INUIT ART WEBLIOGRAPHY
A PERSONAL RESEARCH TOOL: RESOURCES ON THE NET RELATING TO INUIT ART AND CULTURE
Under construction
This webliography is a personal research tool developed to access resources on the internet related to Inuit art and culture. It is part of an ongoing doctoral research project examining issues of representation and culture.
The poetics and politics of representation, particularly of aboriginal culture, have become major themes in art interpretation and diffusion. As Inuit art becomes increasingly represented on the WWW, its oversimplification could lead to a Disney-fictional culture that leaves little space for real world Inuit.
The Nunavut cultural and ecological tourism industry is expanding and developing. In Canada, Inuit art production is a multimillion dollar cultural industry. Current trends in many cultural institutions policies are strongly influenced by business models of profitability. This could prove detrimental to issues of identity, quality and representation and to an adequate reflection of the complexities of aboriginal knowledge.
I am interested in Inuit art in relation to the social context in which it is produced. There is a discrepancy between the representation of Inuit art and the complex social reality of contemporary Inuit communities. Contemporary Nunavummiut, Nunavikmiut, Inuit of the Western Arctic and many urban Inuit live between two worlds. Nunavummiut seek economic self-determination and are visibly tuned in to new technologies. A rapid perusal of the WWW makes this abundantly clear. However, communities are also plagued with high-unemployment, youth suicide, sexual abuse, addictions and the problems addictions create.
The convergence of the nonlinearity of Inuit art and hypertext was an integral part in the application I developed for my MA in Canadian Studies. I will continue to explore this convergence as this project develops.
PLAN OF STUDY "Nanuk in cyberspace: Mapping Inuit cyberarchives"
When cultural objects become commodities that are sold before any visual or textual documentation is gathered, what happens to the links to cultural memory and where are the archives? I will explore the numerous barriers to the development of appropriate Internet technologies which could enrich the understanding of Inuit art as archives of collective memory not just a commodity. The Internet offers the potential for collaborative, cultural initiatives between artists, cultural workers and new media technicians that would nurture cultural diversity. Numerous Canadian Inuit have participated in the cultural industry as carvers and printmakers. However, Inuit are rarely involved in the diffusion or in the knowledge community of Inuit art through interpretation, education or curating. Inuit artworks have become Canada's silent ambassadors.
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The site was constructed Fall 1999.
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