Jackson 2bears Leween is a Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) multimedia installation/performance artist and cultural theorist from Six Nations and Tyendinaga. He joins the Lab and the Co-Creation Studio as a Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. Since 1999, he has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally in public galleries, museums, artist-run centers, festivals, and group exhibitions. Leween is an active researcher of digital media with a focus on embodied interaction, live audio/visual performance, and immersive multimedia installation. His recent works focus on how the changing impacts of technology have a profound effect on contemporary politics, culture, and society—particularly with regard to First Nations communities.
While in residence at MIT, he’ll be working on Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa’kówa í:se Onkwehonwe, a series of site-specific large-scale multimedia artworks, created in the spirit and image of Haudenosaunee longhouses in a 3D virtual space.