DIGITAL MEDIA LABS

Nargiza Usmanova, Maxim Zinchuk; Global Vision. Photo by Stan Williams.

Aabijijiwan New Media Lab

Aabijijiwan Media Lab is located in Winnipeg, Canada. aabijijiwanmedialab.ca

Aabijijiwan Media Lab is located in Winnipeg, Canada.
aabijijiwanmedialab.ca

The Aabijijiwan New Media Lab consists of three research media labs, an interactive studio, and collaborative workspaces. Our gifted name Aabijijiwan is situated in our knowledge of our place, which is innovative and interactive for thousands of years. This 4000 square foot digital labs and collaborative space is situated in the heart of Canada. This research infrastructure is at the forefront of the interactive digital revolution – Indigenous driven, Indigenous designed, and Indigenous led. The Aabijijiwan New Media Lab develops original research using Indigenous methodologies of embodied and cultural knowledge, integrating theory and practice into design and new media, and tracing the application of digital and new technologies. These explorations enhance Indigenous theory in the areas of visual studies, new media, critical geography, Indigenous studies, and art history, integrating Indigenous epistemologies into existing structures within the university and within specific areas of scholarship.

 

ĀPŌPŌ

ĀPŌPŌ is an accelerator programme focused on growing the capability and capacity of Māori and indigenous peoples participation, success and leadership in commercial design and innovation.

ĀPŌPŌ operates from IDIA’s studio. IDIA (The Centre of Indigenous Design & Innovation Aotearoa) - is a unique Māori-centric design and innovative consultancy offering strategic and creative (design / digital / innovation) facilitation and realisation of solutions through an indigenous lens. IDIA have also created an indigenous environment where Māori and indigenous people and businesses, who are passionate about design and innovation, can collectively learn, work, collaborate and thrive. IDIA enables designers, innovators and organisations of all types to work together and design in an indigenous space.

ĀPŌPŌ is located in Wellington, New Zealand. apopo.nz

ĀPŌPŌ is located in Wellington, New Zealand.
apopo.nz

 

Wominkeja Djeembana

Wominkeja Djeembana is located in Melbourne, Australia. monash.edu/mada/research/labs/wominjeka-djeembana

Wominkeja Djeembana is located in Melbourne, Australia.
monash.edu/mada/research/labs/wominjeka-djeembana

Wominjeka Djeembana are Boon Wurrung words translating as come here to learn, listen at a place of knowledge and sharing. The Boon Wurrung people are the first peoples of the land where Monash University’s Caulfield campus is located in Melbourne, Australia. Wominjeka means welcome, but also a deeper relationality than just welcome. It is welcome with obligation, ritualized practice and learning. Djeembana translates as: A gathering place for many special occasions for our mob to get together to barter, arrange marriages, to create dances, to pass on knowledge and to catch up with extended families and for new additions to family to be introduced.

The vision of Wominjeka Djeembana is to provide an identity of Indigeneity at MADA (Monash Art, Design and Architecture) and on Caulfield campus. Its vision is simple yet multiple. It aims to articulate the synergies between Indigenous ways of knowing with practice led research specifically in the areas of art, design and architecture (and beyond). It is also a Lab that leads the Decolonial and Indigenization space for MADA curriculum and will have a leading arm of and with pedagogical discourse.

The research program at Wominjeka Djeembana is one that is innovative in its articulation of ancient cultural practices and methodologies premised on Country and relationality within contemporary society. The significant advancement that Djeembana offers in this area of Indigenous knowledge production is how knowledge pertaining to art, design, architecture and beyond can be reconfigured and improved through an Indigenous lens. The main aim of the research conducted and created at Djeembana is to become a national and international leader in Indigenous ways of knowing through practice-based discourses. The very relationship between Indigenous ways of knowing and practice-led research will be a significant contribution and advancement of research training methodologies. The members of Djeembana are world leaders in this relational methodology in research.

 

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) is an Aboriginally determined research-creation network whose goal is to encourage, promote and build capacity for Indigenous presence in the virtual worlds we are building with digital media.

AbTeC has been combining Indigenous history & culture, advanced computational and networked media, and creative practice since 2004. A founding member of the Milieux Institute for Art, Culture and Technology at Concordia Unversity, AbTeC provides access to Milieux extensive resources. These include our main research studio space, a dedicated production space for creators-in-residence, advanced textiles facilities, advanced printing facilities, advanced game production labs, etc. as well as world-class expertise in multiple media forms and technologies. 

Through its Skins Workshops on Aboriginal Storytelling and Digital Media, AbTeC has conducted close to 100 workshops on videogame design, machinima production, 3D modelling and animation, and hardware hacking. It has supported dozens of Indigenous artists and creators by hosting residencies, providing access to equipment and expertise and mentoring.

 AbTeC is the anchor for the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) Partnership. IIF is a collaboration of educational institutions and community organizations dedicated to developing multiple visions of Indigenous peoples tomorrow in order to better understand where we need to go today. Through its four main components –workshops, residencies, symposia, and archive– IIF encourages and enables artists, academics, youth and elders to imagine how we and our communities will look in the future. IIF is the first Social Sciences and Humanities Council Partnership Grant  awarded to an all-Indigenous leadership team.

AbTeC is also home to the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence (IP AI) Working Group. IP AI develops new conceptual and practical approaches to building the next generation of A.I. systems, focusing on how Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies can be used as generative frameworks for conceptualizing, developing and deploying advanced computational technologies that understand, collaborate with and are of primary benefit Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace is headquartered in Tiohtià:ke, Canada. abtec.org

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace is headquartered in Tiohtià:ke, Canada.
abtec.org