Otherwise Worlding Reader: Screening and Launch

CIRCUIT is proud to present Otherwise Worlding, a new reader on artists’ animation featuring essays, conversations, and a playthrough of an interactive game.

Otherwise Worlding was developed from the 2022 exhibition Otherwise-image-worlds which featured installations by four Aotearoa artists Juliet Carpenter, Tanu Gago, Ary Jansen, and Sorawit Songsataya, alongside UK artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. Commissioned by CIRCUIT, curated by Tendai Mutambu and presented in partnership with Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, the exhibition considered animation as a medium brimming with emancipatory potential, asking:

How can animation in contemporary moving image practices be critical of the commercial demand for spectacle and efficiency? How can it serve as a tool for worldbuilding and re-imagining history beyond imperialist, white, cis, male-dominated narratives? 

Edited by Mark Williams and designed by Eva Charlton, the new 66-page full colour reader expands from the original project to discuss broader issues in contemporary animation practice with guest interlocutors and essayists.

Tanu Gago and filmmaker Raqi Syed discuss their shared trajectories of moving from an early career in commercial animation towards a hybrid practice as cultural storytellers exploring VR. Juliet Carpenter and curator Sebastjan Brank consider the concept of feminine hysteria in medical and cinema history. Artist Ruth Watson muses on the intimacy of distance in the digital landscape created by Sorawit Songsataya. In a conversation with Tendai Mutambu, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Ary Jansen imagine the potential of video games to move beyond orthodox tropes of gender. Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley hosts a playthrough of their animated game, HOW DANGEROUS IS YOUR DATE?, which is realised as a series of onscreen prompts reminiscent of 1980s text-based adventure games, answered by a live audience.

Otherwise Worlding launches in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington at play_station on Friday 28 July, and in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland at Lopdell Theatre in association with Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery on Saturday 29 July. The screening will include works by Juliet Carpenter, Tanu Gago, Ary Jansen, Sorawit Songsataya, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and be introduced by CIRCUIT Director Mark Williams. The reader will be available for a one-off launch price of $10.

Places are limited for the screening at Te Uru. To book your seat please RSVP to info@teuru.org.nz.

With thanks to play_station, Fred Small, Adrienne (AD) Schierning, Andrew Clifford, Connie Brown, and the staff at Te Uru. Special acknowledgements to Tendai Mutambu.

Publisher: CIRCUIT
Editor: Mark Williams
Copyeditor: Misong Kim

Design: Eva Charlton

Format: Paperback
Original publication: 29 Jul 2023
ISBN: 9780473668426
66 pages with B&W & colour illustrations, English