Suzanne Kite, an Oglala Lakota performance artist, visual artist, and composer based in Montreal, weaves an intricate narrative that bridges her indigenous heritage with contemporary technology. Educated with a BFA in Music Composition from Bard College and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University, Kite’s work explores the intersection of art, technology, and cultural identity. Her projects often incorporate immersive video and sound installations, using technology such as body interfaces made from carbon fiber to create music and visual art that respond to the movements of the human body.
Kite has launched Unheard Records, an experimental electronic imprint, marking her entry into music production. Despite her extensive technical skills, she humbly acknowledges her ongoing learning journey, particularly in machine learning and the Lakota ways of knowing. Born in Los Angeles with familial ties in South Dakota, her work is deeply influenced by her Lakota heritage and her experiences as a diasporic individual.
In her recent artist talk, Kite shared insights into her artistic and personal evolution—from a classical violinist with aspirations to become a klezmer musician like her aunt, to a composer deeply interested in the emotional transcendence music can offer. Her current projects focus on the sonification and visualization of data, examining the limits of human perception and the capabilities of technology to enhance our understanding of complex phenomena. Kite’s work not only pushes the boundaries of artistic expression but also invites a rethinking of the relationships between sound, body, and technology in a culturally contextualized framework.
This presentation was part of the symposium ARTIFICIAL IMAGINATION which unites innovative artists engaged with emerging technologies. This focused on exploring and sharing their individual practices, experiences, and insights related to algorithms, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. It served as a platform for an enriching exchange of ideas between the artists and the audience, aiming to contribute a distinctive artistic viewpoint to the ongoing discussions about our evolving relationships with machine collaborators. Each session, including this one, highlighted how these technologies are being integrated and reflected in contemporary artistic processes, encouraging a broader understanding and appreciation of the creative potential of new digital tools.
Kite aka Dr. Suzanne Kite is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition, and an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School.
Known for her sound and video performance with her Machine Learning hair-braid interface, Kite’s groundbreaking scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members.
Kite’s artwork and performance has been included in numerous exhibitions, recently Hammer Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Plug In Contemporary, PS122 and the Vera List Center, Anthology Film Archives, Walter Phillips Gallery, Chronus Art Center, Toronto Biennial, and Experimenta Triennial. Kite was a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar, a 2020 Tulsa Artist Fellow, a 2020 Sundance New Frontiers Story Lab Fellow, a 2020 “100 Women in AI Ethics”, a 2021 Common Fields Fellow.
Kite is currently a United States Artist Fellow 2023, a 2022-2023 Creative Time Open Call artist for the Black and Indigenous Dreaming Workshops with Alisha B. Wormsley, and a 2023 Creative Capital Awardee.
Kite is currently Director of Wihanble S’a Lab, Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies, Bard College. She is a Research Associate and Residency Coordinator for the Abundant Intelligences (Indigenous AI) project.
Kite is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
