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Jamie Berry at the Oberhausen film festival in Germany.
I recently returned from Germany, getting to demonstrate my work to people in Europe for the first time. Whakapapa / Algorithms is a multimedia work that uses algorithms and computer programming to connect spiritual and physical realms, ancestors and descendants, with the natural world. Soundscapes are generated through a sequencing of my own DNA chromosome.
When I received the news that I had been selected for the International Competition at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in Germany, my thought was ‘do they know it’s a visual/audio installation?’ Unlike just screening a film, being a VJ (short for video jockey) involves visual artists who mix and improvise with their videos live in installation and performance. And my second thought was ‘will the borders be open so I can go to the premiere?’
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Call it fate or just good timing but the borders opened earlier this year and I jumped on the opportunity to travel (with the support of the New Zealand Film Commission) to go to a foreign place I whakapapa to, Germany.
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A still from Jamie Berryâs multimedia work Whakapapa / Algorithms.
The international audience received it well and love Māori culture. I think they appreciated seeing it from a present and authentic point of view of unconditional love, connection and wairua. An international language when it comes to family and heritage.
With the permission and blessing of my whānau to show the work overseas I travelled to Germany alongside Director of Circuit Mark Williams, who submitted Whakapapa / Algorithms to the festival. Now 10 years old, Circuit represents moving image artists in Aotearoa. We were picked up in a very flash European car I’d never seen before, travelling the autobahn at up to speeds of 190 kph. Yes, I did karakia the whole way.
Oberhausen I imagine is a quiet, sleepy village when the festival isn’t there. In its 68th year, it is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world, and one of the major international platforms for short film. I could feel the history walking through the streets and sitting in the theatre. I felt family reunion vibes with the amount of people Mark knew – he travels here every year to promote Aotearoa artists. I meanwhile still couldn’t believe I was on the other side of the world drinking German beer in the sun.
How did this mahi come about? In 2020 I was commissioned by Circuit and Auckland’s Epic Sweep Records to produce a new work for The Sound of Seeing, a series presenting an alternative history of Aotearoa experimental music, seen through the prisms of the Artist Video. I decided to do an experimental live AV performance, my first VJ set.
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A still from Jamie Berryâs multimedia work Whakapapa / Algorithms.
The name Whakapapa / Algorithms is exactly what the work is about – taking home videos, photography of my whānau past and present, my whenua, Tūranganui-a-kiwa (Poverty Bay), motifs and digital patterns inspired by my marae, Rongopai, to interweave past and present. The soundscape being the driving force is generated by sequencing of my DNA into unique audio stems, waiata recited by my younger brother Matt Berry and the swooning sounds of native birds in their natural habitat, calling back to a deep ancestral past mixed together with a pulsing electronic repetitive beat to remind the viewer of moving and progressing into the future.
There was a lockdown‘s worth of editing and rummaging through old whānau footage and photos. Not being physically around my whānau at that time I missed them and appreciated them more than ever. Whakapapa / Algorithms is definitely a love letter to my whakapapa and whānau.
In Oberhausen, it was an amazing feeling to be able to represent my heritage, my whānau and where I’m from. Bringing the work to Germany has been part of completing the family circle.
- Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, and Ngā Puhi, Te-Whanganui-a-Tara based artist Jamie Berry creates large-scale multimedia artworks that explore indigenous histories while reflecting on identity and whakapapa.
