Originally called the 2013-2014 Online and Mobile Development Commission. The Indigenous Routes Collective worked with Cheyenne Scott and Theresa Stevenson, two Ontario-based indigenous artists to provide training and skills development for a commission to produce new web based projects reflecting on contemporary native culture. Both Theresa and Cheyenne’s works were selected to premiere at the 2014 ImagineNATIVE Media Arts and Film Festival!
Participants and Projects
Cheyenne Scott
Cheyenne is Coast Salish First Nation and an emerging multidisciplinary artist. She is a graduate of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts where she studied acting, singing, and dancing. Recent theatre credits include : Passion Play (Convergence, Outside the March, Sheep No Wool), Cowriter of Zero Visibility (AMY Project, SummerWorks) and currently a participant of the young writers program Animikiig with Native Earth Performing Arts. Cheyenne was also a participant of Indigenous Routes last year in which she developed a video series that was presented as part of the Resonate: Youth Multimedia Exhibition at Gallery 44 for the 13th Annual imagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival. She has also participated in a sound art residency with NAISA in which she had an installation at Wychwood Barns and has created a self portrait with 7th Generation Image Makers that was shown at ANDPVA’s Member Show.
Project: Uhke
This interactive web-based audio/visual piece poetically comments on Canadian landscape paintings as a declaration of property and a tool for developing a national identity that fails to acknowledge an Indigenous presence. Built with Processing and Processing.js, the project examines the use of landscapes through development, the Idle No More movement, the Group of Seven paintings and the Indian Act definition of lands and reserves. Rising media artist Cheyenne Scott subtly places herself in the landscape to reclaim the land and make a statement that ‘I am here.’ Audio transitions respond to the change in visual images as the user types in one line of a poem at a time. This media piece is a celebration and exploration of Indigenous heritage through impactful personal expression and storytelling.
Therese Stevenson
Theresa Stevenson is a Cree First Nation from Fisher River, Manitoba. She is the mommy of two handsome dogs named Porkchop and Peanut. She has traveled a great deal all over Canada exploring other First Nations and Non First Nations communities. This exploration has let her to discover an array of creative fields, which include, painting, photography, film and graphic arts. Through this program Theresa is excited to expand her knowledge into animation to produce mobile-based applications, as well as, Arduino robotics. Both of which, she has wanted to learn for a long time. She is excited at all the possibilities that can come from this program and is thankful for being accepted into it.
Project: The Awakening
The Awakening is an interactive interpretation of the Idle No More movement. Using the concept of a three act-play, the user interacts using direct mouse actions on three canvases that strike unique emotional chords through their unique use of imagery and icons. Stevenson creates a dynamic and truly artistic interactive piece, bringing histories of Canadian Indigenous peoples and colonialism into a unique visual experience.
Project Mentor
Angela Gabereau (angelagabereau.com)
Angela is a Montreal based software and web developer. She currently works at Wyld Collective and Fabule. She teaches a weekly programming class at Eastern Block in Montreal and loves every minute of it. She’s got a B.Comp.Sci in Computation Arts from Concordia University. She worked for several years as a research assistant at Obx Labs and as a Production Assistant on TimeTravllerTM. She’s spent the last few years sharpening her software architecture chops in various Montreal start-ups. She likes to make creative sound and light experiments with electronics and code, when she has a chance. She is planning a solo cycle trip across Canada on a hacktastical bicycle sometime soon.