Party Political Broadcast

 “The following is a party political broadcast on behalf of…”

Presented by CIRCUIT and The Physics Room, Party Political Broadcast is a collection of 8 video works inspired by the format of the televised party political broadcast. Featuring new work by Janet Lilo, Murray Hewitt, Li-Ming Hu, Mark Harvey, Terri Te Tau, Miranda Bellamy, Fantasing, Callum Devlin, each of the artists in Party Political Broadcast were given a time limit of 30 seconds in which “to offer their vision for (New Zealand’s) future”.

Originally developed in the 1960s for television, a Party Political Broadcast typically featured one politician speaking direct to camera, or a montage of images suggesting New Zealand as a country engulfed in economic and social peril, or on the cusp of prosperity for all. The Party Political Broadcast would screen in the regular television ad breaks, between commercials for butter, deodorant and other consumer products. Usually the clip would end with a tag line ‘This Election… ‘Vote Social Credit’ etc.  Some of these ads simply featured ‘ordinary New Zealanders’ talking about their hopes and dreams.

The Party Political Broadcasts were exhibited online on circuit.org.nz from Tuesday 19 Sept-Fri 23 Sept.