ARCHITECTURAL CENTRE: 2016 questions for Wellington mayoral candidates. Read More
The mundune-looking Earthquake House has been with us since Te Papa opened in 1998. It simulates an aftershock of the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake; the original quake being a magnitude 6.6. No doubt most parents (uncles, aunts and grandparents, babysitters …) have been dragged to the Earthquake House by shorter people. It’s now proposed that it be replaced with new exhibitions “integrated with new digital museum experiences.” Sounds exciting, but this end of an era is perhaps a good time to reflect on the joy and terror that the Earthquake House has brought to millions of children over the last 17 years.
JOIN US on Friday 22 May 4.40pm for our online discussion on Te Papa’s Earthquake House as part of our virtual launch of our givealittle site to fundraise for our involvement in the Basin Bridge High Court Appeal opposing NZTA.
Featuring: Alannah (age 5), Ben (age 8), Lewis (age 5) , and Rose (age 5 and a half)
For those of you for whom it’s been a while since you were in the earthquake house, here’s a 2min video of the experience inside …
Here is a concept, as presented by Graffiti Research Lab, that I quite enjoy. Of course, it isn’t exactly original, and Wellington architecture has seen its fair share of projected imagery, from the poppies on parliament by our own RSA to body moving at Te Papa. Thus, I guess it must be the ever so slight frisson of illicitness that makes this seem more enticing – and, perhaps, the real-time spontaneity and the awareness that for your audience, this is a also a spontaneous urban intervention – not one that is scheduled in your summer city calendar between the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and the Beat Girls performing at the Dell. There is potential here to really say/achieve something however, and that is the motive behind GRI, who want to provide graffiti artists with the tools that would allow them to compete with corporate advertisers to get their message across. Somehow I think the bicycle mounted virtual spray can won’t replace the real bomb anytime soon…
