Games and Politics exhibition – Christchurch – 16 August – 23 September 2018

What

An interactive exhibition by the Goethe-Institut, in cooperation with ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Games and Politics has been touring worldwide and features 18 significant politically-ambitious video games, it encourages viewers to examine how they each unfold their unique political potential.

The exhibition offers numerous materials which allow the visitor to explore the connections between computer games and politics. Visitors are encouraged to get first-hand experience and are welcome to play themselves – to slip into the different roles and try their luck in the virtual worlds unfolding in the games.

A game is always more than just a game. Without considering the influence of the society that plays it, it remains just as impossible to understand as without considering its influence on that society. And yet, chants of euphoric praise for the immersive potential of pedagogical propaganda are as inadequate vis-à-vis the diversity of contemporary computer games as are undifferentiated media debates about ego-shooter games that glorify violence and ought to vanish from the bedrooms of young people. Because they aren’t vanishing. The apparent riffraff among the newer media have long since turned into formidable giants, about to create, in their numerous guises, a new leading medium.

This development has come to include the political sphere as well and games are increasingly used as propaganda for various political factions and often express a certain political stance. In contrast to representational media such as painting and photography, computer games conceive of themselves not merely as a (re-) presentation of social conditions and conflicts, but attempt to simulate the processes and rules that give rise to these conflicts.

All of the games in this exhibition share this political approach, which is intended by the games’ designers to set them clearly apart from both the conventional market as well as from computer games as an entertainment medium. They explore a wide range of topics.

Aside from the contingencies of political decision-making (Democracy 3), they grapple with problematic aspects of gender (Perfect Woman), of the surveillance state (TouchTone and Orwell), of drone warfare (Killbox), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera), uprisings against totalitarian political regimes (Yellow Umbrella), the power of the media (The Westport Independent) or historical and current political events (The Cat and the Coup and Madrid).

When and Where

16 August – 23 September, 2018
10am -5pm Weekdays
11am – 4pm Weekends

The Physics Room,
49-59 Worcester Boulevard,
Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Eventfinda Page
Homepage of Games and Politics Exhibition

 

Week of Engineering: Open Day! – Akl, Wel, Chch – 18 August 2018

What

Get involved with the Week of Engineering!

Tomorrow’s engineers will have jobs that don’t even exist today. The Week of Engineering is an annual event that will inspire young minds to think about those future possibilities. From 13-18 August, Engineering New Zealand will be hosting a variety of events that showcase amazing engineering across the country, feeding children’s natural curiosity about the world and how it works.

Engineering Expos:

As part of the Week of Engineering, there will be three free public expos in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Over 70 exhibitors from around the country will give visitors a hands-on look at what engineers do – perfect for kids and anyone who wants an inside look at how things work. There’ll be virtual reality, robots, rockets and lego, along with interactive activities, competitions and spot prizes.

Last year more than 5,000 people attended the expos and this year Engineering New Zealand are expecting 10,000 people.

Come along and get inspired!

When and Where

10am – 4pm
Saturday 18 August 2018

University of Auckland Science Centre
23 Symonds St, Auckland

Shed 6
4 Queens Wharf, Wellington

Canterbury University’s College of Engineering
69 Creyke Street, Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Week of Engineering: Engineering Expos
Eventfinda pages: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch

WORD Christchurch – Writers & Readers festival – 29 August-2 September 2018

What

ADVENTUROUS

Whether you’re into extreme sports or more of an armchair traveller, invite a bit of adventure into your lives by checking out our adventurous-themed events, with whale lover Philip Hoare, intrepid traveller Robyn Davidson, extreme sportsters Nathan Fa’avae and John Hellemans, adventurous woman Hollie Woodhouse and Laurence Fearnley on mountain writing. Kids can even get adventurous with science, with Nanogirl herself, Michelle Dickinson.

SCOTLAND

This year, we celebrate all thing Scottish, with six writers from that bonnie land: poets Hollie McNish, Robin Robertson and Michael Pedersen; Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller; crime writer Denise Mina, and megastar novelist Irvine Welsh, who will revisit the Trainspotting crew. If you love a dram, don’t miss our tasting event, Whisky Galore!

Supported by the British Council and Creative Scotland.

SUFFRAGE 125

This September we commemorate and celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Events include a look at how far we’ve really come (125 Years: Are We There Yet?, chaired by Kim Hill), readings and discussions on women’s bodies (The Body Issue, Sonya Renee Taylor: The Body is Not an Apology), an Adventurous Women event, and the Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture from Barbara Else, author of Go Girl.

When and Where

Various venues in and around Christchurch

29 August – 2 September 2018

How Much

Tickets to most events $20 ( or $19 concession)

Some events more.

Dash Ticket for most events
Ticketek for Irvine Walsh and Starry, Starry Night.

More

Festival Website

Robots Under Antarctica’s Ice..and One Day in Space? – Dunedin – 21 August 2018

What

Robotic Vehicles Under Antarctica’s Ice… and One Day in Space?

In 2021 NASA will launch the Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa. One of the most enticing targets in the search for life beyond Earth, Europa’s icy outer shell hides a global ocean, powered by immense tides. If its interior is active today, this ocean may provide the energy to help sustain a biosphere.

In this talk Dr Britney Schmidt from the Georgia Institute of Technology will outline how researchers are using the autonomous underwater vehicle Icefin, to explore the harsh environments beneath the Antarctic ice shelves as a test bed for developing vehicles that may one day explore below the surface of Europa.

Come and hear about our own cosmic backyard. In partnership with the University of Otago and Antarctica New Zealand, learn about the exciting Ross Ice Shelf Programme and how it’s using this new robotic capability to better understand both climate and planetary science.

When and Where

5:30pm
Tuesday 21 August 2018

Hutton Theatre
Otago Museum
419 Great King St
Dunedin

How Much

Free

More

Talk page at Otago Museum website
Eventfinda Page

Ansible Windows Automation: Myth or Truth? + Ansible Vault Integration – Wellington – 16 August 2018

What

Have you thought about how to automate both Linux and Windows infrastructure using a Centralized tool for ease of management?
If you have, then let’s talk about it.

Mike Calizo will share his interesting journey and how to use Ansible for Windows Automation.

In addition, Tom Eastman will talk about how to incorporate
Hashicorp Vault in Ansible for dynamic secret generation.”

Ansible is a New Zealand Group for bring together people building out automation stacks using Ansible and share learnings, provide training and networking.

When and Where

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Thursday 16 August 2018

Location TBA
Wellington CBD

How Much

Free

More

Webpage for this Meetup event
Ansible New Zealand meetup group (Wellington)

WOSSAT – Wellington – 21 August 2018

What

Wellington Open Source Show And Tell (WOSSAT)

Martin Krafft — Stepping up the game against Web trackers

The attempt to standardize the Do-Not-Track HTTP request header is going nowhere, and it’s cute anyway, in that it expects the other side to honour the request, and how would we know if they did? After all, tracking is serious business, and it’s hard to imagine a company in this field walking past money lying on the street without picking it up.

Martin is at war with what the Web has become, and he’s here to talk to you about techniques he’s using to minimise his browsing footprint on a day to day basis. Do not attend if you’d prefer to think of the Web as the decentralized knowledge-sharing network it was originally conceived as.

Brent Wood — NIWA’s Marine Data Portal

The NIWA Marine Data portal started life as a web portal for a Bay of Islands research project in 2008. The entire site was based on open source and open standards to provide open data (and open information – there is a difference!). NIWA has a number of other marine research projects that need a “web presence” so the site was enhanced and renamed to support multiple projects.

The portal is based on a suite of open Source applications, including Silverstripe (CMS), PostGIS (spatial database), Geonetwork (metadata catalogue), mapserver (spatial data web services), Openlayers (web map client). It runs on Linux servers. Data is served and accessed using OGC web services (WMS, WFS, CSW) and some of the data services have been picked up and reused elsewhere.

Wellington Open Source Show And Tell is a monthly meetup for fans of all things open. Come along to share tools, techniques and experiences.

When and Where

6pm Tuesday, 21st August 2018

Catalyst IT
Level 3, Catalyst House,
150 Willis Street, Wellington

How Much

Free

More

wossat.nz

Meetup event

Future Meetings Schedule:

Monthly meetings alternate between the 3rd Tuesday and the 3rd Thursday of each month.

Postgres window functions in Rails, Thor gem & Android + Turbolinks – Auckland – 23 August 2018

What

Auckland Ruby meetup is a monthly group that explores the use of Ruby. We welcome anyone interested in the language!

We have 3 talks this meetup:

  • Rebecca Pinheiro from Nectar will talk about Postgres window functions in Rails
  • Ricky Hurtado from Trineo will show us how to use the Thor gem
  • James Scott Tayler will build a real world Android app using the Turbolinks Android wrapper with a Rails backend

When and Where

Thursday 23 August 2018
6:30pm to 9:30pm

MYOB Office
Level 5
12 Normanby Rd
Mt Eden
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Meetup Page for the event
Ruby Nights: The Auckland Ruby Group

Spark Festival – Hamilton – 6-9 August 2018

What

Get inspired while you learn, share and connect face-to-face with creative visionaries who hail from the USA, Australia and New Zealand at Spark’s 20th Festival. This week long series of talks, workshops, exhibitions and performances will be held on Wintec’s city campus with other events happening in the heart of Hamilton city.

Speakers will share their knowledge in talks and workshops on everything from being a social influencer, to making it as a freelancer, finding creative people-centred solutions to difficult brand problems, and building collaborative creative and inclusive communities in an increasingly connected world.

Step out from behind your screen and be part of this two-way exchange at these critical, and intimate, conversations. Share knowledge and fuel your curiosity at this week-long, creative experience.

The festival is free to attend and open to all, though there are limited places at each event. For entry, students bring your Wintec ID and for anyone else get your Eventbrite Ticket at no cost here. To sign up for workshops click the register link on the website and find out all you need to know.

When and Where

Monday 6 – Thursday 9 August 2018
8am to 8pm each day

Wintec Campus
Gate 5
Tristram St
Hamilton

How Much

Free

More

Website – www.spark.net.nz

 

Let’s talk: careers in tech – Wellington – 9 August 2018

What

Join us for the next Wāhine in Tech Wellington event for an engaging discussion about careers in tech.

We have gathered a group of kick ass women for the discussion panel, all of whom have had really interesting journeys in the tech industry. Come armed with your own questions or discussion points, and let’s get the conversation started.

Is the tech industry a welcoming place for women? What kind of treatment should be expected? What does success look like? How do we make it a better space in which to progress and flourish? How do we make it more inclusive for underrepresented people?

About our panellists:

aurynn shaw
aurynn is the founder of Eiara, a DevOps consultancy based out of Wellington, New Zealand, focussing on helping clients develop technical DevOps capability, and the cultural knowledge to use it.

With over a decade as a professional software developer, aurynn’s expertise ranges from modern cloud deployments to massively parallel supercomputer environments.

As the defining voice of the ideas of “contempt culture”, aurynn is working to change the very nature of how we create new technologies, and the questions that we must answer as we do.

Hiria Te Rangi
Hiria loves her community and loves technology, so Kaiwhakahaere (CEO) for WhareHauora was a natural role for her.

With 15 years in tech with numerous technical and business roles in open data, open source, digital technologies and infrastructure, Hiria relishes the middle ground that Whare Hauora holds for Aotearoa.

Whare Hauora’s ability to go into a Marae, Community centres or schools to teach low income families about Whare Sensors, how to build them and how they can help whānau make informed decisions about how their home affects their health, brilliantly marries Hiria’s two loves and she is very happy to talk to you about them.

Tamara Buckland
Tamara is a passionate people and culture consultant in the tech industry with a background in entrepreneurship, service design and delivery, and people leadership. She balances consulting with working part time for CoLiberate, a local business delivering Mental Health First Aid training. Tamara brings a mental health and wellbeing focus to her work in the tech industry, and is particularly interested in how we can support people in marginalised groups

When and Where

How Much

Free. Please reserve your seat here.

More

Code of Conduct for Wāhine in Tech Wellington.

A big thank you to TradeMe (https://www.trademe.co.nz/) for hosting us, and once again to Raygun (https://raygun.com/) and Rabid Technologies (http://www.rabid.co.nz/) for sponsoring the drinks and nibbles.

Hawkes Bay Con 2018 – Napier – 25-26 August 2018

What

The board games are coming back to Hawke’s Bay in the last weekend of August!

Our goal is to encourage people of all ages and skill levels to come and enjoy a wide range of board games – Mars colonization, space cowboys, trading, social deception, puzzle solving, and war gaming – we’ve got it all.

A large gaming library will be available at the venue, alongside several casual and competitive tournaments, spot prizes, raffles and stalls. And if you like escape rooms, we’ve got a special surprise for you! Keep an eye on the event and the newsfeed – we will keep you posted with the coming up agenda.

Our friendly volunteers will be there to talk you through the games you haven’t played before and make sure you meet like-minded people and have a great time.

When and Where

Saturday 25 August 2018 10am-10pm
Sunday 26 August 2018 1-am-4pm

Taradale Intermediate,
6 Murphy Road,
Taradale,
Napier,
Hawke’s Bay

How Much

Adults: $10.00 per day pass, or $15 for two days.
Under 16s: free with accompanying adults.

More

Facebook Page
Eventfinda Page
Registration