I am stoked to introduce the latest project I was part of, “You Need Our Eyes to See Us,” a multisensory exploration combining historical objects and contemporary stories through poetry and interactive media. Supported by the Digital Culture Programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Collaborating with poets Emelihter Kihleng (curator, scholar and poet from Pohnpei, Micronesia) and Hinemoana Baker (writer, researcher and performance artist from Aotearoa New Zealand), we drew inspiration from objects in an Oceania collection — referred to as “treasures” in the poets’ own languages — and composed a series of poems connecting past with present.
The outcome is “ynoetsu,” an interactive collection of mixed media poems in video format. The audience is guided through phrases from these poems, used as metadata to generate semi-random pieces integrating text, voice, ambient sound, and video footage from the objects’ places of origin. Each viewing is different.
Built the interactive Next.js website, mixed the video pieces, and designed the generative system..
