OCAD University

OCAD U is deeply saddened by the death of Associate Professor Nancy Paterson, who has taught at OCAD U in the Faculty of Art and more recently in Graduate Studies, for the past 28 years. Nancy also worked as Facilities Coordinator at Charles Street Video, and taught at Seneca@York. Nancy achieved her PhD in Communications & Culture from York University in 2009, researching internet infrastructure and visualization. She is considered an important contributor to the cyberfeminist movement, and to the discussion of the role of gender in electronically mediated experiences.

From her recent retrospective exhibition at InterAccess, The Future: Before, curated by Shauna Jean Doherty: “Paterson’s career has spanned 30 years and her influence has been felt both nationally and internationally in the field of new media art. Through the unique application of custom-made equipment, Paterson’s works are socially critical and technically complex, expressing a feminist perspective on the impacts of technology in society.

Paterson’s activities as an artist, writer, curator, and educator have developed in many ways in parallel with InterAccess and Toronto’s electronic art scene. Over several decades Paterson has been an active member of InterAccess in a variety of capacities: as a guest curator (with the online and offline group exhibition Disembodied in 1997), featured artist (in the exhibition Game Girls in 1999 and Meantime to Upgrade in 2014), panel discussant (in the NERVEgate Conference in 1997 and the Subtle Technologies Conference in 1999) and as a workshop participant.”

Nancy is fondly remembered by her peers as “an interactive artist pioneer and feminist icon,” and as “an inspiring and unique, brilliant and valued faculty member, who will be greatly missed.” An interview with Nancy called Shifting Polarities, conducted in 2006 by Interim Vice-President Academic & Provost, Caroline Langill, can be viewed via the Daniel Langlois Foundation Collection. 

Please join Nancy's family and friends for the viewing of her video, The Cash for Cancer Lottery, at the George Brown House, 186 Beverly St., Saturday, December 8 to 12 in the Morning Drawing Room. Wekened hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; weekday hours are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

I have a book chapter entitled "Process and Outcome Paradigms in Media Arts Pedagogy" in Teaching Computational Creativity. [Eds.] Michael Filimowicz, Veronika Tzankova. Cambridge. April 2017.

https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Computational-Creativity-Michael-Filimowicz/dp/1107138043

Table of Contents

Introduction. Pedagogies at the intersection of disciplines Veronika Tzankova and Michael Filimowicz;

Part I. New Foundations: 1. Staying current: developing digital literacies for the creative classroom Ryan M. Patton and Luke Meeken;

2. Teaching interactivity: introducing computation to art/design students Andrew Hieronymi; Part II. Code as Medium:

3. ARRAY[ ]: coding slowly Channel Two;

4. Teaching for the design singularity: toward an entirely code-based design curriculum Brad Tober; Part III. Physical{ly} Computing:

5. A physical computing teaching initiative in Brazil Luiza Novaes and Joao de Sa Bonelli;

6. Art and technology collaboration in interactive dance performance Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo and Christine Bergeron; Part IV. Online Learning:

7. Design scenes of online code learning environments Michael Filimowicz;

8. Between code and culture: developing a creative coding MOOC Mark Guglielmetti and Jon McCormack; Part V. Critical Pedagogy:

9. Process and outcome paradigms in media arts pedagogy Nancy E. Paterson;

10. Citizens of the cognisphere Daniel Sauter; Part IV. Transdisciplinary:

11. From growing tools to designing organisms: changing the literacies of design Orkan Telhan;

12. Pedagogical experiments in creative coding Angus G. Forbes.

EAN:  9781107138049

ISBN:  1107138043

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Nancy Paterson, PhD, AOCA has been an instructor at the Ontario College of Art & Design since 1990, teaching a variety of studio and theoretical courses; currently she is teaching 'Time-Based Media'. She is Facilities Coordinator at Charles Street Video, a non-profit, artist-run centre providing production and post-production facilities for digital video and audio.