Employing longitude and latitude to map the world has become the dominant technology of relating to the terrestrial sphere. Latitudinal measurements are taken from the poles as determined by Earth’s axis of rotation. Longitudinal measurements are taken from the Prime Meridian, a point not determined by physics, but by geopolitics.

Te Moana Meridian revisits a proposal first put forward in 1884 to position the Prime Meridian away from any land-mass in order to diminish motives guided by national interest. The work takes the form of a planned United Nations General Assembly Resolution calling for the Prime Meridian to be relocated from Greenwich, England to its 180-degree antipodean coordinates deep in the open waters of Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa / the Pacific Ocean.

Manifesting as an opera that is due to be performed at the UN General Assembly in 2022, transmediale presents the project in its opening stages through a printed manifesto and accompanying short-film.

Te Moana Meridian is directed by Sam Tam Ham in collaboration with Holland Andrews, Mere Tokorahi Boynton, Cat Ruka, Vaimaila Urale, Clara Chon, and a 40-piece youth choir. The completed work is due to be presented at a later edition of transmediale.

Sam Tam Ham is an interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, US. Their practice has lead them to produce work in an active volcano crater; at an astrophysics observatory; in Sāmoa with dance artist and chief Ioane Papali’i; at a Shinto shrine with Māori choreographer Cathy Livermore; in a German royal banquet hall with Samoan director Lemi Ponifasio; and for a sound art research project in the Amazon.