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.

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)

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. The discussion will be moderated by Amelia Winger-Bearskin, a Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and the Arts, at the Digital Worlds Institute at the University of Florida.

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.

This collaboration was made possible by Alexandra Marin, Services Owner in R&D at the SAT ; Véronique Paradis, Chief Innovation Officer at the SAT ; Anne-Célia Waddell, Innovation Project Coordinator at Moment Factory ; and Julien Bigeault, Innovation Producer at Moment Factory.

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