Tradition and Technology

A delegation of cultural bearers (Teal Hansen, Danaya Hoover, Brooke Mallory and Lloyd Montgomery) from the Alaska Native Village of Eyak are currently working with the Eyak collection held by the Ethnological Museum Berlin. On October 12th, they will present their work on building a VR traditional Eyak Village, introduced by the metaLAB B4 Tomorrow project team and hosted at gamelab.berlin. We warmly invite you to attend.

October 12th 2023 | 1pm EST / 7pm EDT | gamelab.berlin
Held at The Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity”
22A Sophienstraße 10178
Limited capacity – please register by email: o.al-slaiman@fu-berlin.de

Or join online! Please register here.

As it stands, almost all that remains of Eyak material history is held by faraway museums like the Ethnological Museum Berlin. By consequence, the Eyak people have found it necessary to reconstruct their cultural history digitally. In this presentation, organized by metaLAB(at)FU Berlin in collaboration with metaLAB(at)Harvard and gamelab.berlin, they will discuss the social, political, and technological complexities of such an endeavor, as well as how, through it, they respond to a history of colonial extraction.

Tradition and technology – two very opposing terms. Can one be used to embody another? Do we withdraw from one the more we rely on the other?

“Cultural bearers from Cordova, Alaska representing the Native Village of Eyak (NVE) will hold space for those interested in where these two words connect. This presentation will introduce and give historical context to who we represent at the Native Village of Eyak, how we used a need to innovate, how we approached cultural sensitivities, and how we used grant funding, traditional knowledge, 3D scanners, and immersive technology to create a virtual experience of a traditional Eyak village. Learn why our deficits blossomed into an idea, how the project was carried out, how it evolved, what we had to be culturally conscious of, what we learned along the way, what else is planned for the project, how we can use this technology and program in the future, and how we remained true to our ancestors while also catering to our youth by utilizing a modern platform.”
(Teal Hansen)

Presenters:
Teal Hansen – NVE’s Cultural Coordinator & project coordinator.
Brooke Mallory – Past NVE Cultural Director, current NVE Tribal Council member, & project conceptualist.
Danaya Hoover – NVE Cultural Director & VR Eyak village experience demonstration.
with Richard Webb and Matthew Moore – Designori, part of the tech team creating the project.