2017 Festival Participants


QUICKLINKS

David Buob | Eli Schwanz | Elisabeth Picard | Jo SiMalaya Alcampo | Kamiel Rongen | Kelly Zantingh | Lisa Carrie Goldberg | Lisa Myers | OpenWorm | Paul Chartrand | Pedro Ferreira | Sandra Eber | Stefan Herda | Tara Dougans | Tess Martin | Tomonari Nishikawa | WhiteFeather Hunter | Wild Foragers Society


DAVID BUOB studied architecture in Kassel from 1992-94, 1994-97 Vocational training as stonemason in Kassel, 1998-2005 studied Fine Arts at HfBK Dresden with a diploma and a master student degree, now lives and works in Dresden and Berlin.

Filmography
2016 Me by You, 5:00 min, DCP (hand-drawn animation, watercolor on paper)
2014 UTÖ, 7:38 min, DCP (hand-drawn animation, watercolor on paper)
2011 Das Haus, 6:48 min, 35 mm (hand-drawn animation/3D computer)
2009 (ongoing) I can’t go back to yesterday—because I was a different person then. – loop, full HD (installation with hand-drawn animation on paper)

Awards
2016 – special mention ╨ Kurzsuechtig Leipzig, Germany
2012 – Golden Horseman / best national animation ╨ Filmfest Dresden, Germany
2012 – Jury Award ╨ Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA
2012 – special prize – ZOOM ╨ ZBLI?ENIA – Jelenia Gùra, Poland
2011 – special mention ╨ Animasyros, Greece
2011 – 1 prize, best short – vilsflimmern Amberg, Germany
2011 – Jury Award, best Animation – Kurzsuechtig Leipzig, Germany

 

ELI SCHWANZ is an artist, animator, director and designer living in Toronto. He received his BFA from Ryerson University and MFA from OCADU, with a focus on animation in the Interdisciplinary Arts, Media, and Design program. Eli continues to work as a director for MTV in Canada. His practice, working through media theory and animation methodologies, explores short, looped, experimental animation, installation, sculpture and patterning. His work seeks to open up conceptual spaces for viewer engagement with media through subtle and often passive interactivity.

 

Photo credit: Sébastien Gellé
Born in 1981, ELISABETH PICARD is a Montreal artist, represented by the Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto. She was granted with bursaries from SSHRS, FQRSC, Concordia University, CALQ and SODEC to pursue her sculptural research. Since she graduated from the Master in Fibres (2011), she works essentially with zip ties, dye, light and gradually integrating electronics.

Her work has been shown in Quebec, Toronto, Cuba, France and Lithuania and was part of some publication in the US, Italy and Malaysia. Her research was presented in particular at Division Gallery in Montreal, Materia in Quebec City, at the Biennale Internationale du lin in Portneuf QC (2013). She has been in residency in Est-Nord-Est residence d’artiste in St-Jean-Port-Joli QC (2011) and Barjols in France (2012). In 2016, she participated in the 20-year exhibition at the Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto, the Biennale Nationale de Sculpture Contemporaine in Trois-Rivières, QC, the exhibition for the Red Music Academy at Phi Center and the Bal du Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. More over she realized two public commissions; for the new leisure center of Beloeil, QC, and the long-term care and services center for seniors in East Angus QC.

 

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz
JO SIMALAYA ALCAMPO is an interdisciplinary artist who has developed technology that allows people to hear plants sing.

Jo travelled to the Cordillera mountain region of the Philippines to meet with traditional teachers and indigenous rights activists, to learn how to develop an ethical code of conduct when integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices in artwork. One response to this ongoing inquiry is the interactive installation: Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory in which living plants are keepers of story, cultural history and memory.

Jo is a member of Kapwa Collective—a group of Filipinx Canadian artists, critical thinkers, and healers bridging narratives between the Indigenous and the Diasporic. Past projects include TBOLIxTO—a cultural exchange between the Lake Sebu School of Living Traditions (Philippines) and the community in Toronto; Restless Precinct—a site specific project on land, indigeneity, and decolonization in Scarborough’s Guild Precinct; and “Katutubong Binhi (Native Seeds) Offering”—a zine created as part of Marvellous Grounds—a project that seeks to document and create space to vision the ways that QTBIPOC (queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour) create communities, innovate projects and foster connections within Toronto/Three Fires Territories and beyond.

 

For a long time, KAMIEL RONGEN has been interested in music and sound. After using techniques such as stop-motion to make film, he began exploring materials and now always uses a fish tank as his canvas. Here, he likes to experiment with materiality, colour, structure and movement in playful ways. In his work, visuals and audio are balanced to construct specific feelings and atmospheres that submerge the viewer in an abstract landscape. In a society that is becoming increasingly fake, it is difficult to understand what is real. Rongen tries to communicate the essence of a digital world through the use of physical materials, and is fascinated by the contrast of nature and toxicity.

 

Photo credit: Étienne Desbois
KELLY ZANTINGH graduated with a B.A.H in Studio Art from the University of Guelph, ON in April 2016. She is currently based out of Toronto and Montreal but spends the spring and summer tree planting in British Columbia. She has recently co-founded the Carrying Root Collective with Allison Henry.

 

 

LISA CARRIE GOLDBERG is the founder and Lab Director of Action Potential Lab. She designed the lab as a community space for the merging of material matter found in both science and art, as a way to enhance Toronto’s creative potential. Lisa has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, learning techniques in sculpture, weaving, film and photography. She has a Masters of Science in Biological Arts from SymbioticA, a research facility dedicated to art, technology and the life sciences at The University of Western Australia (the only university program of its kind in the world). It was here that Lisa got to experience what it meant to do research at the intersection of science and art, by studying topics in sleep science, tissue culture, physiology and molecular biology. As a lifelong academic, she has a certificate in Graphic Design and a Certificate in Teaching and has taught grades K-5, grades 6-8 and post-secondary art education, in the public and private school systems, in university settings and independent art schools.

Lisa also works as a multidisciplinary artist. Her artwork often takes the form of full-sensory installations that examine the realm of art and science. Past projects have covered topics in neuroscience, anthropometry and microbiology, as her studio practice is usually accompanied by field research in laboratories and academic settings. Lisa’s artwork has been shown in Canada, United States, Europe and Australia.

 

LISA MYERS is an independent curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. She grew up in southern Ontario. Lisa’s Mother’s family is Anishinaabe and French from Shawanaga and Beausoleil First Nation in the Georgian Bay region, and her Dad is from English and Austrian ancestry who settled in southern Ontario. Myers cooked for many years satisfying hungry stomachs at Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre emphasizing healthy food and indigenous ingredients. In 2011, Myers earned her Master of Fine Arts in Criticism and Curatorial practice from OCAD University, which focused on the use of food in Indigenous art practice. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Urban Shaman (Winnipeg), Art Gallery of Peterborough and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her writing has been published in Senses and Society, C Magazine and FUSE Magazine and is an assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She works and lives in Port Severn and Toronto, Ontario.

 

OPENWORM is an open source project dedicated to creating the world’s first virtual organism in a computer, a C.elegans nematode. We plan to achieve this goal by 1) bringing together highly motivated scientists and engineers 2) pushing away all the red tape 3) fostering growth of a completely open computational biology community. We are a highly motivated group of individuals who believe in Open Science. In July 2015, we incorporated the OpenWorm Foundation as a Delaware (USA) not-for-profit Corporation as a way to help us achieve the long-term goals of the project.

 

PAUL CHARTRAND works with constructed habitats built from found objects and integrated living components. His projects include various mediums and practical methodologies but focus particularly on sculpture and drawing. Paul finds inspiration in the blurry definitions of culture and nature; intending for his work to foster dialogue regarding this problematic dichotomy. His influences include many artists, writers and philosophers dealing with environmental discourses such as Helen and Newton Harrison, Hans Haacke, Mary Mattingly, Diane Borsato, Aldo Leopold, Timothy Morton, Donna Haraway and more. Paul completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in 2013 and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Western University for which he has earned Ontario Graduate Scholarships and SSHRC funding. He has exhibited at galleries including the Niagara Artists Centre (St. Catherine’s), Roadside Attractions (Toronto), Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto), Younger Than Beyonce Gallery (Toronto), Boarding House Gallery (Guelph), Artlab (London) and the CAFKA Biennial in Kitchener.

 

Photo credit: Maciej Bączyk
PEDRO FERREIRA, born in Portugal in 1988, is a media artist based in Berlin. He works with documentary and experimental film, video installation, sound, performance and photography. He is interested to explore post-digital concepts concerned with tactile approaches to technology. In 2013 he received his master’s degree in multimedia arts and culture from the University of Porto. He was selected for the European Media Arts Residency Exchange program Move On at the Images Festival in Toronto in 2014 and for the Traidhos Artist Residency Thailand in Chiang Mai in 2015. In 2016 he was selected for the Artist Residency AV Espaço Montepio in Porto, Portugal with a subsequent group exhibition. He has presented his works internationally in festivals, galleries, museums and alternative spaces. Most recently his works have been presented at L’Alternativa in Barcelona, Porto/Post/Doc in Porto, Werkleitz Festival in Halle, Entropia Gallery and MWW in Wrocław, Toronto’s 8Fest and Museum Of Contemporary Canadian Art, Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema and Festival International Du Film D’Environment in Paris. His works are distributed through Video Out, part of VIVO Media Arts Centre.

 

Photo credit: Dave Thomas
SANDRA EBER is an animation filmmaker with multidisciplinary interests. With her degrees in both anthropology and animation and a minor in computer science, she’s enjoyed an extensive career as a software developer. Currently, she teaches in the film animation program at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal. In her practice she is particularly drawn to experimenting with technologies whether high or low.

 

 

 

Photo credit: Marc Alcide
STEFAN HERDA employs intuitive and oftentimes amateur scientific methodology in his practice. Herda’s work explores our troubled relationship to the natural world while reconnecting with outmoded technologies and alternative means of production. Many of his experiments reflect upon geological and natural phenomena using provisionally sourced materials from the domestic environment. Herda received his BAH from the University of Guelph in 2010. His work in both sculpture and video has been included in exhibitions nationally. Recently, he was featured as one of 12 artists in the Cabinet Project at the University of Toronto in collaboration with the Fields Institute, held a solo exhibition at Y+ Contemporary (Scarborough) and participated in group shows at Younger Than Beyoncé (Toronto) and SHOW: 15 at Idea Exchange (Cambridge). Originally from Scarborough, Herda currently works in Toronto.

 

TARA DOUGANS is a writer and artist currently based in Toronto. Her work explores the relationship between inner and outer reflections of the natural world.

 

 

 

 

 

TESS MARTIN is an independent animator who works with cut-outs, ink, paint, sand or objects. Her most recent award-winning films are The Lost Mariner, an animated interpretation of an Oliver Sacks case study, and Mario, a paint on glass film based on an Italian folk song. Her films have displayed at galleries and festivals worldwide. She is the founder of Haptic Animation Amplifier, a Seattle-based non-profit that supports independent animation from the Pacific Northwest of the USA and runs a monthly animation event in the Netherlands called Manifest: Animation Show & Tell. She also occasionally writes about the world of independent animation.

 

The films of TOMONARI NISHIKAWA explore the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through a chosen medium and technique, often focusing on the art making process. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals and art venues, including Berlinale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, London Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010, he presented a series of 8mm and 16mm films at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and his film installation, Building 945, received the 2008 Grant from the Museum of Contemporary Cinema in Spain. He served as a juror for the 2010 Ann Arbor Film Festival, the 2012 Big Muddy Film Festival, and the 2013 dresdner schmalfilmtage. He is a co-founder of KLEX: Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival, and Transient Visions: Festival of the Moving Image. He teaches in Cinema Department at Binghamton University.

 

Photo credit: Matthew Brooks for Milieux Institute
WHITEFEATHER HUNTER is an artist-researcher and educator, as well as occasional writer, curator, arts administrator and consultant, currently based in Montreal, Canada. She has been professionally engaged in a craft-based bio-art practice for over 15 years, via material investigations of the aesthetic and technological potential of bodily and vital materiality. Her work, situated within and referencing textile methodologies, has ranged widely. Projects have included: traditional textile constructions of human hair; rogue taxidermy sculpture with recycled fabrics/fur, found flesh and bone; digital representations of the body absent in the digital world; and, mammalian tissue engineering on textile scaffolds. She also hacks/builds electronics, uses web-based platforms to generate new mythologies via viral and interactive media, works in narrative video and approaches performance as embodied research in both the laboratory and the landscape.

WhiteFeather’s current research-creation practice is focused on the relationship between living and electronic systems, and in particular on the haptic intelligence of microorganisms and the agency of machines. She presents this work within the frameworks of feminism, witchcraft/empathy, nonhuman agency and architextiles. She is a multiple-award winning scholar and grant recipient, holding an MFA in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. She has presented her work internationally in exhibitions, artist talks, conferences and residencies, most recently in New York, London, Reykjavík and Berlin.

WhiteFeather currently works as Principal Investigator and Technician for the Speculative Life Lab, and as Coordinator for the Textiles and Materiality Research Cluster, both situated within the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University.

 

The WILD FORAGERS SOCIETY was created in April 2013 by pals and then colleagues Lee Earl & Rebecca (Becky) Lamb from their own passion for learning about edible landscapes, even the very urban one in Toronto. As we stumbled upon new plants and shared our geekish enthusiasm, we started to notice a trend of people who were eager and excited to learn about local plants, weeds, trees etc – but couldn’t find any accessible human resources for the casual learner. Many looked to thick field guides or were overwhelmed with the variety of unregulated online content, and although both can be useful, nothing really replaces having a person who knows a plant give you a proper in-person introduction. As a pair of enthusiasts, not experts, we wanted to provide a safe space for sharing lived and learned knowledge around wild plants and so we started hosting a meet-up (or ‘frolic’) once a month on a seasonally relevant topic with anyone/everyone welcome to join. As the group has grown and dreams have taken one-half of us to Prince Edward County we’re now offering periodic frolics in Toronto and The County as well as working on special projects.