We are excited to welcome artist Sione Faletau from Auckland thanks to support from Te Pūnaha o Matatini. Sione turns environmental data into art, using knowledge and symbols from his Tongan heritage.

This year, he will be building on his piece Ongo mei he fonua: Sounds from the Soil (Contamination), a collaborative work created with Dr Emma Sharp from the University of Auckland that translates data sets on soil contamination into sound, and expressing that through kupesi (patterns) that carry the story of contamination in the soil – specifically through the metals arsenic and lead. You can read more about it below...

In the Festival Hub, Sione will be creating with sound, light and wood to express and translate data into a different way of reading the land. Watch Sione create, talk with him about the process, and become a part of it yourself.

Sione will translate some of your sounds into kupesi patterns, and then invite you to create these as small, solid sculptural forms. You bring your own sounds, which he will convert to kupesi (patterns) and then provide materials for you to build.

Ongo mei he fonua: Sounds from the Soil (Contamination)

Ongo mei he fonua: Sounds from the Soil is a video work that translates soil contamination data into a sensory experience. Developed in collaboration with Dr Emma Sharp, the work uses deidentified SoilSafe data to map the presence of arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) in domestic garden soils across Aotearoa into sound and moving image.

In this work, the fonua speaks through data. Arsenic is coded in A minor and lead in D minor, with minor tonalities carrying the weight and seriousness of contamination. Shifts in rhythm, texture, and intensity are driven directly by metal concentrations, allowing patterns to emerge from the soil itself.