Ⓥ 8.1 First Nations Perspectives
Tracks
Track 1
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 |
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM |
Plaza Auditorium |
Overview
This session will be livestreamed from Brisbane for virtual delegates
Speaker
Dr Rewa Wright
Senior Lecturer
Queensland University of Technology
SP: Negotiating Temporality
1:30 PM - 1:45 PMAbstract
The artist duo (NAME ANOMYMISED) explore speculative futures where plant signals, human music, computational data collide, in a sophisticated audio-visual experience. Drawing on (NAME ANOMYMISED) cultural heritage, exploring the decolonial philosophy of mātauranga Māori (Māori epistemology), combined with a posthuman lens to art and science, our hope is that through this artwork, people will feel a little closer to the hidden bio-electrical processes of plants, and consider plants not as a resource for extraction, but as a ‘companion species’ (Donna Haraway) in a sustainable ecology. Bringing computational data visualisation methods using code and algorithms into contact with the shared cultural cosmology of (NAME ANOMYMISED) ancestral lines, affords the capacity to weave new speculative futures that challenge Western assumptions about Indigenous culture and the limits of knowledge. This research examines non-linear time and aims to decolonise the narrow field of computational technology by exposing it to the broad and open perspectives of mātauranga Māori, generating a space of diversity and inclusion within the mainstream.
Biography
Dr Rewa Wright is a media arts and computational design researcher with a collaborative and transdisciplinary practice, encompassing exhibition, performance, publication, presentation, and community engagement. Working with various modes of analogue and digital art since 1998, Rewa has over 20 years of experience in various aspects of motion-based and sonic media, including live performance, music, digital design, and virtual image creation. As an intra-active media designer, experimental media artist and inverse technologist, research is both traditional and practice-based. Rewa’s projects weave together emerging technologies, Indigenous justice, clean blockchains and digital healthcare. An ecologically conscious researcher, she commits to ensuring her techniques and methods are sustainable, create positive social impact in both local and global communities, and respect Indigenous knowledge systems. Her Māori heritage (Ngāi Tawake/Te Kaimaroke/Te Uri o Hau hapu of Aotearoa/New Zealand) is a strength, and affords the capacity to draw on ancient non-Western knowledge from an embodied as well as a scholarly perspective. Rewa’s extended reality installations have been included in the SIGGRAPH Asia Art Gallery (2019), Ars Electronica: In Kepler’s Gardens (2020), the Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium (2022), the Queensland Extended Reality Festival (2022), and several iterations of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA). She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice (Film, Screen & Animation) at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
Dr Cynthia P. Villagómez Oviedo
Professor and Researcher
Guanajuato University
FP: Resonating with Nature: Mexican Electronic Artists' Tribute to Pre-Columbian Heritage
1:45 PM - 2:10 PMAbstract
We delve into the social circumstances that have influenced contemporary electronic art, the rejection of foreign stereotypes, and how the involvement of culture has gained importance. Mexican electronic artists have drawn upon pre-Columbian Mexican cultures as a means to communicate environmental and social concerns. These cultures held a profound respect for the natural environment, prompting reflection on art and its vast potential to generate insights into pressing social issues.
Biography
A professor and researcher at Guanajuato University, Mexico since August 2002, she is the author of nine books, several book chapters, and articles about Electronic and Digital Art, Creativity, and Design. In addition, she has made several trips Spain, United States, Latin America, among others, in connection with the research she has been developing. She is a Graphic Designer, with a master’s degree in Creativity for Design from the School of The National Institute of Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Visual Arts and Intermedia from Polytechnic University of Valencia (UVP), Spain. Her Ph.D. thesis on Processes of Production in Mexican Digital Art received UVP’s "Extraordinary Award for Doctoral Theses" in 2016. She is a former Member of The Mexican National Research System, Level II of Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology, CONACYT. She is currently pursuing a second doctorate in aesthetic theories at the University of Guanajuato.
Miss Desna Whaanga-Schollum
Creative Director
Kaitiakitanga Intelligence Platform (DWS Creative)
AT: SentientPlace – Mauri – Life Essence
2:10 PM - 2:25 PMAbstract
The regenerative life principle/life essence of mauri connects people and spirit to all within the natural physical world, and taonga, in the form of highly valued man-made objects, carries the mauri of the maker. Art forms and objects are seen as having an intimate relationship with the environment and people, with mauri being the connective life essence that flows throughout all.
Mauri is the elemental bonding energy, an essential life force conceptualised as drawing together humans, the physical environment, natural phenomena such as mist and wind, and spirit (Durie, 1998) (Marsden, 1992). Like other deep traditional concepts, mauri has undergone a continual “process of re-invention and expansion” (Holman, 2007, p4). When mauri is strong, peoples, places, fauna and flora flourish. When mauri is depleted and weak, life forms become sickly and weak. (Marsden, 1992). Mauri ora denotes a holistic and regenerative form of well-being.
All taonga that we create, that we might create in the future, and that our tīpuna (ancestors) have created before us, are an opportunity to be a conduit connecting with life-essence. We have a whakapapa of regenerating energy in our creative works.
Mauri is the elemental bonding energy, an essential life force conceptualised as drawing together humans, the physical environment, natural phenomena such as mist and wind, and spirit (Durie, 1998) (Marsden, 1992). Like other deep traditional concepts, mauri has undergone a continual “process of re-invention and expansion” (Holman, 2007, p4). When mauri is strong, peoples, places, fauna and flora flourish. When mauri is depleted and weak, life forms become sickly and weak. (Marsden, 1992). Mauri ora denotes a holistic and regenerative form of well-being.
All taonga that we create, that we might create in the future, and that our tīpuna (ancestors) have created before us, are an opportunity to be a conduit connecting with life-essence. We have a whakapapa of regenerating energy in our creative works.
Biography
Iwi (Tribal affiliations): Rongomaiwahine, Kahungunu, Pāhauwera, Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti.
Residing within her ancestral territories in Aotearoa, NZ, Desna has played a unique and pivotal role as an Indigenous Design Activator, providing leadership for Indigenous creativity and sovereignty. Her work is a testament to the deep relationships between Indigenous peoples and (sentient)-Place, guiding cross-disciplinary initiatives that are foundational to the global design landscape.
Under Desna's transformative stewardship, Ngā Aho, Māori Design Professionals Inc. have emerged as a beacon of collective indigenous empowerment. Ngā Aho's steadfast commitment to communal wisdom and Place-based methodologies, over individualistic pursuits, has reshaped the built environment and infused the broader realm of creative practices with transformative indigenous perspectives. This has inspired a global recalibration of design ethos, ensuring the vitality of Indigenous perspectives for future generations.
Linked-in: www.linkedin.com/in/desna-whaanga-schollum/
Instagram: whaanga_schollum
Mr Corey Ruha
Mountain to Tide
Co-presenter
Biography
Iwi (tribal affiliations): Te Arawa, Tainui and Mātaatua waka
He uri tēnei whakaheke nō Te Arawa waka. Proud to be from the Te Arawa canoe and am currently based in Rotorua. I'm a global citizen embracing every opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Interested in cultural and environmental well-being and sustainable processes but not limited by any preferred industries. My mission is dedicated to applying my skills to initiatives that have a positive influence on my whānau and hapū through promoting environmental, social, cultural and human well-being.
Corey is an emerging researcher with a background in engineering, focused on the intersections of whānau, hapū and marae with environmental sciences, most recently in the contexts of freshwater and geothermal.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-ruha-ab2ba8152/
Session chair
Wesley Enoch
Queensland University of Technology / ISEA2024 Co-chair
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