The Skins Summer Institute (SSI) is the 2nd version of the Skins Aborignal Storytelling and Video Game Workshop. Over 14 days at Concordia University’s Hexagram Research Institute, SSI begins with traditional storytelling and proceeds to teach Kahnawakeronon how to tell their stories in a very new way –through virtual environments and video games. With that foundation in place, the students then learn important skills for the production of video games and virtual environments, such as, game design, art direction, 3D modeling and animation, sound, and computer programming.
The Institute brings together a mix of game-industry professionals, Aboriginal artists and a core team of senior Concordia students from the Computation Arts undergraduate program. We have also invited Aboriginal mentors who lend their considerable expertise as cultural consultants and provide moral support to the young producers.
Skins 1.0, the original workshop, was held at Kahnawake Survival School, the high school of the Kahnawake First Nation. More about the Skins series can be found here.
The Skins Summer Institute is a project of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and produced by Obx Labs. It is generously supported by Concordia University, Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Jason Edward Lewis and Skawennati Fragnito co-direct the Skins project.
