May 30, 2024

Design Engaging with Indigenous Languages

Leo Vicenti

About this video

Description

This presentation highlights research that occurs amongst critical, creative, social, academic, and ecological spaces. More specifically, the highlights of this work are rooted in the question of “what can design support?” In the context of Indigenous Language Revitalization, Preservation, and Reclamation. In the fall of 2021, I started teaching design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, which is situated on unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and Səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Along with the challenges of establishing research directions as a new faculty and imagining an indigenous design curriculum, I also inherited a unique collaborative relationship. Our collaboration with Kenneth Gordon Maplewood school (KGMS) was one that lasted a decade, only recently being terminated this fall (2023) due to the lack of funding to support such efforts. A surprising but enduring connection from these two terms developed with the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). In seeking what the role of design might be regarding this vital space, I will review these last two years of work while at ECUAD. Guests can expect to see insights into my work as a practicing indigenous designer, how that influences academic structures like curriculum and program development, while also touching on student experiences and outcomes. In conclusion, I will speak to supporting collaboration, sovereignty, and self-determination within creative practices.

Leo Vicenti

Leo Vicenti (Jicarilla Apache) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. His current research approaches indigenous language preservation, revitalization, and the return of these languages to everyday use through the development of language support in typography and representation in the design field.