Rachel Ward

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA2015

  Rachel Ward is completing her Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology with a focus on digital anthropology, intangible cultural heritage and experimental ethnography. She strives to convey culture using interactive, visual, digital and sensory-based mediums. Rachel earned her Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from The London School of Economics in 2010. The following year, she completed a degree in Visual Anthropology at The Australian National University as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. After completing material culture training at the American Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian Institution (SIMA program, 2013), Rachel is now focusing on experimental methods of representing intangible cultural heritage through the technological modification of local material culture (such as musical instruments) and digitalia. She is currently in the process of translating her documentary film, “Appalachian Punks: A Resurgence of Tradition” (2014), into an interactive ethnographic art installation (a prototype was recently exhibited in Vancouver), as well as a web-based interactive documentary as a novel platform in conveying the results of her archival research and fieldwork in Appalachia.

Last Known Location:

• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada