Kite

performance artist, visual artist, and composer

performance

Recently, Kite has been developing body interfaces for machine learning driven performance, sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work.

Her art practice includes developing machine learning and compositional systems for body interface movement performances, interactive and static sculpture, immersive video and sound installations, poetry and experimental lectures, experimental video, as well as co-running the experimental electronic imprint, Unheard Records.

Working with machine learning techniques since 2017 and developing body interfaces for performance since 2013, Kite is a first American Indian artist to utilize Machine Learning in art practice.

scores

Kite’s embroidery practice develops visual scores for musicians through Lakota designs and experimental dream practices, combined with digital embroidery, hand beadwork, and machine learning experiments.

research

and

writing

Kite often works with family and community to turn dreams into visual scores for ensembles, performances, and sculptures.

About.

Kite aka Suzanne Kite (b. 1990, Sylmar, CA; lives in Catskill, NY) is an Oglála Lakȟóta artist, composer, and scholar. Her artworks and performances have recently been featured at the 2024 Whitney Biennial; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), New York; and the 2024 Shanghai Biennial; among other venues. Her awards and honors include a Ruth Award, a 2023 United States Artist Fellowship, a Creative Time open call commission (with Alisha Wormsley), and a Creative Capital grant. She is currently Director of Wihanble S’a Lab, Distinguished Artist in Residence, and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies at Bard College. Kite holds degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, and received her PhD from Concordia University.

Known for her sound and video performance with her Machine Learning hair-braid interface, Kite’s groundbreaking scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. Kite develops body interfaces for machine learning driven performance, sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work. Working with machine learning techniques since 2017 and developing body interfaces for performance since 2013, Kite is a first American Indian artist to utilize Machine Learning in art practice.

Kite has been included in numerous publications such as Atlas of Anomalous AI, Indigenous Futurisms, Creative AI Database from Serpentine Gallery, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, the Journal of Design and Science (MIT Press), with the award winning article, “Making Kin with Machines”, and the sculpture Ínyan Iyé (Telling Rock) (2019) was featured on the cover of Canadian Art.

Kite was the Global Coordinator for the Indigenous Protocols and Artificial Intelligence Workshops supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, resulting in the publication of the Indigenous Protocols and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper.

The Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI, directed by Dr. Suzanne Kite, Ph.D., is a designated Humanities ResearchCenter on AI by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and a Pod for the Abundant Intelligences Research Program, positioning Indigenous AI on the forefront of innovative research that integrates Indigenous Knowledge systems with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.