Join Adam Goodes, Angie Abdilla, and Baden Pailthorpe in conversation with Susie Anderson to explore the immersive SWARM installation, Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra (Our Family Tree).
Adam Goodes, Angie Abdilla and Baden Pailthorpe during field work on Adnyamathanha Country, 2021. Courtesy: Tracker Data Projects.
During every AFL match, Adnyamathanha and Narungga man Adam Goodes’ movements were tracked by a global satellite network and a small device on his back. His phenomenal spatial awareness and ability to see and predict patterns with time and space is derived from his deep connection to Country.
Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra is an immersive installation that reveals the cultural significance of Adam’s AFL tracker data through Adnyamathanha Yarta (Country), kinship, and Ngarwala (language), materialising these elements via Artificial Intelligence, spatial technologies, sound and an ancient Wirra (tree).
Join us for a discussion as Adam Goodes, Angie Abdilla and Baden Pailthorpe speak about their creative process and the connection between data and kinship.
Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra was originally commissioned by MOD, UniSA, with ongoing support from the Australian National University.
About Adam Goodes
Adam Goodes is an Andyamathanha and Narungga man born in Wallaroo. He made is AFL debut in 1999 and won the Rising Star award that year. He is the twice honoured recipient of the Brownlow Medal, was named Best and Fairest three times, and awarded All-Australian Honours four times. In addition to his AFL career, in recognition of his community involvement and his firm yet compassionate campaign against racism, Adam was named Australian of the Year in 2014.
About Angie Abdilla
Angie Abdilla is a palawa~trawlwoolway woman. She is the founder and CEO of Old Ways, New and a Professor of Practice at UNSW. As a creative technologist and published researcher, she works with Indigenous knowledges and systems in the design of places and experiences with deep technologies. Angie is a member of the Global Futures Council on AI for Humanity as part of the World Economic Forum, co-founded the Indigenous Protocols and AI working group (IP//AI), and a winner of the Women in AI Awards, 2022.
About Baden Pailthorpe
Baden Pailthorpe is a contemporary artist interested in emergent and experimental technologies. His practice focuses on the relationships between aesthetics and power, investigating the politics of technological and economic structures in Sport, Finance and the Military-Industrial Complex. He is also a Senior Lecturer at The Australian National University, School of Art & Design, Canberra.
About Susie Anderson
Susie Anderson uses digital media to uncover stories. With five years of content experience at Sydney Opera House and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the realms of content are her bread and butter. An Aboriginal woman from Wergaia and Wemba Wemba peoples of Western Victoria, she uses both her professional and personal practice in nonfiction and poetry to examine and repair disconnections between people, place and culture. In her work at Science Gallery Melbourne she is excited to engage with young people, artistic, science and research communities to create content in that liminal space of ‘the in between’.