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• ada cloudland exhibition
• ada symposium 2009

Aotearoa Digital Arts Trust is Aotearoa New Zealand’s only digital artists’ network. ADA’s purpose is educational, enabling communication between artists, curators, teachers, critics, theorists, writers and the interested public. ADA aims to develop public understanding of digital art through online discussion, publications, exhibitions and symposia.

In material terms ADA faciltates understanding of digital arts through an email-discussion list, a website and a series of face-to-face public symposia at:

• Waikato University (2003)
• Auckland University of Technology (2004)
• Otago University (2005)
• Western Institute of Technology (2006)
• Design and Arts College Christchurch (2008)
• Victoria University (2009).

ADA has brought influential international speakers in the area of digital art to participate in its symposia and pass on their knowledge to local audiences. The public audience for the symposia includes students and members of the local arts community from a different national centre each year. To date, ADA symposia have been held in Hamilton, New Plymouth, Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland. Guests have included United States-based Steve Dietz, curator of the 2006 International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Melinda Rackham, director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology and artists Young Hae Chang and Marc Voge from Korea.

In 2008 ADA and Clouds published the Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader. A comprehensive 240- page anthology edited by Su Ballard and Stella Brennan, the reader documents digital art practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The intention of the ADA Reader is to provide an educational resource for students, teachers, artists and the interested public. The reader is held in school and university libraries around the country. The ADA Reader assists the development of audiences for New Zealand digital arts.

ADA supports digital arts activities and public events. We promote understanding of digital art amongst the general public by curating and assisting in the production of exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. In 2008 ADA curated the exhibition Cloudland, a partner programme of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts in Singapore. Cloudland presented the work of nine New Zealand artists to Singaporean audiences, the general public, and the international delegates attending the sympoisum. In July ADA suppported the exhibition Atmos; Weather as Media held at Auckland’s MIC Toi Rerehiko which incuded artist collaborations with science organisations, political news sites, and YouTube users. In 2009 we have assisted in the presentation of Alex Monteith’s four-channel video work Composition for Farmer… at the Govett-Brewster Public Art Gallery in New Plymouth through the provision of technical support and the loan of equipment.

ADA is a national organisation that advances education, enabling discussion, collaboration and mentoring, passing on learning and expertise and contributing towards the development of digital art in New Zealand.

The current ADA trustees are Zita Joyce (chair), Stella Brennan (secretary), Susan Ballard (treasurer), Janine Randerson, and Douglas Bagnall.