Dreaming into Systems: Lakota Semiotics and AI with Suzanne Kite

A vibrant beaded pouch with intricate geometric patterns in teal, red, green, and yellow on a light brown leather background.

Centered on dreaming as a method of knowledge production, Suzanne Kite’s work develops symbolic systems drawn from Lakota cosmology and long-term dream research, translating them into visual, performative, and computational forms. Kite will discuss this process through a semiotic lens, focusing on how meaning moves from dream worlds into material, digital, and generative systems. Across sculpture, video, and performance, the presentation examines AI as a medium through which Indigenous symbolic knowledge is carried, transformed, and taught within contemporary art and research contexts.

Suzanne Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) is an artist, composer, and scholar whose work merges Lakȟóta knowledge systems with performance, sound, sculpture, and computational media. Her artworks and performances have recently been featured at the 2024 Whitney Biennial; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), New York; and the 2024 Shanghai Biennial, among other venues. Kite is Director of the Wíhaŋble S’a Center for Indigenous AI, a National Endowment for the Humanities–designated Humanities Research Center at Bard College, where she is Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American & Indigenous Studies. 
The talk will be followed by a discussion panel featuring faculty and students from the Faculty of Architecture.  

Sponsored by: University of Manitoba’s Strategic Initiatives Support Fund (SISF); Faculty of Arts; Faculty of Architecture; Video Pool Media Arts Centre.