SCA | Quick News | August 29, 2025

Shihab's Reassemblage in the Relational Film

The SCA's Nadia Shihab is presenting Reassemblage in the Relational Film, a screening and lecture performance that includes her films our voices in reverse (portrait of mama), Sister Mother Lover Child, and Echolocation, on Sunday, September 28, 2025, at 3:30 PM, at the Walker Art Center (725 Vineland Pl, Minneapolis, MN), presented as part of Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival. More HERE.

TPE's Strange Beauty

Strange Beauty, the first gig of the new season for the Turning Point Ensemble, which has the SCA's Owen Underhill as Artistic Director and conductor, runs September 19 & 20, 2025, at 7:30 PM, at the Annex Theatre (823 Seymour St, Vancouver). More HERE.

Loscil on tour and at The Rio

SCA alumnus Scott Morgan / Loscil, who is heading off on a European tour (visit www.loscil.ca for more), will be playing with Julianna Barwick on October 9, 2025, at 8:30 PM at the The Rio Theatre (1660 E Broadway, Vancouver), presented as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival's Live programing. More HERE.

Morelli on the Bonavista Biennale

Read SCA alumnus Didier Morelli on the 2025 Bonavista Biennale for CBC Arts. Read it HERE.

Glitch Theatre

Realwheels Theatre, newly re-branded as Glitch Theatre, and with SCA alumnus Jordyn Wood as producer, has announced its 2025-26 season. Read more at Stir Vancouver HERE.

Jesuino directs Dance Floor Memoirs

Theatre Terrific's Dance Floor Memoirs, directed by SCA alumnus Kevin Jesuino, who's also Theatre Terrific's Artistic Director, is running on Granville Island's Picnic Pavilion as part of the 2025 edition of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Showtimes and dates and more info HERE.

Stir Q&A with Carter

Stir Vancouver did a Q&A with SCA alumnus Shion Skye Carter in advance of the presentation of their work, in the wake of a sleeping machine (vol. 1), at Odd Meridian Arts' Morrow (Unit 204 – 910 Richards St., Vancouver), running from September 4 – 7 as part of Odd Meridian's Bring Your Own Body series programming. Read it HERE. Also, you can watch Carter talk about the work via THIS short video on Odd Meridian's Instagram.

Ariaratnam/Avendaño playing Big Fun on the Corner

The great duo of SCA alumnus Matthew Ariaratnam and Adrian Avendaño are playing with JPC & the BATTERY (still fresh off their gig with Bill Orcutt) on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 8:00 PM, presented as part of NOW Society's Big Fun on the Corner series at 8EAST (8 E. Pender St., Vancouver). More HERE. 

H0rr0r Open Mic night

SCA alumnus Doaa Magdy's expanding Horror in Seconds universe beyond the annual festival of BIPOC-created horror short films is soon to include their upcoming "H0rr0r Open Mic and H0rr0r Trivia Night" micro events in October. And if you'd like to participate in the H0rr0r Open Mic night, the application deadline is September 4, 2025. Here's the online application form. 

Triana's Las Mujeronas

Directed and choreographed by SCA alumnus Jhoely Triana, Las Mujeronas runs November 1, 2025, at 7:30 PM, at the Annex (823 Seymour St, Vancouver), presented as part of the Stand Festival. More HERE. Also, Triana is performing on Friday, September 19, from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM at the Vancouver Public Library's Central Library (350 W. Georgia St, Vancouver), presented as part of the New Work's Pop Up Dances Festival. More HERE. 

Darwin gears up for the show

SCA Production & Design student Darwin shared a montage on Instagram of their work creating their outfit for our upcoming HOUSE-HOLD FASHION SHOW, which runs Friday, September 26, 2025, from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM, in our Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre here at 149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver. Watch it HERE.

Kang dresses Soar

SCA alumnus Jaewoo Kang did the Styling and Costume Design⁠ for Lamont and Lyzah's Soar, which runs August 29 & 30, 2025, at 7:00 PM (doors at 6:30 PM), at What Lab (202 – 1814 Pandora St., Vancouver). More HERE. 

Snack Witch's 2033 Essex Rd

SCA alumnus Snack Witch Joni Cheung is having a solo exhibition, 2033 Essex Rd, at aceartinc. (206 Princess St., Winnipeg, Manitoba), opening September 5 and running to October 24, 2025. More HERE.

Nieto and Reimer in Methuselah

SCA alumni Salome Nieto and Jami Reimer are presenting Methuselah, Nieto's new Butoh opera for Kokoro Dance, on Friday, October 3, 2025, at 8:00 PM (doors at 7:30 PM), at MUNGANGA (Schinkelhavenstraat 27, 1075 VP Amsterdam, Netherlands), presented as part of Butoh Festival Amsterdam. More HERE. Also, they're having a free "studio showing" on Saturday, September 27, from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM, at KW Studios (111 W. Hastings St., Vancouver), presented as part of BC Culture Days. More HERE. 

Wallgrin in Toronto

SCA alumnus Wallgrin is playing September 30, 2025, at 8:00 PM (doors at 7:30 PM), at the Burdock Music Hall (1184 Bloor St W, Toronto). More HERE.

SFMF 2025

The 2025 edition of the Small File Media Festival, now on its sixth year, is running October 17 – 18, 2025, at the estimable The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St., Vancouver). More HERE.

Sound in the collection and Cherish

SCA alumnus Michelle Sound's 2023 work, Theresa Sound, age 12, which is part of Sound's Medicine Prints series, is now part of UBC Okanagan's Public Art Collection. Great choice! Watch a video on UBC Okanagan Gallery's Instagram presenting the work HERE. Also, Sound is presenting Cherish from September 4 – 28, 2025, at the The Ferry Building Gallery (1414 Argyle Ave, West Vancouver), with an Opening Reception on Thursday, September 4, from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, a "Meet The Artist" opportunity on Saturday, September 6, from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM, and a tour in Mandarin on Saturday, September 20, from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM. More HERE.

PTC's Dramaturgical Reading Program

The Playwrights Theatre Centre (PTC), which has SCA alumni Melanie Yeats as Creative Managing Director and Davey Samuel Calderon as Artistic Producer & Dramaturg, is accepting applications for their Dramaturgical Reading Program. More HERE.

Cafferata is a collaborating performer

SCA alumnus Torien C. Cafferata one of the "collaborating performers" working behind the scenes with Nina Davies, the Western Front's upcoming artist-in-residence, for her January exhibition in their gallery space. See some work-in-progress images on WF's Instagram HERE.

Wei, Mak, and Kang's World as Tripod!

SCA alumni Casey Wei, Lauraine Mak, and Jaewoo Kang are presenting the exhibition, World as Tripod!, opening Saturday, September 13, from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM, and running to November 15, 2025, at Centre A (Unit 205 – 268 Keefer St., Vancouver), which also includes a curated film screening on Monday, October 20, at 7:00 PM, hosted by DIM Cinema at The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St, Vancouver), and a public artist talk at Centre A on Saturday, October 25, from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM. More HERE.

Recommended Reading 

Recommended Reading is a new, we hope recurring part of our weekly Quick News posts that shares readings and other sharable media from SCA faculty, graduate students, and staff. If you're SCA like that and would like to share something, please email us HERE with your picks and a sentence or two to whet readers' interest. This week, please enjoy these selections from the SCA's Emily Neumann and Laura U. Marks.

First, here's a trio of recommendations from Emily Neumann, the SCA's Manager, Production & Events and beloved resident gremlin: 

Kaiju No. 8 by Naoya Matsumoto (published by Shueisha)

Within the guts and gore of this (admittedly violent) manga is a core of wholesomeness: strength in community, powerful women, intergenerational friendships, exploring ones’ potential, and many other themes that will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy even as a giant axe comes crashing down on the page. Find out more about the series HERE.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (published Tom Doherty Associates)

Self-named “MurderBot” (it/its) navigates what it means to be a free person in its free time between watching epic telenovelas and adeptly saving the lives of the soft humans around it. Find out more HERE.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Dr. Devon Price, published by Harmony Books.

This book is a breath of fresh air, especially when compared to the many books about Autism from allistic perspectives which often vilify perfectly reasonable “quirks” associated with the Autistic neurotype. Find out more HERE.

And second, here's a serious list from the SCA's Laura U. Marks, which could also easily serve as a fantastic course reading list or a solid first foundation for a graduate thesis or two (and, by gum, I'm going to dig into some of these myself):

Beller, Jonathan. 2021. The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Bergson, Henri. 1998 [original French publication 1907]. Creative Evolution. Translated by Arthur Mitchell. Mineola, NY: Dover.

Bohm, David. 2006. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London and New York: Routledge.

Deleuze, Gilles. 2001. Pure Immanence: Essays on A Life. Translated by Anne Boyman. New York: Zone Books.

Eglash, Ron. 1999. African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Eshun, Kodwo. 1998. More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books.

Federici, Silvia, and Peter Linebaugh. 2019. Re-Enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons. Oakland: PM Press.

Flusser, Vilém. 2002. “Habit: The True Aesthetic Criterion,” Vilém Flusser: Writings, ed. Andreas Ströhl, trans. Erik Eisel (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 51-57.

Furuhata, Yuriko. 2019. “Of Dragons and Geoengineering: Rethinking Elemental Media.” Media+Environment 1: 1

Gell, Alfred. 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Grosz, Elizabeth. 2008. Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hartman, Saidiya V. 2019. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. New York: Norton.

Irani, Lilly. 2021. “What is digital labor and how does it change us? Heteromation and other stories of computing and capitalism.” Mind, Culture, and Activity 28:3 (October 11): 280-284.

Marks, Laura U. 2023. “Collapse Informatics and the Environmental Impact of Information and Communication Technologies.” In Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies. Edited by Alenda Chang et al. New York: Routledge.

Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 61-62 (2021), “Questionnaire on the Changing Ontology of the Image.” Edited by Jacob Lund

Pingree, David. 1987. “The Diffusion of Arabic Magical Texts into Western Europe.” In La Diffusione delle scienze islamiche nel medio evo europeo. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. 57-102.

Saad, Bashar, and Omar Said. 2011. Greco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine: Traditional System, Ethics, Safety, Efficacy, and Regulatory Issues (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated)

Shiner, Larry. 2020. Art Scents​: Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts, Oxford University Press, 2020.

Simondon, Gilbert. 1992. “The Genesis of the Individual.” In Incorporations. Edited by Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. New York: Zone Books, 1992.

Steyerl, Hito. 2019. Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War. London: Verso.

Uno, Kuniichi. 2012. The Genesis of an Unknown Body. Translated by Melissa McMahon. Helsinki and São Paulo: n-1 Publications.

Whitehead, Alfred North. 1978 [originally published 1929]. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, corrected edition. Edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherbourne. New York: The Free Press.

Yellowhorn, Eldon, and Kathy Lowinger. 2022. Sky Wolf's Call: The gift of Indigenous knowledge. Toronto and Berkeley: Annick Press.

Zorn, John, ed. 2020. Arcana V: Music, magic and mysticism. Distributed Art Publishers.