Family Camera at the ROM - Digital Futures Graduate Student Projects

picture of Digital Furtures graduate students
Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 5:00am

At Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum in mid December, students from the Digital Futures Graduate Program course “Special Topic: Family Camera at the ROM” presented their proposals for interactive installations to become part of the upcoming Sesquicentennial Exhibition “The Family Camera” which will launch at the ROM in May 2017.  

“The Family Camera” will examine ideas surrounding the contemporary Canadian family through vernacular photography and the changing definitions of family, experiences of migration, memory and mementos. "The Family Camera" project asks the questions: What are family photographs? How do they shape our memories? How do they mediate our experiences of migration? And what can they tell us about about our national histories? 

Three student groups presented their interactive proposals to an esteemed audience of curators and ROM staff members connected to the upcoming exhibition. The class presented on three self defined themes: family photography and the domestic space, family photography as performance, and family photos in the private and public spheres. 

This course, which continues in the winter to develop and execute the interactive exhibition theme chosen by the ROM, is led by Dr. Martha Ladly, and “The Family Camera” curators Dr. Jennifer Orphana and Dr. Julie Crooks. This class is also mentored by lead curator Dr. Deepali Dewan and ROM Exhibition Manager Steven Laurie. Participating students are Samaa Ahmed, Bijun Chen, Margarita Castro, Mudit Ganguly, Afaq Ahmed Karadia, Annette Mangaard, Ania Medrek, Katie Micak, Natasha Mody, Maya Wilson- Sanchez, and April Xie.

Find out more about "The Family Camera" at https://www.rom.on.ca/en/ROMfamcam and http://familycameranetwork.org/

For more on the Digital Futures program: www.ocadu.ca/academics/graduate-studies/digital-futures.htm

BRIDGE, an interactive installation by Naomi Dodds

photo of a bridge structure
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - 5:00am to Saturday, February 4, 2017 - 5:00am

InterAccess is pleased to present BRIDGE, an interactive installation by Naomi Dodds. Dodds is the recipient of the InterAccess Media Arts Prize. This prize, which InterAccess has sponsored for nearly twenty years, is awarded to a graduating Integrated Media student at OCAD University whose work exhibits innovation in new media practice. With its ambitious carbon-steel fabrication and kinetic components, Dodds is a deserving recipient of this award.

BRIDGE is an interactive installation that examines the construction and completion of a custom-built drawbridge.  

BRIDGE involves the integration of two formations: one is a solid material, the other a narrative. A bridge is a structure that allows us to pass from one place to another, spanning a physical obstruction. In this case, the work becomes the obstruction that is itself guided by a participant. 

BRIDGE recreates a new convention, in which the functionalities of technological engineering are reinforced through the act of being present. As a visitor approaches the structure, it will begin to operate through its cycle. Both meeting points of the structure will open and close depending on the position of a participant. As a participant interacts with the work, the act of it opening in fact prohibits them from physically crossing the bridge, however, as a space is created, the idea of passage is still present.

The installation offers a comprehensive exploration into the connections between mental and physical structures and examines how these structures contradict their functional conventions. BRIDGE transmits the notions of geographical and technological displacement, heavily embedded undertones that give way for a formal analysis of the changes in social structures associated with technological determination. However, the simple idea of the spectacle is apparent. Through it’s disarticulated state, BRIDGE aligns itself with the theatricality of an illusion, which in turn resonates with the personification of the performance of the machine.

About the Artist:  Toronto-based new media artist Naomi Dodds’s work explores visual language through the material and immaterial by questioning the role of machine and image. Her work consists of video projection and multimedia installations that attempt to break cinematic conventions by eliminating the constraints of the screen.

About the InterAccess Media Arts Prize:  The InterAccess Media Arts Prize is awarded to a graduating student of the Integrated Media program at OCAD University whose work complements InterAccess’s mission to expand the cultural space of technology. Students must show proficiency in creating mechanical, kinetic, electronic, interactive audio, video or new media work. In addition to a $500 cash award, the recipient receives a one-year studio membership, one year of complimentary workshops, a solo exhibition at the centre, and professional development and mentorship. The prize was first awarded in 1990.

Image: Naomi Dodds, BRIDGE, Carbon Steel, Aluminum, DC Motors, Hardened Steel Gear Sprockets, Roller Chain, Pillow Blocks, Shore Rock, Limit Switches, Parallax PING Ultrasonic Sensors, Custom-­Built Circuit, Arduino Uno, Sabertooth 2X25 V2, U1 12V 230A Battery. 
50’’ x 30’’ x 78’’ (when closed) 102’’ (when open) 

 

 

Venue & Address: 
InterAccess 9 Ossington Avenue Toronto ON M6J 2Y8 Canada
Website: 
http://interaccess.org/exhibition/bridge
Email: 
info@interaccess.org
Phone: 
416.532.0597

INT VAR VOID - end of semester showcase

Monday, December 12, 2016 - 11:00pm to Tuesday, December 13, 2016 - 2:00am

Creation & Computation is a course in the first year of OCAD U's Digital Futures graduate program in which students learn to create works using programming, physical computing, visual computation, networking and connectivity.

Come join us for our end-of-semester showcase “INT VAR VOID” where we will be sharing selected projects from a series of five rigourous 2-week experiments. Works exhibited include games, art installations, design prototypes, and more.

Be sure to bring your smartphone fully charged as we will have several opportunities for participation via a mobile device.

Please RSVP to int var void event at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/int-var-void-creation-computation-2016-showcase-tickets-29582332553

Venue & Address: 
Graduate Gallery, ground floor, 205 Richmond Street West
Website: 
http://www.eventbrite.ca/e/int-var-void-creation-computation-2016-showcase-tickets-29582332553
Cost: 
FREE
poster for INT VAR VOID

La Pocha Nostra

Saturday, November 8, 2008 - 1:00am

An interactive performance by La Pocha Nostra: Guillermo Gómez-Peña Violeta, Luna Roberto Sifuentes (U.S.-Mexico); with Faculty of Liberal Studies Instructor Jessica Wyman, Mark Rush, Gale Allen, Ulysses Castellanos and performance students from York University (Canada).

Since the early 1990s, Mexican performance artist and writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his colleagues Violeta Luna and Roberto Sifuentes from the San Francisco-based performance troupe La Pocha Nostra have been exploring the way museums represent cultural Otherness by experimenting with the colonial format of the "living diorama." They have created interactive "living museums" that parody various colonial practices of representation including the ethnographic tableau vivant, the Indian Trading Post, the border curio shop, the porn window display and their contemporary equivalents. These performance/installations function both as a bizarre set design for contemporary enactment of cultural pathologies, and as a ceremonial space for people to reflect upon their attitudes toward other cultures. Recent museum interventions by La Pocha Nostra include the Tate Modern, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, LACMA and the Guggenheim.

As part of their ongoing Mapa/Corpo series, Divino Corpo continues to examine the brown body as a site for radical spirituality, memory, penance, activism, stylized anger and corporeal reinvention. Divino Corpo was premiered at the National Review of Live Arts in Glasgow earlier this year. Posing as living saints and madonnas of unpopular causes (border crossers, disease, the rights of undocumented migrants, sex workers, prisoners, gang bangers, and the displaced invisible Others), the artists create a performative temple where the sacred and the profane intertwine with provocative contemporary issues. They invite audience members to engage in ritualized interactivity and embrace a new form of radical faith - the faith in art as a personal and political transformative force. In the process, the intimate human body becomes the transformative site against a backdrop of global despair and war.

Gómez-Peña, Luna and Sifuentes will be in residency in Toronto from November 2nd to November 8th. This latest presentation of Divino Corpo will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art on Friday November 7th and will feature several Toronto-based performance artists working together with La Pocha Nostra.

All MOCCA programs and activities are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, BMO Financial Group, individual memberships and private donations.

Venue & Address: 
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art 952 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Artist Talk: Julie Andreyev

Julie Andreyev
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - 9:30pm

Julie Andreyev is a Vancouver-based artist whose practice explores the social and spatial character of the city using mobility and performance; and animal consciousness through interactive installation and video. Her work has been shown across Canada, in the US, Europe and Japan. Andreyev is Associate Professor in Digital Visual Arts at Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver and co-curator of Interactive Futures.

Andreyev will discuss her recent practice including her projects Four Wheel Drift and Animal Lover.

The Four Wheel Drift projects explore the city as mobile tableaux in order to link up and investigate public space. Video and audio representation of site, space and location in the city are interwoven with aspects of audiovisual representation that take their motivation from popular culture, specifically car culture and club culture. Serving as hybrid forms, a fleet of customized cars equipped with interactive, audio-video technologies cruise the city seeking engagement as urban performance. These projects contribute to experimental practices by artists, such as the Situationists International (1957-1972). The Situationists used the nautical metaphor “dérive” (drift) to imagine (as a psychogeographical sea) traffic flows and pedestrian routes that avoid the mechanistic functioning of the capitalist city. To learn more, visit www.fourwheeldrift.com.

Animal Lover is a new category of practice for Andreyev, which explores animals as subjects. In these works interactive video and forms of musical expression are used to explore animal experience and human interpretation. Here, the intent is to create a space of tension between the human and animal as a momentary opportunity to question assumptions and expectations about animal intelligence and awareness, as well as our larger relationship to animals and our role in relation to them.

Art Creates Change is made possible through the generous support of the Musagetes Fund at the Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation.

Venue & Address: 
Auditorium 100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Explore Design

Explore Design
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 4:00am to Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 4:00am

2 days of interactive exhibits, seminars, and workshops

Offering programs and information in film, graphics and architecture to interior, furniture and fashion, meet Universities, Colleges, Institutions and Design Professionals from across North America.

Are you a student? Educator? Parent? Looking to find career inspiration and ideas? Here's a snapshot of some of the speakers who will be at ED...

ARCHITECTURE Phil Goodfellow and Susan Lewin from The TSA (Toronto Society of Architects), and John Shnier of Kohn Shnier shed light on the world of architecture.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN Paul Rowan co'founder UMBRA discusses his design approach coined 'The Whole Brain Designer' and Senior Designer David Quan talks sustainable design.

GRAPHIC DESIGN Bob Hambly, of Hambly & Woolley an accomplished illustrator for clients such as American Express, Newsweek, Nike and Rollingstone talks of his experience and works with students in a logo design workshop. Hockey fans will be happy to know they're working with the man behind the new visual identity for the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL! Among Hambly & Woolley's clients are the Ontario College of Art & Design.

GAMING DESIGN Bioware Games' Designer Kevin Barrett tells his story. For those who know and loveBaldur's Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, this will be an exciting look into how these games came to be.

ADVERTISING DESIGN Michelle Donnelly of ZIG Advertising will talk about her design for the cool Virgin Mobile campaigns and how words and visual imagery play a huge part in the design process of commercials.

SKATE PARK DESIGN There is more to skating than ollies! Jim Barnum, former boarder now founder of Spectrum Skatepark Creations will be on hand to share some stories. Kids will be stoked to know he is designing the new Toronto Beaches/Ashbridges Bay skatepark!

FASHION DESIGN One of Canada's leading designers on the international fashion scene, Joeffer Caoc will be speaking firsthand about what it takes to make it in the design world.

INTERIOR DESIGN HGTV's Designer Guys ' Allen, Matt & Anwar will be speaking about how designing interiors can be cool, lucrative and fun! Hear the residential, commercial and retail design do's and don'ts with Linda Makins of Makins Ladna Design, Alan Guinan of Figure 3 and Lindsey Anacleto of Anacleto Design presented by ARIDO.

There is something for everyone at Explore Design. Visit www.exploredesign.ca to get the complete event schedule... and learn how to win the KRUPS Design Scholarship!

Venue & Address: 
Metro Toronto Convention Centre Constitution Hall255 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario

EMBEDDED SCRIPT an exhibition by Richard Williams

OCADu Graduate Gallery, April 4-7, 2016 from 12-5pm daily. Opening reception April 7 from 7-10
Monday, April 4, 2016 - 4:00pm to Friday, April 8, 2016 - 2:00am

Embedded Script an exhibition by Richard Williams

Reception: April 7th, 7:00 – 10:00pm

 

Exhibition Dates: April 4th – April 7th, 12:00 – 5:00pm daily

Embedded Script is an exhibition of recent works, including interactive/immersive installations, experimental web art and a multi-day machine performance. These works each represent both an exploration of and an experimentation with the Human/Computer relationship. While addressed in its full, globalized context, the selected works will engage this relationship at the scale of the individual user and device. Global infrastructures, intersections between technology and nature, the role(s) of digital mapping and other contemporary themes will be explored, presented always as they relate to the daily lived experience of our post-internet world.

Venue & Address: 
OCADU Graduate Gallery 205 Richmond St. W, Ground Floor
Website: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/1779713898924345/
OCADu Graduate Gallery, April 4-7, 2016 from 12-5pm daily. Opening reception April 7 from 7-10

Are games art?

“The first question I asked myself is are games art?,” says OCAD U Digital Futures student Saffron Bolduc-Chiong. “How can we make games a more artful experience?”
 

Saffron and her fellow Digital Futures student Emma Burkeitt, are exploring this question with their thesis project Sunken – an immersive game space installation in which players can navigate, interact and play with both physical and digital elements.
 

Sunken explores how gameplay can be combined with theme park design, lighting and environmental narrative to create an artful and engaging mixed-reality experience. They’re also incorporating interactive digital elements including a motion-activated Leap controller, water-activated switches, light-up objects and an augmented reality app. Players can hover over objects with the app to reveal hidden information.


Sunken’s room is set up to look like the underwater lab of a late-1800s scientist, revisited with 1950s technology and experienced in 2016. The aesthetic is inspired by Jules Verne and more modern works such as the video game Bioshock and the immersive theatre experience Sleep No More.

 

 

 

Digital Futures students Emma Burkeitt and Saffron Bolduc-Chiong

Digital Futures students Emma Burkeitt and Saffron Bolduc-Chiong

Digital Futures graduate students exhibit at City Hall anniversary

3D City Magic installation by Mehnaz Aydemir
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - 4:00am

1965 was a rather amazing year: Canada got its own flag, Martin Luther King, Jr., marched from Selma to Montgomery, Sonny & Cher released their hit single “I Got You Babe” and Toronto’s futuristic new City Hall opened for business.

As part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations for City Hall – one of Canada’s most distinct architectural landmarks – two students in OCAD University’s Digital Futures graduate program created and mounted installations (OCAD U was an official exhibit partner for the anniversary event).

Beam Me Up!

With her interactive installation Beam Me Up!, Monica Virtue sought to transport visitors through time. Inspired by the Star Trek transporter set, Virtue incorporated sensors and wireless radios, as well as videos she created from images drawn from the City of Toronto Archives, Toronto Reference Library and Toronto Film, Television and Digital Office.

3D City Magic

Mehnaz Aydemir’s interactive installation featured a replica of City Hall created on site during the day by a 3D printer. In addition, Aydemir produced a children’s game that involved participants selecting and holding Plexiglas models of 12 historic Toronto buildings and activating a screen that provided information on the structures they had selected.

 

Memory Capsule at Union Station

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 - 5:00am to Friday, March 21, 2014 - 4:00am

Work by Digital Futures Graduate Che Yan (Shino) temporarily installed at Union Station

Che Yan (Shino), an MFA graduate of OCAD University’s Digital Futures program, created this inclusive, interactive installation. It allows visitors and commuters to capture their shadow silhouette on a screen projection, then text a message about their memories of Union Station. The image remains on the screen, and fades as other shadows are created.

Venue & Address: 
Great Hall, Union Station 65 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

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