UNews - Jackson Two Bears

U of L art professor’s research program boosted by Canada Foundation for Innovation funding

caroline.zentner — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:05:45 +0000

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge project is one of 332 research infrastructure projects to receive support through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), as announced today by the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. More than $77 million in funding will go to projects at 50 Canadian universities.

“Our researchers have always thought big,” says Champagne. “Now, more than ever, they need state-of-the-art labs and equipment to turn their visions into reality. Investing in our university research infrastructure is key to our continuing role as an innovation leader in wide-ranging fields, from Indigenous research to quantum computing, from neurobiology to advanced robotics. These investments will not only support our ground-breaking contributions to science and research but also improve our economy, environment and quality of life.”

The U of L’s Jackson Two Bears, Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology and associate professor in the Department of Art, has received over $82,000 to support the development of the Onkwehonwe Research Environment (ORE) — a research and creation space that will bring students, researchers, and the community together.

“I don't know if there's ever been a time in my life where I've had the opportunity to do what I've pictured in my mind,” says Two Bears gratefully. “Usually, you invent a project, then you scale it back to what you can afford to do, or what you can do with space. Now, there's no ceiling on being able to explore all the stuff that I've been wanting to for many years. It’s an unbelievable opportunity.”

“Funding from CFI is essential for supporting innovation and growing both the capacity and the opportunities for new partnerships that impact our regional communities, as well as the national landscape,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, U of L vice-president (research). “Professor Two Bears’ research program is a fundamental piece of that puzzle.”

Emerging at a crucial moment, when the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) have become essential to defining the future of our nation, Two Bears’ research program asks the crucial question: what do reconciliation and decolonization look like in the digital age?

Funding will support the development of a lab space in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Centre for the Arts where students and researchers will have the tools to develop new technology for production and experimentation in Indigenous media arts research, the space to create large-scale multimedia installations, and the opportunity for intensive community engagement and partnership building with local, national and regional Indigenous groups, knowledge-keepers and elders. The lab will allow for everything from screening a movie on a large screen, to video projection, programming, ambisonic sound development, visualization, 3D projection and general production.

“The idea was to think about it as a modular space, as opposed to setting up a lab with a singular specific focus,” describes Two Bears. “This lab will hopefully accommodate all kinds of different research projects, from development to production, even presentation of media and materials in some capacity.”

ORE is also supported by the Alberta Research Capacity Program, Canada Council for the Arts and uLethbridge.

Elder led research and creation project Mootookakio’ssin reactivates Indigenous objects

trevor.kenney — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:56:24 +0000

Mootookakio’ssin, at its simplest description, is a project to create detailed images of historical Blackfoot objects housed in British museums. At its most complex, it is creating a virtual home for Indigenous objects, a place to reactivate the Blackfoot relations within them and transfer that knowledge all the way from Britain back to their peoples in southern Alberta.

Melissa Shouting leads a beading workshop in the U of L Art Gallery.

After two years of research, construction and creation, this collaborative project between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and UK researchers, led by Blackfoot advisors and elders, is coming to fruition, culminating in presentations, exhibitions, workshops, and the launch of the digital object microsite in summer 2021, to be housed in the Blackfoot Digital Library.

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim of the project is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with non-sacred, historical Blackfoot objects housed in museum collections in Britain, using digital imagery to record objects in great detail.

Mootookakio’ssin is truly guided by the peoples the project aims to serve. From the onset, Blackfoot elders have been involved, providing guidance, knowledge and appropriate cultural practices. Funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, principal investigator Christine Clark is leading the development of a microsite presenting the digital images and their associated knowledge. Alongside Clark and her U of L research team are a UK research team, a Blackfoot Elder advisory group, consultation with additional Blackfoot Elders, a design advisory group, and numerous student researchers, developers and artists, all contributing to and aiding in the key outcome of the project -knowledge transfer.

“The items documented within this project opened doors for conversations that are holistic in nature, and that welcome the collectiveness of knowledge translation and transmission within the Blackfoot confederacy and its people,” explains Melissa Shouting, master’s student, artist and research assistant. Shouting was one of the Blackfoot members that visited with the objects in British Museums, alongside representatives from all four Blackfoot tribes, sharing and connecting their experiences and interpretations of the knowledge shared through the items.

"Indigenous knowledge transfer is reliant on personal lived experiences and the interpretation of the knowledge shared through oral history practices, creation stories, ceremonies and kin-based knowledge systems," says Shouting. "This mode of knowledge translation has the ability to connect individuals to the knowledge that is attached to the objects revealing a connection with their ancestors. In sharing this knowledge, it allows us to understand not only the objects but the purpose, the history and the teachings associated with crafting together such objects.”

The ability to bring this knowledge back to southern Alberta was tackled by Clark and a team of student developers. They created web-based prototypes featuring digital models of the objects using spatial web technologies to reunite the objects with their associated knowledge and culture. Clark continued to meet with Blackfoot advisors throughout the development of the protypes and the microsite that will host them.

“My part in those discussions was to listen and learn about what was important to them, working to ensure that the microsite would support these goals,” says Clark. “Too often, Blackfoot items are displayed as relics of the past, of a culture that has died away. The collection should feel alive and feel connected to contemporary Blackfoot artistic practices. For the design of the site, we have animation incorporated into the 3D models, so it avoids them feeling static.”

In addition to public access to the microsite, the U of L Art Gallery continues to play a role in education and outreach through exhibitions and workshops, and by engaging students in the discussion. Partnering with Dr. Jackson Two Bears’ Indigenous Art Studio classes in Spring and Fall 2020, students, both Indigenous and not, created responses to Mootookakio’ssin – to the digital images, the techniques and knowledge that can be learnt from the historic Blackfoot objects, and to the research generated around the colonial history of these objects.

The first student exhibition, Stories That Objects Tell, was set for installation in March 2020 when the gallery closed due to COVID restrictions. Gallery staff completed the installation behind closed doors and presented a virtual format in Fall 2020. The second exhibition, Virtual Stories That Objects Tell, was approached from the beginning as a virtual exhibition, putting new meaning to Mootookakio’ssin.

“The students had to make their work from home and make work that either exists purely in a digital format or that would work well when documented and presented online,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, art gallery director and curator. “The students created ambitious, insightful, and emotional works that engage with identity, personal history, the legacies of colonialism, and museum practices.”

To learn more about Mootookakio’ssin, join Danielle Heavy Head, Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), Louisa Minkin and Josephine Mills on Thursday, March 4, from 2 to 3 pm as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Indigenous Awareness Week.

Stay up to date on upcoming events and opportunities to participate at blackfoot.cctbd.ca/.

Virtual Stories that Objects Tell is available online at ulag.ca/virtualstories.

Two Bears named Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology

trevor.kenney — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:13:47 +0000

The Government of Canada has named Jackson Two Bears, associate professor of Indigenous art studio and media arts at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, a Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology.

Jackson Two Bears' proposed research program involves the creation of large-scale, site specific, interactive, multimedia installations. PHOTO by Amanda Berg

As a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) person, the core of Two Bears’ research is respect: respect for land, culture and communities. With a focus on Indigenous land-based histories and embodied cultural knowledge, his research explores the use of digital technology to support the innovation, transmission, expression and transformation of FNMI creative and cultural practices.

“My research asks one crucial question: what does reconciliation and decolonization look like in the digital age?” explains Two Bears. “The central part of the research is thinking about how we as Indigenous people are storytellers, how we think about our history and our knowledge formation, and how that way of being is connected to land and place.”

His proposed research program involves the creation of large-scale, site specific, interactive, multimedia installations; the development of a geolocation based, multimedia app featuring mobile media, and Virtual Reality artworks; and a major publication focused on exploring reconciliation and decolonization in the digital age.

Selecting historical locations, Two Bears works with the original keepers of the land as collaborators, immersing himself in the setting, culture and history of the space. This immersive research methodology led to the development of a unique course, LandMarks, where he invites students to join him on location, diving deeper into the history and original stories of the land, then working together to create site-specific artistic responses.

“Knowledge and learning are community-based,” says Two Bears. “We couldn’t be on campus, we had to be on location. The point wasn’t to study the location from afar but to be immersed in it, spend time there, find our way in that space.”

The course ends with an outdoor exhibition of installations in and around Indian Battle Park. For future installations and digital works, Two Bears will continue to collaborate with elders, knowledge-keepers and members of the community in specific geographical locations, primarily in Treaty 7 Blackfoot territory, and in his home community of Six Nations.

“My unique research and creative program aims to build capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect through collaborative engagement with multidisciplinary projects focused on creative renewal, revitalization and cultural expression in our communities.”

As a Canada Research Chair, Two Bears now has the resources and institutional support to continue his ambitious research-creation goals while engaging more students in his work and processes.

“I’ve always been really interested in bringing students into my research practice and providing research-based learning. Now I can facilitate more of that,” says Two Bears. “My research is interconnected with the classes I’m teaching and the work I do myself. Being a research chair helps enable these multidisciplinary processes.”

Earning a research chair in the arts not only provides additional opportunities for students and research colleagues, it also shows validity in the research topic and methodology.

“There are very few Indigenous Canada Research Chairs out there, even fewer in the arts, so this shows a commitment to different kinds of research,” says Two Bears. “In the arts we’re always working to explain the things we do and the importance of what we do, so it is great that embodied creative practice as knowledge formation is being recognized as a form of research itself.”

Seeing the development of Two Bears’ methodology, the relationships he builds with students and Indigenous communities, and the breadth of work created between him and his inspired students, the Faculty of Fine Arts is excited to see what develops through his tenure as a CRC.

“Jackson’s work, and the increased opportunities it offers our students, resonates within and outside our university and with our ongoing work towards more inclusive practices,” says Dr. Mary Ingraham, dean, Faculty of Fine Arts. “Jackson’s passion for contemporary and traditional expressions of Indigenous lifeways is without parallel and we are excited to witness the increased possibilities for new student voices and programs as they collaborate with him in the coming years.”

Two Bears is among 182 new and renewed research chairs named for the Spring 2020 Canada Research Chairs program. The Government of Canada invested $140 million, with an additional $4.6 million in new funding for research infrastructure from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. In its 20th year, the Canada Research Chair program continues to provide opportunities for researchers to excel in their fields and build teams of experts at Canadian institutions.

Early career researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge secure SSHRC awards

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:06:39 +0000

A dozen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have been awarded more than $600,000 in new funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for diverse projects, including agricultural supply chain management and repatriating Métis music.

These Insight Development Grants, announced earlier this year, are designed to support emerging scholars and research in its early stages, with up to $75,000 available over one or two years.

From the Dhillon School of Business, Drs. Duckjung Shin, Adriane MacDonald, Jocelyn Wiltshire (Calgary campus) and Alireza Tajbakhsh have secured more than $187,000 in funding for their projects.

Shin’s research looks at human resource management as a social system within an organization. He examines the interference between work and life domains, the diminishing power of unions under modern human resource practices, widening status differences within an organization and its societal consequences.

MacDonald’s research will examine the potential of sense-making tools to improve communication and problem-solving in multi-stakeholder partnerships, an approach espoused in the United Nations’ global sustainable development agenda. Engaging multiple stakeholder perspectives in complex problem solving can create new problems and ultimately prevent groups from reaching their goals. MacDonald’s study will focus on how sense-making tools, such as boundary objects, metaphor and storytelling, can help individuals in these partnerships overcome the inherent difficulties of collaborating at knowledge boundaries.

Wiltshire’s research looks at the dark side of leaders’ influence behaviour in the workplace, known as dark political skill. To what extent do manipulative and deceptive leaders contribute to a political workplace climate and impact employee behaviours and well-being? Along with Drs. Kelly Williams-Whitt and Mahfooz Ansari, Wiltshire will conduct a series of surveys and interviews. Their findings will speak to effective managerial and organizational practices that may mitigate or neutralize these harmful consequences.

Tajbakhsh will examine the existing literature on agricultural supply chain management in both crop and livestock sectors in Canada. The agriculture sector is at the nexus of world hunger and climate change. Tajbakhsh’s research will look at successful sustainable practices adopted in Canada and what corporate and government sustainability regulations have influenced agricultural networks in Canada.

Five researchers in the Faculty of Fine Arts — Dr. Dana Cooley (New Media), Dr. Bryn Hughes (Music), Jackson Two Bears (Art), Dr. Amandine Pras (Music) and Dr. Devon Smither (Art) — have secured awards worth nearly $280,000.

Cooley’s project, To Hear a Shadow, is an interactive installation that translates a participant’s EEG (brain activity) data through a Rube Goldbergesque chain of digital and early scientific measuring devices that spin and flutter, turning the signals into light, sound, and movement. Behind a partial wall, a second participant tunes in to the audio transmissions through a specially equipped headset. Proximity sensors respond to the second participant’s movements which affect the colour and intensity of light in the room. The perceptual feedback loop constructed by Shadow draws our attention to the interconnectedness we have with each other and our environment.

Hughes plans to delve into the factors that allow people to activate different musical languages. He wants to determine what musical features contribute most to syntactic violations and why some musical gestures sound wrong in one kind of music but not in another.

Two Bears’ research will explore the ways in which the creative use of digital technologies can support the innovation, transmission and transformation of Indigenous creative and cultural practices, while providing a site for critical dialogue and reflection. Two Bears plans to create an immersive 360-degree video and audio art installation and a multimedia app that will feature mobile media artworks.

Pras' research focuses on the democratization of the 21st century recording studio and the production techniques and creative processes that define it. Her multidisciplinary project includes three complementary case studies — an ethnography on street recording studios in Bamako, Mali, a longitudinal survey in the international Audio Recording Engineer Practicum of the Banff Centre and an experiment that will examine the learning process of a young Malian studio practitioner when attending the Banff Practicum for one semester.

Smither is conducting a study that looks at the marginalization of women artists and artistic realism during the first three decades of the 20th century. Specifically, she will focus on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the women artists she collected and supported from 1905 to 1930. The works formed part of the founding collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which opened in 1931.

The other recipients include Drs. Monique Giroux, Canada Research Chair and a professor in Indigenous Studies; Kara Granzow, a professor of sociology; and Julie Young, a professor of geography and Canada Research Chair.

Giroux’s research centres on the repatriation of Métis music. It includes three key elements: understanding what constitutes musical repatriation, creating an inventory of Métis musical belongings housed in archives and private collections, and determining the priorities of Métis communities for the repatriation of these musical belongings. Through consultations with Métis advisory boards, she will create a strategy for musical repatriation, including the possibility of establishing programs to support musical revival and resurgence.

Granzow and Dr. Amber Dean, co-investigator and professor at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, seek to understand and contribute to preventing sexualized colonial violence through exploring the enduring relationships between an economy based on resource extraction and the ongoing high rates of sexualized violence against Indigenous women in Alberta.

Young’s research examines the impacts of Canadian refugee deterrence policies. Phase one analyzes how the Canadian government conceptualizes and operationalizes deterrence via the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, the Mexican visa policy, the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program and the recent information campaign in U.S. cities. Phase two involves fieldwork in Windsor-Detroit and Leamington to assess the local consequences of these policies.

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