This paper explores the scope of small-scale radio to create an auditory geography of place. It focuses on the short term art radio project The Stadium Broadcast, which was staged in November 2014 in an earthquake-damaged sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thousands of buildings and homes in Christchurch have been demolished since the Februrary 22, 2011 earthquake, and while Lancaster Park sports stadium is still standing, it has been unused since that date and its future remains uncertain. The Stadium Broadcast constructed a radio memorial to the Park’s 130 year history through archival recordings, the memories of local people, observation of its current state, and a performed site-specificity. The Stadium Broadcast reflected on the spatiality of radio sounds and transmissions, memory, post-disaster transitionality, and the im-permanence of place.
Farming and urban regions are impacted by earthquake disasters in different ways, and feature a range of often different recovery requirements. In New Zealand, and elsewhere, most earthquake impact and recovery research is urban focused. This creates a research deficit that can lead to the application of well-researched urban recovery strategies in rural areas to suboptimal effect. To begin to reduce this deficit, in-depth case studies of the earthquake impacts and recovery of three New Zealand farms severely impacted by the 14th November 2016, M7.8 Hurunui-Kaikōura earthquake were conducted. The initial earthquake, its aftershocks and coseismic hazards (e.g., landslides, liquefaction, surface rupture) affected much of North Canterbury, Marlborough and the Wellington area. The three case study farms were chosen to broadly represent the main types of farming and topography in the Hurunui District in North Canterbury. The farms were directly and indirectly impacted by earthquakes and related hazards. On-farm infrastructure (e.g., woolsheds, homesteads) and essential services (e.g., water, power), frequently sourced from distributed networks, were severely impacted. The earthquake occurred after two years of regional drought had already stressed farm systems and farmers to restructuring or breaking point. Cascading interlinked hazards stemming from the earthquakes and coseismic hazards continued to disrupt earthquake recovery over a year after the initial earthquake. Semi-structured interviews with the farmers were conducted nine and fourteen months after the initial earthquake to capture the timeline of on-going impacts and recovery. Analysis of both geological hazard data and interview data resulted in the identification of key factors influencing farm level earthquake impact and recovery. These include pre-existing conditions (e.g., drought); farm-specific variations in recovery timelines; and resilience strategies for farm recovery resources. The earthquake recovery process presented all three farms with opportunities to change their business plans and adapt to mitigate on-going and future risk.
Field trips are one of the most critical pieces of learning for students in sciences like geology, biology, and geography. Virtual field trips (VFT) are being increasingly considered as sophisticated and effective forms of teaching, especially with the rise of new technologies and the growing demand for more inclusive classroom environments. This research developed a virtual field trip for Tertiary students in an introductory-level geology course (GEOL 113: Environmental Geohazards) at the University of Canterbury. This initiative was in partnership with LEARNZ – a highly esteemed virtual fieldtrip team run by CORE Education that creates successful VFTs for Primary and Secondary students in New Zealand. Key components of the Tertiary VFT include a student acting as the virtual field trip teacher interviewing experts and leading the field trip, web-based background material, online assessment, and photos. In two successive academic years, students participated in the VFT during lectures and as pre class assignments prior to a one-day earthquake hazards workshop. In 2016, the virtual field trip used the LEARNZ web platform and occurred synchronously with the class; in 2017 the virtual fieldtrip reused the video, images and word documents from the previous year with the addition of a Google Earth component and with no reliance on the LEARNZ web platform. The goals of the trip were designed to prepare students for the earthquake hazards workshop, in which students analysed earthquake impacts over varying timescales and then applied that knowledge to develop strategies for the recovery of three crucial industries (dairy, mining, or tourism) on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. In both years, number of clicks data showed that students interacted with online material far more during this week of the course than any other. Following the synchronous version in 2016, the students who were surveyed reported (1) they enjoyed the trip, (2) they found background material useful for preparation for the trip and the workshop, and (3) the additional work was at the appropriate level. Despite predominantly positive responses from the students, we experienced some negative feedback from participating staff mainly associated with stress and technical difficulties in running the synchronous VFT. With the asynchronous trip in 2017, staff reported a highly positive overall experience, with a perceived enhanced interaction with class during lecture time, and an increased and enhanced engagement with course material outside of class. The student survey again showed that the majority of students surveyed enjoyed the virtual fieldtrip, and that it was useful preparation for the workshop. Additionally, they reported an improved link between earth processes and society, which was a key overarching aim for the course. We propose that the synchronous version poses more excitement and immersion in the field environment, whereas the reuse of the asynchronous version increases the utility (and hence value for money) of the trip, and minimises technical difficulties and lecturer stress. Additionally, re-using the material in the asynchronous version offered opportunities to improve and supplement the past content, such as the incorporation of following an annotated trip path in Google Earth. As recommendations for others interested in developing virtual fieldtrips, we report that the design of a virtual fieldtrip should include (1) Goal-aligned content and assessment for both practice and marks, (2) a student and instructor experience that is authentic and flexible to both the people and the place. We suggest that these aims can be achieved whatever the budget or timeframe and make our material freely available at https://serc.carleton.edu/index.html.
