NOTHINGKNOWN

NOTHINGKNOWN is a quasi anthropological study of loss of culture, tradition and native title within the indigenous Diaspora of Sarawak, Malaysia.

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The ill-fated Italian philosopher, Giordano Bruno, stated that "nothing can ever be known". Despite all we have at our disposal, regardless of millennia of thought, reflection and wisdom... in spite of the knowledge, expertise and technologies we have at our disposal, we continue to consume, inundate and pollute the finite resources supporting life on Earth.

NOTHINGKNOWN is a quasi anthropological study of loss of culture, tradition and native title within indigenous Diaspora, in particular the Bidayuh and Kenyah of Sarawak, Malaysia. Through networks, documentation, observation and contemplation Garton considers Bruno's assertion in what may well be the last decade of decadence.

The work is a result of several field trips to Sarawak made by the artist. Garton has worked in the region since 1992 when he assisted in the establishment of pre-internet computer networks for human rights workers and native title activists.

Here are a people that had not had depression and anxiety as part of their daily life until others decided how they would live and the kind of "development" best suited for them. That they lost their entire culture in less than a generation matters less to those that would otherwise seek to memorialise indigenous peoples in cultural centres that are as far removed from real people as sarawak is from you... Andrew Garton, Sarawak, July 2008

This video provides excerpts from an audio-visual exhibition prototype created for CPU, at ESC im Labor (esc.mur.at), Graz, October 2008.

The prototype consists of a close analysis of three faces of indigenous people from Sarawak… two from the Kenyan community who had been relocated from where the Bakun Dam is being built and a Bidayuh woman from where the Bengoh Dam is proposed to inundate.

The soundscape was generatively created from a piece that ran for 9 days. It consists of field recordings made from Iban longhouse communities in 1999.

The entire prototype ran looped at 45 minute intervals utilising the largest projection surface possible within the ESC gallery.

Copyright 2007, by the contributing author. Cite/attribute Resource. toysatellite. (2009, May 22). NOTHINGKNOWN. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from EngageMedia Web site: http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/toysatellite/videos/NN-SAMPLER.mp4. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.