WEEK FIVE: Investigation

INVESTIGATION

As a final outcome for our six week studio of Spatial Design, we have been briefed to either pick one of our former ideas of meeting and develop it or create new type of meeting to present. I decided to pick my zoo/curiosity cage, my meeting of curiosity and repulsion and to develop it into a space (still of curiosity and repulsion) but something more relatable to the boatsheds, to me, and to the community of Wellington, and NZ as a whole.

The Maui Dolphin and its near-extinction.

Maui’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui) are a sub-species of Hector’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori sp.), the world’s smallest dolphin. It is one of the world’s rarest dolphins and is found only on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.

Hector’s and Maui's dolphins are known to Māori by other names including tutumairekurai, aihe, pahu, popoto, papakanua, upokohue, tukuperu, tūpoupou and hopuhopu.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/marine-mammals/dolphins/mauis-dolphin/facts/

Since a survey in 2012, there is known to be approx. 55 Maui dolphins left. They are listed as a "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Whaling Commission has "extreme concern" for the Maui and that NZ's protection "falls short of that required to reverse the Maui’s dolphin decline”. The New Zealand Green's party is also critical of the government's actions.

The latest in 2014 is the National government's actions of allowing gas and oil exploration zone to extend and overlap within the protected Maui sanctuary. Protected still meaning that set netting is banned in only 40% of the sanctuary, while trawling is banned in a mere 10%. "A risk assessment in 2012 estimated that under current protections for the dolphins, five would be killed a year by commercial or recreational boating"

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301415
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/15/rarest-dolphins-under-threat-from-oil-exploration-in-nz-sanctuary-say-greens

The project "whales" by Binge Culture Collective, an interactive demonstration with the Wellington public on how to save beached whales (whales substituted by humans)
http://www.bingeculture.co.nz/whales.html


This idea of a space to portray the exploitation of the Maui dolphin for human gain is one where I can show the meeting between curiosity and repulsion, and flows on from my idea of an enclosed zoo demonstrating animal cruelty but which wasn't so prevalent in our kiwi culture. I want to draw onlookers in from a curious state of mind and the excitement of seeing dolphins only to turn this into a reality check of how soon the Maui will become no more than an story we tell our children about. I want the boatsheds of Oriental Parade to be the site to do this.

 1 minute sketch of perspective of current meeting space from inside looking out

 5 Alternative Ideas for a Meeting Space Involving the Same Meeting:

CURIOSITY and REPULSION

 1. Human demonstrators on being treated the same as zoo animals in a confined space

 

 2. Red paint on walls of glass enclosure of animals in the form of cave art (cave art to enforce idea of small space; red paint to portray pain; paintings to give a permanent space so no harm can come to real animals or human demonstrators)

 

 3. A "walk of the zoo process": curious human pays to see lion inside, money follows human as they walk inside to see lion in cage then human walks through to next room where money falls on ground in a pile and projector screen portrays the elements of a rich man's life. The truth of where the money goes from such places - into the pockets of the owners

 4. A popular park pathway threads through park forest which has specific animal cages spread at even intervals through walk. It starts with mainstream animals that humans don't think twice about when caged such as birds and sheep. It progresses to horses and ends with lions which anyone feels cruel about enclosing. But how are these animals any different from each other?

 

5. Maui dolphin enclosure. More relatable, comes back to boatshed environment, still a curiosity, easily displays the knowledge that we are killing our native species through oil and gas drilling and commercial fishing habits.