LA Birdwatchers, 2021

Written By Kite .

Description

LA Birdwatchers (Kite, Ladan Mohamed Siad, Aljumaine Gayle, Nick Shapiro, Michelle Servin), LA Birdwatchers, 2021. Video, 11 minutes. 

LA Birdwatchers is a film that was shot and edited by Kite with animation provided by technologist Ladan Mohamed Siad, designer Aljumaine Gayle, UCLA anthropologist Nick Shapiro, and mapper Michelle Servin. This group of artists and technologists was a working group known as LA Birdwatchers. The goal of this art-science project was to capture the sonic stress of aerial surveillance, its areas of concentration, and its disproportionate contributions to climate change. Since the creation of this film UCLA's Carceral Ecologies Lab and Stop LAPD Spying Coalition have filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department

Previous Showings

LA Birdwatchers, in collaboration with Aljumaine Gayle, Ladan Mohamed Siad, and Nicolas Shapiro. “Contingent Systems: Art And/As An Algorithmic Critique.” Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 

LA Birdwatchers, in collaboration with Aljumaine Gayle, Ladan Mohamed Siad, and Nicolas Shapiro. Presented at “Machine Bodies (Is Cyborg Good or Evil?),” part of the Vector Festival 2022: Glitch, presented at InterAccess. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. July 14 - August 13, 2022.

Kite .

Kite (Dr. Suzanne Kite) is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition,and an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. Kite’s scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakȟóta ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. Recently, Kite has been developing body interfaces for machine learning driven performance and sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work. Kite has published in The Journal of Design and Science (MIT Press), with the award winning article, “Making Kin with Machines,” co-authored with Jason Lewis, Noelani Arista, and Archer Pechawis. Kite is currently a 2023 Creative Capital Award Winner, 2023 USA Fellow, and a 2022-2023 Creative Time Open Call artist with Alisha B. Wormsley. Kite is currently Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies, Bard College and a Research Associate and Residency Coordinator for the Abundant Intelligences (Indigenous AI) project.

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Makȟóčheowápi Akézaptaŋ (Fifteen Maps), 2021
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The Last of the Lemurians, 2021