Symposium iX 2024

The provocative 1969 book "Utopia or Oblivion" by Buckminster Fuller presented a stark choice between binary opposites. But what if they’re deeply entangled? Dreams of utopia (“no place”) frequently require oblivion (”the state of forgetting”), when pursuits of an ideal society are contingent on the erasure of existing realities.

Yet, as the saying goes, the land doesn’t forget — and water has memory. Experience is held in both bodies and places.

This immersive performance examines the consequences of utopian endeavors, from the religious and colonial to the technological and corporate. By uncovering the paradoxes hidden within these idealistic pursuits, we explore the potential of emerging technologies to foster reconnection and remembrance rather than impose exclusion and control — and to fundamentally re-establish relationships with the living world.

Featuring cosmographer, chairman of the board of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, and co-founder of Spherical Studio, David McConville, along with Spherical's co-director, Dawn Danby.

Time: 09:00 - 10:30 am
Place: Society for Arts and Technology (SAT)

This intensive two-hour workshop, taught by renowned electronic artist Mathew Jonson, is an opportunity for experienced DJs and budding producers new to electronic music who want to transition towards live performance. Based on a class from Freedom Engine Academy, this hands-on session covers the essentials of using analog synthesizers, drum machines, effects units, and various mixing desks, including DJ setups and studio consoles.

Participants will get practical insights into working with Ableton Live, Roland TR-8S, and Roland SH-101. We will cover the technical aspects of connecting and stabilizing your gear, teaching you practical strategies for wiring your setup, maintaining stability, and implementing backup plans. These skills will help you adapt to technical issues during live performances, boosting your confidence on stage. By the end of this workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of electronic live performance and feel more prepared to explore this exciting aspect of music. This session offers practical knowledge, discussions and valuable insights, making it an ideal starting point for aspiring live performers.

Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Place: Monument-National

Spatial computing has seen the emergence of digital spaces, now inhabitable and increasingly embedded into our familiar physical environments. These hybrid experiences of reality radically transform our relationship with territories.

In this novel landscape, an immersive round table held in the Satosphère, SAT’s large dome, brings together Scott Benesiinaabandan, Anishinaabe (Obishikokaang) intermedia artist; Giovanna Borasi, director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and member of the Living Lands working group that coordinates decolonization initiatives at the CCA; and Catherine D'Amours, artist and professor at École de design UQAM; Bertrand Nepveu, co-founder of Triptyq Capital, founder of VRvana, and lead developer for the Apple Vision Pro headset; They will address key questions: What type of territorial recognition would be appropriate to express this new alliance between humans, the living, and the entirety of nature? How can we conceive, realize, and inhabit these new open, living territories?

Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Place: Society for Arts and Technology (SAT)

Indigenous creators are harnessing extended reality (XR)’s unique audiovisual immersion tools, techniques, and workflows across diverse geographical locations and multiple XR formats. Their innovative adaptation of this technology combines cultural traditions with XR’s unique audiovisual configurations to challenge dominant, especially colonial, frameworks. This panel explores how XR is being used to create space and capacity for Indigenous creatives to tell their stories and navigate Eurocentric modes of production and distribution.

The discussion will cover the projects and processes of Loretta Todd (Metis/Cree), Founder and Creative Director of the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 (IM4) media lab; Kayla Briët, VR filmmaker, storyteller and composer; and Skawennati, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) multimedia artist and Co-Director of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) – all sharing Indigenous worldviews and values, and the importance of intergenerational mentorship.

Time: 12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Place: Monument-National

Presented by the SAT and Moment Factory, this exclusive session marks the end of the first year of collaboration on an exciting new research project, Connected Venues. Together, they are exploring the creation of multi-site augmented performances and shows, and developing a toolbox to help artists and industry professionals facilitate such performances.

A prototype of this technology will be unveiled exclusively at the MUTEK Forum. Split across two rooms at the Monument National, participants will experience two demonstrations of connected performances. The first demonstration will feature a set by Montreal based producer and DJ Lunice, while the second will present a collaborative performance between composer and visual music artist-researcher Myriam Boucher and composer and artist-researcher DJ Simon Chioini.

Time: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Place: Monument-National

MUTEK Forum’s XR Salon continues its explorations of innovative practices in XR (extended reality) with a session on Indigenous storytelling and the unique approaches for distribution of XR projects. In the emerging space of XR distribution, Indigenous storytellers are finding ways to share their projects in meaningful, intentional, and impactful ways.

Join Indigenous filmmakers, storytellers and producers as they discuss their best practices and case studies for disseminating XR works. Three artists who collaborate in the immersive space will share their best practices and case studies:

- James Monkman (Cree), an award-winning multimedia designer and storyteller, and creator of the immersive installation “Mekwâc” (in development);
- Jason Brennan (Anishnaabe), owner of the award-winning Indigenous production company Nish Média, representing the immersive project “William”. "William" is a VR series that sheds light on a part of Canadian history that was long silenced and deliberately ignored.
- This conversation will be hosted by Isabelle Ruiz (Kanyen’kehá:ka) from the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), an independent, national advocacy and funding organization that champions Indigenous screen-based storytellers and narrative sovereignty.

Time: 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm
Place: Monument-National

MUTEK Market is a program dedicated to accelerating and developing the careers of Canadian artists, and it forms an integral part of the MUTEK Festival.

Join us in the MUTEK Forum Lounge for dynamic, fast-paced Q&As with the 2024 MUTEK Market artists, providing a unique opportunity to get to know these innovative creators before their live performances at the Festival.

These engaging Q&A sessions are hosted by Nyshka Chandran, Features Editor of Resident Advisor.

Featured artists:
CUERPOS
ÈBONY
Piu
Tati au miel

Time: 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: Monument-National

Linda Zhang, architect and co-founder of Studio Pararaum, bridges architectural memory, digital technology, and the transformative power of imagination to build community power. Through her work, she explores how architectural memory can safeguard and steward a community’s way of life beyond institutional acknowledgment and leverage digital tools to drive social change. Join us to discover two projects exploring speculative world-building and digital technologies as they inspire new collective reflections on the future of our communities.

“Reimagining Chinatown in 2050", co-created with Chinatown youth and community facilitators, exemplifies this approach. This anthology of community stories set in 2050 is accompanied by a narrative-driven VR world and short documentary film (co-produced and co-direct with Maxim Gertler-Jaffee) composed of 3D scans and drone footage of Toronto’s downtown Chinatowns. The project uses XR as a powerful medium for storytelling and community envisioning, acting as a tool of resistance to spark collective imagination and reshape the public and political imaginary.

"Planting Imagination: Community Co-Design for Chinatown" developed 5 bespoke VR platforms for co-imagining for a 200 square meter community garden at Cecil Community Centre in Chinatown Toronto. Addressing issues amid heightened anti-Asian sentiments during the pandemic, Planting Imagination mobilized over 200 stakeholders, fostering collective resilience and empowering communities through collective imagination and VR co-design.

Time: 3:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Place: Monument-National