GROUND
ENVIRONMENT
LOCOMOTION
ANIMAL EYES
The Pas, Manitoba Canada
"The purpose of any ceremony is to build stronger relationship or bridge the distance between our cosmos and us. The research that we do as indigenous people is a ceremony that allows us a raised level of consciousness and insight into our world. Through going forward together with open minds and good hears we have uncovered the nature of this ceremony."
- Shwan Wilson
The research extends the de-colonizing method to understand the indigenous context outside of human perspective. Because housing has been an instrument of colonization since the US and Canada decided to assimilate the indigenous community. Therefore, this research rejects the conventional colonized urban framework and utilizes diverse and ever-changing dimension in game engine. This methodology allows us to see the world from a non-human perspective and my research observes The Pas from four different animals' perspectives, deer muskrat, wolf, and bird.
Jack Jhonson - Indigenous Cosmology
The white-Tailed Deer Perspective
The footprint of the deer represents both potential and conflict interaction between people and animals. Space where we could find a lot of footprints represent the inhabitable geological data. But the lack of footprint represents the collision between deer and human infrastructure. These days, footprints of White-tailed deer are forced to go north because the paper mill business has taken the deers' habitats.
The Muskrat Perspective
The muskrats’ habitat represents an interconnective life pattern based on both geological and biological data. For example, the muskrat dam not only represents the inhabitable wetland from the Saskatchewan River but also indicates the adaptable flood level. And the muskrat’s diet shows the aqua data, including fish and water quality.
This research aims to represent this adaptable life pattern in animation.
The Wolf Perspective
The Wolf Perspective represents predator and prey relationship influenced by human infrastructure. Because numerous human hydroelectric projects have increased the population of beavers and more beavers provide more food to the baby wolf, and more wolves eventually hunt more moose, which causes the severe population decline. Each species has its role, but a continuous change in balance has created severe side effects in The Pas.
The narration follows the footprint of a hungry wolf. The wolf goes down to the town to seek food because the moose population has drastically decreased.
The Bird Perspective
The Bird Perspective represents bird migration to see the wildlife of the Pas from a macro perspective. The south of the Pas has a large staging area in Summerberry Marsh,
and the north side has a significant nesting area around reader lake. Therefore, the site is now working as a transitional space in between these two areas.
So, this animation shows wood stork birds flying toward the north for nesting. This journey offers the overall atmosphere of the Pas in wintertime.
Point Cloud Model
My thesis toward the indigenous ground involves these four different repertories in a single environment.
By virtually observing site from four different animals' eyes, this research understands the site with a more comprehensive range of experiences.
Like a trickster transforms their form to describe the indigenous world, the study relied on the multiple repertories contingent on different situations.
Therefore, I combined these four different recap models in a point cloud VFX graph. Like Shawn Wilson's thin threads, this small particle represents
the multiple repertories of possible behavior that could change over time. In this map, there are no definite boundaries and fixed objects.
Instead, every object has life and movement within the subtle interplay between me and others.
​
Pykrete Ice Dome
Like a trickster describes the story of the indigenous world, so the human infrastructure should be transformative to include elastic narration. The technology and human infrastructure should not be the sole controller but a tactical adjustment for sustainable indigenous futurism. Since 19th century, numerous ongoing hydroelectric facilities have ruined the numerous animals' habitats and polluted the water in Manitoba, Canada. Therefore, my project goal is to decolonize the water.
As I transform the feared natural site into new forms of available space, the devastated industrial site became the coexisting ground for multiplicity. My design proposal is changing this dirt lagoon contaminant into the pykrete Ice dome structure.
Design Tactics
Even though its slow, the idea is creating a creative shrinking and growing method for decolonizing water. Above the Sewage Water, I created a new transformative house that can melt, condense, or evaporate for adaptable reuse. During the summer season, the water flows over through different ponds, and the initial indigenous tipi frame is installed upon it. In the fall season, before the winter comes, the air is injected to formulate the initial balloon form of the building. This gas works as a ceremonial event to celebrate the seasonal change. Finally, in the winter, this inflated balloon becomes base model to construct the ice shell in the site. Through this transformative evolution, the entire building structure works as a huge active form that can be changed over time.
Design Goal
All the human infrastructure is hidden under this huge ice dome. As it passes, the several sustainable building constructions the building safely protects the animal's habitat from human infrastructure, and the large dome works as both shelter and education program for tourism. This landform of infrastructure educates both humans and animals to make sustainable indigenous language toward the future.
​
My research rejects the conventional urban frameworks absolute geometries and utilizes a diverse and ever-changing typology in game engine. These changing states of perspectives blur the boundary between space and infrastructure and provide locomotion to every object.
​
In the indigenous world, every object such as stone, water, and building have a life.
Thus, we should consider the connective relationship in building something.
I explained this non-conforming structure through both XR and real world.
This virtually simulated animation captures the intangible data from surrounding environment and narrates the new story about the indigenous futurism.
