Gordon Monahan‘s works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and
live performance. Monahan began performing in public as a member of various rock bands in Ottawa, Canada. He has performed and exhibited around the world at venues including the Venice Biennale. John Cage once said, “At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we haven’t heard before.” Monahan’s interest in ‘hi- and low-tech’ and ‘high and low culture’ led him to collaborate with Laura Kikauka and Bastiaan Maris in establishing The Glowing Pickle, an electronic surplus store using 20 tons of discarded East German scientific equipment, parodying both communist and capitalist cultures.
Helene Cyr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology University of Toronto. She holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University before moving to Toronto in 1994. Most of her research is carried out on Lake Ontario and in the Muskokas. She leads the Aquatic Ecology Lab where research in the following areas is being carried out: Ecology of littoral areas in lakes: Spatial and temporal distribution of habitats and benthic communities. Food webs: Feeding interactions in planktonic and benthic communities, especially between invertebrates and algae. Macroecology: Body size distribution, Allometric relationships, Scaling of environmental variability.
Zev Asher is a Montreal-born film-maker and musician. His work combines experimental methodologies with documentary strategies. Widely screened, some his videos include What About Me: The Rise of the Nihilist Spasm Band, Casuistry; The Art Of Killing A Cat, a documentary on an infamous assassination of a cat by art students, an exploration of the limits of art. His first documentary, RAT ART: Croatian Independents imagines the impact of the Yugoslav war on Croatian artists. Asher has performed extensively in North America, Europe and Japan with the savant-rock band Nimrod and improvisational multimedia project, Roughage.
Gail Maurice is a Metis director/writer/producer, proud to speak her language Cree/Michif. She originates from Saskatchewan but calls Toronto home for now. She is editing her feature documentary SCREAM YOUR DREAMS. Gail was also awarded the Alliance Atlantis Mentorship award, with Cindy Witten, VP History Channel at the 2005 ImagineNATIVE film festival. Gail wrote, directed and produced her first video Little Indians in February 2004, it was invited to numerous festivals world wide, since then she’s made MEMORY IN BONES and ME+D=AHH also screened worldwide. She is currently writing 3 television series and trying to find a co-producer for her feature film BLOOD LINES.
Jenn E Norton works with video, installation, sound and kinetic sculpture producing performative, humorous, critically engaged work. Playing with the elastic qualities inherent in digital technologies, Norton engages themes of myth, agency and the opulence of artifice within the construct of spectacle. Twisting humour with melancholy, optimism with suspicion. Norton considers the individual’s orientation within emerging technologically augmented spaces within design and landscape. Her work has been shown across Canada, the United States and Europe. Norton has worked as a corporate editor, a freelance animator and a circus performer. She has won numerous awards for her work and has an MFA from the University of Guelph.
Paul Wong (born November 20, 1954 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia) is a Canadian multimedia artist. An award-winning artist, curator, and organizer of public interventions since the mid-1970s, Wong is known for his engagement with issues of race, sex, and death. His work varies from conceptual performances to narratives, meshing video, photography, installation, and performance with ChineseCanadian cultural perspectives. Winner of the Bell Canada Award in Video Art in 1992, Wong was also the first recipient of the Transforming Art Award from the Asian Heritage Foundation in 2002. In 2003 he was the inaugural winner of the Trailblazer Expressions Award, created by Heritage Canada, the National Film Board of Canada and CHUM limited. Wong was the 2005 recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and was the Canadian Spotlight Artist and also awarded Best Canadian Film or Video at the 2008 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Paul Wong is the founding director of several artists groups including the Video In / VIVO (Satellite Video Exchange Society 1973) and On Main (On The Cutting Edge Production Society).
Vera Frenkel: Rooted in an interrogation of the abuses of power and their consequences, the installations and new media projects of multidisciplinary artist Vera Frenkel have been shown at documenta IX; MoMANY; the Setagaya Museum, Tokyo; the Goeteborg Konstmuseum; the Georg Kargl Gallery, Vienna; the Venice Biennale (Club Media, 1997; Head Start, 2001); and the Freud Museum London, among other venues. Her touring project on the travails of a dysfunctional cultural organization The Institute Or, What
We Do for Love (www.the-national-institute.org/tour) was installed at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, marking her 2006 Visual and Media Arts Governor General’s Award. In 2007. Frenkel was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s Academies of the Arts. Sciences and Humanities.
Keith Armstrong has specialised for 18 years in collaborative, hybrid, new media works with an emphasis on innovative performance forms, site-specific electronic arts, networked interactive installations, alternative interfaces, public arts practices and art-science collaborations. His ongoing research focuses on how scientific and philosophical ecologies can both influence and direct the design and conception of networked, interactive media artworks. Keith’s artworks have been shown and profiled extensively both in Australia and overseas and he has been the recipient of numerous grants from the public and private sectors. He was formerly an Australia Council New Media Arts Fellow, a doctoral and Postdoctoral New Media Fellow at QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty and a lead researcher at the ACID Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design. He is currently a part-time Senior Research Fellow (2 days pw.) at QUT and an actively practicing freelance new media artist.
Priscila Diaz graduated from the Material Art and Design program at OCAD. She has also been an active participant of community work for the last past year. The use of various materials and techniques reflects her directions towards more sustainable practices. The recent project is inspired by community garden activism, looking at ways of creating useable tools to engage community and create awareness of choices. Priscila currently lives and works in Toronto.
Sofian Audry is a Montreal-based new media artist. Influenced by an education in information processing and an interest in language modeling, he works in a niche that mixes new technologies with the social and cognitive mechanisms of the human being. The artist will present Absences, a series of public interventions involving electronic devices interacting with nature. The project proposes a meditation on solitude and association, natural and artificial, interaction and contemplation.
AIIison Rowe is a Canadian artist and educator based in San Francisco, California where she is an MFA in Social Practice candidate at California College of the Arts. Allison has exhibited internationally with her most recent projects taking place in Port-au-Prince, San Francisco and Northern Ontario. Currently, Allison is exploring aesthetics of climate change through guerrilla public sculpture and participatory art/science events.
Amanda White graduated with a BFA from OCAD in 2001 and also studied art history at the University of British Columbia. She will begin the MFA program at the University of Windsor in the fall 2010. Working in various mediums, her recent work focuses specifically on the relationship between nature and cities. Amanda’s FARMY project will take place from July 17th – 31st 2010 in Toronto at 165 Augusta Ave. Amanda currently lives and works in Toronto.
Kristin Trethewey is an installation and video artist based in Brooklyn. She recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at Brooklyn College in Performance and Interactive Media and has a background in Multimedia and Cultural Studies. Originally from Toronto, she spent time at the Banff Centre before moving to the States to complete her degree. She often works collaboratively and through cross-disciplinary conversations brings this perspective to her artwork.
Mark Tovey, editor of Worldchanging Canada (worldchanging.ca), is a cognitive scientist who studies human response to change, and how to accelerate and catalyze societal change. He recently edited the book “Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace” (Oakton VA: EIN Press, 2008), which deals with how mass collaboration can be used to gain traction on global problems, and is coediting a book on reputation systems and their impact on society. He is currently at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University.
Robert Spekkens is a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. He received his B.Sc. in physics and philosophy from McGill University and completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Toronto. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at Perimeter Institute and an International Royal Society Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. His research concerns the foundations of quantum theory.
Marc Glassman wears many hats in the Toronto cultural scene. The recipient of the Toronto Arts Award in literature in 2000, he is an editor, journalist, broadcaster and the Executive Director of This is Not a Reading Series, a multi-disciplinary programme that explores the creative process in literature. Marc is the Editor-in-chief of Point Of View, Canada’s leading periodical on documentaries and independent cinema. He reviews film every week for Classical 96.3 FM. A community activist, Marc is currently Chair of the Queen West Business Improvement Association, the treasurer for the Toronto Film Critics Association and an advisor for Images, a festival that showcases new media culture.
Deborah McGregor, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto. She is Anishnabe from Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario. For two decades she has been an educator at both the university and community levels and has been involved in curriculum development, research and teaching. Her research focus is on Indigenous Knowledge in relation to the environment. More specifically, she has focused on Traditional Knowledge
(TK) and its application in various contexts including environmental management, forestry, sustainable development and water conservation. Primary themes found throughout her work include determining how to improve relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parties; and how to ensure the appropriate consideration of Aboriginal peoples’ knowledge, values and rights in environmental and resource management in Canada.
Zainub Verjee is the Principal Consultant, MetaCulture, a global boutique research and strategy consultancy in Cities, Pluralism, Innovation and Culture. She has been a major driving force in the Canadian cultural landscape with over 25 years work in the Culture sector. Acknowledged in publications and many citations, inclusive of a textbook case by UNESCO: her career also has been marked by cutting edge work as a curator, producer, cultural provocateur theorist and artist As an artist her work has been shown nationally and internationally including the Venice Biennale and MOMA, New York and resides in
private and public collections.
Karl Schroeder is an award-winning science fiction writer with eight published novels to his credit. He also speaks and consults on the future for clients such as the Canadian government, the army, and the business community. Karl lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.
Karla Brunet has a PhD in Audiovisual Communication (UPF, Spain – Capes Scholarship), a master degree in Fine Arts (Academy of Art University, USA – Capes Scholarship), a degree in Communication (UFSM, Brazil) and a post-doctor research on Cyberculture at UFBA (Fapesb Scholarship). Karla has participated in individual and group exhibitions on photography and digital arts. Currently she is a professor at IHAC/UFBA, where she researches the interaction of art, science and technology, www.karlabrunet.com
Juan Freire PhD in Biology and Professor at the University of Corunna (UDC). He is also chair in Digital Economy of the Business School EOI (Escuela de Organizacion Industrial). At UDC he is the Leader of the research group in Marine Resources and Fisheries. More at www.juanfreire.net.
Fereshteh Toosi is an interdisciplinary artist who uses cultural icons to explore current events and popular mythologies through work in video, sound, performance, and public intervention. Fereshteh is the recipient of grants and residencies from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Experimental Sound Studio, the Experimental Television Center, the Berwick Research Institute, and the International Summer School of Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation. Fereshteh received a BA from Oberlin College and worked in Japan for two years before completing her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art. She currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago. You may find samples of her work at http://fereshteh.net
Nancy Nisbet, one of the residency participants will be facilitating the discussion via video conference from Banff. Further information about the residency is available at http://www.banffcentre.ca/ Nancy Nisbet received her Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts (2000) and also holds degrees in Genetics and Education (B.Sc. ’91, B.Ed ’93). She is currently based in Edmonton, Canada. She is well known for her use and critique of Radio Frequency ID (RFID) technology, and speaks on issues of contemporary art in connection with surveillance, human rights, and technology. She is the author of several essays that address the limitations and liabilities of the powerful and wide-ranging use of RFID today. Her artwork has been presented internationally including exhibits in the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan and Thailand.
Emma Master brings expertise in biological processes that direct plant fibre synthesis and conversion to energy, chemicals, and renewable materials. Before joining UofT in 2005, E. Master led an Enzyme Discovery group in the Department of Wood Biotechnology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden (2002-2004); she also participated in the Fungal Genomics Project at Concordia University (2004-2005). E. Master’s current research activities apply genomic and proteomic strategies to develop sustainable biotechnologies for the production of tailor-made biomaterials from plants. In 2009, E. Master was awarded an Early Researcher Award by the Government of Ontario for her work on enzymatic valorization of plant biomass.
Adam Zaretsky is a bio-artist working in Biology and Art Wet Lab Practice. This involves biological lab immersion as a process towards inspired artistic projects. His persona! research interests revolve/ve around life, living systems, exploration into the mysteries of life and interrogating varied cultural definitions which stratify life’s popular categorizations. He also focuses on legal, ethical and social implications of some of the newer biotechnological materials and methods, i.e.: Molecular Biology, ART [Assisted Reproductive Technology], and Transgenic Protocols. Zaretsky is also well known as a teacher of Vivoarts: Art and Biology Studio, a studio art and science crossover lab meant to aid art, science and sociology students m their own exploration of the intersections between art and life. A former research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Zaretsky also has taught in Steve Wilson’s Conceptual/lnformation Arts (CIA) department at San Francisco State University, SymbioticA, The Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory at The University of Western Australia Department of Anatomy and Human Biology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Integrated Electronic Arts Department. He is currently a PhD student at RPI focusing on Art and Life Politics while heading VASTAL: The Vivoarts School for Transgenic Aesthetics Ltd.
Lorraine Gauthier is co-founder of Work Worth Doing a firm with a mission to create social and environmental change. Since 2006, she has led the firm’s boldest enterprise, the Now House™ project an award winning process for retrofitting older houses to near zero energy use. Their first Now House was completed in Toronto 2008, has been replicated in four cities in Ontario and is sparking interest across Canada, Mexico and Europe. Lorraine has served on the faculty of OCAD University, and is a member of the board of Homes First Foundation, supporting homeless families and individuals in Toronto.
Lisa Moffitt is a Lecturer in Architectural Design at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Her design work, research and teaching broaden the conceptual relationships between architecture and landscape architecture by exploring topics such as energy transfer, entropy, and territorial ity. In 2008, she founded Studio Moffitt; current projects include design and construction management of the House on Limekiln Line, a renewable energy harvesting competition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and ongoing development of fieldwork strategies for large-scale site analysis. From 2005-2008, she was a senior
designer at PLANT Architect, Inc. in Toronto, where she was on the design team for three internationalwinning competitions: the Dublin Grounds of Remembrance in Dublin, Ohio; Stratford Market Square; and the Toronto City Hall Redevelopment Project.
Dr. Russell Richman has researched in the combined areas of Building Science and Sustainable Buildings since 1998. Dr. Richman plays a key role in the development and delivery of the graduate program in Building Science in the Department of Architectural Science. This program, unique in North America, combines the fundamentals of building science with the broad mandate of sustainable engineering and building design. Currently, Dr. Richman’s research is focussing on: (1) quantifying a sustainable renovation index for Canada’s residential building stock, (2) design and construction of an advanced low energy house design using nested thermal envelopes, (3) life cycle analysis of housing construction typology for various climate regions across Canada, (4) simulation of assembly and whole building performance and (5) assessing the potential for various advanced building envelope designs for the Canadian climates (e.g. rammed earth, super-insulation). As a registered professional engineer (Ontario), Dr. Richman continues to practice, providing expert opinion on a variety of building envelope and low-energy design related projects in Canada and internationally.
Jody Boehnert is a Canadian who now lives in London England. She is founding director of EcoLabs (http://www.eco-labs.org) and a PhD candidate at the University of Brighton. EcoLabs is an ecological literacy initiative that develops projects to visually communicate complex environmental information. Major recent projects include the Futures Scenarios exhibition, EcoMag No. 1 and the Teach-in (see: http://www.teach-in.co.uk). She works as a graphic designer and occasionally as a writer in the design press. She is an environmental activist who brings her skills to a variety of networks. Jody was born in Guelph where she studied Fine Arts.
Joseph Ingoldsby‘s work combines art, science and technology to advocate for vanishing landscapes and endangered species. Art can be used to communicate complex ecological and scientific principles to an audience outside of the confines of the academy. This elegy for Vanishing Landscapes and EndangeredSpecies must be told with an urgency that speaks to the immediacy of the visible and documented changes in our world. The collaborative works examine, explain and illustrate issues such as climate change, fragmentation of the landscape, broken trophic cascades, species shifts and extinction, and theloss of the natural and cultural landscape.
Hackett is the Director of the Madagascar Institute, a Brooklyn-based art combine, an artist, metalworker, and the occasional star of Discovery Channel “guys building then destroying stuff” shows. Hackett likes his coffee strong, his physics Newtonian, and is a firm believer in “Build it, then measure it.”. He has not been arrested in over a year.
Miriam Diamond holds degrees in biology from the University of Toronto, zoology from the University of Alberta, mining engineering from Queen’s University, and environmental engineering from the University of Toronto. She joined the University of Toronto in 1991 where she is a Professor in the Department of Geography with adjunct appointments in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her research focuses on diverse aspects of chemical contaminants, ranging from their environmental release, fate, exposure and potential health effects. Diamond is Research Director of the Centre for Environment, sits on several external advisory panels, and is involved in the university’s administration.
Dr. Gregory completed his B.Sc. (Hons) at McMaster University in 1997 and his Ph.D. in evolutionary biology at the University of Guelph in 2002. He then carried out postdoctoral research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Natural History Museum in London, England, before returning to join the faculty at the University of Guelph. His primary research interests include genome evolution and biodiversity. He has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships, fellowships, and awards for his research, and he also received a 2008 University of Guelph Faculty Association Distinguished Professor Award for his teaching. Along with Julie Rene de Cotret (artist in residence, School of Environmental Sciences), he has been working to create a BioArt initiative at the University of Guelph. For more information, see www.gregorylab.org and www.microbialart.com.
Jill Anholt is a visual artist and designer who has been creating site specific public art installations since 1998. Her work investigates qualities of time, movement, light and materiality often contrasting permanent with ephemeral elements. Her intent is to intrigue passers-by, drawing them to look closer at the work itself, and by extension explore and discover connections and relationships embodied in the site. Jill’s public art installations strive to be interactive and accessible such that they engage people directly with the art and with a particular place. Environmental sustainability plays a generative role in the conceptual development, form and material expression of many of her works. Along with her art practice, Jill is also an instructor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, www.jillanholt.ca
Sarah Peebles is a Toronto-based American composer, improviser and installation artist. Much of her work explores alternative performance settings and found sound manipulated via computer and physical objects, often combined with sho (Japanese mouth-organ). She has performed and exhibited worldwide, and has collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists. New ongoing work includes “Resonating Bodies”, a series of collaborations with artists, designers and bee biologists which focuses on biodiversity of pollinators indigenous to the Greater Toronto Area. Her music is available on a number of audio and video publications. Details at sarahpeebles.net and resonatingbodies.wordpress.com.
Laurence Packer is a melittologist and COSEWIC member. He has bene on faculty at York since 1988 where he teaches biodiversity and related subjects. Has authored more than 100 research articles on bees and has a book on them published by Harper Collins. His research has been funded by NSERC, National Geographic and Genome Canada.
Rob King is a New Media artist, visualist, programmer and researcher based in Toronto, Ontario. He has a MA from the Communications and Culture joint graduate program at Ryerson and York Universities and a BFA in Image Arts: New Media from Ryerson University. His work explores the social dynamics of networked spaces, the potentials of mobile and ubiquitous computing, dynamic and generative processes, intellectual property issues, and system theory. Rob is currently developing visuals for networked performance as the COMEDIA artist in residence at the Sonic Arts Research Center at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Graeme Stewart is an Associate with ERA Architects. His area of specialty is Toronto’s post-war urban and suburban planning history as well as urban sustainability. Graeme is the co-editor of Concrete Toronto: A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies. His international research was instrumental in founding the Tower Renewal Project; an initiative in modern heritage examining the future of Toronto’s remarkable stock of modern concrete towers with the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, University of Toronto, and other partners. Graeme is also a director of the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, an interdisciplinary urban research organization focusing on Canada’s urban future.
Matthew Biederman: The Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a non-profit, international group of individuals and organizations whose goal is to promote the creation of open authoring, communications and dissemination infrastructures for the circumpolar region. API aims to empower the North and Arctic peoples through open source technologies and applied education and training. Creating access to these technologies while promoting an open, shared network of communications and data, without a costly overhead, can allow for further sustainable and continued development of culture, traditional knowledge, science, technology and education opportunities for peoples in the North and Arctic regions.
Noel Harding is an international Canadian artist and urban innovator recognized for his monumental scale public art projects and environmental sculptures that address the role and plight of nature in the midst of twenty-first century urbanization. He is well known for his sculpture The Elevated Wetlands where vegetation lives in recycled plastic soil while cleaning polluted water. In general, his work is an engagement in public urban realities: planning, envisioning, and mapping toward the future, suggesting that much more is possible. His work has been shown in more than 200 exhibitions, including exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario where his work is archived in the permanent collections.
Chris Hardwicke: As an associate at Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co Architects Inc. Chris Hardwicke researches, designs, teaches, gives advice, makes policies and writes about places and cities. Chris draws on his background in architecture, environmental studies and fine art to create healthy cities. His visionary urban projects have been exhibited and published internationally.
Marko Peljhan holds a joint appointment with the Department of Art and the Media Arts & Technology graduate program. A theatre and radio director by profession, he cofounded the Ljudmila digital media lab in Slovenia and is active in numerous tactical media communities. He founded the arts and technology organisation Projekt Atol, the music label rx:tx and coordinates the ongoing mobile laboratory project
Makrolab, focusing on telecommunications, migrations and weather systems in an intersection of art and science. His work has been featured in published contemporary art anthologies (Fresh Cream, Art Tomorrow) and extensively online and has been installed internationally including the Venice, Gwangju and Johannesburg Biennials, Documenta, Ars Electronica, ISEA, Manifesta, and numerous other exhibitions and museums, in Europe, Asia and the US among them P.S.l Moma and the New Museum in New York. In 2000 he received the special Medienkunst prize at the ZKM in Karlsruehe and in 2001 the Golden Nica Prize at Ars Electronica together with Carsten Nicolai for their work, Polar, produced at the Canon Artlab in Tokyo in 2000.
Rod Strickland is an artist and educator who creates sculpture and public works through solo and collaborative projects. Current projects include: The Green Corridor; an interdisciplinary community based initiative, an art, science, educational, and environmental project that re images the busiest international border crossing between Canada and the United States. Open Corridor, an exhibit of nationally and internationally known artists work on the NAFTA Freeway. Drive-Thru Symphony, a site-specific, real time installation and performance work that incorporates sight, sound, and smell while integrating vehicle traffic and drivers into a collaborative event.
Kids’ World of Energy provides hands-on sustainable energy education activities for kids and children at heart! We have been offering workshops and renewable energy tours since 2003, and offer workshops throughout the school year for students in grades 5 ,6, 7, and 9. Kids’ World of Energy participates in community events throughout the year, spreading awareness of renewable energy, energy science and energy conservation!
Frances Westley is the JW McConnell Chair in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo, and leads the Social Innovation Generation partnership. Dr Westley is a renowned scholar and consultant in social innovation, sustainable development and visionary leadership. Her most recent book, Getting to Maybe, focuses on the dynamics of social innovation and institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems. Dr Westley is the recipient of several awards and serves on numerous advisory boards.
Philip Beesley is an associate professor in the School of Architecture, University of Waterloo who creates immersive, responsive environments. His projects feature interactive kinetic systems that use dense arrays of microprocessors, sensors and actuator systems arranged within lightweight ‘textile structures. These environments pursue distributed emotional consciousness within synthetic and nearliving systems. His current Hylozoic Ground project is a uniquely Canadian experimental architecture that explores qualities of contemporary wilderness. The project will transform the Canadian Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale with an environment made of tens of thousands of digitally-fabricated components fitted with meshed microprocessors and sensors. Arrays of touch sensors and shapememory alloy actuators create waves of diffuse breathing motion, luring visitors into eerie shimmering depths of a forest of light. Beesley’s work is widely published and exhibited, and has been distinguished by awards including VIDA 11.0 and FEIDAD, and by the Prix de Rome in Architecture (Canada). He was educated in visual art at Queen’s University, in technology at Number College, and in architecture at the University of Toronto.
Jill Anholt is a visual artist and designer who has been creating site specific public art installations since 1998. Her work investigates qualities of time, movement, light and materiality often contrasting permanent with ephemeral elements. Her intent is to intrigue passers-by, drawing them to look closer at the work itself, and by extension explore and discover connections and relationships embodied in the site. Jill’s public art installations strive to be interactive and accessible such that they engage people directly with the art and with a particular place. Environmental sustainability plays a generative role in the conceptual development, form and material expression of many of her works. Along with her art practice, Jilt is also an instructor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.
John Lewis is the founder and President of Intelligent Futures – a firm committed to shifting the world to a more sustainable future. John has established himself as a leader in the emerging field of community sustainability planning and is currently working on sustainability initiatives in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nunavut. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners, a Councillor for the Alberta Association, Canadian Institute of Planners, a Board member of LEAD Canada, a member of the international training
team for LEAD International and has taught courses on sustainability and urban planning at Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary.