Taking the audience on a journey

Tiki Taane performs in Mai Te Uira, an experimental piece of theatre that combines music and digital art, coming to Gisborne on May 15. Picture by Elias Rodriguez

A new performance piece by celebrated musician, producer and innovator Tiki Taane(Ngati Maniapoto) and multidisciplinary artist Kereama Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Ati Awa), Mai te Uira, combines digital visual art with music in a progressive and experimental show coming to Gisborne in May.

“Technology is now integrated so deeply into our creative process so we wanted to explore the narrative of atua — gods within the digital realm and through a te ao Māori lens,” Taane says.

The result is a progressive and experimental performance piece which is interspersed with live music as Taane responds to the portrayal of each of the gods and swoops in to deliver organic music made with a combination of instruments, loops, vocals and samples.

“We’re taking the audience on this journey of being in this digital realm to being in the now — it reflects how we navigate those two worlds quite naturally,” he says.

Grounded in a karakia that references the atua and the whakapapa of Māori artforms, Mai Te Uira explores how innovation can be transformative when people open their minds to new ways of thinking.

Using the stories of three atua — Te Uira, the atua of lightning and new connections like technology, digital culture and cyberspace; Tāne Mahuta, a creator himself, providing us with our own capability and capacity to create; and Hine-te-Iwaiwa, whose strength we seek when searching for knowledge to give, receive and connect — this creative collaboration of music and digital animation reflects the transmission of knowledge and cements ancestral relationships.

“I’m so excited about this performance piece as it feels like we’ve opened up a musical matrix of cultural realms,” Taane says.

“Flicking between two worlds in real time, I’ll be navigating the live soundscape using traditional and electronic instruments to accompany Kereama’s incredible visuals.”

A performance of Mai Te Uira will take place for school groups before the evening show.

Taane hopes to spark creativity in the tamariki and show them what is possible using the technology they have at their fingertips these days.

“Mai Te Uira is about a connection to the digital spaces we increasingly find ourselves in. Though simultaneously it’s about the creative process — and most times part of the creative process is engaging and collaborating with others,” says Kereama Taepa.

“I’m just stoked to be working with Tiki on this project . . . a fusion of skills to bring the experiential feast that is Mai Te Uira.”

The creative collaboration is being presented as a result of a unique partnership between The Dowse Art Museum and Chamber Music New Zealand.

■ Mai Te Uira, Lawson Field Theatre, May 15, 7.30pm. Tickets at Ticketek or Gisborne i-Site.