A one-day symposium focusing on new forms of storytelling at the intersection of performance, film, mixed media and installation will take place at York University on Nov. 9.
“Intermedial Narrative and Performance: New Approaches,” presented by Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology and the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, aims to bridge diverse approaches to media arts.
Elements of Oz by the Builders Association. Photo by Gennadi Novash, courtesy of Peak Performances at Montclair State University
The symposium will explore how artists and collectives working across disciplines engage with technologies – new and old – to experiment with alternative ways of staging self, community and cultural memory. It will ask: how do intermedial artworks – in challenging the methods and expectations proper to discrete art forms – provide a testing ground for unique, and often politically challenging, narrative structures? In what ways do these mediatized explorations of the spaces in between the arts, and in between art and technology, create engaging and at times disorienting audience experiences?
To explore these questions, organizers have invited a group of interdisciplinary makers and scholars from across Canada and the United States to discuss their intermedial creation work in and outside the “black box.”
Through their use of a variety of intermedial methods – virtual, augmented and mixed reality, live projection, interactive and immersive environments, mobile and geolocation technologies and more – these artists trouble conventional perceptions of space, time and boundary. In doing so, their practice-based artistic inquiries offer vibrant and urgent forms of social critique.
Keynote presentations will include:
- The Builders Association (New York City) – Artistic Director Marianne Weems, Writer and Performer Moe Angelos, Video and Interactive Media Designer Larry Shea; and
- IRL Labs (Pittsburgh) – CEO, Design and Pedagogy, Ali Momeni and COO, Operations and Development, Aparna Wilder.
Panel 1: Immersive Social Spaces: Nyla Innuksuk (Mixtape VR), Tim Carlson (Theatre Conspiracy) and David Mesiha (sound designer), Michael Wheeler (SpiderWebShow) and Lisa Jackson (filmmaker)
Panel 2: Intermedial Narratives: E. Luka (Narratives in Space+Time Society, University of Toronto), Alison S. M. Kobayashi (Say Something Bunny, UnionDocs) and Liz Miller (Concordia University)
Read the full schedule on the Sensorium website.
The symposium is free and open to everyone, but please register with Eventbrite to secure your seat. Free registration includes access to the full-day symposium and closing reception. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
This symposium is sponsored by Canada 150 @ York University, with support from: Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology; the Graduate Programs in Cinema and Media Arts, Digital Media, and Theatre and Performance Studies; and the Performance Studies (Canada) Speaker Series.