Concrete Playground Meets Douglas Moores

Despite our nationwide tendency for a spot of tall poppy syndrome, New Zealanders are a proud and patriotic bunch, which comes with a fondness for a bit of bragging on the international stage.

Where does this mentality come from? Is it the thought we are punching above our weight?  Or are we just a gifted nations of doers and shakers?

We like to think it’s all three, with nowhere showing it better than the melting pot we call Auckland and no better showcase than World’s Edge, a Silo Park-based exhibition and celebration of everything that demonstrates how New Zealand has changed the world from the edge of the world through creativity and innovation.  You can find all the physical details of the event here.

Through an analogue form of digital photography (with all the imagery taken on his iPhone, which makes us feel all the worse about the quality of our New Year’s photos) Douglas Moores manipulates images of coastal views capturing the quintessential New Zealand landscape.

The exhibition is a physical manifestion of the NZEDGE concept which aims to give NZ an 'edge' on the international stage by promoting a new way of thinking about our identity, people, stories, achievements and place in the world.

With the exhibition now under way (it’s open all week), we had the chance to catch up with Douglas and hear a little about the how and why of our Kiwi ingenuity.

The exhibition reflects kiwis and their outstanding reputation for innovation and creativity - what is it about us as a nation or people that gives us that edge?

With our isolation has come creativity and ingenuity to ‘make do with what we have’- that Kiwi ingenuity gives us the ability to think and create well out side the box. Geographic location today is no longer a limit to success, we have a worldwide audience available to us and our speakers we have featured during world’s edge are living proof of that.

We are also a young country in the scheme of things lending us well to trying new things, new innovations. We have a fantastic reputation worldwide and that is only going to continue to grow thanks to our ever-expanding creative industries.

How does the exhibition provide a new way of thinking about our identity, people, stories, achievements and place in the world?

It’s reminding us to not take our environment for granted. The exhibition features familiar landscapes all Aucklanders know well, but they’ve been manipulated to give a new perspective on that environment. The art is essentially epitomising Brian Sweenys idea of taking our nation as a whole and rebranding ourselves as an innovative center.

New Zealand has an interesting mix of tall poppy syndrome and world class innovators - what do you hope that attendees will take away from the exhibit and speakers?

I hope they come away inspired at the end of the day, for myself I know how important that is to the creative process to have that inspiration to kick start an idea, and that’s what this whole exhibition is about- taking things we know and modifying it to create something new- the basis to innovation.

An appreciation for our success on the world stage- and to walk away knowing anything is possible.

From the speakers line-up, while it may be a hard ask, who would you recommend as an absolute must-see?

I have heard them all speak and they are all fantastic. However I have just finished Malcolm Rands book, Ecoman, which was a great read - he is the first speaker in the line up so I do recommend getting along to see him.