This work creatively communicates the transmission of bison bloodlines and blood knowledge across time and space. Forced Migration, also transmits stories of the past, present, and future with bison. In particular the movement of five bison calves taken into captivity in the 1870s and then the transfer of their descendants and kin from owner to owner over the following century.
The audio stories in Forced Migration take as their focal point men who tried to control the bison establishing themselves as 'saviours', the bison who lived in reciprocity with one another and the Land, and the colonial system of conservation itself. In creating these affective, sound-designed audio works Wilson extracts archival narratives from a white supremacist, patriarchal written tradition for critical purposes. Sound design is by Angus Cruikshank.
Michelle Wilson is an artist and mother currently residing as an uninvited guest on Treaty Six territory in London, Ontario. She successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation, Remnants, Outlaws, and Wallows: Practices for Understanding Bison in May 2022 at the University of Western Ontario.
The Deep Wireless 17 Compilation Album was produced by New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) for the 2023 edition of the annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio & Transmission Art. The works on the album are curated on the theme “Remote Connections”. The album includes a cross spectrum of radio and transmission art practices and includes work created for performances, gallery installations and online audio that brings together influences from documentary, poetry and electronic music among others.
Editions 9 through 16 of the Deep Wireless Compilation are available on NAISA's Soundcloud site. Previous compact disc editions can be heard online at naisa.ca/media-archive/compactdiscs/
Copyright of the works belongs to the artists who have agreed to have their work on this compilation album.
Note that Deep Wireless 17 is not available for download. Community and public radio or internet broadcasters should contact NAISA directly for access to the works for airplay. Contact naisa@naisa.ca for more information.
Artistic Director: Darren Copeland
Executive Director: Nadene Thériault-Copeland
Image Illustration: Prashant Miranda
