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The Skullcracker Suite: A Long-term Interdisciplinary Artistic Research Project Investigating Processes of Cultural Decolonisation in British Columbia (Portfolio)

Cussans, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1856-9460 (2016) The Skullcracker Suite: A Long-term Interdisciplinary Artistic Research Project Investigating Processes of Cultural Decolonisation in British Columbia (Portfolio). UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Skullcracker Suite is a long-term artistic research project investigating processes of cultural decolonization in British Columbia from ethnographic, science-fictional and First Nations perspectives. Drawing on the mythology, dances and art of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples of British Columbia, The Skullcacker Suite takes its name from Hox’hok, one of three giant cannibal birds of Kwakiutl legend. Hox’hok’s skull-cracking and brain-eating powers are imagined as a dramatic allegory for the interwoven process of colonial violence, indigenous resistance and the metaphysics of predation that bind human and non-human beings in a system of mutual, ecological and entangled co-dependency.
The first phase of the project – ‘BC Time-Slip (The Empire Never Ended)’ – began with a one-month residency at Dynamo Arts Association in Vancouver in August 2016 where the gallery was made into a research installation investigating the story of the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s stay at a First Nations rehab clinic called X-Kalay.
The residency included public talks, seminars, group discussions, lecture presentations, a film program and the creation of a series of photospheres (360° videos) depicting Dick’s time in the city, myself playing the author.

Item Type: Other
Additional Information:

A pdf file documenting this arts practice-based research portfolio is available to download from this record.

Outputs related to The Skullcracker Suite research project:

Research Installation BC Time-Slip (The Empire Never Ended), Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver (August 2016).
https://bctimeslip.skullcrackersuite.org/

Sketch 2 for a Time Slip Installation. The International Journal of Creative Media Research (5). ISSN 2631-6773

https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/9579/

‘In the House of The Man-Eater’ catalogue essay in Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism, Figure.1 Vancouver (2019)
https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/9953

Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: The Skullcracker Suite, decolonization, British Columbia, BC Time-Slip, Philip K. Dick, planetary colonization narratives, science fiction, cultural politics
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy
F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1001 Canada (General)
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Divisions: College of Arts, Humanities and Education > School of Arts
Related URLs:
Depositing User: John Cussans
Date Deposited: 04 Nov 2020 09:32
Last Modified: 31 Aug 2023 08:54
URI: https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/9907

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