterfront to Eden Park stadium. Myers Park will come alive for the three hours before kick-off for each of the 11 Eden Park Rugby World Cup Games to delight and entertain locals and visitors.

Installations and Events

NICAI students have worked as multi-disciplinary teams to create unique installations and event experiences. As well as having the opportunity to showcase their creativity to an international audience the project is an integral part of their degree studies, so they will be marked on their work.

Playing with an initial concept of a Jack-in-a-Box, students from Architecture, Dance, Music and Fine Arts have worked together and given it a contemporary twist to create an exciting sensory encounter.

There will be seven installations located at sites throughout Myers Park. These installations, together with their associated events and activities, draw upon a variety of themes.

Site 1 - Recasting

Collecting sound and light from Myers Park and the wider environment, Music and Architecture students project their visions of the City of Sails onto an icon of changeable Auckland weather – the humble umbrella.

Each time the Fan Trail is active the students will create different spatial umbrella installations, recasting sound and light as they explore diverse aspects of Auckland.

Check out the Recasting student blog for progress on the project

Site 2 - Diversion

Dance and Architecture students divert your attention to where the Waihorotiu Stream - also known as the Queen Street River, or more colloquially the Ligar Canal - once flowed through the Myers Park.

Dancers will be interacting with different architectural installations: skeletal creature-like forms, abstracted trees, flowing ribbons, distorted terrain and origami-inspired interpretations of the watercourse following the path of the original stream.

Check out the Diversion student blog for progress on the project

Site 3 – Reactive

Childlike play, fun and exploration are encouraged as Architecture students engage the senses of touch, smell, sight and sound with their creations.

Exploring organic forms reminiscent of magical creatures in their architectural installation, the students were inspired by ideas of people at play, having fun in Myers Park.

Check out the Reactive student blog for progress on the project

Site 4 – Back to_[black]

Dance and Architecture students collaborate to explore physical reactions to positive and negative spaces, inspired by the role of black in New Zealand’s identity and its dominance in our visual arts, psyche and expression.

The architectural installation leans, as if about to collapse, creating a sense of unease. Dancers move in and around large black sculptures, activating voids and left-over spaces.

Check out the Back to_ [black] student blog for progress on the project

Site 5 – Eruption

Auckland’s volcanic heritage finds expression in Myers Park as Architecture students create a strange otherworld, populated with eruptions and unusual sights.

Across the different Fan Trail nights the students will conjure up alternative environments of light and colour, playing with plumes of smoke and erupting canopies of leaves.

Site 6 – Displacement

Inspired by Myers Park’s history as a colonial shanty town, Elam students combine what little is remembered from the past with the contemporary. Abstracted dwellings of geometric forms, clustering and lacing through the grassy hills, suggest community and a collective culture.

The living sculpture explores the displacement of those who once lived on this site as well as travellers who’ve come from near and far to attend the Rugby World Cup 2011 games.

Check out the Displacement student blog for progress on the project

Site 7 – Perpetual Museum

Perpetual: Never ending or changing.

Museum: A building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.

Inspired by the Waihorotiu Stream that originated in Myers Park in the 1900s, Architecture and Music students evoke watery experiences using sound, wind installations and optical effects.

Climbing the Myers Park steps, ambient sounds change from creating the illusion of being underwater to rising above the river surface, while large arches capture light and wind, casting water patterns across the grassy slope.

Check out the Perpetual Museum student blog for progress on the project