WORK IN PROGRESS
Tūramarama
Purpose
Concept: Towards development of an indigenous speculative futures, net positive multiverse AI/ VR game.
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To learn more about our ancestral matauranga Māori connecting to the skies (Ranginui) to better understand the earth (Papatūānuku).
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Drawing inspiration from the stories of Te Whanau Marama & Te Kāpehu Whetu.
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This is an exert from the research, drawing/ sketching process through to developing concept & produced artworks that flow out along the way.
Vision
Ongoing documentation of the elemental activities in the skies, to learn and to understand weather patterns from ancestral knowledge.
Encouraging inherent memory, by remembering to acknowledge the Atua within the natural world.
Drawing towards net+ multiverse AI learning from an indigenous perspective. Players will be the architects building new world scenarios.
PŪTAKETAKE*(BASE ELEMENT OF A PATTERN)
An evolutionary process learning whakapapa and stories of the skies - mark making with light as memory.
1. DOCUMENTING NIGHT SKIES WITH LONG EXPOSURES
Elementals
2. DOCUMENTATION WEATHER PATTERNS - learning with the environment.
Light sculptures
Representing navigational mātauranga
TE KAPEHU WHETU
Digital weaving HD photograph on metal
50 x 50 cm
2022
Inspired by Te Kapehu Whetu the star compass, this knowledge was shared to Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson by Pwo Navigator Mau Piailug of Micronesia and translated to te reo for Māori navigators in Aotearoa by Jack Thatcher.
This work represents the star houses seen as a 360 degree view around the waka, the horizon is divided into quarters – named after the four winds:
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Tokerau – the north-east trade winds
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Marangai – the south-east trade winds.
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Tonga (or Whakarunga – the head of the fish) – the south-west winds.
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Whakararo (from the tail of the fish) – the north-west winds
The full horizon is also divided into equal areas called houses. There are 32 houses in the full circle. The four main houses representing north, south, west and east are:
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Whitinga – east where the Sun rises out of the ocean
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Tomokanga – west where the Sun returns to the ocean
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Raki – to the right of the Sun’s passage through the sky
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Tonga – to the left of the Sun’s passage.
In addition to these houses, each quadrant has seven houses that further divide the horizon. Each house is replicated in each quadrant and helps with memorising star position and paths.
Stars appear to rise out of the eastern horizon, cross the north/south line (meridian) and set towards the western horizon. Individual stars will rise and set in the same named house. The names of the houses and their meanings are:
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Rā – the Sun
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Kāinga – where the Sun lives
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Ngoi – a land bird (the brown noddy) used by navigators to find land
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Manu – the waka as a bird flying across the ocean
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Ngā Rangi – the heavens are where we get our clues
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Ngā Reo – the navigator listens to the voices of the stars that guide him
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Haka – the void where there are no clues, where the true challenge begins.
220 stars are remembered with storylines to help the navigator to memorise their positions.
The Haka (the void where there are no clues, where the true challenge begins) is where we start to build our multiverse.
2023
Storyline & concept development