TimeTraveller™ features nine “machinima” episodes—a hybrid of “machine” and “cinema,” referring to a way of producing movies with virtual environments, such as Second Life, an online platform for world-building. TimeTraveller™ follows Hunter, a young Mohawk man in 22nd-century Montreal who is struggling to find his place in a techno-consumerist society. Hunter uses virtual reality glasses that ostensibly transport him backward through time to experience how Indigenous people have been treated, triumphed, and transformed across centuries. Through her work, Skawennati investigates concepts of time and self, offering a postcolonial rereading of the history of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
REGISTRATION
This event is PAY-AS-YOU-WISH (INCLUDING FREE), but registration is required to attend.
Parking is available under the museum. University rates for parking ramps are $3 an hour and a $13 daily maximum.
Nearby parking is also available at the East River Road Garage, which provides both disability and short-term parking for Coffman Memorial Union and the East Bank campus. Both the Museum Garage and the East River Road Garage are easily accessible from Delaware Street.
Image credit (top): Skawennati,TimeTraveller™, 2007 – 14. Digital video (with sound) in nine episodes. Collection of the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist and the Thoma Foundation.
About the Speaker
Skawennatiinvestigates history, the future, and change from her perspective as an urban Kanien’kehá:ka woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Her machinimas, still images, textiles and sculpture have been presented internationally and are included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal and the Thoma Foundation, among others.
Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she is also a founding board member of daphne, Montreal’s first Indigenous artist-run centre. She co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, a research-creation network based at Concordia University, where she received her BFA. Originally from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, Skawennati resides in Montreal. She is represented by ELLEPHANT.
On View: February 10 – May 14, 2023 The Weisman’s spring 2023 exhibition, Message from Our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection, brings together software, video, and light-technology artworks from 19 international artists working at the forefront of digital and electronic art. Message from Our Planet proposes that media technologies―from vintage devices to cutting-edge digital algorithms―offer distinct ways for artists to communicate with future generations, encapsulating the artifacts and ambitions of contemporary society. Through the exhibition, we imagine a digital future…
