Pairing Ohio State’s Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and the collective of researchers at ACCAD’s Motion Lab, the K’acha Willaykuna: Indigenous Performance Past, Present, and Emerging proposal centers contemporary indigenous performance practices in the context of advanced technology research methods and outcomes.
At the heart of this collaboration is a one-year Artistic Residency by one significant Andean and Amazonian indigenous artist who is connecting with transnational indigenous voices. The year-long collaboration for the residency is supported by collaboration and consultation with ACCAD and CLAS faculty artists and scholars and research staff. Guided by the questions, interests, and creative methods of the indigenous artists at the heart of the proposal and fundamentally designed to support, amplify and collaboratively contribute to their work, this proposal takes advantage of existing expertise at CLAS and ACCAD while extending our standard practices into new territory that neither of the Centers could pursue independently. The focus of the residencies will be methods and practices development and fostering the artists’ core goals. The first part of the residency will be entirely online and digital capitalizing on the COVID responsive “Motion Lab untethered” resources and practices at ACCAD (online streaming video and audio performance platforms, virtual reality exhibition and collaboration spaces, telematic tactile media, digital audio and site-specific translations of performance and more). The second part will include in-person completion of the projects at The Motion Lab at ACCAD on our OSU campus.
Interaction with the OSU and broader community throughout the residencies will enrich, inform and expand initiatives at OSU, and contribute to building institutional pathways for the inclusion of Indigenous partners; exchange with cultural communities, involvement of cultural competency bridge figures; consultation with multidisciplinary experts to foster cultural awareness and engagement with Indigenous meaning-making practices among our campus community; and artist involvement in research projects, teaching collaborations and legacy preservation efforts.
All aspects of the proposed project emphasize graduate and undergraduate student involvement as well as key alumni, and more importantly provide opportunities for faculty-student, grad-undergrad mentoring and research collaborations within a broader interdisciplinary network of project affiliates.