(Toronto—January 14, 2013) OCAD University presents Euphoria & Dystopia, a two-day digital media symposium and graduate student research workshop on January 31 and February 1, 2013.
The period of the early 1990s through to 2005 saw intensive technological change; the massive adoption of digital media, the rise, fall, and re-emergence of an information, technology, and communication boom economy. Euphoria and Dystopia invites reflection on the digital concerns of the 1990s and early 21st century, weighing these preoccupations against contemporary research, industrial, social and cultural trends.
Sponsored by national research network and commercialization engine GRAND NCE, Euphoria & Dystopia takes its inspiration from the book Euphoria and Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues, edited by Dr. Sarah E. Cook and OCAD University President, Dr. Sara Diamond. The publication is a compendium of some of the most important thinking about art, design technology and the new media industries to have taken place in the last few decades at the international level.
Euphoria & Dystopia will feature dialogues among current digital media researchers, designers, artists and scientists; a master’s and doctoral student research workshop and an authors’ keynote and book launch. Moderated panel discussions will investigate themes coinciding with the chapters of Euphoria & Dystopia: the Banff New Media Institute Dialogues:
- new media economies, copyright and open source models; the growing importance of data, its analysis and visualization, memory and documentation;
- the underlying scientific grounding for new media in physics and graphics computing;
- changes in how we understand humanity: artificial life, artificial intelligence, robotics;
- new media art: curatorial practice, digital art’s exhibition and historicisation;
- Online social and individual identity gender, cultural difference, health and wellness; and
- Production and Distribution: models of production and collaboration in new media.
Sara Diamond, co-author and Founding Director of the BNMI invites audiences to experience exciting foresights about our digital world. “As we did at The Banff Centre, these events gather together many forms of intelligence, knowing that unpredictable and exciting networks, projects and ideas will arise.”
Confirmed speakers include:
- Dr. Lyn Bartram, Assistant Professor , School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, creator of human centred systems
- Philip Beesley, Professor, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, Winner of Prix de Rome in Architecture, VIDA 11.0, FEIDAD, two Governor General’s Awards
- Dr. Joanna Berzowska, Assistant Professor of Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University, Founder and Director of XS Labs, wearable technologies
- Mark Bishop, Co-CEO & Executive Producer, Marble Media
- Dr. Kellogg Booth, Scientific Director, GRAND National Centre of Excellence
- Dr. Sheelagh Carpendale, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Canada Research Chair and researcher information visualization and user centred design
- Dr. Sarah Cook, Reader & Director of MA in Curating Module, University of Sunderland
- Dr. Sara Diamond, President and Vice-Chancellor, OCAD University, O. of Ont., RCA
- Steve Dietz, Independent Curator, President and Artistic Director Northern Lights
- Dr. Sidney Fels, Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, Director of Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC)
- Dr. Eugene Fiume, Professor and past Chair of the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
- Dr. Abby Goodrum, VP Research, Wilfrid Laurier University, Director for Social Science and Humanities Research, GRAND
- Susan Kennard, Manager of Heritage Programs, Banff Field Unit, Parks Canada, former Director BNMI
- Keith Kocho, Entrepreneur of the Year, Founder & President, ExtendMedia Inc.
- Dr. Maria Lantin, Director of the Intersections Digital Studios, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
- Cheryl l'Hirondelle, Indigenous Media Artist and Musician
- James (Jamie) Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International, U.S. co-chair of the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) Intellectual Property Policy Committee
- Dr. Celia Pearce, Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Tech, games analyst and interactive designer
- Ellie Rubin, Founder of Bulldog, creator of Technorati web series and television personality
- Dr. Kim Sawchuk, Department of Communication Studies & Mobile Media Lab, Concordia University, editor Canadian Journal of Communication
- Stephen Selznick, Partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Digital and Entertainment law expert
- Jutta Treviranus, Director and Professor at Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University
Guests are invited to register (free) for the keynote talk and book launch on January 31 at http://edlaunch-es2001.eventbrite.ca.
All symposium and workshop events are free, no registration required. For a complete schedule, visit http://euphoriadystopia.ca/.
Background:
About the book:
Based on the research of the Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) from 1995 to 2005, Euphoria and Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues celebrates the belief that the creative sector, artists and cultural industries, in collaboration with scientists, social scientists and humanists, have a critical role to play in developing technologies that work for human and environmental betterment and allow for a more participatory culture. The book/archive examines the major trends in digital media practice, research and economies during the period of 1995 to 2005, with consideration of earlier roots and later history. The book is organized by key themes that have underscored the dialogues of the BNMI and within each are carefully edited transcriptions drawn from thousands of hours of audio material documenting BNMI events such as the annual Interactive Screen and the numerous summits and workshops. Each chapter is introduced by an essay from the book editors that discusses the dialogues, research and creative co-production at Banff from 1990 to 2005 and a commissioned essay from a leading new media thinker. The book includes the catalogue for The Art Formerly Known As New Media exhibition, Walter Phillips Gallery, 2005 and a DVD based on the electronic journal and online gallery produced at Banff, HorizonZero.ca in collaboration with Heritage Canada..
More on the Banff New Media Institute (BNMI):
The Banff New Media Institute (1995-2010) in the awe-inspiring Rocky Mountains was a dynamic international centre that addressed dramatically changing times — the heady rise of the digital age, its tumultuous descent, and its reformulation. BNMI hosted leading artists, designers, computer scientists and engineers, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, chemists, humanists, social scientists, and medical researchers. Its cutting edge summits (think tanks) foretold that future. These occurred at The Banff Centre, side by side with international artists’ residencies, co-productions, transdisciplinary research, new media exhibitions and the incubation of commercial products and companies. The BNMI predicted and shaped trends in digital media.
OCAD University (OCAD U):
OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada’s “university of imagination.” The university, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
GRAND NCE:
GRAND (Graphics, Animation and New Media) is a research network and commercialization engine whose goal is to address complex issues in digital media and transform multidisciplinary research into user-centred solutions. GRAND explores the use and application of digital media in a variety of settings including entertainment, health care, education, environmental sustainability and public policy.
GRAND is a federally funded Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE), and supports 37 research projects involving teams of researchers at 26 universities across Canada. Partnering with more than 60 industry, government, and non-profit organizations, GRAND is able to facilitate research across the broad spectrum of digital media by linking computer scientists and engineers with artists, designers and social scientists.
Through technology solutions, training the next generation of talent and encouraging a robust policy environment, GRAND plays a pivotal role in supporting Canada’s National Digital Economy Strategy.
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Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer
416-977-6000 x327 (mobile x1327)