Liliana Conlisk-Gallegos

I am a first-generation artist, curator, writer, and scholar from the Tijuana-San Ysidro border region. I make it my mission to push forth the decolonial option by customizing and hacking as many formats as possible including writing, speaking, producing documentary films, making new media art, art curation (some as live, interactive, immersive transborder rasquache artistic interventions), archiving, and compiling open-access archives and repositories. All my projects intentionally seek to stray away from required expectations or formulas favorited by coloniality. The ongoing technological contributions of minoritized epistemologies have been and continue to be often “overseen” by the limited perspective of Eurocentric modernity. Instead, I highlight the existence of the various iterations (versions) of what I see is a Chicana/o/x “Mestiza” Indigenous spectrum of wisdom by using multiple media tools and technology to make others see, feel, and experience examples of our culturally-specific individual and collective spaces of memory and existence beyond coloniality.

With a transfronteriza (perpetual border-crossing) consciousness, I liken prevailing notions of research, media, and technology to a yonke (junkyard) from which I repurpose elements to free think and amplify individual and collective expression, community healing, and social justice. My new media artwork has been exhibited and showcased by international venues and organizations such as the ARS Electronica festival, the International Society of Arts, Sciences, and Technology (Leonardo), ACM SIGGRAPH, University for the Creative Arts (UK), the Guizhou Provincial Museum (China), the Hunan Museum (China), The Centre for Digital Media (Canada), The García Center for the Arts (San Bernardino, CA), PAMLA Arts Matter of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Human Resources Gallery (Los Angeles), and soon in a forthcoming 2024 exhibition at UCR ARTS and part of the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time (PST) Art x Science x LA.

I have organized and curated over 14 community-centered multimedia, technocultural artivism, critical intervention performances and art exhibitions. In 2022 I curated the first transborder decolonial international digital new media art show The Future Past v. Coloniality: Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years which opened in Daegu, South Korea during the SIGGRAPH Asia conference with a second showing at the 2023 Los Angeles ACM SIGGRAPH conference. Currently, as part of the 2024 PST programming, I am working on a community-centered exhibition hosted between UCR and CSUSB, Momuments to the Pluriverse showcasing VR world making in the style of Xicanx Transfronteriza Immersive Muralism, a new media art formula I was credited with creating in the 2023 ACM SIGGRAPH Autodesk Time Tunnel (featured in Forbes Magazine) exhibiting 50 years of groundbreaking work in computer graphics. 

I am also working on a monograph on the transmedia literary and US mass media archetypical representations of the border city of Tijuana which proposes the existences of a divergent Baja border aesthetics and links it to its deep and organic participation in the decolonial option. My writing has appeared in Critical Storytelling from Global Borderlands: En la línea, Vol. 8, 2022 (Brill Publishers), Re-Activating Critical Thinking amidst Necropolitical Realities: Politics, Theory, Arts and Political Economy for a Radical Change, 2022 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back, 2022 (The University of Arizona Press), Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 3 Vol. 10, 2021 (UC Press), and Journal of Latinos in Education Vol. 20, 2018 (Taylor and Francis).

I am Associate Professor for Decolonizing Media and Communication Studies at CSU San Bernardino, a member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Committee, member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Underrepresented Travel Grant Committee, member of the Leonardo International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) network, and co-founder/co-director of the CSUSB Women of Color in Academia Institute.

PUBLICATIONS

∙2024. “Race, Virtuality & Decolonial Identities in the Global Community Online” Forthcoming in M. Hand, B. Sandwell, & V. Szabo (Eds.), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture Vol. 3: Digitisations, Transformations, & Futures. Bloomsbury Publishing.
∙2022. “Remember, roots still grow beneath: Learning from Conscious Transfronteriza/o/x Trauma.” In C. J. Braniger and J. Enriquez-Ornelas (Eds.), Critical Storytelling from Global Borderlands: En la línea. (Vol. 8, pp. 13-22).
∙2022. “Epilog: Coloniality Incarnate: Conversational Assemblage with Liliana Conlisk Gallegos, Omar Pimenta & Julio Enríquez-Ornelas.” In C. J. Braniger and J. Enriquez-Ornelas (Eds.), Critical Storytelling from Global Borderlands: En la línea. (Vol. 8, pp. 157-164). Brill.
∙2022. “Thinking Coloniality of Power, doing Matrix of Power and the Agents of supremacy (the Everyone that is no one).” In M. Gržinić and J. Pristovšek (Eds.), Re-Activating Critical Thinking amidst Necropolitical Realities: Politics, Theory, Arts and Political Economy for a Radical Change. (pp. 8-36). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
∙2022. “Nochipa ipan noyoltsin (Always in my heart) – Batallas cotidianas.” In g. wilson, J. B. Acuff, and A. M. Kraehe (Eds.), A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back. (pp. 56-66). The University of Arizona Press.
∙2021. “Methodology of the repressed- in faculty hiring / Upcycling coloniality into research production for social justice and change.” In D. Chawla (Ed.), Departures in Critical Qualitative Research (Vol. 10, issue 3, pp. 65-81). University of California Press.
∙2021 [2018]. “Somos la dignidad rebelde: On Mexican indigenous praxis of resistance through pedagogy and its misappropriation by US ‘innovative’ pedagogical methods.” In E. Murillo (Ed.), Journal of Latinos in Education (Vol. 20, issue 1, 32-47). Taylor and Francis.
∙2022. “El pasado futuro vs. la colonialidad: Arte decolonial de medios más allá de 530 años.” Arte en Resistencia. CaminoAlAndar.org. December 11.
∙2018. “‘El muro y el machete’: No hay más ruta que la nuestra / There is no other way than ours.” Cholla Needles vol. 22: 65-72.
∙2017. “Remembering What We Were Never Taught: How Unearthing Oppressed & Hidden Knowledge Can Liberate and Heal Students, Communities, Professors, & Academia.” Bringing Theory to Practice National Newsletter of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).

BOOK REVIEWS AND CRITICAL NOTES

∙2023. Critical notes on Phoenix of Gaza XR Project and Website. By Naim Aburaddi, Ahlam Muhtaseb, and James Trotter. Published as an expert review on the website.
∙2021. Book review of A Woman’s Story by Francine Rodriguez. Madville Publishing. Published with the book.
∙2017. “A transdisciplinary and divergent approach to the complex relations found between Latin American human rights and identity art media in After Human Rights: Literature, Visual Arts, and Film in Latin America, 1990-2010 by Fernando J. Rosenberg.” Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura 32 vol. 2 Spring: 247-252.
∙2011. “Porque me faltan alas: Historias de la vida del inmigrante mexicano.” Ventana Abierta: Revista Latina de Literatura, Arte y Cultura 9 vol. 31. January. Center for Chicano Studies: 6-11.

TRANSLATION

∙2012. Days of Wrath (Dies Irae). By Vincent Joseph Escartí. Publication of eHumanista, University of California, Santa Barbara. (Catalan to English, in collaboration with Antonio Cortijo Ocaña). Novel.

ART CURATION

∙The Future Past v. Coloniality: Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years.
International Transborder Decolonial New Media Arts Exhibition. The Digital Arts Community of ACM SIGGRAPH. Curator, Designer, and Coordinator. 
▾Los Angeles Convention Center, USA (August 9-13, 2023).
▾Daegu Exhibition & Convention Center (EXCO), Daegu, South Korea (December 6-9, 2022).

∙An Exhibition of Decolonial Transborder Art.
Digital Media Art Exhibition. 119th PAMLA Conference. Co-curator and Co-coordinator. 
▾UCLA Luskin Conference Center, Los Angeles, USA (November 11-13, 2022).

∙Digital Power: Intersectional Resistance, Advocacy, & Activism in International Feminist Techno-Decolonial Art Digital Media Art Exhibition.
The Digital Arts Community of ACM SIGGRAPH. Co-curator and co-coordinator with Kathy Rae Huffman. 
▾ The Digital Arts Community of ACM SIGGRAPH Website (2021-ongoing).

∙Technocultura & Resistencia: Otro mundo es possible/Another World is Possible (2018)
VR World, Chicana transfronteriza Immersive Muralism. Spoken word and 3D sculpture.
▾San Bernardino County Unified School District's Superintendent's Student Advisory Board. (November 2019).
▾Create Thirst Academy Moreno Valley. (September 2019).
▾California State University, San Bernardino. Library Wedge. (October 2018).

∙San Bernardino, Nuestro. (2018).
Community-Centering Performance composed of dissonant VR and Spatial Testimonio Projections.
▾California State University, San Bernardino. Library Basement. (October 2018).
▾California State University, San Bernardino. Library Basement. (June 2018)

∙The Art of Dreaming (2017)
Four-part series of community-based, pedagogy of liberation praxis, upcycling, artistic production, and multimedia community healing and building.
▾Chicano Movement Poster making session and march. CSU, San Bernardino (Feb 2017).
▾Turning Trash into Art Art-Making Workshop. CSU, San Bernardino (March 2017, Nov 2018).
▾The Art of Dreaming Exhibition. The Garcia Center for the Arts, San Bernardino (May 22-Jun 3, 2017).
▾Gala Silent Auction Event. The Garcia Center for the Arts (Jun 2017). CSU San Bernardino (Dec 2018).

DIRECTOR, WRITER, CREATIVE PRODUCER OF ARTS MEDIA PRODUCTION

--Before the Sixth Sun: A Codex for our Children (2023).
Textile embroidery, augmented reality, multisensorial experience. With music by Juan Carlos Portillo.
▾Wandering: Digital Art in Historical Spacetime. Curated by Amy Heller (University of Bern, Switzerland, Duan Xiaoming (Director Hunan Museum), and Zhang Xiaotao (Central Academy of Fine Arts). Hunan Museum. Changsha, China. (Jun 30 - Nov 17, 2023).
▾The Land of Milk and Honey. MexiCali Biennial. Curated by Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, Rosalía Romero, and April Lillard-Gomez with assistance from Enid Baxter-Ryce.
The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art Culture. Riverside, CA. (February 25 - May 28, 2023).
▾PAMLA Arts Matter. 119th Annual conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA). Los Angeles, CA. (November 10-13, 2022).

--La cosmovision del cangrejo / Crab Cosmovision. (2004-2023)
Pastel, chalk, charcoal, acrylic.
▾Farewell: The Unexpected Connection Exhibition. All Eyes on Me Studio & The Little Gallery. (November 18-19, 2023).

--The Coyolxauhqui Imperative, 2020 (2020).
Xicana/o/x Indígena Transfronteriza Immersive Muralism. Traditional painting, ancient codices, 3D objects/sculpture, Spanglish and Nahuatl spoken word, ancient Mexica Tenochca musical reproduction by Juan Carlos Portillo and background minimalist score by Cory McCormick. VR experience and immersive short film.
▾Digital Capture: Southern California and the Origins of the Pixel-Based Image World. Curated by April Baca and Nikolay Maslov. Getty’s Pacific Standard Time (PST) Art x Science x L.A. initiative. UCR ARTS. Riverside, U.S.A. (Forthcoming Fall 2024).
▾Fission: The New Wave of International Digital Art. Curated by Birgitta Hosea, Zhang Xiaotao, and Li Fei. Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre. Changsha, China. (July 15 -Nov 30, 2023) – postponed.
▾Fission: The New Wave of International Digital Art. Curated by Birgitta Hosea, Zhang Xiaotao, and Li Fei. Guizhou Provincial Museum. Guizhou, China. (April 29 - August 31, 2022).
▾Canto Sin Fronteras Radio Show, KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 93.7 FM San Diego, 99.5 FM Ridgecrest/Chine Lake, www.kpfk.org. (July 25, 2020).
▾Chicana/o/x Latina/o/x Poetry Slam. Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. The University of New México. Albuquerque, NM, USA. (November 12, 2020).
▾Solo exhibition. Centre for Digital Media, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Oct 21, 2020).
▾Etno-Channel. Curated by Juan Carlos Portillo. Virtual and Mexico City, Mexico. (June 22, 2020).
▾Digital Power: Activism, Advocacy, and the influence of women online. Curated by Kathy Rae Huffman. 47th International ACM SIGGRAPH Conference. (August 17-28, 2020).

--Ni una más: para todas todo, nada para nosotras /Not one more: for all of us everything, nothing for us or Tra(d)ición Americana. (2021)
This multimedia video painting delves into the politicized Feminist Chicana Indigenous mestiza consciousness, exploring intergenerational healing from colonial violence through feminine resistance in the Americas, building bridges to comprehend Women of Color's encounters with colonial institutional violence.
▾ Among the Unrest. Curated by Juan Delgado and David John Boyd. PAMLA Arts Matter Gallery Exhibition. 118th Annual Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association. Virtual and Las Vegas, NV. (November 11-14, 2021).

--Nuestra America (2017).
Multimedia spoken word, digital/live hybrid live performance in collaboration with Juan Delgado
▾Human Resources Art Museum, The institute of Ceramics and Alliance (2017).

CURATION OF SCHOLARLY OPEN ACCESS DIGITAL ARCHIVES/REPOSITORIES
∙Literature de Baja California Website previously housed by SDSU Language Acquisition Resource Center (LARC). Curation, recovery, preservation, incorporation of immersive technologies and extended realities
in collaboration with Dr. José Mario Martín Flores. (In Progress).

∙“TransBorderscapes: Decolonial Media.” YouTube Channel (2019 – Ongoing). Curated repository of multimedia decolonial transborderscapes happening in multiple and diverse dimensions.
The collection includes a series of lectures on decolonial theory, history, Xicanx, Latinx media and communication studies presented by decolonial media artists around the world. 

∙“TransBorder New Media Art.” Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit (SPARKS). ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community. Co-Moderator Kathy Rae Huffman. July 21, 2023.

∙“New Media Architecture(s): A Speculative Vision of Change in the Arts, Design, & Sciences.” Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit (SPARKS). ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community. Co-Moderator: Gustavo Alfonso Rincón. December 9, 2022.

∙“Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years.” Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit (SPARKS). ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community. Co-Moderator Kathy Rae Huffman. April 29, 2022.

∙“Digital Power - Intersectional Resistance, Advocacy, and Activism in International Feminist Techno-Decolonial Art.” Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit (SPARKS). ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community, Co-Moderator Kathy Rae Huffman. August 13, 2021.