To be animate goes beyond being alive or acting, it is to be full of thought, desire, contemplation and will. It is the literal embodiment of the feminine, of First Woman, by which many Indigenous origin stories find their inception. When Sky Woman falls from the sky and lies on the back of a turtle, she is not only able to create land but becomes territory itself. Therefore, Place-Thought is an extension of her circumstance, desire, and communication with the water and animals – her agency. Through this communication she is able to become the basis by which all future societies will be built upon – land.

 

Vanessa Watts, Indigenous place-thought & agency amongst humans and non-humans: First Woman and Sky Woman go on a European world tour!, 2013

 

This site documents the projects produced in GBDA 412: Special Topics in Digital Culture - Place, Site, and Media Architecture. This 4th year course offered by the University of Waterloo, Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, introduces students to creative art and design practices that critically engage with the concepts of site and place through the integration of media and architecture. In the quote above, Watts introduces the Indigenous concept of “Place-Thought,” the idea that land itself is animate and alive. Drawing upon this concept, students work both individually and in groups to pitch, develop, create, and mount a publicly exhibited interactive media installation that explores the past, present, and/or future non-human/more-than-human activity of Stratford and the surrounding area.