School of Art and Design - Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa
Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/857
Research within the School of Art and Design brings together visual artists, spatial designers, fashion designers, filmmakers, curators, entrepreneurs, graphic designers, digital designers, product designers and other cultural practitioners from New Zealand and around the world to work on expanded notions of art and design through creative-led research. Their research disciplines and study areas include: Visual Arts, Graphic Design, Spatial Design, Product Design, Digital Design, Fashion and Textile Design, and across disciplines.
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Item Kaimanāki o te Ngahere: Guardians of the Forest(Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025-08-29) Fowler, Allan; Ruka, Tanya; Bai, Mia; Dodd, Michaela; Harvey, MarkInspiring children to appreciate and safeguard endemic species is crucial. Embodied learning experiences enhance their connection with nature, increasing empathy and environmental awareness. However, urban sprawl has reduced opportunities for meaningful engagement with natural environments. Kaimanaki o te Ngahere: Guardians of the Forest is a narrative-driven educational game designed to reconnect children aged five-to-eight with Aotearoa’s native ecosystems. The game introduces Mori concepts of kaitiakitanga, mramatanga, and whanaungatanga to encourage reciprocal care between players and the forest. It aims to raise awareness of Myrtle Rust affecting native trees like phutukawa, mnuka, knuka, rt, and ramarama. Recognising that traditional environmental education may not resonate with young learners, we use prkau (storytelling) to frame the gameplay experience. Prakau fosters deep relational learning, shaping the player’s journey as they navigate environmental challenges through interactive storytelling. Future development will introduce Augmented Reality (AR) to connect digital storytelling with real-world conservation efforts, deepening ecological learning.Item Blackpool Reverie(Common Ground Research Networks, 2026-03-20) Sinfield, DavidThis article examines the social and cultural impacts of urban regeneration and gentrification in Blackpool through a practice-led research approach grounded in narrative inquiry and visual analysis. Drawing on graphic design, typographic design, photography, and moving image, the study explores how working-class identity and cultural presence are reshaped or erased within processes of redevelopment. The research adopts the concept of palimpsest as a conceptual framework through which the city is read as a layered and contested space where historical traces coexist with contemporary economic and spatial interventions. Rather than positioning creative outputs as illustrative, the study frames design practice as an analytical method capable of articulating lived experience and social change. Typeface design functions as a form of visual narrative encoding the emotional and cultural conditions of place while photographic and moving image works document spatial transformation and absence. Through this interdisciplinary methodology, the research contributes to discussions on gentrification by foregrounding the experiential and affective dimensions often overlooked in policy-driven regeneration discourse. The article argues that artistic practice can play a critical role in making visible the cultural consequences of urban change and offers insights into how creative methodologies may inform more inclusive and socially responsive regeneration strategies.Item Vā Atoa and the Ever-moving-present in the Samoan Cosmogony Solo o le Vā(ANU Press, 2026-04-07) Refiti, Albert L[From Chapter 1] The Samoan cosmogony is consistent in the direction of how matter unfolds in the universe. As this chapter aims to show, life unfolds between two states: mavae, the divaricating process of creation, and tōfiga, folding together and keeping things in order. A spatial exposition and diagrammatic outline of the cosmogony reveals the cosmic emplacement of the human, the emanation and spatial qualities of mana, and the genealogy of matter connected to Papa.Item ‘The plurality of hoa’: Tā-vā and Moana Thought in the Work of Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, An Interview(ANU Press, 2026-04-07) Māhina, Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu Ōkusitino; Refiti, Albert L[From introduction to Chapter 4] Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu ‘Ōkusitino Māhina was an associate investigator for the ‘Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity’ project and is a foundational proponent of tā-vā, with much of his life’s work leading to the development of Tā-Vā Theory and Philosophy of Reality. As a longstanding collaborator with Vā Moana—Pacific Spaces, Māhina, in this conversation or talatalanoa, continues a decades-long discussion on vā and tā-vā with Albert L. Refiti. In what follows, Māhina shares his experiences as a student at ʻAtenisi Institute, with the late Futa Helu, and the emergence of his own ideas on vā. He sees vā not only as a system that structures relationships, but also as an integral part of artistic endeavours in Moana societies that incorporate the rhythmic beating and marking of time. Hūfanga’s PhD thesis, which became the first theory of history from an Indigenous Moana perspective, promoted the notion of an Indigenous Tongan history as Talaēfonua.Item Toward an Interdisciplinary 3D Animation Design Process for Palaeoart: Visualising Quaternary Megafauna From Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa Basin(Coquina Press, 2026-05-01) Kennedy, Jason; Sumanarathna, Aravinda RavibhanuThis study examines the use of 3D animation workflows to create scientifically credible palaeoart of extinct Quaternary megafauna from Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa Basin. While palaeoart has long played a critical role in visualising prehistoric life, its scientific foundations are often under-reported, and visual reconstructions are rarely subjected to peer review – especially in underrepresented regions like Sri Lanka. There remains a significant gap in both the availability and methodological transparency of palaeoart, despite increasing international calls for standardised and evidence-based practices in the field. This research presents the first photorealistic 3D reconstructions of two extinct Sri Lankan megafauna: Palaeoloxodon namadicus sinhaleyus and Quaternary rhinoceros material historically referred to as Rhinoceros sinhaleyus. These visualisations were produced through interdisciplinary collaboration between a palaeontologist and digital artist team, merging morphometric data of Ratnapuran fauna with animation and visual effects pipelines. By documenting the full design process and clarifying the scientific and aesthetic decisions involved, this study provides a model for future scientist-palaeoartist collaboration and highlights the communicative power of digital visualisation to enhance public engagement with underexplored palaeontological heritage.Item Tōmua Introduction: Vā, Wā, and the Spaces in Between(ANU Press, 2026-04) Lopesi, Lana; Engels-Schwarzpaul, Anna Christina; Parr, Emily; Walker, Arielle; Lythberg, Billie; Refiti, Albert LItem Oceania’s Crucible Effect, Moana Cosmopolitans, and the Reinvention of Vā(ANU Press, 2026-04) Engels-Schwarzpaul, Anna Christina; Refiti, Albert L[From Publisher's description of the book] Vā may be a small word, but it carries expansive meaning. Rooted in Indigenous Pacific knowledges—Samoan vā, Tongan tā-vā, Māori and Hawaiian wā—this concept of relational space binds people, ancestors and cosmologies across time and place. Since the late 1990s, vā has become a powerful framework in academic and cultural contexts, energising conversations across Oceania and beyond. As the world grapples with the rise of hyper-individualism, vā offers an urgent and restorative alternative: one that centres connection, responsibility and collective belonging. This rich collection of individually and collaboratively authored chapters explores how vā, wā, and related Indigenous concepts are lived, theorised and practised today. Drawing from diverse disciplines and grounded in specific cultural contexts, these contributions deepen our understanding of relationality, space and place across the Moana. The AUT Vā Moana Research Centre is dedicated to exploring spatial concepts through Moananui (Pacific) thought. Established in 2012 by Albert L. Refiti and A.-Chr. Engels-Schwarzpaul at Auckland University of Technology’s School of Art and Design, Vā Moana brings together a vibrant international network of scholars. Their work reimagines how space is understood and experienced, both in contemporary and customary Pacific contexts.Item Práticas Reflexivas com IA no Design: Desenvolvendo Agência Criativa em Contexto Bicultural(Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais (UEMG), 2025-12-19) Mortensen Steagall, MarcosEste artigo investiga como estudantes de design de comunicação desenvolvem consciência crítica ao integrar ferramentas de inteligência artificial (IA) em seus processos criativos. Com base em três anos de observação etnográfica (2022-2024) em um estúdio de design do último ano da graduação na Nova Zelândia, o estudo documenta abordagens pedagógicas que posicionam a IA como ferramenta situada dentro de práticas de design mais amplas. Objetivo: demonstrar que práticas reflexivas sistemáticas permitem aos designers emergentes manter agência criativa e sensibilidade cultural ao trabalhar com tecnologias de IA. Metodologia: investigação-ação com 87 estudantes através de oficinas estruturadas, documentação de processos e análise comparativa longitudinal. Resultados: estudantes que participaram de oficinas reflexivas demonstraram capacidade significativamente maior (85% versus 41%) para reconhecer quando sugestões de IA divergiam de intenções culturalmente informadas, especialmente em um contexto educacional bicultural informado por Te Tiriti o Waitangi e epistemologias māori.Item ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures: An Artist Re-flection(eScholarship Publishing, University of California, 2025-02-04) Dyck, DVThe ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures project afforded me, as one of its investigator-artists, a rare opportunity to authentically engage with ancestral objects held in museum collections across the globe. This article provides a brief history of my art practice, as well as insights into my critical sense-making process and subsequent creative outputs. My reflections highlight the importance of nurturing relationships with Indigenous communities, and underscore the critical roles of museum practitioners in caring for and sharing our Indigenous treasures. Despite challenges including intergenerational knowledge loss and institutional barriers, the project advocates for decolonizing and re-Indigenizing museum practices. The ʻAmui ’i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures project exemplifies the power of authentic collaboration in preserving, honoring, and celebrating ancestral intelligence.Item Chryptochrome: How Can the Materiality of Mobile LiDAR Technology Be Used as a Metaphor for Eco-conscious Storytelling(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2026-03-13) Sills-Jones, DafyddIn recent years, LiDAR has become a foundational tool in virtual production (VP), extended reality, and real-time environment pipelines, enabling rapid translation between physical spaces and computational worlds (Jones et al., 2022; Graham and Cook, 2023). This practice-as-research project investigates how mobile LiDAR scanning can also operate as a creative and conceptual tool in on-location ecological filmmaking. Produced in 2024 using a smartphone LiDAR sensor and generative sound tools, the short film Chryptochrome explores how computational sensing technologies reconfigure relationships between human authorship, machinic perception, and vegetal presence. Rather than treating LiDAR as an instrument for spatial accuracy or digital replication, the project foregrounds its material qualities, such as pulsed light, trace-based reconstruction, and algorithmic uncertainty, as aesthetic resources. Situated within mobile filmmaking, eco-media theory, and debates around human-machine interaction in art, the film positions LiDAR as a speculative interface through which physical environments are translated into ephemeral virtual forms. Link to video: ChryptochromeItem A Drop in the Ocean: Photographic Witnessing and the Fukushima Wastewater Release(Copernicus GmbH, 2026-03-11) Amundsen, FionaEver since the Japanese Government's 2021 announcement approving Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s plan to discharge this wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, there has been widespread public dissension. In efforts to control public opinion and mistrust, words such as “treated”, “purified”, and “diluted” circulated among official government and scientific discourse concerning TEPCO's plan. These words are mundane, deceptive and distracting. For example, remaining traces of tritium were proposed as so diluted that the water is akin to drinkable standards. Furthermore, the vast scale of the Pacific Ocean reinforced just how diluted the Fukushima wastewater would ultimately become, totalling to 0.000183 %, meaning quite literally a drop in the ocean. This article responds to this context by exploring how this language of dilution and trace function to mask the slow eco-cultural violence embedded in Japan's wastewater release. Specifically, I focus on how my photographic series Listening to Seaweed attempts to visualize what is largely imageless – diluted trace evidence of tritium. Through close readings of these artworks, I explore how photographic film's inherent sensitivity to ionizing radiation can register, and thereby witness, the presence of environmental radiation. I am interested in how this witnessing functions to critique the ideological contexts that continue to perpetuate nuclear power as a safe by-product of the technology developed to produce nuclear weapons. Methodologically framed via artist and theorist Susan Schuppli's (2020) conception of material witnessing, I argue for forms of politicized witnessing that move beyond visibility itself; instead, quantifiable evidence of nuclear ideology is physically embedded in the image. This article questions how these materially oriented methods can establish forms of socio-ethical listening and material witnessing that promote transgenerational nuclear justice concerning this current geo-political moment.Item Reflective Pedagogical Strategies for Addressing Age-Related Biases in Design Education: Assumption Dumps and Time Capsule Letters(Informa UK Limited, 2026-03-09) Hwang, Eujeen; McCarthy, Gillian; Sutherland, Kathryn; Szabó, ÁgnesThis statement of practice explores the use of reflective pedagogical strategies to address age-related biases among design students, focusing on two key exercises: assumption dumps and time capsule letters. Rather than addressing ageism solely through user-centered approaches, the two pedagogical strategies introduced in this paper encourage design students to critically examine their own assumptions and to imagine their future selves. These exercises were applied across a range of design cohorts in higher education and continuing learning contexts, including undergraduate design students, recent design graduates, and professional designers. Participants engaged in structured reflection and introspective writing, designed to make aging a personally relevant concept and to surface unconscious biases. Results indicate that these strategies fostered greater empathy, heightened awareness of age-related bias, and, in some cases, ongoing critical reflection. By positioning introspection as an entry point into age-inclusive design thinking, we suggest a flexible and scalable strategy for embedding age-related issues into design curricula.Item Epiphanic Resolution: The Effect of Video Compression on the Believability of Computer-Generated Characters(Intellect, 2026-02-25) Kennedy, JasonThis study examines the effects of video compression on the believable integration of computer-generated (CG) characters among live-action film elements. Compression is requisite for the delivery of moving-image content to a variety of end-user applications, including cinema, online streaming, Blu-ray, and digital video files. The most common standards for compressing consumer-targeted video content include H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC, each of which provide separate pros and cons depending on the type of footage and the degree of compression required. This research investigates a previously unexplored question: to what extent does the type and degree of compression affect how well virtual actors (vactors) appear to coexist within profilmic scenes? By extension, what visual results linked to compression have the greatest impact on compromising a vactor’s believable integration within a shot? Analyses of two feature films and a web-based advertisement at various compressions strengths provide data that strongly suggests that compression is more detrimental to the believability of CG versus profilmic characters within the same shot. Additionally, as compression strength increases, CG characters become more graphically abstracted, negatively impacting the quality of their visual integration, whereas profilmic actors remain recognisably human and plausibly integrated – a phenomenon I dub as “epiphanic resolution”. This research provides novel insights regarding the relationship between the finished video product as delivered by a film company versus how it may be perceived when viewed at different formats by a variety of audiences.Item Meeting in Difference: Relational Responsibility in Fashion Encounters on the Silk Road(Firenze University Press, 2025-12-12) Whitty, Jennifer; Jansen, Angela; Sood, Richa; Duisenbek, AluaThis article reflects on the tensions and possibilities emerging from the 2023 Responsible Fashion Series held in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Drawing on situated perspectives from Kazakh, Indian, Celtic, and Aotearoa contexts, the paper explores how fashion can shift from extractive aesthetics to relational, pluralistic, and decolonial practices. Through collaborative workshops, dialogic encounters, and embodied practices, we examine how fashion can be reoriented as an affective site of cultural survivance, joy, and ecological reciprocity. We argue for pluriversal futures that centre land, language, and collective making as ethical foundations of responsible fashion.Item Práticas Reflexivas Com IA No Design: Desenvolvendo Agência Criativa Em Contexto Bicultura(Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais (UEMG), 2025-12-19) Mortensen Steagall, MarcosThis article investigates how communication design students develop critical awareness when integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into their creative processes. Based on three years of ethnographic observation (2022- 2024) in a final-year undergraduate design studio in New Zealand, the study documents pedagogical approaches that position AI as a situated tool within broader design practices. Objective: to demonstrate that systematic reflective practices enable emerging designers to maintain creative agency and cultural sensitivity when working with AI technologies. Methodology: action research with 87 students through structured workshops, process documentation, and longitudinal comparative analysis. Results: students participating in reflective workshops demonstrated significantly greater capacity (85% versus 41%) to recognise when AI suggestions diverged from culturally informed intentions, particularly within a bicultural educational context informed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori epistemologies.Item Tofiga: Place and Belonging in Samoan Architecture(The German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology and The Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory., 2025-09-22) Refiti, Albert L; Engels-Schwarzpaul, Anna ChristinaThe Samoan world opens with the notion of nu‘u tofi, in which every person is assigned a place or position that resonates with culture, polity, citizenship and governance. Tofi (or tofiga) places Samoans according to their ancestral connections within the order of the Samoan world, as ‘the reference point of political action and motivation’ (Tui Atua) – for instance, matai (chiefs) sitting in front of the pou (posts) of the fale (house).Item Designing With Generative AI: Towards Technical, Ethical, and Critical Pedagogies in Interaction Design(ACM, 2025-12-14) Smith, JamesThis paper reflects on some developing pedagogical approaches for introducing technical, ethical and critical engagement with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in interaction design (IxD) education. As GenAI reshapes creative practice, students must move beyond passive automation toward thoughtful and principled design approaches. Drawing on curriculum development from first year workshops in the Bachelors of Interaction Design at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), the author reflects on AI as a UX design paradigm, tool, and ethical subject. Case studies from workshops include introductions to GenAI and “vibe coding”. In these sessions, first-year students engage with AI tools and methodologies developing foundational AI fluency, and critically examine concepts of authorship, bias in generative systems, and their own ethical positioning. The approaches aim to support lifelong learning and positions design education as a space for process-oriented, socially responsive, and critically engaged practice. This paper reflects on how GenAI can be critically and ethically integrated into first-year interaction design education through reflective and experiential learning. The work also offers practical insights for integrating generative AI into design curricula in ways that are technically rigorous and ethically grounded.Item Collaborative Efforts in Recent Performances and Participatory Artworks(Informa UK Limited, 2025-06-18) Braddock, C; Shingade, BThis essay considers collaborative methods from the perspective of an artist and a curator. Our reflections stem from within creative practice processes as a way of exploring modes of knowledge interactions, learning, and collaboration. We reflect on performances and participatory artworks that involve complex social interactions across their planning, making and realisation, and draw on conversations to reveal the volatility and changeability of artworks and curatorial strategies. We emphasise that collaborative, cooperative and participatory methods in visual arts projects are inextricably social and political. We discuss two visual arts performance and participatory projects–Invitation to Dialogue (2019) and Conversation Mat (2022) undertaken at AUT ST Paul St Gallery (renamed Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery) in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, aimed at transforming the artistic, curatorial and participatory ego through an exploration of voice. In so doing, we question artistic, curatorial, and participatory ownership and/or dominance. We explore distinctions between project-time and use-time as a way of contrasting designed aspects of collaboration with those that go beyond the control of makers in risky ways. We draw attention to art/life orientations which generate many modes of collaboration. We discuss an attentiveness necessary for attending to the differing speeds of participants.Item Our Garden and its Waters: A Review of Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days (2024)(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2025-09-30) Wu, Jack***Item Aqueous Place in the Architecture of Luis Barragán: Dark Pink and Surface-Other(School of Art & Design, Auckland University of Technology, School of Architecture & Planning, University of Auckland, 2025-09-30) Wu, Jack; Douglas, AndrewStaged here are two parallel accounts of visits to houses by Luis Barragán—Casa Ortega (1940–42), and Casa-Estudio Luis Barragán (1947–48)—both sitting side-by-side in the ‘uphill’ neighbourhood of Tacubaya within Ciudad de México. The accounts, initially conceived of as a means of ‘describing’ divergent visitation experiences by the authors to each other, have expanded asymmetrically here: one (“Dark Pink”), taking the form of a prose poem; the other (“surface-Other”), enacting a wandering narrative partly carried by impressions/recollections and partly by academically inclined trails. Both acknowledge and aim to work within the touristic window that occasioned the visits. Together they amount to a form of travel chronical (at once truncated and dilatated) in which visitation contextualises itself within echoes of other visitors, writers, and commentators. In concert, if not in harmony, the accounts aim to distill the appearance, the feel, the implications (aesthetically, culturally, socially, and politically) of an aqueous underpinning to Barragán’s work. This underpinning is acknowledged as being partly fictional and partly essential.