Dates du sommet: 22 – 24 novembre 2019
Période d'inscription terminée
Vivez l’expérience de ce sommet de trois jours conçu pour éveiller la curiosité, l’assurance et l’enthousiasme au sein des domaines de la création artistique au Canada qui sont confrontés à un virage numérique rapide.
En stimulant d’imposantes conceptions de nos avenirs numériques — certaines étant prometteuses, d’autres plus inquiétantes — nous nous efforcerons de créer une vision ambitieuse du rôle que les arts doivent jouer en vue de favoriser le développement de réalités créatrices, inspirantes et humaines. Pour faire avancer cette vision, nous irons au-delà du simple échange d’information et tenterons d’emprunter des voies concrètes vers la création, la production et la collaboration.
*Veuillez noter que l'inscription est selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les places sont limitées.
Le Sommet sur les arts, la culture et le virage numérique aborde tour à tour les thèmes du monde, de l’art et du public, établissant des liens entre les grandes idées et la réalisation pratique. Nous nous questionnerons au carrefour de deux questions fondamentales : Où a-t-on besoin des arts dans ce monde perturbé? Et, de quoi les arts ont-ils besoin pour que soient développées des visions créatrices en ces endroits? Joignez-vous à cette discussion avec un vaste éventail d’intervenants, y compris des artistes, des chefs de file des arts et de la culture, des technologues, des futuristes, des fondateurs, des responsables des politiques, des joueurs de jeux vidéo, des chercheurs, des capitalistes et des marxistes.
Ensemble, nous aborderons de grandes questions axées sur des mégadonnées, nous nous plongerons dans la découvrabilité, et nous examinerons les rapports avec des publics qui se transforment rapidement. Nous chercherons de nouveaux modes de réalité et de nouvelles manières de générer et de disséminer des expressions créatrices. Nous découvrirons des perspectives et des pratiques autochtones, et nous examinerons comment les points de vue autochtones éclairent nos réalités numériques. Nous chercherons à comprendre comment les possibilités qu’offre le monde des arts numériques au Canada sont liées à des stratégies plus larges pour l’ensemble de notre nation.
Tout au long du sommet, par une évaluation continue, on relèvera des thèmes et préoccupations essentiels au fil des conversations, et on s’en servira pour structurer des dialogues pertinents. Avec un peu de chance, on vivra un moment de transformation en envisageant comment on pourrait imaginer, créer et habiter nos « moi » numériques et les mondes qu’ils feront naître.
Tous ceux qui souhaitent participer à un dialogue national sur les pressions et les possibilités qui émergent en un monde hypernumérisé — ainsi que sur la façon d’y trouver, d’y créer un sens — sont les bienvenus. Ce sommet vise un groupe représentatif de leaders en matière de culture, y compris :
L'inscription pour le sommet est maintenant terminée. Inscrivez-vous à notre infolettre (anglais seulement).
Au Sommet sur les arts, la culture et la transformation numérique du Centre des arts de Banff, nous nous pencherons sur quatre domaines thématiques principaux, allant des grandes idées aux aspects plus pratiques au cours des trois jours.
Jour 1 – Matin
Thème : Évaluation de la perturbation
L’incertitude quant à l’envergure de la perturbation numérique nous pousse à nous demander s’il s’agit de nouveaux outils pour arriver aux mêmes fins, ou si quelque chose de beaucoup plus profond se trame. À l’heure où la technologie s’infiltre dans les différents aspects de nos vies, l’identification de la perturbation numérique qui nous touche devient une préoccupation urgente. Écoutez l’un des penseurs les plus respectés du monde communiquer ses réflexions sur notre existence de plus en plus marquée par la numérisation.
Le discours thème sera suivi d’une entrevue entre le conférencier et un membre de l’équipe de direction du sommet. Cette discussion portera sur des questions liées aux thèmes principaux des 2e et 3e jours et engagera une conversation sur les perspectives mondiales, la pratique artistique et l’expérience du public.
La matinée se terminera par une période de questions ouverte au public, ainsi que par des discussions en plus petits groupes.
Jour 1 – Après-midi
Discussion d'ouverture : Intelligence artificielle, réalité et éthique
Rien n’est plus symbolique de notre anxiété à l’égard du numérique que l’intelligence artificielle. Vivons-nous le début d’une apocalypse orchestrée par les robots, ou avons-nous l’outil dont nous rêvons depuis que nous avons maîtrisé le feu? Cette séance examine l’intelligence artificielle : comment elle fonctionne, comment elle se reproduit et révolutionne notre monde réel, les questions d’éthiques qu’elle soulève, et ce que cela signifie en matière de libre arbitre pour tous les êtres humains à l’exception de quelques rares individus.
Présentation : Être en ligne – L’identité, l’identité numérique, et les forces qui nous façonnent (et qui nous dirigent) en ligne
Nous vivons tous de plus en plus en ligne, depuis ceux d’entre nous qui, n’ayant pas accès à Internet, y figurent à peine comme statistiques jusqu’à ceux dont les objectifs matériels et existentiels sont inséparables des plateformes Web. Comment définissons-nous notre identité numérique par comparaison à notre « autre » identité? Quelles sont les forces qui façonnent notre identité numérique? En quoi celles-ci diffèrent-elles des contextes plus traditionnels dans lesquels nos identités émergent?
Table ronde : Le libre arbitre et la voix personnelle en réponse à un monde numérisé
Le monde hors ligne a démontré ses capacités en termes de marginalisation, d’oppression et d’exclusion. Dans l’exploration de la question de la marginalisation et du monde numérique, nous nous demandons si celui-ci reproduit – ou même amplifie – notre passé, ou s’il peut donner à des voix marginalisées une capacité d’agir unique qui leur permettra d’échapper à ce modèle.
Table ronde : De l’idée à la mise en pratique
Les grandes idées, les angoisses et les possibilités abordées au cours du premier jour se retrouvent dans la pratique artistique. Trois utilisateurs de médias numériques de différents pays nous accompagnent dans le monde sauvage de la création artistique dans un environnement numérique. Joignez-vous à nos artistes invités pour explorer la façon dont ces thèmes trouvent une tribune idéale dans la création numérique.
À mesure que les gouvernements du monde entier transforment les politiques et les mécanismes de financement des arts en fonction de la vie numérique, nous nous penchons sur les idées et préconceptions qui sous-tendent cette transformation. Une histoire des arts numériques au Canada étonnamment longue éclaire notre conception de la position où nous en sommes sur ce continuum, de la place que nous occupons dans le monde, et de ce qui constituera notre avenir.
Il a parfois été difficile pour la perspective de la pratique artistique de prendre sa place dans les discussions sur les stratégies numériques. En amenant notre pratique dans des espaces émergents, nous mettons en relief les principaux défis et possibilités associés au fait de faire ce grand saut qui n’est pas toujours la solution magique.
Jour 2 – Matin
Thème : Banff - Le troisième espace
Ancienne directrice et productrice exécutive du Banff New Media Institute (Institut des nouveaux médias de Banff), Susan Kennard partage ses réflexions sur l'évolution du Banff New Media Institute. Cette présentation met en lumière des expériences pleines d'espoir, des enjeux ainsi que la culture d'engagement, de créativité et de prise de risques, organisée et conçue par la fondatrice et créatrice du Banff New Media Institute, Sara Diamond.
Discussion d'ouverture : Comprendre l’initiative numérique, pouvoir la financer, la construire et la faire fonctionner
Informez-vous sur les pratiques exemplaires et les pires cauchemars. Suivez le parcours d’un artiste du théâtre, metteur en scène et conseiller dramaturgique qui transmettra ses expériences (qui sont souvent des leçons d’humilité) sur la création de nouvelles œuvres dans le contexte d’une prolifération rapide des possibilités du numérique.
Jour 2 – Après-midi
Table ronde : Changement de systèmes – La perturbation numérique et le développement du financement, une perspective internationale
Partout dans le monde, les pays explorent de nouvelles démarches en matière de politiques pour ne pas se laisser distancer par la perturbation numérique et, idéalement, prendre une longueur d’avance. Partant de l’hypothèse que pour demeurer à jour il faut les efforts concertés des responsables des politiques, des bailleurs de fonds et des utilisateurs de médias numériques, cette table ronde aborde l’élaboration et l’incidence de certaines politiques récentes et méthodes de financement au Canada, au Royaume-Uni et en Europe.
Table ronde : Collision des secteurs industriels ou collaboration intersectorielle
La vague rapide d’accoutumance cognitive et de « malaise face à la nouveauté » durant l’ère numérique est intimidante, particulièrement pour les acteurs de petite ou moyenne taille qui ne peuvent pas se permettre d’inventer de nouvelles formes et plateformes pour chaque nouveau projet. Cette table ronde aborde la difficulté de combler le fossé entre industries culturelles à l’heure où les avancées dans les domaines du jeu et de la technologie offrent des possibilités alléchantes et stimulantes qui ne sont pas toujours harmonisées à la culture et aux contraintes des pratiques artistiques au Canada.
Présentations : Pecha Kucha par les utilisateurs de médias numériques
20 images. 20 secondes. Voyez et écoutez la présentation Pecha Kucha de toute une gamme d’artistes qui ont bravé le virage numérique et intègrent les défis et les possibilités de l’art numérique à leur pratique artistique.
Les réalités numériques sont en train de transformer nos publics, leurs préférences, leurs habitudes et leurs attentes. La diffusion en continu en ligne, les changements dans les formes artistiques et la gestion de l’intelligence artificielle dans les systèmes informatiques créent des urgences et des questions changeant rapidement en ce qui concerne nos relations avec le public et notre connaissance de celui-ci.
La structure du Sommet sur les arts, la culture et la transformation numérique est conçue pour favoriser les idées émergentes et le dialogue, et pour qu’on puisse relever des thèmes essentiels tout au long du sommet. Durant la dernière journée, une séance dont le contenu n’a pas encore été planifié nous permettra d’aborder les priorités qui auront été déterminées par les participants au fil des activités du sommet.
Par le rapprochement de ces fils directeurs thématiques, nous comptons inspirer, pousser et enhardir les leaders de la pratique des arts numériques sur le plan de la création artistique, de la planification institutionnelle, de la formation postsecondaire et de la recherche, ainsi que de l’élaboration de politiques en matière de culture. Nous vous invitons à façonner notre avenir numérique.
Jour 3 – Matin
Présentation : Qu’est-ce qu’un « bon » public, et quand un public ne l’est-il pas?
La perturbation numérique requiert un nouvel apprentissage non seulement pour l’artiste mais également pour le public. Les nouveaux modes d’expression demandent au public de jouer de nouveaux rôles, et il a besoin de nouvelles compétences pour les jouer. Quelles sont les répercussions de cette réalité fluide sur l’engagement du public et sur l’élaboration et la structure dramaturgique d’une nouvelle œuvre?
Présentation : Réalité amplifiée, réalité virtuelle, réalité mixte, et la fluidité de la réalité dans les pratiques des arts numériques
Cette séance explore l’évolution de l’expérience du public en examinant des œuvres sélectionnées, adaptées à un lieu particulier, et présente des prototypes interactifs qui proposent une interaction du public avec des technologies émergentes en réalité amplifiée, en réalité virtuelle et en réalité mixte.
Table ronde : Le public en interaction
Cette table ronde aborde les thèmes de l’interactivité du public, de l’invitation authentique, du choix entre l’interactivité à risque élevé et l’interactivité à faible risque, du choix entre interactivité dirigée et interactivité autodirigée, et de l’établissement des règles d’engagement.
Table ronde : L’incubation de l’infrastructure
En explorant la réaction infrastructurelle à notre curiosité à l’égard du numérique, les panélistes discutent des façons d’optimiser les dimensions technique et humaine de nos installations en vue de développer des processus expérimentaux efficaces et aventureux. L’accent sera mis sur les pratiques exemplaires du Canada, du Royaume-Uni et de l’Europe, puis on tentera de déterminer les lacunes que comporte le panorama canadien et les façons possibles de les combler.
Jour 3 – Après-midi
Table ronde : Les technologies de création au-delà de l’écran
Le rythme auquel les technologies de création – qui ont toujours été une composante de l’innovation numérique – s’étendent au-delà du monde de l’écran va en accélérant, touchant le design, la mode, les arts de la scène et la production. Cette table ronde examine les effets des nouveautés en matière d’équipement et de logiciels – y compris la robotique de pointe, les technologies de fabrication, la projection, les capteurs, l’intelligence artificielle et les réalités mixtes – sur le secteur de la création. Les panélistes se concentreront plus précisément sur le fait que ces techniques font partie intégrante d’une relation avec le public qui est en évolution constante.
Table ronde : La possibilité d’être découvert
À mesure que l’apprentissage automatique devient un intermédiaire essentiel entre les êtres humains et leurs mondes, il nous faudra assurer la compatibilité et la cohérence des stratégies relatives aux métadonnées et, pour ce faire, nous devrons modifier considérablement nos pratiques actuelles en matière de marketing, de promotion et de classification. Comment faire pour superviser un tel processus de manière à favoriser la visibilité et la vitalité des arts du Canada dans un monde numérique?
Clôture : La voie de l’avenir
L’objectif de ce sommet est d’inspirer des échanges entre collègues et artistes estimés réunis durant trois jours, échanges qui révèleront et détermineront des thèmes émergents, et qui mettront en lumière des domaines de discussion qui demeurent urgents. Ces éléments seront mis de l’avant comme façon de ratifier les résultats et de favoriser les occasions de rassemblements et d’ateliers dérivés.
Réalité virtuelle, installations artistiques et performances ponctueront les sessions du sommet. Ces activités sont ouvertes au public et offrent un aperçu des réalisations en cours dans ces domaines majeurs.
Jonathon Anderson is an Associate Professor of Interior Design and Director of the FCAD Creative Technology Lab at Ryerson University in Toronto. He holds a master of fine arts in furniture design from Savannah College of Art & Design and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Southern Illinois University.
Jonathon’s work explores how industrial manufacturing and CNC technologies influence the design and making processes. As a result, the work is characterized by innovative and explorative methods that result in interconnected design, fine art, and technology solutions. From this non-traditional process emerges a provocative, complex design language that visually communicates at varied scales and emphasizes corporeal and phenomenological experiences. To Jonathon, making is not only a practice but a form of critical thinking.
Reneltta is an Inuvialuit, Dene and Cree woman from the Northwest Territories. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program and founder of Akpik Theatre, the only professional Indigenous Theatre company in the NWT. Akpik Theatre focuses on establishing an authentic Northern Indigenous voice through theatre and storytelling. Raised by her grandparents on the trap-line until school age, this nomadic environment gave Reneltta the skills to become the multi-disciplined artist she is now. Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous Theatre across Canada and overseas.
Arluk is committed to stories inspired by Indigenous language and has worked in-depth with Indigenous and minority youth through her theatre advocacy work. Under Akpik Theatre, Reneltta has written, produced, and performed various works focusing on decolonization and using theatre as a tool for reconciliation. This includes Pawâkan Macbeth, a Plains Cree adaptation of Macbeth written by Arluk on Treaty 6 territory. Pawâkan Macbeth was inspired by working with Owen Morris and his students on the Frog Lake reserve. In 2017, Reneltta became the first Inuit and first Indigenous woman to direct at The Stratford Festival. She was awarded the Tyrone Guthrie - Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director’s Award for her direction of The Breathing Hole by Governor General Award-winning playwright, Colleen Murphy. Reneltta is now Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Katerina Cizek is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab. Recently, she published a ground-breaking field study on co-creative practices in the arts, journalism, and documentary entitled Collective Wisdom. Katerina is a two-time Emmy-winning documentarian working across emerging media platforms. For over a decade at the National Film Board of Canada, she helped redefine the organization as one of the world’s leading digital content hubs, with the Filmmaker-in-Residence and HIGHRISE projects. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking serial and digital projects garnered a Peabody award, a World Press Photo Prize, and three Canadian Screen Awards amongst others.
Katerina has forged unconventional, co-creative partnerships with such diverse organizations ranging from an inner-city teaching hospital to Mozilla Foundation to The New York Times. Her projects are also interventionist, and co-creative; they have significantly contributed to conversations about healthcare policy, urban planning as well as the health outcomes and living conditions of the participants themselves.
Katerina’s earlier human rights documentary film projects have instigated criminal investigations, changed UN policies, and have screened as evidence at an International Criminal Tribunal. Her films include the Hampton-Prize winner Seeing is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (2002, co-directed with Peter Wintonick), In Search of the African Queen: A People Smuggling Operation (1999), and The Dead are Alive: Eyewitness in Rwanda (1995).
Katerina is currently a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University with the Faculty of Communications, Art, and Design. She frequently travels internationally to teach, advise, and share innovative approaches to the documentary genre and journalism.
Sharon is a playwright, dramaturge, producer, and Creative Director of Raucous, a British theatre company that fuses performance, music, film, and creative technology. She has written 16 plays for theatre and her work has been shortlisted for the Yale Drama Prize, the National Theatre Playwright’s Award, and the PapaTango Prize. In 2018 she was awarded a Bruntwood Judge’s Prize for Playwriting.
In 2017 Sharon worked with Aardman Animations on the BBC virtual reality film Is Anna Okay?. She is a resident at the renowned Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, an Associate Artist at the egg, Bath, and lecturer in writing for theatre and writing for digital platforms at Bath Spa University. In 2018 she was awarded a Fellowship with the South West Creative Technology Network exploring advancements in immersion and performance, and in 2019 she was made a Royal Shakespeare Company/Magic Leap Digital Fellow.
Sweden, the late 90s, a quiet Stockholm suburb. A teen who dreams of being a music producer has just gotten his hands on the first piece of production software capable of rivalling a professional setup. At the time, he is a weirdo – listening to trance, claiming to make music while sitting quietly in his room, refused by every label who gets his demo CDs in the mail. Then, Napster happens.
From aspiring teen creator to semi-hacker to music producer working with the greats, from a PhD in organic chemistry to collaborations with Hyper Island and the Stockholm tech scene, to the starting-up of Oddball Ventures, and from this diverse portfolio to TEDx and a nomination for Sweden’s Speaker of the Year 2017, Ashkan has not only lived the evolution of the internet, but has seen it through angles few else have. He is set apart by his insights into the internet as a psychological, sociological, and anthropological phenomenon that changes the entire dynamic of the world.
Standing on the shoulders of great philosophers and sociologists, he begins by uncovering what it means to be human. With the help of anthropology, he then shows us what catalyzed human civilization and what continues to power it. Hint: it is all about information technology! Last but not least, he introduces the internet and current technological trends to this model, shedding light on the road we are thundering down – and on how it is changing us for good.
Lawyer, certified mediator, artist, and social impact strategist Valentine Goddard is a recognized expert on the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence (AI). She is a member of the United Nation’s Expert Group on the Role of Public Institutions on the Impact of New Technology.
She is the founding president and lead architect of the AI on a Social Mission Conference, an event designed to facilitate a cross sectoral and multidisciplinary dialogue on the ethical and social implications of AI. AI on a Social Mission ensures a high participation of social purpose organizations, and the policy recommendations issued by its participants are shared worldwide.
Valentine is the founder of AI Impact Alliance, an international membership-based NGO with a mission to empower organizations with the understanding of AI’s potential and implications, support its use for Sustainable Development Goals, and drive policy towards an inclusive governance of AI. AI Impact Alliance is a founding member of the International Observatory on the Ethical and Social Impact of AI and is a co-producer of Art Impact, a national dialogue on AI with artists resulting in policy recommendations.
Over the course of her career as a lawyer, Valentine has practiced refugee, labour, social, and administrative law in addition to lobbying for a better access to justice. She has taught comparative law in Japan as well as initiated and funded cultural mediation projects aimed at human rights education. In short, human dignity is at the core of her multidisciplinary and applied approach to the ethics of AI.
Chalo Hancock is a thoughtful leader with a passion for starting, scaling, and sustaining organizations. He is honoured to join Artscape Daniels Launchpad as the new Managing Director. A clear communicator, proven relationship builder with excellent operational and analytical skills, he is excited to complement the dynamic team at Launchpad. As the co-founder of U for Change, an award-winning charity in Toronto, he helped design the programs which have successfully graduated more than 2,500 young people in the arts. Chalo was also involved in the launch and growth of Christopher Paunil Designs - a celebrated bridal and eveningwear brand with global markets. In 2012, he received a Diamond Jubilee Award from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales for his outstanding service, and in 2017, he received an Emerging Leader Award from the Lawson Foundation for his work in community building. Chalo’s heart has always been with artists, creatives, and the community.
Frédéric Julien has been active in the performing arts for several years as an artist, arts administrator, consultant, advocate, and change maker. He has been leading research and development activities at the Canadian Arts Presenting Association for the last nine years. In this capacity, he directed or authored several key research initiatives such as The Value of Presenting: A Study of Performing Arts Presentation in Canada, Vital Signs: Arts and Belonging, Digitizing the Performing Arts, and Vitality and Impact of Arts Presenting.
An active volunteer, Frédéric has served as Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition, on the board of Arts Health Network Canada, and his neighbourhood association in Gatineau.
Lise Ann Johnson is the Director of Strategic Granting Initiatives at Canada Council for the Arts. Her responsibilities include the delivery of the council’s Digital Strategy Fund, which supports the digital transformation of the arts sector in Canada, as well as The Creation Accelerator, a pilot partnership with CBC/Radio-Canada to support the development, creation, and sharing of original digital content. Since joining the Canada Council in 2012 as a Program Officer in the Theatre Section, Lise Ann has also worked as the Program Manager of Supporting Artistic Practice and the Director of Granting Program Operations.
Prior to joining Council, Lise Ann worked in the theatre community as a director and dramaturg with a passion for new Canadian plays. She served as the Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company from 2005 to 2012 and the Artistic Associate and Literary Manager of the National Arts Centre English Theatre from 2001 to 2005. From 1997 to 2005, she coordinated and curated On the Verge, the NAC’s national play development festival. Lise Ann’s training includes an MA in Drama at the University of Alberta, the Directing Programme at the National Theatre School of Canada, an internship at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, an International Residency at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and the SITI Intensive in New York.
Dr. Richard Lachman directs Zone Learning for Ryerson University, Creative Technology Development for FCAD, and the Experiential Media Institute. He is an Associate Professor, Digital Media in the RTA School of Media, and also serves as a Technology and Creative Consultant for entertainment and software-development projects. A Gemini award-winning producer, Richard has worked on many highly successful Canadian and US interactive and convergent-media projects over his career.
Richard completed his doctorate at UNE in Australia studying software recommendation-engines, did his undergraduate work in Computer Science at MIT, and holds a master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab’s “Interactive Cinema” group. He was part of a startup acquired by Mattel, ending as Lead Designer and Lead Engineer for the Petz software with over 3 million units shipped worldwide. The software has received awards from ID Magazine and Communications Arts, was featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and Time Magazine, and was part of an exhibition at the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
Richard’s later work in transmedia has garnered a Gemini, CNMA, and Webby Honouree awards, and he has lead collaborative design exercises with UNICEF, TIFF, Penguin UK, Kobo, the CRTC, and others. His areas of research include transmedia storytelling, digital documentaries, augmented/locative/VR experiences, mixed realities, and collaborative design thinking.
David Maggs carries on an active career as an interdisciplinary artist and arts researcher. He is the founder of and pianist for Dark by Five, has written works for the stage, and collaborated on large augmented reality projects. David is the artistic director of the rural Canadian interarts festival Gros Morne Summer Music, founder and publisher of a digital arts magazine, and the director of The Graham Academy, a youth performing arts training academy.
David developed and co-produced the CBC documentary The Country. As an academic, David focuses on arts practices and the challenge of sustainability. His doctoral thesis Artists of the Floating World led to the SSHRC-funded Sustainability in the Imaginary World led by PI John Robinson. His research attempts to understand sustainability as a cultural challenge and the arts as a driver of social impacts. He has been a featured speaker at the Canadian Arts Summit, The International Transdisciplinarity Conference (Germany), the National Valuing Nature Conference, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), and elsewhere.
I design and facilitate complex cross-sector projects. My work is focused on:
1. decentering the hegemony of institutions in cultural work;
2. exploring and experimenting with new ways of organizing and collaborating; and
3. recombining expertise and experience to address big problems
I do this by asking questions about how culture gets made, finding examples of how others are making it, and experimenting to learn and address the messy challenges we collectively face. My practice focuses on creating spaces for people to come together so that different things can happen. I am a former program director at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Artscape Launchpad. I am a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. I have spent the past 15 years creating opportunities for different communities to come together and create together. Designing spaces that don't privilege particular ways of seeing the world is an ongoing challenge. I have had lots of practice.
Past projects include:
- Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab
- Art Impact: exploring the intersection of arts and artificial intelligence
- Ferment: a year-long collective exploration of creative and business models by cultural entrepreneur
- Breaking Currents: digital prototyping for non-Western culturally-specific performing arts organizations
- Hope Decoded: a five-day residency to tackle hopelessness across sectors
- Decolonizing Canadian Dance
I live in Toronto but always try to bring people to the woods.
Twitter: @Jerroldmcgrath
IG: @ukaiprojects
Alex McLean is a theatre devisor, director, and writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a co-artistic director of Halifax’s acclaimed Zuppa Theatre Co., with whom he has co-written and directed 15 original shows, most recently The Archive of Missing Things and Pop-Up Love Party, which have toured internationally, and This is Nowhere—a large-scale live/digital performance supported by the Canada Council’s New Chapter Program.
Alex’s work has toured throughout Canada, in the U.S., and U.K. With Ker Wells he was a founding member of Number Eleven Theatre, with whom he co-created and performed The Prague Visitor and Icaria (1998-2006). In 2005 he was a lead artist of the International Theatre Institute’s Moving Stage Labin Copenhagen, Denmark.
Alex holds an M.A. from the University of Toronto and was a student of University of King’s College, Double Edge Theatre, Primus Theatre, and École Philippe Gaulier. He has worked on projects with Opera Nova Scotia, Vertical City Performance, Eastern Front Theatre, The International Agatha Christie Festival, Dalhousie Theatre Department, Rising Tide Theatre, and Two Planks and a Passion. A specialist in collaborative creation, he has published articles in Canadian Theatre Review, WORKS, New Canadian Drama, and Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English.
Patrick, recently appointed at UBC’s Theatre & Film program in Production and Design, is passionate about bridging partnerships between various stakeholders in the academic, cultural, service and digital media industries. He has facilitated and organized numerous outcome-driven workshops in the resource, entertainment and educational sectors and at conferences like CVR, SXSW, GDC, SIGGRAPH and IndieCade. He’s developed a successful rapid prototyping methodology focused on mentoring teams co-constructing scalable digital prototypes with over 45 companies and organizations (Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Blackbird, Finger Foods, Kabam and more) over the past ten years with sessions focused on aligning priorities, research initiatives, vision, strategy, problem-solving and scalability. Institutionally, he has designed and implemented learning with the Master of Digital Media Program, BCIT, Ryerson University, University of Wuhan, Chinese University of Communication, North Chinese University of Technology, UBC and SFU. Within the digital media industry he has facilitated small teams internationally, with Riot Games, EA, Microsoft Big Park, Fujitsu, Procon Mining Safety, Crystal CG China, the City of Fukuoka, NGX, Ballet BC, British Columbia Museum Association, Arts Club Theatre, and British Columbia Lottery Corporation. His research interests and scholarly activities are focused on rapid prototyping for mixed realities as well as designing spatial audio in physical and virtual environments. Whatever the pursuit, he draws from his work as an award-winning sound designer and composer for live and mediated productions having worked on over 250 productions in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Fran heads up the Arts and Culture Programmes and Investments team at Nesta, including Arts and Culture Finance, which makes impact loans to arts and culture organisations through the Arts Impact Fund and Cultural Impact Development Fund. The team works on various projects with the aim of understanding and articulating the full breadth of impact of arts, culture, and the creative economy; promoting innovative funding and business models and partnerships, such as blended finance, impact investing and crowdfunding; improving understanding of and access to the positive impacts of arts and culture; and helping arts and cultural organisations experiment with and benefit from new technologies, for example by collaborating with Arts Council England to produce the Digital Culture Survey. Current initiatives include Amplified, a grant and structured support programme helping cultural and creative organisations to use digital ideas to generate social impact, and an Innovate UK-funded project, with an RSC-led consortium including Punchdrunk, Magic Leap, EPIC Games, Marshmallow Laser Feast, and others to investigate what the Audience of the Future will look like.
In a previous life, Fran was a fund manager at JPMorgan, before spending some time travelling in a campervan and living off-grid in southern Portugal with her young family. She landed at Big Society Capital at its inception in 2012 and moved to Nesta in 2015.
Dr. Pratim Sengupta is a professor of learning sciences and research chair of STEM education at the University of Calgary. His research and creative practice involves the creation of public technologies, spaces, and experiences of open source computational science through immersive, embodied, and collective engagement.
His work has been installed at the Cullman Research Gallery, MoMA, New York, Telus SPARK Science Centre, Studio Bell - The National Music Centre, and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He is the recipient of the CAREER Award from the US National Science Foundation and a Paul D. Fleck fellowship from the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity.
Ana Serrano is the Chief Digital Officer of the Canadian Film Centre and Founder of the CFC Media Lab, the world-renowned institute for interactive storytelling created in 1997. Most recently, she launched Canada's first digital entertainment accelerator IDEABOOST and serves as its Managing Director.
To date, Ana has directed the development of over 130 digital media projects, mentored over 50 start-ups, and has received numerous awards from the digital media, film, and theatre industries in both Canada and the U.S., including a Digital Media Trailblazing Award in 2015 from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. In 2018, Ana received the insignia of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) from the French government. Alongside this deep experience in digital media and entertainment, Ana has been an active volunteer for numerous organizations. She currently sits as Co-Chair of the Open Democracy Project and as a board member of The Centre for Mindfulness Studies.
Matthew Spremulli is an AEC Industry Engagement Manager at Autodesk Research Technology Centers. He received his master’s in architecture focusing on digital media, fabrication, and urban/landscape design. He has received various awards including a Special Mention from the Società di Cultura La Biennale di Venezia (with Lateral Office) and the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship from the University of Toronto. Professionally Matthew has pursued experimental and research-based activities within architectural design focusing on the intersection of interactive technologies, urban/landscape design, fabrication, and visual communication.
Matthew has extensive experience in design research, experimental practice, and education. He has led numerous award winning design projects and high-profile public exhibitions. He was a co-director of the “Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15” project representing Canada at the 2014 Venice Architectural Biennale. He was lead research-designer on the “Future of Suburbia” with MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism for their 2016 Research Biennale. And most recently he was Research Coordinator for the Living Architecture Systems Group forging collaborations between designers, researchers, and industry leaders on experimental architectures that imbue ‘living’ qualities.
Matthew has taught and lectured on digital media and design at several Universities. Currently, he is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto: Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. In this role he explores experimental applications of digital media in landscape architecture focusing on simulation, animation, generative design, and hybrid forms of visual media.
Jenn Stephenson is Professor in the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University. Her recent book is Insecurity: Perils and Products of Theatres of the Real (UTP, 2019). Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama received CATR’s Ann Saddlemyer Award in 2013. Recent articles have appeared in Theatre Journal and Theatre Research in Canada.
Jenn is Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Theatre Review. Her current research project is called “play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation.”
Multidisciplinary artist Fatimah Tuggar was born in Nigeria and raised there and in the United Kingdom. She has studied, lived, and worked in US and Canada since the late 80’s. Her work uses technology as both medium and subject to serve as metaphors for power dynamics. She combines objects, images, and sounds from diverse cultures, geographies, and histories to comment on how media and technology diversely impacts local and global realities.
Tuggar’s work has been widely exhibited at international venues in over twenty-five countries. Her art education covers three continents and a broader range of disciplines, traditions, processes, and materials. Her work has been the subject of various panels and articles. Her body of work has also been integrated as parts of academic curricula, in multiple disciplines and discussions, including technology, new media, politics, cultural studies, feminism, diaspora, globalisation, anthropology, social justice, sculpture, interactive media, photography, and video among others.
She has been a recipient of awards and commissions including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Charlotte Street Foundation, W.A Mellon fellowship at Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, Umbria, Italy. She has produced commissioned works for Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Bronx Museum of the Arts; New York and Nordic Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas; among others.
Jesse Wente is the Director of Film Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox, overseeing New Releases, series and TIFF Cinematheque programming and scheduling. His contributions to programming since the opening of TIFF Bell Lightbox in September 2010 include retrospectives on Roman Polanski, Paul Verhoeven, Ousmane Sembène, Oscar Micheaux, Studio Ghibli and Robert Altman. His first major curatorial project at TIFF Bell Lightbox was the landmark film programme First Peoples Cinema: 1500 Nations, One Tradition and its accompanying gallery exhibition, Home on Native Land, which took place in 2012. In the summer of 2013 he curated TOGA! The Reinvention of American Comedy which brought several of the key cast and crew members of Animal House together for an onstage reunion. Wente is co-organizer of Stanley Kubrick, the immensely popular exhibition that will have its Canadian premiere at TIFF Bell Lightbox in the fall of 2014. Prior to his appointment as Director of Film Programmes, Jesse Wente served as one of the Canadian features programmers for the Toronto International Film Festival and he has also programmed for the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival. He is well known as a film critic and broadcaster in Toronto and in Canada. Before joining TIFF, he was a weekly contributor to CBC Radio’s Metro Morning and covered film and pop culture for 20 other local CBC Radio programs. He has been a regular guest on CBC Newsworld’s News Morning and Weekend Edition, as well as Q, and TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies.
Kelly Wilhelm is Chief Strategy Officer at the Canada Media Fund. She is an Ottawa-based strategist who works with organizations in the arts, media, creative industries, and philanthropy to envision, plan for, and execute change. A former public sector executive, Kelly brings a national perspective and more than 20 years’ experience in government, the nonprofit, and private sector to her work.
Kelly was Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Canadian Heritage from 2016-18, and was previously Director of Policy, Planning and Strategic Foresight at the Canada Council for the Arts. Recent projects include strategy work for Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the National Arts Centre, the City of Toronto, the Toronto Foundation, and the National Gallery of Canada. Kelly is a graduate of Queen’s University and has a master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto.
Adrienne Wong's work straddles theatrical and digital space. She has performed in former morgues, current science centres, art galleries in the middle of the night, and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Web projects include The Apology Generator, which earned her the inaugural Artist in Residence position on CBC Radio's Q, and SadSongs.ca, commissioned by Nightswimming Theatre in Toronto.
Other radio work includes writing, performing in and directing plays, and contributing to North by Northwest and The Afternoon Show, all out of CBC Radio Vancouver. Landline (created with Dustin Harvey) is a performance for audio recording and SMS that toured nationally and internationally for five years. Me On The Map (created with JD [Jan] Derbyshire) is a kids’ show about urban planning and collective decision-making. It received a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nomination in Vancouver and was selected for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity 2017 Playwrights Lab. Adrienne's writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, CdnTimes, and the anthology Asian Canadian Theatre.
Adrienne was Artistic Producer at Neworld Theatre in Vancouver until 2013, where she commissioned and produced 11 "podplays" in partnership with Playwrights Theatre Centre and Martin Kinch. Currently, she is Artistic Producer of SWS Performance, Festival Director of the Festival of Live Digital Art (foldA). Now living in Banff, Alberta, Adrienne holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts.
Rachel Yezbick is a visual artist who uses her anthropological training to inform the social issues she tackles as a maker. Her curiosity about group identity under late-capitalism has taken her around the globe, researching local histories through the aspirational behaviours of the participants in her films and performances.
Rachel creates work in a variety of mediums that have garnered support from audiences and curators internationally. She is a published author and recent recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts grant. Most recently, she was commissioned to create a new performance work through Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne. She has worked as a public programmer for New Frontier and Sundance Institute, moderated panels with esteemed pioneers in art and technology such as Scott Snibbe and Suzanne Anker, and taught at numerous colleges and universities.
Rachel has had solo exhibitions in Glasgow, Los Angeles, and Stuttgart as well as group exhibitions around the world, most notably at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Glasgow International, REDCAT, the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Gertrude Contemporary, and Liquid Architecture. rachelyezbick.com
Digital artist, Gille de Bast has been exploring the field of brain-machine interfaces for several years.
He uses brain waves as a creative material, from aperitif to football matches, Gille de Bast seizes popular practices to divert them and question our cultural resources.
His relationship to the world and to technology is expressed through his research around this new language where the thought is directly related to the environment.
He assumes a techno-critical stance, by subverting technology to offer a burlesque and unusual view of the world. It is in this way that he allows us to put a salutary distance away from the vertiginous transformations of the present world where AI and Transhumanism occupy a growing place.
Katherine Behar is an interdisciplinary artist and critical theorist of new media whose works exploring gender and labour in contemporary digital culture have appeared throughout North America and Europe. She is known for projects that mix low and high technologies to create hybrid forms that are by turns humorous and sensuous.
Pera Museum in Istanbul presented Katherine Behar: Data’s Entry | Veri Girişi, a comprehensive survey exhibition and catalogue, in 2016. Additional solo exhibitions include Katherine Behar: Backups (2019), Katherine Behar: Anonymous Autonomous (2018), Katherine Behar: E-Waste (2014, catalogue/travelling), and numerous others collaborating as “Disorientalism.”
Katherine is the editor of Object-Oriented Feminism, the co-editor of And Another Thing: Nonanthropocentrism and Art (with Emmy Mikelson), and the author of Bigger than You: Big Data and Obesity. Fellowships and residencies include University of Michigan, The MacDowell Colony, Nida Art Colony, Pioneer Works, Art Journal, Wassaic Project, Rubin Museum, Franklin Furnace, and others. Katherine is based in Brooklyn and is Associate Professor of New Media Arts at Baruch College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Patrick Blenkarn is an interdisciplinary artist and director. His recent works feature sustained investigations into the history and function of books, the politics and imperialism of the English language, and the history of labour and value. His projects have been featured in film festivals, galleries, and performance festivals across Canada.
Patrick has a degree in philosophy, theatre, and film from the University of King’s College and an MFA in interdisciplinary art from Simon Fraser University. Patrick is also one of the founding archivists of videocan, an online videoarchive of contemporary Canadian performance.
T.M. Glass is a digital artist based in Toronto, whose practice explores historical, technological, and aesthetic aspects of photography, reaching beyond its traditional definition to celebrate the beauty of nature with advanced digital software technology and a cutting edge digital camera. Known as lens-based digital painting, the works have been showcased in multiple solo exhibitions and held in private collections in Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Australia.
Glass turned to photography after majoring in sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and Design and pursuing a distinguished career in writing and production for film and television. The resulting works of art are limited edition archival pigment prints inspired by a muse: the artist’s grandmother whose garden was to the artist an earthly paradise. The flower imagery comes from the artist’s own garden and historic gardens including Jardins de Metis in Quebec and Royal Lodge in England. The 19thcentury quest for beauty, quickened by a sense of approaching death is an ever-present inspiration. Cut flowers don’t live long, however the artist creates a way for their exquisite beauty to live on.
Since 1994, David Guez has created artwork related to new media and digital forms such as performances, installations, objects, and websites. All his projects are driven by two main notions: link and public. These two approaches enabled him to create objects and matrices that question contemporary subjects and their application or their link with new technologies. He deals with topics as varied as free media, psychoanalysis, time, collective uses of the internet, identity problems and loss of liberty, virtual reality, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
His latest projects are VRLAB.FR. a platform dedicated to art and virtual reality; KRONOS, a new currency based on time under the blockchain protocol, and ELIOTE, a collective intelligence fighting artificial intelligence.
Kite aka Suzanne Kite is an Oglala Lakota performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and is a PhD candidate at Concordia University, Montreal; Research Assistant for the Initiative for Indigenous Futures; and a 2019 Trudeau Scholar. Her research is concerned with contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance practice. Recently, Kite has been developing a body interface for movement performances, carbon fibre sculptures, and immersive video & sound installations. Currently, she is a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2020 Tulsa Artist Fellow.
Milton Lim is a Vancouver-based artist whose output spans performance, new media, dance, installation, and video art. His work is engaged with global politics, the cataloguing / archiving / indexing of public data, and resource allocation. These thematic interests are bolstered by a continued interest in game mechanics, typography architecture, and high-frequency content.
Milton holds a BFA (Hons.) in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. He is Co-Artistic Director of Hong Kong Exile, an Artistic Associate with Theatre Conspiracy, the recipient of the 2016 Ray Michal Prize for Outstanding Body of Work, and the recent Artist-in-Residence with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (2016-18).
Allison Moore is a new media artist working with immersive and expanded cinema based in Montréal. She studied interdisciplinary arts and film production at Concordia University. For the past 12 years, she has crafted an independent practice participating in residencies, workshops, and exhibitions internationally. Her work has been programmed at Tokyo Arts and Space (Japan), 39art (Japan), OBORO Gallery (Montreal), Traverse Video (France), Museu de Arte de Belem (Brazil), Festival of Nouveau Cinéma (Montréal), FIFA Experimental (Montréal), and the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides. Her series of multi-screen video panoramas depict improbable landscapes referencing scenic dioramas. Her latest work Wunderkammer, a 35-screen video wall can be seen in Place-Des-Arts (Québec). Moore works as a freelance editor, compositor, and animator as well as teaching workshops in New Media practices. www.allisonmoore.net
Jadda Tsui is an artist from Calgary, and a recent graduate from the Alberta University of the Arts. Her work is typically rooted in a digital realm, and uses simulation, narration, and audience participation to investigate the ways in which her perception of the world may or may not be similar to that of those around her. Most recently, she has exhibited as part of Mountain Standard Time, EMMEDIA’s Particle + Wave Media Arts Festival, and the Alberta Media Arts Alliance’s Media Arts Conference.