Kite (Dr. Suzanne Kite) is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition,and an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. Kite’s scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakȟóta ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. Recently, Kite has been developing body interfaces for machine learning driven performance and sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work. Kite has published in The Journal of Design and Science (MIT Press), with the award winning article, “Making Kin with Machines,” co-authored with Jason Lewis, Noelani Arista, and Archer Pechawis. Kite is currently a 2023 Creative Capital Award Winner, 2023 USA Fellow, and a 2022-2023 Creative Time Open Call artist with Alisha B. Wormsley. Kite is currently a distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies, Bard College and a Research Associate and Residency Coordinator for the Abundant Intelligences (Indigenous AI) project.

Holly Grimm is a Diné machine learning engineer and creative technologist with 25+ years of development experience, originally from Denver and now based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has built technical systems with Indigenous communities and focuses on integrating Indigenous Knowledges with AI systems.

Dr. Jackson Two Bears is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology and Associate Professor of Indigenous Art Studio and Media Arts at the University of Lethbridge. His research-creation activities focus on Indigenous land-based histories and embodied cultural knowledge, exploring creative uses of digital technologies to support the innovation, transmission, expression, and transformation of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit creative and cultural practices. His recent works focus on the impacts of changing technologies on contemporary Indigenous politics, culture, and society. He has worked extensively with/in Indigenous communities, notably the Blackfoot (Niitsitapi) community in Treaty 7 territory and in his own Haudenosaunee community of Six Nations. He is co-investigator on a large-scale research project called Mootookakio’ssin, working with Dr. Leroy Little Bear and several Blackfoot knowledge-keepers to create high-resolution 3D models of sacred Niitsitapi artifacts kept in museums around the world. Two Bears’ research lab, Onkwehonwe Research Environment (ORE), supports numerous research collaborations with the Blackfoot community and community organizations in Six Nations. ORE is currently involved in a project with an Ohsweken community organization, Thru the Red Door, and MIT researchers creating virtual environments for Haudenosaunee cultural practice and language revitalization based on longhouse/community protocols.

Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinaabe from Obishkkokaang. Scott is an intermedia artist that currently works in experimental image making and sonic materials. Scott is currently resident in Montreal, where he has completed a MFA in photography. Scott’s current research interests are intersections of artificial-intelligence and Anishinaabemowin, Scott has completed international residencies at Parramatta Artist Studios in Australia, Context Gallery in Derry, North of Ireland, and University Lethbridge/Royal Institute of Technology iAIR residency, along with international collaborative projects in both the U.K and Ireland. Scott has completed residencies with Initiative for Indigenous Futures and AbTec in Montreal.

Benesiinaabandan has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council and Conseil des arts des lettre du Quebec. His work can be found in a number of private, provincial and national collections.

Benesiinaabandan has taken part in several notable exhibitions across Canada and internationally, Harbourfront’s Flatter the Land/Bigger the Ruckus, ,Subconscious City at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, GHOSTDANCE at Ryerson Image Centre and solo exhibitions; unSacred, at Gallery 1C03 and in Sydney,Australia, mii omaa ayaad/Oshiki Inendemowin , Melbourne with Blood Memories, little resistances at Platform Gallery, Insurgence/Resurgence (2017) and recently completed a public commission for CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto.

Jason Edward Lewis is a digital media theorist, poet, and software designer. He founded Obx Laboratory for Experimental Media, where he conducts research/creation projects exploring computation as a creative and cultural material. Lewis is deeply committed to developing intriguing new forms of expression by working on conceptual, critical, creative and technical levels simultaneously. He is the University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary as well Professor of Computation Arts at Concordia University. Lewis was born and raised in northern California, and currently lives in Montreal.