Earthing Electronic Art
Thea Pitman · 2019
In this short paper I offer a richly illustrated ecocritical review of a prize-winning* art exhibition called 'Arte Eletrônica Indígena' [Indigenous Electronic Art] that took place in Salvador da Bahia in August 2018. The exhibition was the fruit of a project run by the NGO Thydêwá to host artistic residencies in a number of different indigenous communities in the North East of Brazil, bringing together an international line-up of artists with interested community members to collaborate in the creation of works of electronic art. My review of the exhibition concentrates on the degree to which the works exhibited engage with the indigenous communities' relationship to the natural environment, and the different ways in which they do this, ranging from more didactic approaches to more poetic ones. Overall, I argue for the important role performed by this project and the resultant collection of artworks in 'earthing' electronic art and enhancing its social function for a wider cross-section of society.