Through practice‐based research on Tlicho lands (in Canada's Northwest Territories), drawing is being used to embody intangible cultural heritage (which includes activities such as oral history and the social practice of walking). Work emerging from this research includes co-created artwork, and several animated films—including the experimental short film, Lines—made of 900 graphite drawings. The process of rendering these drawings embodied experiences on the land that are repetitive, albeit transformative, such as walking or listening to multiple versions of a single story. The entanglement of continually moving lines, evident through the animation, provides a counter‐narrative to colonial interpretations of the land—particularly narratives constructed through Cartesian coordinate systems (on which computer graphics and the geometry of built environments are based). Through this project line‐making provides a trace of memory, rhythmic movement and epistemology.
Lines toured in the United States as part of the 2018 Black Maria Film Festival. Lines was also presented at the 2016 IJADE Conference at the University of Chester in England. An article about the making of this film, Transformation through Repetition: Walking, Listening and Drawing on Tlicho Lands, was published in the peer reviewed International Journal of Art & Design Education.