Spark, Wintec’s international festival of media, arts and design, is happening 4th – 8th of August. Spark 08 is a dynamic five day long event where established creative practitioners will present to audiences on topics such as contemporary art, costume design, writing, acting, photography, publishing, comics, filmmaking and music. “These people are at the cutting edge of their genres, across a diverse range of specialties,” says Spark Programme Manager Susanna Wilford. “Spark is a rare blend of the contemporary arts, media and design worlds that nourishes the soul and charges the mind.”

The presentations will be open to the public, and the majority of them are free. Alongside the presentations, Spark will offer a variety of entertaining events and workshops. Events during the week include Hamilton’s inaugural Pecha Kucha night, the Palestinian Days film screening, a new Ramp Gallery opening, along with Fringe events such as Artspost exhibition openings, and a special Spark Finale featuring Whirimako Black.

Coco Solid & Robyn E. Kenealy
Established comic illustrator, Robyn E. Kenealy and artist/hip hop musician Coco Solid will come together to discuss comics, illustration and the indie arts scene at Spark08. Robyn is a Wellington-based comic book housewife who has been a prime mover of the New Zealand Comics Weekend and the Eric Awards. Robyn also plays guitar and banjo, makes conceptual art, dabbles in painting and haiku and has written the odd short story.

Coco Solid, AKA Jessica Hansell, has a history of self-released comics and zines, including her most popular publication ‘THIS IS NOT A COMIC’, co-created with Pritika Lal and nominated for ‘Best Debut Comic’ at the Eric Awards. She also released concept double album ‘The Radical Bad Attack’ last month, which explores both dance and experimental music.

Robyn and Coco will be doing a presentation together and a workshop each. They are also performing individually at the Spark Finale – Coco is DJ-ing, and Robyn will play the banjo.

Pecha Kucha
Spark 08 launches Pecha Kucha (pronounced pe-cha-ku-cha) to Hamilton. This evening’s event, supported by NZTE amongst others, will be the first of regular Pecha Kucha evenings to be held in Hamilton City at different venues across the city. The name sounds interesting - so what is it?

Pecha Kucha is a presentation format for creative work originally devised by two esteemed architects in Tokyo, Japan in 2003. A number of presenters show a slideshow of 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds - giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. Presenters are usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields.

The event format has been replicated in more than 120 cities, including London, San Francisco, Seattle, Rotterdam, Shanghai and Berlin. Events usually are limited to one each month per city and a minimum of four events per year.

Palestinian Film Festival
The Palestinian Days Film Festival is organised and run by the London Film Forum and invited films have been collected by them to reflect the 60 years of Palestinian struggle. The package of films have been screened already in places as disparate as the Doha National Theatre in Qatar, Sao Paolo in Brazil, Belfast, Northern Ireland and the SPARK screening will be the first in New Zealand.