WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned
that this program contains images and voices of deceased persons.

Living Data

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Living Data are responses to our changing natural world that are
True to science, True to senses, Adapting and Evolving (doing something new).

Core scientific data come from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD)
and the Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

The Living Data program was created by Lisa Roberts . It evolved from relationships made in Antarctica working as an artist with the Australian Antarctic Division and continued through the Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney.

I work as an Artist in Residence in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney. I work with people there, and around the world, to combine our perspectives on distruptions to natural patterns of change. Together we're building an animated interactive map to reconnect science and art with Indigenous knowledge that has for too long been missing from reports to the International Panel of Climate Change (the IPCC). The biggest water project in my life is learning and animating the life cycle of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba)and through that process of observing, reading papers, and listening to people with different perspectives, I came to realise the interconnections between flows of water and flows of knowledge. My place is the ocean. My language is animation inspired by dance and drawing. I make animations to embody what I learn in my quest to bring together the different ways of knowing that I grew up with, that come from colonial and indigenous Australian world views. My place is the ocean - the ocean within, the ocean of the mind, imagination, and the ocean that connects all life. The most critical issues relating to water are ocean pollution and disruption to natural water flows that come from deprivations of knowledge flows that run deep in people with new and ancient knowledge of relationships necessary to maintain balance between plants, animals and people. Enduring knowledge flows through new and ancient forms of language - through the arts, and scientific data. Language reflects our place and our relationships. The primal forms in languages of art and data reflect the natural world and can be found in many cultures. Stories of relationship are vital for sustaining life. These stories come from our waterways. Yal yal is the Gumbaygnirr name for the three flowing lines that signify water. In Barkindji language, water is signified by concentric circles. When animated, the primal forms bring to life the experience of water, and so engage people in stories that come from the scientific data that underpin cultural knowledge and behavours that are necessary to maintain the natural flows and the vital balance between plants, animals and people.

Lisa Roberts Friday 6 August 2021