ARCTIC XR

 

The aabijijiwan New Media Lab is proud to be supporting a cohort of Indigenous artists as they leverage 360-degree video technology to tell their stories in new and immersive ways. 

About the Project

An initiative by Dr. Julie Nagam (Director of The Space Between Us project and the aabijijiwan New Media La) and Dr. Heather Igloliorte (Director of Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq /Pijariuqsarniq Project and Circumpolar lead for The Space Between Us project), Extending Indigenous Realities is connecting Circumpolar Indigenous innovators and supporting the design, production, and showcasing of new 360-degree screen-based works at major public art events.

These works will debut at the Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse as part of the ARCTIC XR/ARCTIC AR exhibition (in partnership with Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership) before traveling to Venice, Italy to be showcased with the ÁRRAN 360° project at the Sámi Pavilion for the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and Film Festival (in partnership with the International Sámi Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, and the Office for Contemporary Art Norway). The exhibition will be recreated for Nuit Blanche Toronto (in partnership with the City of Toronto and Nordic Bridges) and Yellowknife International Film Festival (in partnership with Western Arctic Moving Pictures and Artless Collective).

This large scale project is situated within the Aabijijiwan New Media Lab, The Space Between Us, and Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership, and includes funding from the Indigenous Screen Office, Canada Media Fund and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 

Participating artists include: Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Nyla Innuksuk, Mark Igloliorte, Tanya Tagaq, Melaw Nakehk'o, Casey Koyczan, Tamika Knutson, Eldred Allen, Kaylyn Baker, Robby Dick, Robyn Mcleod, Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk, Niap Saunders, Elle Márjá Eira, Marja Helander, Ann Holmgren Aurebekk, Hans Pieski, Silja Somby and Liselotte Wajstedt.

These international initiatives could not come at a more pivotal time, as it will catalyze vital exploration and dialogue about Indigenous perspectives on screen based media, Extended Reality (XR), and the future of digital storytelling. 

Together we hope to strengthen the network of Indigenous innovators and creators nationally and beyond, and inspire more Indigenous immersive content to come.

 

Partners

 

Curators

 

Julie Nagam

Artistic Director

Dr. Julie Nagam is a Professor in the department of Art History at the University of Winnipeg. She was the inaugural Artistic Director for 2020 and 2022 for Nuit Blanche Toronto, the largest public exhibition in North America. Dr. Nagam's SSHRC research includes digital makerspaces + incubators, mentorship, digital media + design, international collaborations and place-based knowledge. Dr. Nagam is currently the Principal Director of the multi-million dollar Partnership and Development Grant The Space Between Us: Co(lab)orations within Indigenous, Circumpolar and Pacific Places Through Digital Media and Design (2021–2028) which focuses on Public art, digital technologies, and engagement with place. As a scholar and artist she is interested in revealing the ontology of land, which contains memory, knowledge and living histories. Her artistic work has been exhibited internationally, including in Brazil, France, New Zealand, and England, which includes solo and group exhibitions. Nagam’s scholarship, curatorial and artistic practice has been featured nationally and internationally. Dr. Nagam is the Director of Aabijijiwan New Media Lab and Co-Director of Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre in Winnipeg, Canada.

Heather Igloliorte

Artistic Director

Dr. Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk from Nunatsiavut, holds the Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts and is an associate professor in the Department of Art History at Concordia University in Montreal, QC. Her research, which centres Inuit knowledge in the understanding of circumpolar art and art history, has been published by Duke University Press, TOPIA, Art Journal,and McGill - Queen’s University Press, among others; she has co-edited special issues of both PUBLIC 54: Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital (2016) and RACAR: Continuities Between Eras:Indigenous Arts (2017). Her essay “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Article of the Year from Art Journal. Heather has been a curator for fifteen years; her exhibition SakKijajuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut received an Award of Outstanding Achievement from the Canadian Museums Association in 2017. Heather also directs the SSHRC Partnership Grant, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership (2018-2025).

Artists

 
 

Casey Koyczan

“Ełeghàà ; All At Once” presents multiple overlapping timelines of Denendeh; the giant animals that roamed the North of the past, the present landscape, and the future infused with technology and habitable orbiting stations for our population as the world rebuilds itself. Inspired by legends, our current climate and society, and tentative future outcomes, this short film asks the question of what our world was, what it is now, and how it might be in the future.

  • Casey Koyczan is a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT, who uses various mediums to communicate how culture and technology can grow together in order for us to develop a better understanding of who we are, where we come from, and what we will be in the future. He creates with various tools to bring an idea to fruition; working mostly in sculpture, installation, 3D modelling, VR/360, experimentation, filmmaking, and audio works such as music, soundscapes and film scores.

 
 

Mark Igloliorte

Tuvak AkKusinialuk Siaggijâk (Ice Road Skating) features indigenous professional skateboarder Joe Buffalo along with film director Mark Igloliorte with local skaters Riel Stevenson - Burke and Joel Dragon Smith for a skate session on the Dettah Ice Road over the frozen Great Slave Lake. Taking time to relax after skating the group boil a kettle of tea and have a laugh before going their separate ways. At the end of the day, during the sunset magic hour, Igloliorte spray paint stencils Inuktitut words on skateboard decks in gradients which echo the changing light in the sky and across the snow covered landscape.

  • Mark Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut) is an artist, essayist and educator. He is an associate professor of Frameworks and Interventions in Indigenous Art Practices, Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University.

    As a scholar and artist his work investigates relating to indigenous futures through a grounding in the embodied practices and language. Igloliorte's artistic work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across Canada as well as internationally. Including including New Zealand and The Netherlands.

 
 

Tanya Tagaq

“The storm has caused a whiteout. Thick flakes of snow coupling with ferocious wind. The snowflakes turn tiny and reveal seven sun dogs on the horizon. The light is blazing. It’s the New Sun.”

Hungry for justice, hungry for truth, hungry for sustenance. A story of redemption, a story of survival. The awakening of self. Walk the frozen tundra in Nunavut, embraced by brilliant light as ice crystals form, and surround yourself with the beauty of seven sun dogs. Travel along ice floes of the Arctic Ocean, and dive in to feel the icy waters. Feel the warmth and glow of Arctic Char in your tummy, warming your throat and body. Burgeoning new life and new life and hope to your core.

An adaptation of a dream Tanya Tagaq transposes to prose in an excerpt from her acclaimed novel Split Tooth. Digital multimedia artist Driftnote (Omar Rivero) directs, animates and transports you to a glorious landscape in Nunavut, bringing the arctic to you. Sonically breathing into your auditory space, composer and arranger Daedelus (Alfred Darlington) translates time and space, carrying you through while you become invincible as a “bear lover, human lover, ice pleaser.” You will live another year.

  • From Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut, internationally celebrated artist Tanya Tagaq is an improvisational singer, avant-garde composer and bestselling author. A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award winner and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change.

 
 

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

TARTUPALUK is a virtual reality experience during which users are invited to visit the imaginary Republic of Tartupaluk. 

Created by, directed by and starring Greenlandic-Canadian performance artist and writer Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory as the larger-than-life, newly inaugurated President of the Republic , TARTUPALUK blends 360 live-action video, motion-capture animation and VFX to bring to life a poetic and humorous Inuit utopia set on a tiny island within the territorial waters of both Canada and Greenland.

  • Laakkuluk is a Kalaaleq (Greenlandic Inuk) performance artist, poet, actor, curator, storyteller, filmmaker and writer. She is known for performing uaajeerneq, a Greenlandic mask dance. She performs internationally, collaborates with other artists and is a fierce advocate for Inuit artists. Winner of the 2021 Sobey Prize, Laakkuluk lives with her family in Iqaluit.

 
 
 

Melaw Nakehk’o

A young man walks home to his grandmother.

Recreating a memory shared by my great uncle. Remembering the journey's we have made across our territories, like the journey’s me make today. The act of re-connecting to our communities, the land, our culture, the journey’s we make for education, work, opportunities, for love. Leaving and returning, the paths, the trails, the journey. How we come back to ourselves.

  • Melaw Nakehk’o is an Indigenous artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans film, painting, beadwork, digital art, and traditional hide tanning. Melaw is Dene/Dënesųłiné from the Łííidlįįi Kúé First Nation.

    Melaw first learned how to bead and sew from her grandmother. Went on to study visual arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she returned to Denendeh in 2008 and immersed herself in her cultural teachings. She led a revival in using traditional techniques to tan moosehide, inspiring a resurgence of this practice. #revolutionmoosehide became a community-building movement across Canada, empowering Indigenous learners and artists to reconnect with their cultural practices.

    Melaw’s artwork explores her relationship with her own identity, cultural continuity in her Nation, and with broader global issues such as climate change. Her work is the intersection of modern media, storytelling, and traditional knowledge.

 
 

Nyla Innuksuk 

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  • Nyla Innuksuk is the founder of Mixtape VR which produces Virtual and Augmented Reality content. A writer for Marvel Comics, Innuksuk co-created the character of Snowguard, a teenage superhero from Pangnirtung, NU and a member of Marvel’s Champions League. Working in mixed media allows Innuksuk to channel her passions for technology and genre storytelling among mediums that include interactive graphic novels, film, television and synthetic experiences.