My intent as an art, music, and media science practitioner is to execute three layers of interest to serve the purposes of community need. These layers reflect my educational and career goals, both of which I see as one in the same. My three layers of interest are: to improve my skills of artistry through indigenous media research and practices, to collaborate within interdisciplinary communities, and to express ideas as well as perspectives supported by my life's experiences and my culture. My motivation to execute these layers is governed by my desire to pursue better ways to communicate, problem-solve, peacfully negotiate, and collaborate on multiple levels.
There has been a considerable body of research that has been done in Human Computer Interaction that is centered upon the development of novel systems to address human to computer control and feedback within the framework of closed-loop interactive environments. Few of these examples provide a framework for the communication and collaboration of multiple people in a single mixed-reality space. Effective interactive environments designed for multiple participants may help encourage communication that can lead to the development of sustained creative collaboration. I am interested in constructing and researching multi-user digitally mediated and interactive social places to create culturally sensible and responsive environments for participants sharing co-located space. This idea is based upon my concepts for the design of interactive digital murals that are founded upon the traditions and phillosophies of Mexican and Chicano muralism.
To achieve culturally sensible models for experiential media construction, I am collaborating with researchers and communities to understand, implement, and extend Indigenous media frameworks through interactive digital art and music. Indigenous media frameworks are design philiosophies for experiential media construction based upon the innovation of media technology by Indigenous peoples in order to create implements and human expressions that are sensible and responsive toward local community perspectives.
The kind of digital place-making that I propose is to create situated and embedded mixed-reality spaces that encourage sustained creativity and peaceful negotiation among multiple participants that inspire forms of meaningful interpersonal relationships that can lead to both learning and the emergence of new knowledge through co-intentional, reflective, resposnible, and accountable communication/dialogues. I envision that this framework can be successfully applied to a concept of literacy that is an ecology consisting of cross cultural and co-intentional policy development, learning, play, support group rehabilitation, storytelling, peacemaking, mathematics, astronomy, art, music, oratory, writing, knowledge of one's own biome, agriculture, and the development of sustainable cross-cultural partnerships. The aforementioned interests encapsulate a broad possibility of research relevant to my interests at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University. These aforementioned interests are important to me because I wish to apply this knowledge in an effort to respond to local and broader community needs that are defined and identified by communities themselves. I seek knowledge through community instruction so I may grow in my ability to utilize the languages of art, media and engineering for the innovation of ideas that respond, extend, and are accountable to indigenous cultural practices.
I have great hope that through the execution of the aforementioned layers of interest, I will spend my life learning and teaching as a responsible and accountable member of my community. Through this I seek to engage the arts, sciences, and cultures, and by working with and identifying processes that I am passionate about, I hope to approach forms of expression with a greater sense of humility, and wisdom concerned with, or affecting relationships, connections, and being.
Sincerely,
Cristóbal Martínez / Christopher Martinez