Oaye Technology

(Advancing towards technology)

In 2019, I was again commissioned to work with the Boys & Girls Club of Rosebud, this time to produce artwork for a New York City festival focused on technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. During the Covid pandemic, I worked virtually with Club youth and, once travel restrictions were lifted, continued the project in person, encouraging participants to photograph technology as they knew it alongside images of their daily lives and the natural world. Over time, Club youth created a body of photographs that explored the relationship between contemporary technology, personal identity, community, and place.

Working with Lakota artists Suzanne Kite and Sadie Red Wing, fellow teaching artist Josee Schryer, and design expert Adegboyga Adefope, I used 86 photographs made by Club youth to create a visual representation of a Lakota kinship circle welcoming technology into its midst. The installation, measuring 31 feet long by 10 feet tall, was exhibited in New York City in November 2021, in Rapid City, South Dakota, in May 2024, and again in New York City in November 2024. Youth from the Club attended both the 2021 New York City event and the 2024 Rapid City exhibition.