in Space Grey | Maize Longboat, Ashley Bowa, and Lesley Marshall

In this second episode of Knot Project Space’s new podcast series, we meet with Maize Longboat to talk about what it was like to make ‘Terra Nova’; and Ashley Bowa and Lesley Marshall talk about Green Gazing, a multi-experiential work composed of an immersive and interactive installation, a meditative movement session and a community discussion.

in Space Grey is a durational mostly a-synchronous online exhibition meditating on themes of connection, environmental extraction and accelerated capitalism. Presenting works by Ashley Bowa & Lesley Marshall, WhiteFeather Hunter, Maize Longboat, Tina Pearson, Manuel Piña-Baldoquín, Emilio Portal and Tosca Teran.

Join us every week this fall to interact with works in audio, video, performance, video games. Subscribe to Knot Project Space’s in Space Grey podcast series to meet all the artists!

digitalartsresourcecentre.ca/inspacegrey/

Knot Project Space is powered by the Digital Arts Resource Centre.

Produced by Anyse Ducharme with the help of Associate Producer Gary Franks.
Original Music by Adam Saikaley.
Recorded by Anyse Ducharme and Mél Gosselin.
Edited and mixed by Adam Saikaley.

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action:
https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

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Transcript

Anyse Ducharme  0:08  
Welcome to Knot project space! Knot project space is powered by the Digital Arts Resource Center, located in Ottawa on the unseeded and unser render territory of the Algonquin nation. The space is uniquely configured to present installations, screenings and performances by contemporary artists working within the field of media art.

Mél Gosselin  0:34  
Every year, the Digital Arts Resource Center hosts "Resolution", a public screening showcasing new work created by our members in the previous year. Any genre of work may be submitted including experimental, drama, documentary and animation. Visit digitalartsresourcecenter.ca to submit your work for resolution 2022.

Anyse Ducharme  0:58  
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Knot project space's new podcast series. My name is Anyse Ducharme and today I'll be talking with artists Maize Longboat, Ashley Bowa and Lesley Marshall about their work in our online exhibition "in Space Grey".

Before we start, I'd like to acknowledge that we're connecting with you today from the unseeded and uncentered territory of the Algonquin nation. We honor the Algonquin people who have occupied this territory since time immemorial, and whose culture has nurtured and continues to nurture this land and its people. We are grateful to be guests on this land, where we have the opportunity to work, live and create. In an effort to make this acknowledgement more active, we ask that you learn about the land that you're joining us from today, and that you read the Truth and Reconciliation commissions 94 calls to action. Please follow the link in the episode description.

"in Space Grey" is a durational mostly asynchronous online exhibition meditating on themes of connection, environmental extraction and accelerated capitalism. 

Maize Longboat is Kanien’kehá:ka with family at Six Nations of the Grand River and was raised on the unceded territory of the Squamish nation near Vancouver BC. He is a developer relations manager with Unity technologies and served as Skins Workshop Associate Director with Aboriginal territories in cyberspace, and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures for 2019 to 2021. He holds an MA in media studies from Concordia University.

Terra Nova is set on earth in the far distant future. This two player cooperative platform explores what first contact between indigenous and settler peoples might look like 1000 years from now. In this work, maze remediates, the medium of the video game by bringing the medium into a fine arts context, inviting us to consider our positions from the perspective of both Terra, an elder Earth born land keeper; and Nova, a youthful, starborn inventor.

Maize Longboat  2:54  
So Terra Nova is a video game. In terms of genre, it is a two player cooperative, platformer game. So think like Mario classic, you know, running side to side jumping up and down. But there's two characters and it and I ask players to play it with a partner. So one player controls Terra, and the other player controls Nova. And also, in addition to walking side to side and jumping up and down, they can also interact with things and people in their environment, or certain things. And through these things, they kind of experience this broader world that I've portrayed in the game, which is this post post apocalyptic earth after this environmental disaster has kind of forced humanity to leave, but of course, you know, not everyone can go. So a new human society emerges from having to adapt to this new Earth. And that's kind of Terra side of the story. So she belongs to these these new human people who have emerged from this catastrophe into something into a world now that's quite normal to them. You know, they understand it, they're in relation with it. They build community there. 

But then on Nova's side, he he's a young, a young person, who is a descendant of the folks who left Earth during the catastrophe. So they've been traveling out in space for millennia, and they've kind of forgotten who they are in relation to Earth. They've become more in relation with the spaceship that they all live in. But the story starts when Nova's ship returns to earth and crash lands unknowingly on their Indigenous homelands and so, you know, through the eyes of both Terra and Nova, they experienced this moment of first contact between the Earth born humans and the starborn humans. And so it's a really it's a really an exploration of that concept of first contact and what those narratives are like.

Anyse Ducharme  5:26  
I mean, what is it like to kind of create in the format of a video game I mean, that's so there's so much involved in thinking about even just creating a work through this like, because a lot of folks kind of work in machinima or take on a game engine, right? But you've like, kind of made this new game.

Maize Longboat  5:48  
Yeah, absolutely. Like it's something completely brand new unique of my imagining, and the imagining of my teammates, who did the various, you know, programming, but also visual art that appears in the game, and then also the sound as well. So I had three team members contributing to the vision. But as the director, I needed to direct and, and make calls and bring that vision, that original vision to life. So it was definitely a collaboration at the same time.

In terms of making a video game, this was my first game project that I'd undertaken as a lead in any way I'd worked on some other games before. But this was kind of a big challenge for me, because you know, this was part of my education during my master's program. So that's kind of how Terra Nova came about that was the, the boundaries I was working within, as someone who is studying indigenous video game development. But I chose video games as a medium, not just because I think they're interesting and fun and engaging, but because I think the aspect of how we embody gameplay as players, I think sparks something critically different with how we engage with the work. Terra Nova is a video game because I wanted people to experience first contact in the in a kind of reciprocal way with the medium rather than just kind of a passive viewer. If I was to, you know, shoot a movie or do an audio, some kind of audio work or something like that, you know what I mean?

Anyse Ducharme  7:37  
Terra Nova is the result of a small but talented team: Mehrdad Dehdashti, Ray Caplin, and Beatrix Moersch all worked with Maize Longboat to help bring the project alive.

Maize Longboat  7:47  
Yeah, video games are really really hard. I think what I learned from this process was like there's so multi disciplinary, you need many talents to complete one even just a simple platform game where you're just running and jumping but with narrative you know, the in terms of all the aspects that we touched in terms of all the different mediums like there was narrative design so we had to have a story, there was the art creation by artist and animator you have to. Yeah, you have to animate the characters to, you have to record the sounds, you have to design the sounds, you have to put the sounds in the game. But then there's also all the backend code to that I personally didn't have any expertise and so we had our tech director Mehrdad do all of the all of the coding, you have to do level design and then and more right so that it's a really really amazing medium for showcasing all these really interdisciplinary skills that need to aspects need to work together to form a sort of cohesive piece

Anyse Ducharme  9:00  
Yeah, and I mean there are many many levels in the game and they're split as well so as you're kind of going out so there's there's a lot of elements I imagine in there and kind of I don't know if we should give it away right now or anything but at a certain point later in the game if you are more talented at video games than I am, you will find yourself connected somehow both of the you know both of the characters will connect.

Maize Longboat  9:29  
Yeah, that is the pivotal moment of the game I think that's kind of, not the climax, but the kind of what you're playing for almost is is you know, the first half of the game you're Terra and Nova are both totally separate. Like they appear to be in totally different worlds. Maybe not even in the same game universe. You know what I mean? Terra is in her her hometown and it's very rustic and a lot of like natural flora and fauna around but then there's also people that she's interacting with. And there's a whole society built on top of these giant structures above the this kind of planet of flooded water. And then on the Nova side like everything's totally science fiction, sterile space, like you can't see anybody's face because they're in the spacesuits and there's robots around so it looks, it looks totally different in contrast and visually on the screen. And sonically too when you're when you're hearing the game in your, in your speakers. 

But then, you know, Nova's, ship crash lands on earth, and all of a sudden, he's in that same environment that Terra is in and it becomes apparent that, you know, there's something larger going on here, we don't have all the information, but we know that we just need to keep pressing on and continuing and investigating wherever, wherever we are, you know, in from both perspectives, the Terra perspective and the Nova perspective.

Anyse Ducharme  11:08  
Terra Nova takes a unique approach to collaborative gameplay.

Maize Longboat  11:12  
Well, the other aspect of the the narrative of the game, or at least the interaction is you can, as a player, choose how you want Terra or Nova to react to something. And I think that really helps players get invested in their characters that they're playing, but then also, you know, both characters' answers are on the screen for the other to see, and the other player can see what the other player is choosing to respond. So there's some interesting kind of meta communication conversations happening from the two players that are playing side by side.

Anyse Ducharme  11:54  
I was looking at your work and I was looking at kind of all of the works in the exhibition and thinking about I mean, some works are less interactive, some more interactive in different ways with I suppose plant species or and with community members and, and so, you know, the work the exhibition isn't entirely about interactivity. But I was really interested in kind of this idea of interactivity and how folks could come to the game and just like lose themselves in it and learn along the way or think about their position along the way as they go through the different steps of Terra Nova. So yeah, that was kind of my, my point of interest to start.

Maize Longboat  12:34  
Yeah, excellent. Yeah, no, that definitely resonates because I think games are not always thought of as art just in the sense that they're, they're much more placed in the realm of like popular culture, I would say, like, media that's kind of consumed by masses, and not necessarily consumed by art, art interested, folks. But I think games are, should be treated, you know, like any art form, because it's one of those things that takes a lot of technical skill. It's one of those things that takes a lot of creative thought to do to do meaningfully, where to place meaning within. And so I feel really honored every time I'm asked to bring Terra Nova into art spaces, because I think the medium just has so much to offer. And I'm glad that it's resonating.

One additional thing I'll say is that, you know, I think games offer a new way of - not a new ways because they've been around for a long time - but games offer a way to, again engage in an embodied way because games can't really function without the direct influence of an observer slash player. If you load up Terra Nova and you press play, and you just sit there and expect something to happen without your input, nothing's going to happen.

Anyse Ducharme  14:05  
It asks a little bit more of the viewer right? Like it asks you to actually engage instead of being like "Tell me what the story is", you know.

Maize Longboat  14:13  
It goes further than asking, it requires you. So this is something that is is not typical, in that white cube art space at all. Everyone can kind of be a passive viewer and it's it's really up to the viewers choice to decide how much they want to engage but with a game, you're not going to get the whole scope of the work if you do not actively meet it where it's at and, and, and drive. Literally drive, you know, the characters through the experience

Anyse Ducharme  14:56  
Combining an immersive and interactive installation, a meditative movement session and a discussion, Green Gazing proposes a community reflection on our relationship to living things, and the systematic roots of environmental degradation. Ashley Bowa is an emerging filmmaker, media artist and arts educator based in Toronto. She is also trained in yoga, Pilates, and is an instructor in outdoor education. Lesley Marshall is an award winning filmmaker and intermediate artist. projection art by Lesley has been exhibited at the National Art Center, Montreal Jazz Fest, and Centre PHI.

Can you talk a little bit about about Green Gazing?

Ashley Bowa  15:39  
It is, I feel like the project on a whole itself is like, quite like a shape shifting, you know, hard to really, like, crystallize something like a definitive start point. Even sort of like how things are at the moment, everything is constantly shifting. I feel like it started from several conversations that we were having based on experiences.For me personally, this is a lot to do with experience with curiosity with questions that I was having, based on things I was experiencing or learning at the time. So that's like a huge, huge part of it. 

And for me, at the time, I was doing a lot of studying. So I was studying movement, sort of yoga and pilates, I was also studying mental health and outdoor education. And a lot of questions came up for me, like, you know, I think we have an understanding that nature is really beneficial and really important to my well being in general. And then from my own experiences, out in nature, realizing how limited access most people have to nature, and especially people who are traditionally excluded from that. And then also all the complications to do with nature, around the concepts of like ownership. And about, like, whose land we're on, there's a lot of questions that came up for me. And yeah, I just also kind of wanted to think about the idea of nature of like being separate of thinking of like, nature being something out there, versus anywhere else, like are we separate for real. And so this idea of trying to like rethink the relationship to nature is something I think that's definitely there. And it comes a little bit from that for me personally. And then probably other things.

Lesley Marshall  17:53  
We - like Ashley and I are collaborators - and we are also humans. And we like come from a media arts landscape where we were both super interested in projection art too and, and just things that we could do with technology like camera, like we both have cameras and editing and we're both kind of filmmakers in our own right. But then also interdisciplinary artists and so we were interested in like, nature and technology and, and yeah, the dichotomy of like, nature and technology will always be separate. And it's like, no, like, we like what is the line and like where, you know, we all come - we all are nature and are like we all come from nature, but we are nature and the technology that we create is also nature, it's just, it's person made and yeah.

And like being a part of a contemporary we have wellness culture is you know, you're both seeing all the problems of that and, and having a lot of questions and so then you go into these quote unquote, healing spaces and you are invited to ground yourself into think about nature. But you know, you're in... for me at one point in this project, I was living in New York City and I'm in like, you know, a warehouse in an industrial zone that's been made to look like a cool yoga studio. And it's primarily patroned by white people, speaking mantras of the Eastern tradition. And I have a history also of geography and environmental science. And so I'm just constantly questioning like, what like, when, you know. Worried about climate crisis and And all of these thoughts converging and, and, and yeah. And then Ashley and I are having conversations about it and, and making this quote unquote concrete piece of art, like making it something that we are now exhibiting. Not in exactly the format that we had hoped. But we started, you know, grant writing, and we got a little bit of funding to do some research and, and to figure out this project of plants and ideally productions and movement.

Ashley Bowa  20:36  
Again, going back to the sort of, like grounding principles, almost, if you know about the project. It's this idea of curiosity, and of trying to reshape or rethink something. And, again, going back to this idea, like a questions we have about technology and nature's and that, you know, always acknowledging the complication there. But thinking like, in an ideal world, what would the - or could technology help us to reshape or rethink the way we connect or think about nature, if that makes sense.

And so just thinking like, you know, just very practically, I think that the word translation is really interesting. It's a sort of, like, we're trying to interpret something not in like a formal sense, not in a scientific sense, but really, in a symbolic sense. And so using the sensors and using our programs and technology to sort of tap into and slow down to try and listen or think about listening in a different way to plants, to any root like, sort of being. Whether human or non human, it's a sense of like, "Okay, I'm taking a moment right now, to connect, to stop and listen." And like, whatever form that takes can help you to rethink things, I think, or to like, reorient your relationship. And so, you know, using the projections, it's just, it's like, creating another medium of like... this is an expression of that. Not a, you know, a form of communication, quote, unquote, where it's like, something is happening, and we're observing something happen. And like, what can we take from that? What can we learn from that?

Lesley Marshall  22:36  
Yeah, I feel like the listening is a big part of what we want people to take away from it. At the very base of this is the whole concept is that we are present in a room us in our human forms present in a room, and our energy as we move is affecting the plants and the energy from that we give to the plants, the plants are responding and feeding that energy through the computer, which translates into a interesting projection. And so that again, as humans, we see the projection shift and change. And then we can hopefully make that connection that yes, "We are affecting the plants. And this is kind of the evidence of it." So that to simply show that all everything has energy. And that we are in dialogue, and so that we should take more time to listen, and, and to contemplate and to think about our how we are affecting our plant friends, But really like how we are affecting everything like each other.

Ashley Bowa  23:58  
I think also, I don't know, I feel like we might not have completely touched on it. But just also like, you know, talking about being in a room together with plants is huge. And but I also think that it's really meant to be a community project to it's like about community building resource and capacity building as well. Such as to note that, you know, it's part of why we have a field guide. It's to start asking questions, sometimes difficult questions. Hopefully from a place and a space where you're feeling more centered, you know? Because it's really facing the climate crisis is really challenging itself, anxiety inducing. And I'm really encouraged by the discussions that I'm seeing, you know, out there happening and we're kind of happy to be a part of that dialogue. And if people can come to us and find a place where They can start their journey or continue you know, like if they can be a part of that tool kit or however you want to look at it and that's really great.

Lesley Marshall  25:10  
Yeah, and like Green Gazing is from like, I don't want me to do too many puns about plants but like, you know. It started as a seed and then we've developed these roots and it's blossoming into different vines and branches and things. But it is, it was, and I still hope that it is meant to reach communities and communities that we had initially wanted to include and reach out to do research with. People who were traditionally excluded from kind of wellness or not excluded from wellness but the the capitalist spaces that wellness seems to infiltrate. But just like bring it into community centers and like maybe schools and parks and places where people gather. And to have a really neat audio visual experience infused with the natural world and are complicated questions. Because it's like with this, you know, plant that I've described of Green Gazing that's like a tree with branches and maybe some thorny parts and some flowers. Like it's it's complicated and it's all intertwined and and that is the human experience in a natural world. That also includes technology.

Anyse Ducharme  26:39  
The November 4 performance of Green Gazing for "in Space Grey" will be accompanied by a field guide available both in print and online.

Lesley Marshall  26:47  
If you have the chance to pick it up or access the digital version, it prompts you with questions and allows you to think about your home, home life with plants and what land you were on, and the traditional territories as well as did indigenous plants to our areas. We've tried to highlight plants that are indigenous to the areas that we're presenting the project in and, and talk about ecologists. Yeah.

Anyse Ducharme  27:24  
Thanks to Maize Longboat, Ashley Bowa and Lesley Marshall for joining me to talk about their processes. For more about their work and "in Space Grey" visit digitalartsresourcecenter.ca.

Mél Gosselin  27:38  
If you love the media arts, then Ottawa's Digital Arts Resource Center is the place for you! Whether you want to connect with us from afar as one of our Long Distance Members, be part of the core of our artists run center as a Community Member, or get access to our equipment, libraries and facilities as a DARC Digital Artist... we've got a membership that is perfect for you. Visit digitalartsresourcecenter.ca to sign up today and be a part of Canada's growing media arts community.

Anyse Ducharme  28:10  
You've been listening to Knot project space powered by the Digital Arts Resource Center. This podcast was produced by an Anyse Ducharme, with the help of associate producer Gary Franks. Original music by Adam Saikaley. This episode was recorded by an Anyse Ducharme and Mel Gosselin with special guests Maize Longboat, Ashley Bowa and Lesley Marshall. It was edited and mixed by Adam Saikaley. 

And of course, they wouldn't have happened without the rest of the team at DARC. Annette Hegel, Jenna Spencer, Koliah Bourne, Tanise Marchesan Cabral, Feza Lugoma, Christopher Payne, and Daniel Kaunisviita. Special thanks to the City of Ottawa, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Join us once a week this fall on digitalartsresourcecenter.ca/inspacegrey to interact with the works of Ashley Bowa & Lesley Marshall, WhiteFeather Hunter, Maize Longboat, Tina Pearson, Emilio Portal, Manuel Pia-Baldoqun, and Tosca Teran over the course of online exhibition "in Space Grey". Thank you for listening!