Author Archives: Neal Donegani

I’m not sure how I came across these “Podplays” by Neworld Theatre in Vancouver, but they do seem intriguing. Although I am not completely sure what they are, or how they work, I figure that you situate yourself in the actual setting of a play of a local theatre troupe. Then you simply press play, and locate yourself so that you feel like you are on the set in real life, and in situ. I feel like Podplays would be similar to augmented reality in that the user puts themselves in a place, and a storyteller guides them through the setting: “you look at a familiar place in an unfamiliar way” (NeworldTheatreBC, 2012, 0:52). This is similar to my experience at Alcatraz in San Francisco where my wife and had to move along with the pre-recorded script.

One of the audience members that has engaged in the Neworld Theatre Podplays says it “wants me to learn more about my neighbourhood” (NeworldTheatreBC, 2012, 1:13). On Neworld Theatre’s YouTube channel they describe Podplays as “a hybrid of technology and performance and combines sound, story and text…[on] your portable media player, ….[and] the plays become a soundtrack to life on the streets of Vancouver” (NeworldTheatreBC, 2012).

Reference

NeworldTheatreBC. (2012). Podplays Audience Feedback. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB5w4o4XSzo.

OK, I thought that the Indigital app was creative as is, but now Indigital has integrated MEE and Paint 3D into its platform. Students use Paint 3D to create their characters, elements or objects from their 2D drawings that they took from cultural stories that they recorded. Then, using MEE students create the time and place. Finally, the students unite all three into an AR experience to demonstrate their learning. This program boasts not only a step in the right direction, but also a connection to the past.

Indigital: Impact

Indigital is a mash-up of the words “Indigenous” and “digital”. It uses augmented reality to tell Indigenous stories. This is an Australian based digital storytelling app that uses artwork at the physical space that the user holds up to the piece, and the app recognizes the artwork and tells a story around that piece of Indigenous art. The traditional artists who own the work are involved in the creation of the storytelling part. This app started in 2012 when AR was relatively new; think, Pokémon Go was released in 2016. The app was created to help protect the oral traditions that are being lost along with the loss of elders. It’s a wonderful combination of technology both new and old. In my opinion, this is very much like Canadian Wikiupedia that I have posted in M2: P2: Wikiupedia, but for some reason this has taken off unlike its Canadian counterpart. 

A “wikiup” is an Indigenous word for “hut”, and has obviously been used in the name, Wikiupedia as a play on words for the famous online wiki-style encyclopedia, Wikipedia. However, Wikiupedia has been described as “ Google Maps, Wikipedia, Pokémon Go and a Canadian Heritage Minute, all rolled into one” (CBC, 2017, para. 1). This app was created by a member of the Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, the app seems to not have made it past the beta stage. In fact, I have clicked on several of the links that are directly associated with Wikiupedia and they seem to be suffering from link rot. Regardless, I thought that this is a wonderful idea that would act like Pokémon Go in that it would capture stories from Indigenous communities in a place-based way, ensuring that the user is connected to the land. Although it has not made it to market, the idea is there. But why has it not come to fruition? I feel that this might be something to ask when considering this type of technology for use in revitalizing Indigenous stories.

Markers like you would see in Google Maps. Photo: Garnet Tabacco/submitted by Adrian Duke.

References

CBC/Radio Canada. (2017, March 10). Tech entrepreneur Adrian Duke is building an augmented reality app to tell Indigenous stories | CBC Radio. CBCnews. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-328-cia-secrets-leaked-phyllis-diller-s-gag-file-virtual-indigenous-history-and-more-1.4015018/tech-entrepreneur-adrian-duke-is-building-an-augmented-reality-app-to-tell-indigenous-stories-1.4015037. 

Devlin, M. (2017, February 15). This Augmented Reality App Tells Indigenous Stories in Canadian Cities. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qk9w5/augmented-reality-vancouver-indigenous.

“Speaking Our Truth: a Journey of Reconciliation” by Vernon Barford School Library is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This book was gifted to me by my school board, SD62 in the spring of 2019 at a professional development day. I hadn’t really looked into the book until the break I had between the last MET term and this one: two years! I chose to read it because of this course, ETEC 521. Although I thought I had a decent grasp on what reconciliation was, this book took it to another level and helped me understand what reconciliation looked, sounded and felt like, and especially on my own terms. Although I could say that I wish I had picked it up earlier, I’m glad that I took the journey, which has given me the time and space to reflect on how I could use it in the middle school classes that I teach. There is a website with paid teacher guides and resources: http://orcabook.com/speakingourtruth/index.html.

Reference

Smith, G. M. (2017). Speaking our truth: a journey of reconciliation. Orca Book Publishers.

Never Alone is a video game that was introduced to me through a reading in ETEC 565S – Digital Games, Learning and Pedagogy. The reading is called “Agniq Suaŋŋaktuq and Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone) – ‘Cause Gaia Likes it Cold’” by Kateryna Barnes (2020), and describes the game: “Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone) is a side-scrolling, cooperative adventure-puzzle game set in the Iñupiaq landscape amidst a blizzard. Players are placed into the northern setting as a young girl, Nuna, and an arctic fox. The duo embark on an adventure to solve the mystery of the destruction of Nuna’s village”.

Intrigued by its full description in Barnes (2020), I bought Never Alone game on my Android phone. I played this game on the original Google Pixel (older technology at the time), and because of the stunning graphics and the intense gameplay my phone would often overheat. Nevertheless, I would push on as the character, Nuna through the frozen arctic setting, as well as switching to the arctic fox companion, who acts as Nuna’s guide along with other characters such as elders, villains, spirits and the land itself. As you finish levels you are told a story about time and place in the Arctic. It’s the first game since Ecco the Dolphin (1992) for the Sega Genesis that I have played that has given me a sense of awe with its ability to provide the user with visceral experiences of land, sea and sky. Although I see much digital technology lacking in its ability to truly represent Indigenous culture and tradition because it can only truly offer audio and visual recordings or display, Never Alone is able to portray a sense of spirituality, and connection to its digital landscape and its beings.

Reference

Barnes, K. (2020, September 18). Agniq Suaŋŋaktuq and Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone) – First Person Scholar. First Person Scholar – Weekly critical essays, commentaries, and book reviews on games. http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/agniq-suannaktuq-and-kisima-innitchuna-never-alone/ 

This is a podcast that I have listened to a couple of times. It is a CBC podcast that is hosted by Falen Johnson, and provides space for indigenous “storytellers, culture makers and community shakers” from coast to coast to coast across Canada (Johnson, 2021).

The last time that I really focused on what was being discussed in the podcast was while I was driving to work. On my travels the topic of a Māori group came up, and how they have developed their own digital platform to preserve their language and culture (this came up in my post in our first discussion). In fact, they explain how language is an important carrier of culture, and how they have created their own digital platform to protect their language, and, therefore, culture from colonization by big tech companies. By avoiding larger, more universally accessible platforms such as YouTube they are not giving rights to YouTube to do anything they want with the data of the language and oral histories. This approach gives the group digital sovereignty.

This specific episode, and the short clip that I allude to in my first discussion post in the course Canvas, really makes me wonder how indigenous people can preserve their cultures and traditions in a safe online digital space so that members of their communities can access this important information, but in a way that is out of the reaches of money hungry tech companies.

References

Johnson, F. (Host). (2021, May 16). How Indigenous people are promoting and learning their languages. [Audio podcast episode]. In Unreserved with Falen Johnson. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-105-unreserved/clip/15843149-how-indigenous-people-promoting-learning-languages.