Dear Janet

On behalf of CIRCUIT and The Physics Room, Christchurch I am writing to invite you to be part of a curatorial project timed to co-incide with the upcoming New Zealand election on 17 September.

Party Political Broadcast invites 8 artists to each make a 30 second single channel video work inspired by the format of the televised party political broadcast.

Each video will be streamed on the CIRCUIT website in the month of September leading up to the election, and a public presentation of all the works is scheduled for Christchurch in Wellington in mid-September, probably at a public venue to be confirmed.

Originally developed in the 1960s for television, a Party Political Broadcast typically featured one politician speaking direct to camera, or a montage of images suggesting New Zealand as a country engulfed in economic and social peril, or on the cusp of prosperity for all. Usually the clip would end with a tag line ‘This Election… ‘Vote Social Credit’ etc.  Some of these ads featured no politicians at all, instead letting ‘ordinary New Zealanders’ talk about their hopes and dreams. The Party Political Broadcast would screen in the regular television ad breaks, between commercials for butter, deodorant and other consumer products.

Ahead of the upcoming New Zealand general election, this project invites artists to offer their vision for the future. Artists are invited to address the conventions of the medium however they choose, but strictly within the time limit of 30 seconds.