A photograph of a man in a high-visibility vest guarding a cordon at the intersection of Montreal and Gloucester Street. In the background, a "Luxury Mobile Flushing Toilet" can be seen.
A photograph of street art on the side of a building on Manchester Street, facing onto High Street. The artwork is signed by Jacob Yikes.
A photograph a box with supplies on top. These include tarpaulins, duct tape, a sledgehammer, a box of screws, and a brush and shovel.
A photograph of a paste-up on the wall of the earthquake-damaged Knox Church. The paste-up depicts a bandaid with a speech bubble reading, "I'll kiss it better".
A photograph of a paste-up on the wall of the earthquake-damaged Knox Church. The paste-up depicts a bandaid with a speech bubble reading, "I'll kiss it better".
A photograph of a paste-up on the wall of the earthquake-damaged Knox Church. The paste-up depicts a bandaid with a speech bubble reading, "I'll kiss it better".
A photograph of a paste-up on the wall of the earthquake-damaged Knox Church. The paste-up depicts a bandaid with a speech bubble reading, "I'll kiss it better".
A photograph of a sign on the exterior of the Lions Transitional Facility. The sign reads, "St Albans Community Centre. A Lions Community Partnership".
A photograph of emergency management personnel exiting the car park of the earthquake-damaged Press House on Gloucester Street. One of the team is pushing a wheelbarrow full of various supplies.
A PDF copy of the site map for Canterbury Tales. Canterbury Tales was the main event of FESTA 2013; a carnivalesque procession through the central city, led by Free Theatre Christchurch. Sculptural installations and performances were part of the procession, which started at the Bridge of Remembrance and ended in Cathedral Square.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the back of the Canterbury Provincial Chambers, taken from Oxford Terrace across the Avon River.
For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. The podium which formerly held the Godley statue. Behind is the Regent Theatre dome which has been removed from the building.
A photograph of a crowd gathered around the large-scale puppets created for FESTA's 2013 Canterbury Tales event. The puppets are in the Re:START mall car park on Cashel Street.
A photograph of a paste-up on a wall on Peterborough Street. The paste-up depicts an excavator picking up demolition material, with a speech bubble reading, "Nom nom".
A photograph of a paste-up on a wall on Peterborough Street. The paste-up depicts an excavator picking up demolition material, with a speech bubble reading, "Nom nom".
Sand volcanoes put the silt all over the road.
The earthquake knocked over the bird bath.
Debra points at the beginnings of a sand volcano not long after the big earthquake.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Chinese Methodist Church on Papanui Road. The bricks at the top of the tower have crumbled, and the wooden bracing is hanging half off the building. The spire of the tower can be seen to the left where it was moved to following the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of street art on the side of an electricity substation on St Asaph Street. The artwork includes a Maori heimatau (fish hook) motif. Search and rescue codes have been spray-painted on the door of the building.
Creativity that is driven by a need for physical or economic survival, which disasters are likely to inspire, raises the question of whether such creativity fits with conventional theories and perspectives of creativity. In this paper we use the opportunity afforded by the 2010-2013 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes to follow and assess the creative practices and responses of a number of groups and individuals. We use in-depth interviews to tease out motivations and read these against a range of theoretical propositions about creativity. In particular, we focus on the construct of “elite panic” and the degree to which this appeared to be evident in the Christchurch earthquakes context. Bureaucratic attempts to control or limit creativity were present but they did not produce a completely blanket dampening effect. Certain individuals and groups seemed to be pre-equipped to navigate or ignore potential blocks to creativity. We argue, using Geir Kaufmann’s novelty-creativity matrix and aspects of Teresa Amabile’s and Michael G. Pratt’s revised componential theory of creativity that a special form of disaster creativity does exist.
A photograph of Nick Sargent sitting at a table at the Pallet Pavilion during Supernova City, a drawing workshop led by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist and architect Byron Kinnaird. This event was part of FESTA 2013, and invited people to make new, imaginative drawings of Christchurch city.
A photograph of Hugh Grant (right) drawing at a table at the Pallet Pavilion during Supernova City, a drawing workshop led by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist and architect Byron Kinnaird. This event was part of FESTA 2013, and invited people to make new, imaginative drawings of Christchurch city.
A photograph of a person drawing at a table at the Pallet Pavilion during Supernova City, a drawing workshop led by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist and architect Byron Kinnaird. This event was part of FESTA 2013, and invited people to make new, imaginative drawings of Christchurch city.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a block of buildings in central Christchurch. The basement of the buildings have collapsed and the concrete blocks have spilled into the car park. Large cracks have also formed in between the blocks in the walls of the building to the left.
A photograph of Sally Airey (left) drawing at a table at the Pallet Pavilion during Supernova City, a drawing workshop led by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist and architect Byron Kinnaird. This event was part of FESTA 2013, and invited people to make new, imaginative drawings of Christchurch city.
A photograph of Nick Sargent and Jessica Halliday of FESTA outside the Pallet Pavilion during Supernova City, a drawing workshop led by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist and architect Byron Kinnaird. This event was part of FESTA 2013, and invited people to make new, imaginative drawings of Christchurch city.
A toppled chimney on a house in Christchurch. The chimney has toppled onto the house but luckily not broken through the roof. It is now broken and lying on the corrugated iron. Below, plastic sheeting has been placed along the side of the roof to replace the missing gutter.
Prior to the devastating 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, parts of the CBD of Christchurch, New Zealand were undergoing revitalisation incorporating aspects of adaptive reuse and gentrification. Such areas were often characterised by a variety of bars, restaurants, and retail outlets of an “alternative” or “bohemian” style. These early 20th century buildings also exhibited relatively low rents and a somewhat chaotic and loosely planned property development approach by small scale developers. Almost all of these buildings were demolished following the earthquakes and a cordon placed around the CBD for several years. A paper presented at the ERES conference in 2013 presented preliminary results, from observation of post-earthquake public meetings and interviews with displaced CBD retailers. This paper highlighted a strongly held fear that the rebuild of the central city, then about to begin, would result in a very different style and cost structure from that which previously existed. As a result, permanent exclusion from the CBD of the types of businesses that previously characterised the successfully revitalised areas would occur. Five years further on, new CBD retail and office buildings have been constructed, but large areas of land between them remain vacant and the new buildings completed are often having difficulty attracting tenants. This paper reports on the further development of this long-term Christchurch case study and examines if the earlier predictions of the displaced retailers are coming true, in that a new CBD that largely mimics a suburban mall in style and tenancy mix, inherently loses some of its competitive advantage?
A photograph submitted by Ginny Larsen to the QuakeStories website. The description reads, "I work for Neighbourhood Trust in Mairehau/Shirley. In April 2011 a group of people from Liberty Church came down to Christchurch to gift 100s of Easter boxes to residents – lots of treats to bring a smile.".