Afronautic Research Lab – artist Camille Turner

The Faculty of Environmental Studies is excited to announce the 25th annual Eco-Arts and Media Festival -This year’s theme Past-Now, Future Generations takes up the interconnection of all living things across time.
Crossroads Ungallery
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
12:30pm to 3pm
Crossroads Ungallery HNES 283
*Afronautic Research Lab* by Camille Turner
with MES students Danielle Smith and Sanique Walters
Camille Turner invites the York University community to the Afronautic Research Lab where three Silent attendants guide visitors to join in examining documents. The Afronauts, are descendants of the Dogon people of Mali, they left earth 10,000 years ago and have returned home to save the planet. Tackling one issue at a time, they invite citizen researchers to join them in their Afronautic Research Lab, currently confronting Canada’s historical amnesia. They do this by unveiling 18th century newspapers and invite visitors to contemplate the ads posted by Canadian slave owners. This dark reading room provides the means for citizen researchers to reflect on how the past has shaped the present and points to the future.
Camille Turner is an explorer of race, space, home and belonging. Straddling media, social practice and performance art, her work has been presented throughout Canada and internationally. This talk will present her research and projects revealing Black histories in Toronto. She has lectured at various institutions such as University of Toronto, Algoma University and Toronto School of Art and is a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design and York University’s Masters in Environmental Studies program where she is currently a PhD candidate.