Sophie J

𝐃𝐚𝐲 2: 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 – book launch “Our Climate Glossary” by 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 🎶✨ Hosted by 𝐒𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐦 - Pōneke Wellington based curator and writer, in collaboration with 𝐖𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐓𝐞𝐨 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐧𝐠 and 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐧. This event will also be broadcast via Zoom. 🎧🎤 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 6th December, Saturday — 5:30 pm–6:30 pm 📅🕗 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞: 115 Taranaki Street (formerly 𝐓𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐨 𝐏ā), 𝐏ō𝐧𝐞𝐤𝐞 📍 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 — 𝐤𝐨𝐡𝐚 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧! 💛🙏 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡: Curator of 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐛 𝐖𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐓𝐞𝐨 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐧𝐠, editor 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐧, and other contributors will speak about translating lived experiences of cultural reciprocity into a joyous publication featuring the writing of 30 contributors from South-East Asia, Northern Europe, and 𝐀𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐙𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. 🎵📘✨ 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐛: 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 is a multidisciplinary platform for the experimentation of aesthetics, emphasising collaboration and open dialogue. (Source: 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐨 𝐀𝐫𝐭 website, About this Platform — Borneo Laboratory) This is a free-entry festival centred around the theme of transnational solidarity, featuring workshops, children’s storytelling, poetry, music, and books from the 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 by @otherkitaabghar . 🌍🤝📚🎶 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 @sos.songsofsolidarity 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. 📲✨

@toi_o_taraika_aw @wellingtonlive Delivering a creative petition because we can’t have arts support - the LIFEBLOOD of Wellington slashed- we all need joy as well as better poo pipes. #wellington #artaslife #legislativeTheatre It’s as much

UDB Panel Series - The Founders Kia ora tātou... & now for something new! We want you all to get to know us better so over the coming months we are going to be posting videos from our beloved UDB panel... the engine behind our org. What better way to start than by going back to the beginning with our esteemed founders... super duo Sophie Jerram & Mark Amery, otherwise known as Letting Space. A couple of absolute legends & visionairies who have been encouraging artists to realise use of vacant, unloved & unconventional space since the 90's... alongside convincing commercial property owners to share their spaces. Their generosity, care & all round smarts are the reason we are here doing this... BLESS! We'll let them tell their story, shout out to Florence Hilyer-Brandt for creating :)

"For visitors like me, as tangata tīriti, (English-origin settler, living here by the mandate of Te Tīriti o Waitangi), there is huge relief in honest films about enslavement, Indigenous land practices, or the revival of seed sovereignty. By looking directly at grim histories together, we can posit new futures."⁠ – Sophie Jerram, curator, artist, and AFIELD Peer on Libby Hakaraia & Māoriland ⁠ ⁠ Every March, Māoriland Film Festival (@maorilandfilm ) achieves the profound transformation of the entire town of Ōtaki, in Aotearoa New Zealand, by being dedicated to the kaupapa (intention) of Indigenous storytelling. Ōtaki is a town of 4,000 people, 90 minutes north of the settler-colonial capital, Wellington. ⁠ ⁠ Māoriland is a global film festival, founded by filmmaker Libby Hakaraia, showing stories from all over the world for five days. It provides international residencies, scholarships and youth training, and now has a permanent hub and shop, championing the festival and local crafts. ⁠ ⁠ In our latest #AFIELDinspiration: the unwritten histories of artist-led initiatives, Sophie Jerram reflects on Māoriland’s leadership and the relief found in collective, honest storytelling as a tool for social repair.⁠ ⁠ Māoriland Film Festival runs from 23–26 March 2026.⁠ 📲 Read the full article on ↗afield.org (link in bio)⁠ ⁠ Sophie Jerram (@jerramscr ) is a curator, artist, and AFIELD Peer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She is the co-founder of Letting Space (@lettingspace ), Urban Dream Brokerage and Now Future, and currently leads Critical Signals (@criticalsignals.nz ), a community-centered initiative addressing climate and social crises through collective knowledge.⁠ ⁠ Captions in comments

The Carrier Bag, and the Story We’re Weaving Together For the past months, our team has been gathering stories, voices, and dreams into what we call our “carrier bag” — a publication inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s idea that the first human tool was not a weapon, but a vessel. Something made to hold, preserve, and share. Our book follows this instinct. It’s designed as a soft, warm basket for collective imagination — with no fixed word counts, no strict image rules, no hard edges. Just space. Space to breathe, to dream, to listen. This project has been an experiment in non-transactional, regenerative creation — asking how we can make and love without extracting. Over five days of workshops and a three-week residency, we built a process that was safe, gentle, and meaningful. From there, things grew. What began as a workshop became seminars, an exhibition in Kuching, and now a publication shaped by contributors from 15 countries. Each person brought their own lived wisdom, recycled materials, practices, and regional memories. Our editor, Mandy, describes the journey as “slow and meditative,” undoing the usual hierarchies between writing, design, and editing. Every piece was born from long conversations — articulating feelings that often sit beyond language. Many participants shared that they were nervous at first, unsure how to contribute. But once the space held them, their stories unfolded naturally. The reciprocal process let writing inform design, and design inform writing, creating a multi-layered book that feels alive. And this is only the beginning. Reciprocity 2.0 is already in motion — taking new forms, reaching new places. More copies of the book will travel to collaborators in Vietnam and Myanmar. Ripples are emerging in Jakarta and New Zealand. Regional satellites will follow. If future workshops or open calls appear, they’ll be announced on the Borneo Laboratory website. For now, we continue carrying, holding, and tending to what’s been gathered — together.

e te whānau, just another pānui about the book launch hosted by our amazing whanaunga sophie, she came to one of our kōrero session and dropped this beautifully designed and full of amazing collaborative work by our extended whānau whanui @borneolaboratory . please come at 5:30pm, and also come a bit early if you want some kai, 5pm. . in solidarity

A few snapshots from the opening of Sensing The Quarry in Wellington, NZ, earlier this month, as part of @criticalsignals.nz Sensing The Quarry is an audiovisual collaborative work by artist @pollystanton , designer @p_mylecharane , and myself. In this project, we explore listening as a critical method, attuning to hidden life worlds. Projecting both forward and backward in time, the work delves into post-human methods, decentering humanity within the greater order of things. It foregrounds the current mode of extractive capitalism as a recent phenomenon within the deep passage of time. Through sonic storytelling, it prompts us to confront other means of coexistence and the possibility — and probability — of alternative planetary futures. Big thanks to @jerramscr for the invitation, and @monashada @monasharchitecture for supporting this exhibition Photography courtesy Florence Hillyer-Brandt

Been really enjoying the work of @tanyaruka @ryanfielding_ and @sam.tam.ham (seen here) curated by @aweloveart as Te Wahi o Te Papa Whakāta ... in amongst the vegetables and disaster prep, we keep the heart lifted by collective beauty generated by our artists. Next week, a new work from Narrm thanks to @brandyjalexander at @criticalsignals.nz

Finally, a moment to celebrate the launch of Critical Signals and three art works that comprise Where We Are, an installation that provides the framing for this living research space. We enter the dialogues and workshops of Critical Signals through their sounds and images. Thronging in Three Parts (2025) by @trudymira Trudy Lane, is filmed at the at the Robert Findlay Wildlife Reserve, Pūkorokoro, North Waikato. Whakahokia (2025) is a video work by @markharvey1447 Mark Harvey working with @dooze69high Huhana Smith and Ngāti Tukorehe as part of Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies. These are joyful tributes to the efforts of communities in restoring environments to allow other species to flourish. Both video works recognise dedicated and absurd elements of community commitment and nod to the technologies in recording these. Sonic work Ghosts by composer @misagh.azimi was originally written for a stage collaboration and creates an introspective moment, with a slow, morphing development. It was written in 2018 just before Misagh began writing alongside AI. Played within the context of these video works it seems to speak to a rising and falling tides of political and climatic awareness. Critical Signals is open Tuesday -Saturday 12-7pm and Where We Are runs until August 3rd. The best time for experiencing the works is 5-7pm. Misagh will be presenting on the 27th of August : Songs for my Chatbot: How Generative AI is Impacting Music – link in bio We aim to involve more artists in this three-month pilot project, and in 2026’s potential iteration of Critical Signals. If you resonate with the themes of Critical Signals and wish to share your work – enquiries to [email protected] Thanks to @goetheinstitut_neuseeland , @toi_aria Massey University, Te Herenga Waka /Victoria University; @tepunahamatatini and @monasharchitecture

A new project space opening in Wellington, for three months, concerned with community disaster prep, especialy around kai sovereignty and data sovereignty. Come and see us at 115 Taranaki street. Haere mai!

Kia ora friends you are invited to this month's DIRT meeting- it will be a goodie

Speaking of fishing nets, I helped remove fishing line fm around the neck of a cormorant at Balaena Bay today - (bitten twice!) - at the initiative of Clara fm Brazil who was passing. @wgtncc can we get some signs and encourage recycling of lines? Apparently bird strangulation is increasing in Wellington harbour.