FEATURE | ISSUE EIGHT | SCREENS Alejandro Davila & Faeborne For most students, gaming is a way to procrastinate after class, unwind with friends, or disappear into another world for a few hours. For AUT Creative Technologies graduate Alejandro Davila, however, it eventually became something much bigger: an opportunity to create immersive worlds of his own. Enter the world behind Alejandro’s screen: Faeborne. Faeborne is a story-driven action-adventure game following an elven

It’s 33 Degrees Today. Are You Wearing Enough Clothes? ONE MOON COLUMN | ISSUE EIGHT | SCREENS Written by Priscilla Zhang (she/her) | @p.zhangxy | Columnist Every morning, before I even look outside my window, I look at another season. It appears on my phone. My mother has a habit of telling me the temperature back home. I think it is her way of sharing something real, something happening around her body, across the 6,000 miles between us. "Yesterday was so hot and stuffy,"

FEATURE | ISSUE EIGHT | SCREENS Written by Polly Wenlock (she/her) | @p0lly2001 on Substack | Contributing Writer The artistic capacity of the human brain is, sorry - WAS a marvel. Every book, movie, show, artwork, song, recipe, blah, blah in history was born of human creativity, Until now. Screens are nullifying the power of the human mind: We’re getting dumber. Like any good thing in the modern world, it was only a matter of time until the brain too was retailed to the hig

FEATURE | ISSUE EIGHT | SCREENS Written by Ishani Mathur (she/her) | Contributing Writer There was a time when waiting simply meant waiting. Sitting in the car before driving home. Standing in line for your morning coffee. Walking to class. Lying in bed before sleep found you. Looking out the window on the bus. Today, those moments rarely exist. We press play. We scroll. We search. We consume. Not because we have to. Because we can. Somewhere along the way, we stoppe

FEATURE | ISSUE EIGHT | SCREENS Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Associate Editor Between the corporate skyscrapers of Wynyard Quarter sits Media Design School at Strayer, the polytechnic that has spent the century so far cementing its place in the resumes of animators, game developers, and designers. From an outsiders perspective, it does the trick - like the other creative schools across Aotearoa, the amount you put into your education determines what you

POETRY / TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Koromiko Jacob-Williams (she/her) | @koromikoz | Contributing Writer We are star cluster, sisters He kohinga A collection of light with Magic dusted on eyelids the neon lights glowing Slowing Time We watch the sky blackout Midnight matching our cycles It is quiet and chaotic Te Marama, a guide We change We wane We take over the city connected Hei kotahi We return to each other under the blanket of hōtoke And

TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by AUT MĀORI and Breana-Ann Kaponga @autmaori and Breana-Ann Kaponga @kxpnga Kua haehae ngā hihi o MatarikiThe rays of Matariki are spread This Matariki artwork was commissioned by the Pou Māori team at AUT. Each tau hōu (new year), nine artworks are commissioned to celebrate the rising of Matariki. Each artwork is downloadable and accompanied by a scannable QR code containing information about the star cluster. They encourage you

Different, Unusual, Abnormal, Changed. INTERVIEW / TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI A kōrero with Emily Lyall (she/her) @teaoemily on her programme Rerekē as the 2026 Artspace Aotearoa curatorial intern. Interviewed by Skye Lunson-Storey (they/them) | Arts, Culture, Te Ao Māori Editor The concept of Rerekē encourages artists to be "bold, weird, and different." Expanding on three toi Māori categories, what does being rerekē mean to you personally, and how has that idea sha

Written by Piremina Ngapera (she/her) | @piremina | Contributing Writer Illustration by Maia Staples-Fletcher (she/her) | @maia_sfletch | Contributing Artist Long before calendars were fixed on walls and screens, my tiipuna looked to the eastern horizon before dawn, where Matariki returned with the midwinter sky. Its rising marks the close of one year and the beginning of another. Yet to call it simply "the Maaori New Year" feels incomplete. Across Aotearoa, not every iwi wa

TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Taigaga (Jamal) Rerecich (he/him) | @417mal | Contributing Writer Matariki 2026 carries the theme Herenga Waka - For Everyone, and the question that theme invites, if we are being honest about the political moment it lands in, is whose "everyone" is being offered and on what terms. The public holiday passed into law in 2022 without the support of National or ACT, both of whom now govern. In the same parliamentary term, those par

FEATURE / TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Ivy Lyden-Hancy (she/her/ia | Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wairere, Tūkorehe, Samoa (Falefā), Tonga (Vava’u) | @tekaraipiture | Contributing Writer Illustration by Maia Staples-Fletcher (she/her) | @maia_sfletch | Contributing Artist I see my family in the stars, from Hokianga to Waikato, we are the stars of Matariki. Our waka wairua as we travel through time. Stuck in it, in the nostalgia, my tupuna, my nanas, my papas,

THE HOT LESBIAN | COLUMN | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by This Week’s Hot Lesbian, Wren Probett (she/her) @inkdogshirts | @hot_lesbian_initiative | Contributing Lesbian What could possess someone to wear a shirt that reads “Gay Dog” or “Dyke”? What must go wrong in a person’s life, for them to spend hours carefully carving those words from linoleum? Of all things, why a shirt? I mean, are you planning on wearing that on the bus? At the mall?? If you’ve seen my sh

FEATURE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Polly Wenlock (she/her) | @p0lly2001 on Substack | Contributing Writer Local music surrounds us constantly, though it may not be in forms we tend to celebrate or even acknowledge. I’m not just talking about your classic Kiwi chilled-out-summer-vibes garage-band, though they too deserve their accolades… I’m talking seasonal mall carollers, your optimistic main-street busker, the man who plays the bugle at your l

FEATURE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Darian Serrano (he/him) | @gumvoid | Contributor Photos by y Sandy Hughes | @spacecadetsandy Hardcore music is a heavier subgenre of punk that also has influences from metal and hip-hop. It emphasises heavy breakdowns, screaming vocals, and faster tempos, while discussing a variety of topics, from the personal to current geopolitical issues. The genre is also known for its violently high-energy shows and unique,

FEATURE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Ethan Worthington (he/him) | Contributing Writer Awning - Seeing a band live eight times in one year could be seen as insane or financially stupid. But you see, Awning isn’t just a band; they’re a portal to a sonic wonderland where I escape from everything. Every time I see Awning play live, I shut my eyes and mentally swim through their magical compositions. Poetic lyrics, layers upon layers of mystically tuned