“Okanagan Waterways” by Aleksandra Dulic

Title:

Okanagan Waterways

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):



• Aleksandra Dulic -
  • University of British Columbia

Symposium:

• ISEA2024: 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Artist Statement:

Okanagan Waterways visualization explores the nature of our relationship with water – from the impact of development on the environment to the importance of traditional ecological knowledge in ensuring all living things have clean water now and in the future. In keeping with Syilx environmental ethics the Okanagan Waterways reminds us that we all have a responsibility to work towards building and upholding the sustainability of water for healthy ecosystems and future generations.

Waterways exhibit allows visitors to experience a touch screen and audio dispersion displaying interactive 3D visualizations of Okanagan landscapes and waterways before colonial development that show dramatic ecological changes to flood plains wetlands and riparian habitats in the last 100 years. Visualizations depict the entire core of the city of Kelowna between Mission Creek and Mill Creek floodplain. The locales focus on the historical characteristics of Mission CreekMill Creek their tributary creeks wetlands and the floodplain areas of the Okanagan Lake system. The touch-screen interface affords exploration of the diverse and sensitive Okanagan ecosystems including plant anima land insect species indigenous to the region. The interactive virtual environment enables the exploration of two layers: historical and contemporary. It overlays the current urban and agricultural development over ecological history visualizations providing an essential understanding of what we have lost and how much we have transformed our environment. The information and stories embedded in the visualizations offer a creative platform for dialogue and learning diverse cross-cultural community-based poetic traditional and scientific water knowledge and values.

Waterways 3D visualizations use a research-creation approach to bridge scientific Indigenous artistic and humanistic perspectives within a media-rich data-driven immersive environment. The Waterways demonstrates how the research-creation method enables articulation and exploration of the nature of human-water relationships in the Okanagan ValleyBritish Columbia. The resulting visualizations employ immersive technologies and software design to form a platform for dialogue across community-based poetic and scientific water knowledge. The project synthesizes essential water knowledge and research to catalyze ecological awareness and promote sustainable water use practices among Okanagan residents. By weaving together multiple community stories diverse water knowledge and artistic expressions the visualizations provide a setting for our complex local understanding of water. Acknowledging the sustainable practices of the Syilx Okanagan people as stewards of this landwe engage in a design methodology for creating an experiential learning environment that aligns with the holistic approach critical for enhancing communal resilience.

Indigenous approaches to research are conducted through relational accountability meaning that responsibility relevance respect for and reciprocal engagement with all living beings are considered. Based on these overarching values and beliefs the research methodologies reinforce the understanding of how the researcher is placed within a circle of relationships. The relevance of the research is reflected in how communities will benefit from the project and its outcomes. Respect for interrelated participants in the research process manifests in careful attentiveness to those relationships. Reciprocal engagement requires the researcher to co-develop exchange and participate in the local community context highlighting collaborative processes for constructing knowledge through self-reflexive engagement and participatory action. These ideas provide a research context for co-designing and visualizing place-based knowledge. This research takes a holistic approach to experience design and builds bridges between scientific knowledge computational analytics and cultural resources to develop media-rich visualizations.