This article explores the vital importance of the sensory at the nexus of the artificial and real life. Co-existing within colonial histories, the artificial and lived are bound up with intractable violence and inequities driven by capitalist, militarist, and anthropocentric trajectories. Our collaborative article examines the 30-year practice of the non-binary, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/ Biripi artist r e a. As we contend, r e a’s experimental media arts practice pivots on sensory and affective truth-telling of the “artificial”. Their work is a re-Indigenization of country, body, and experience, specifically because digital art represents an “unoccupied space” for counter-historical transformation.
Please Note: This material contains themes and discussions of institutionalisation, Blak deaths in custody, and gender and sexuality.