The Opening Ceremony

Vitor Borba, Master of Ceremonies

Faculty Ambassadors: Colin Browne (SCA), Stuart Poyntz (CMNS), Carman Neustaedter (SIAT).

Take a look at the oustanding work of our presenters:

Sensorium is an immersive virtual reality system that gives users influence over visual and aural stimuli in a virtual environment by concentrating on body responses. Using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) technology, we have created a system that provides users a way to learn how to understand their bodily responses and reduce their stress in a fun and safe environment.

This project was completed in our final year capstone class and in conjunction with the SIAT Pain Studies Lab. Our environment can be described as a fantasy world that shifts between chaos and peacefulness, reflecting the order and disorder of nature along with our inners states. Utilizing a head-mounted display and deploying a constantly shifting, dynamic soundscape, we immerse the user in an interactive trance. Ideally users leave the installation with an increased awareness of their bodily responses, and an interest in pursuing meditative skills through biofeedback.

To talk of the human is to implicitly refer to a much larger conception of humanity. However, in our contemporary world who addresses us in this encompassing way? As the way in which we are addressed can come to play a role in the ways in which we perceive ourselves, I will argue that the concept of a shared humanity is continuously fragmented by both “low culture” and “high culture”. In other words, instead of being addressed as an audience of humanity we are addressed as fragmentary individuals: in terms of demographics (a consumer) and in terms of petty nationalism (a vote). In our magical consumer “low-culture”, our societies most powerful storytellers in the advertising world, our Homers, are rewarded when they can conjure individual consumers out of the lot of humanity. In the realm of “high culture”, perceived current cultural divisions are read in a-historical fashion: reducing human history to the history of distinct civilizations that in turn inform our current cultural categories. Within such a narrative, simplistic readings into the “clash of civilizations” are given precedence over the very complex tale of human history and shared experience.

Following the precedents set by UNESCO, multiculturalism can be understood as being a fundamental part of what it means to be human and is therefore fundamentally a much older concept than the rather recent idea of the nation state, and, following what can be called common sense, despite what the storytellers may say there is something more to our shared human experience than “buy, die”. My paper will explore these issues and what I will call the “industries of division” which endanger what I think is a socially positive vision of what it means to be a human in the fellowship of humanity

Wo.Defy is an interactive kinetic garment that explores a suffragette cultural critique of the “Self-Combing Sisters”, a group of women in early 20th century Chinese society, who challenged and questioned the role of womenís agency, including marital, economic and cultural choice that wedded the values of sexual independence in balance with cultural inter-dependence. Inspired by their determination and stance toward self-advocacy and self-sufficiency, Wo.Defy investigates the notion of intrapersonal ambivalence resulting from cultural tensions that emerge when new believes confront thousand-year-old traditions and presents a wearable narrative that encapsulates unspoken strengths and challenges of the Self-Combing Sisters. The design and construction of the Wo.Defy interactive garment reinforces a cultural history of women’s intrapersonal struggles through poetic visual representations and physical kinetic “contractions” based on the wearer’s physiological breathing patterns and kinetic sensor motions. Silk fibers and human hair are used as anthropomorphic materials that afford the wearer’s familiarity with their bodily contact with the garment. Wo.Defy creates a palpable reflective space for connection and conversation with the public. Explored through elements of self-connection, intimacy, and self-reflection, the interplay of fabrics, micro-controllers, and sensors kinetically contract (or withhold) the self and display (or reveal) the self. Wo.defy reveals subjective and vulnerable data through the control of the wearer, contributing to a richer understanding of self as resistance. Wo.Defy establishes a critical reflection through wearable technology in the context of historical resistance practices.

When trying to organize and give meaning to social labels, teen girls are often placed in sites of tension and contradiction when trying to understand their place in the world and what it means to human. The mass media has always traditionally been a part of this equation when discussing the processes of identity construction and female youth. This paper is exploring this equation with a new dimension of digital practices that young females are engaging with. There is an interesting and rich dynamic that digital practices have with the trial-and-error approach to identity construction. The story of Tavi Gevinson, a young blogger turned founder of an online magazine rookiemag.com is told to demonstrate the complexity involved with the online world that young people are growing up in.

In just over 8 minutes of dance, hush-hush explores a handful of dynamic relationships present between siblings. Watch an exploration of mimicry, shadowing, foreshadowing, and physical comfort. Through movement, see the human desire to connect to another through sharing of an engaging conversation, the joy of a secret, or a moment of stillness. To discover these relationships, it took months of brainstorming, editing, imagination, and more editing, to coalesce 8 minutes of choreography. In a fifteen-minute presentation, delve into the choreographic journey that preceded this work, the process that occurred during the work and gain a new understanding of one of the many ideas behind creating contemporary choreography. Finally, we present a unique opportunity to ask the choreographers specific questions regarding any aspect of their work.

With apologies to Charles Dickens, it is the best of times, and it is the worst of times to be a worker in today’s creative economy. It is the best of times in that the creative sector is enjoying strong and sustained growth, and creative workers are enjoying unprecedented autonomy and flexibility in their work lives. But it is the worst of times in that the price paid for this autonomy is an astounding regression in the conditions of work, which is increasingly characterized by low wages, contingency and precarity. This paper looks at this general global phenomena through the lens of a specific occupational group: video and television producers in Vancouver today. Within this group, I’ll narrow the focus further to look at a subset ignored by academic literature: politically engaged, activist producers whose work is often motivated by a desire for social change.

Recently, the internet has become a popular medium for employment postings and a tool for job search. This provides an interesting landscape for communication professionals and sociologists alike, as it seems this technology, associated with the digital divide, has collided head on with complex social structures linked to the labor force. This research is exclusively focused on peoples need for internet access, how their current social class may determine this access, and how this influences their access to prospective employment.

Using data collected from the Statistics Canada 2007 Canadian Internet Use Survey, this research identifies the key demographic factors of those who have in-home internet access and use this access for their employment search. A theoretical framework focusing on employers increased reliance on networked technology to advertise employment positions and assist in the recruitment process helps to create a more thorough picture of this
relatively new arena for job recruitment.

"He hit me again. Can you help cover it?"

An interactive performance art piece that challenges the limits to the effects of domestic violence. We challenge you as an audience member to conceal the scars of the performer.

"The installation was created to argue for our inability and impotency in concealing the scars of domestic violence and for the unconcealable nature of these scars. We wanted to use the performance to shock our participants, put them in the role of ‘exemplary viewer’, stir uncomfortable emotions and create dialogue surrounding the issue of domestic violence.

Upon arrival, participants were given their goal – take on the role of exemplary viewer to cover up the scars of the abuse suffered by our performer. Then, with only the harsh light of a spotlight, they saw the bruised, cut and marked up performer curled up on a table. She wore a white dress representative of a wedding dress and duct tape covered her mouth just as abuse has a silencing effect on the victims. Beside her lay the tools provided to help conceal: make up and application brushes. The message behind her read “He hit me again. Can you help me cover it?” Derogatory words were written all over her body to represent the emotional abuse suffered.

Participants could spend as much time as they liked trying to cover the marks left by the abuser, directly interacting with the body of the performer. In the mean time, the performer would shake from fear, flinch in pain and at times began to cry. Eventually, participants were to realize their job was impossible and nothing would help our performer hide the pain, fear and scars.

Beyond the performance, we also created an online interactive platform using Twitter and an #unconcealable hashtag. Participants could read the reflections of others and were encouraged to share their own thoughts and experiences. This online, interactive platform was open for participants to dialogue on domestic abuse and spread the word."

Dance technique specialization may lead to overuse injuries that could be avoidable with the implementation of cross training. For this project a cross training program was developed to target all muscle groups, increase aerobic capacity and address common areas of physical weakness in dancers. A student body of dancers were invited to attend the training sessions 1 to 3 times a week for 13 weeks. Data was collected from three fitness tests.Results show the largest strength gains in plank holds, back extensions and cardiovascular endurance. No new injuries were reported from participants. Data from specialist interviews shows a perception of critical importance in cross training and the opinion that dance classes themselves are not sufficient in physical maintenance and injury prevention. Results from a student questionnaire indicate a high interest in the addition of cross-training classes to their curriculum.

We are looking for the ideal world, the utopia. Can the ideal become a world? Can it be concretized? Would we not be happier without such ideals, happier in the present moment, in acceptance of what is? Is this the purpose of art: to make the unreal real, to concretize the dream? Can a life be art? If you create life as art, will that make you happy, or desperately unhappy? Is unhappiness a good enough reason not to do it? What does it mean to try to make a new life? What does it take?

This paper is a work of creative non-fiction, integrating personal narrative and reflection with critical analysis. Discussed are ideas of the modern human experience as a struggle with alienation and a search for a soul-home, necessitating a reconceptualization of what kinds of lives we can create.

Winner of the Praxis student screenplay award, 2011. Paula tries to build a relationship with her long-lost Uncle Terry, a survivalist and zombie holocaust believer but family man at heart.

In contemporary British artist Nathan Coley’s recent installation Unnamed (2012) at the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, the artist calls into question the authority of the name as the foundational component of human identity. Coley assembles dozens of tombstones from deceased individuals about whom no information is given, systematically removing the name on each tombstone, rendering all alike in radical anonymity.

In this paper I make use of Coley’s work to reflect on the role of the name in considering notions of ‘the human’. Put in dialogue with work by Vancouver artist Rebecca Belmore and critical thought on the name by Giorgio Agamben, this paper argues that Coley’s work shows that in anonymity and ‘namelessness’ a radical emancipatory potential for a universalized notion of humanity can be found. As such, the work proposes an alternative ethical model which disrupts traditional conceptions of identity.

In the summer of 2011, Kris Wills, (a university dropout who lives at home with his mother), discovers that due to certain medical complications, he will be required to have an adult circumcision at the age of 21. Believing this to be ripe material for documentary, Daniel Jeffery, (a filmmaker and close friend), candidly follows Kris as he emotionally prepares for his surgery.
The result is a humorous and heartfelt look into the modern day idea of a “manboy,” (and additionally, an informative look into the world of adult circumcision).

Medium: Documentary Video
Year: 2011
Run Time: 15:40

This essay examines Robert Smithson’s work Broken Circle, Spiral Hill (1971) in relation to phenomenology, magic, and through the author’s firsthand experience of the site. Focusing on Henri Bergson’s concept of Intuition and Alain Badiou’s ideas of experience and the event, the paper explores the possibility of affect as a way in which to learn about, to understand, and to know the world--knowledge in the intimate sense of
connecting and relating to things themselves. The paper attempts to understand Smithson’s work through a questioning of the self and community in relation to sensation as an individual experience and as communal sensorium. The essay investigates the urgency of affect as a coping mechanism and as a condition integral to the making of art that holds promise for a new feeling of sensibility and as a possibility for a rupture in ways of seeing and being in the world.

Written and Directed by Samantha Derochie
Starring Avery Fane and Karl Reifenstein

Curtains In My Mind is a short film inspired by the work of media theorist Friedrich Kittler and author Gregg Braden that aims to introduce metaphysical concepts about the nature of reality and the power of beliefs. The story begins with Alan who is convinced to visit a hacker to steal money. The hacker has other ideas and tries to show him how, like the restrictions of computer programs, our perceived limitations are actually
illusions.

Kittler discusses how the workings of computers are hidden by the interface which is actually a system of control. Braden’s work on the power of belief describes how even thoughts are made of energy and can impact the physical world. I propose to convey how reality is like a computer simulation in that the workings are hidden by what people perceive with their senses, and that they can gain more control over their reality by tapping into the power of their beliefs.

We are conditioned by the culture that surrounds us and as human beings we begin to depend on it. Our notion of the human is constantly changing and evolving, being shaped in the present by the past at large. Contemporary Russia is caught between two worlds. This site of contention, one of oppression and autocratic rule while the other liberal and democratic, can be directly observed in Russian culture and the policies that influence culture. This oscillation between ideologies has had an irreversible impact on Russian citizens’ relationship with the arts and culture, with each other, and with the state.

This research paper examines Russia as an unfinished project. Its long and tumultuous history will continue to, if not forever then for a long time, shape the notion of the human. The Cultural Value of History: Russia Then and Now focuses on this site of contention in Russian cultural policy, economic freedom versus political freedom, and how it has shaped both the foreigner and the native Russian’s relationship to the culture.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Soren Kierkegaard

Guests + Dean Cheryl Geisler

Our Presenters