In conjunction with the exhibition Terms of Use, which presents a newly-restored version of CyberPowWow (1997–2004), we are delighted to welcome researcher Mikhel Proulx, who will give an online lecture entitled “CyberPowWow: Indigenous Networks on the Electronic Frontier.”
CyberPowWow was launched in 1997 for the sharing of networked art made by Indigenous artists. As part of the collective Nation to Nation, the Kanienʼkehá:ka artist Skawennati created the platform within a context of self-determination movements that ran parallel to the rise of the Internet. CyberPowWow stands as a counterpoint to the suspicious tone of progress and conquest that has accompanied much of the cyberutopian discourse since the 1960s, and offers significant insights into the extractive systems of digital culture today.
This online discussion will look at the intersection of networked media and Indigenous self-determination to offer a settler-colonial reading of the Internet, and attend to this landmark platform for Indigenous digital culture.
The talk will be in English. French subtitles will be made available with the recording of the event.
Mikhel Proulx
Mikhel Proulx is an art researcher who has curated exhibitions across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He lives in Montréal, where he recently defended his dissertation—a study of network-based art and social practice in Canada—which was awarded a top thesis prize from Leonardo Journal. His research considers network culture from queer-feminist and settler-colonial perspectives, and has been recently presented at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute; the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York; Goldsmith’s College, London; Yale University; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. His first monographic book, soon to be published with McGill-Queens University Press, considers representations of queer sexualities in Weimar Berlin. In recent projects, he has collaborated with the artists Margaret Dragu, Skawennati, Peter Flemming, Vera Frenkel, Anna Banana, and Rita McKeough.
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