One-day Colloquium: How Funding Bodies Have Shaped the Arts and the Humanities

Posted: February 22nd, 2010

Convenor: William Buxton (Communication Studies)
March 5 | 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Annex CI-104
School of Community and Public Affairs, 2149 Mackay Street

Free Admission

This colloquium will focus on funding for the arts and the humanities and will combine comparative historical studies with an examination of current trends in the support of the arts and humanities in Canada. In particular, it will explore how research and teaching in the arts and the humanities have been shaped by the designs and priorities of large philanthropic bodies and government agencies. Part 1: Historical Case Studies of Canada, United States and Australia. Part 2: What are the Prospects for the Arts and the Humanities in an Age of Cutbacks and Strategic Funding? What are the implications of the 2010 Federal Budget for the funding of the Arts and Humanities? Presentations followed by round-table discussion.
Colloquium Program

For more information: William Buxton




Art, Science Technology: Speaking of art/sci research

Posted: February 22nd, 2010

Fluxmedia presents:

Art, Science Technology: Speaking of art/sci research

Invited international bio-artists in conversation with Concordia researchers.

Cellular interventions in art
Marta de Menezes in conversation with Dr. Kim Sawchuk, Department of Communication Studies
Wednesday, March 3, 5pm

Of mice and transgenic rats in art and scientific research
Kathy High in conversation with Dr. Barbara Woodside, Department of Psychology
Wednesday, March 10, 6:00pm

Transformation and biodiversity in art and biology
Brandon Ballengée in conversation with Dr. Dylan Fraser, Department of Biology
Wednesday, March 31, 5pm

Location:
Lecture Hall, 1.114, CJ building
7141 Sherbrooke Street West
Loyola Campus
Concordia University

For additional information
contact Tagny Duff, email hidden; JavaScript is required

This event is sponsored by Fluxmedia with the support of Studio XX and funded through a Concordia Aid to Research Related Events grant.

Fluxmedia, situated within the Department of Communication Studies, is a research network exploring the intersections of art, science and technology


Image credit:
“DFA 25, Promethéus”
Scanner Photograph of Cleared and Stained Multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog from Aptos, California in Scientific Collaboration with Dr. Stanley K. Sessions.
MALAMP titles in collaboration with the Poet KuyDelair. 46 in. x 34 in.
Unique IRIS print on watercolor paper
2003/07
Courtesy the artist and Nowhere Gallery, Milan 




Korsakow Workshop a Resounding Success

Posted: February 8th, 2010

Intrepid filmmakers gathered recently in Communication Studies for a two-day Korsakow workshop. Korsakow is an open-source authoring tool for creating database films invented by Florian Thalhofer, a Berlin-based media artist and collaborator in the Concordia Interactive Narrative Experimentation and Research Group (CINER-G), a research/creation initiative led by principal investigator Matt Soar, and colleagues, Monika Kin Gagnon, Tim Schwab, as well as Jason Lewis (Computation Arts) and Elena Razlogova (History).

Varying in level of experience and filmmaking know-how, the group of ten participants included students and faculty, who experimented with the Korsakow software and put their creativity to the test. Korsakow films, or K-films, are interactive, database-driven movies where the viewer actively participates in their experience of the story, influencing what comes next by clicking on preview images or text. These viewer choices interact behind-the-scenes with how the filmmaker has connected certain scenes to one another by keyword choices. There are no set paths, rather the author associates one clip with another through the rule-based logic that Korsakow enables. It’s a mix of rules and randomness—the order of scenes is calculated while viewing and this is where interactive storytelling comes to life. K-films produced included a travel retrospective, a compilation of archival and interview footage on Expo 67 related to Monika Kin Gagnon’s ongoing research and, among others, a compelling take by PhD student, Mél Hogan, on the cultural mythology of an impending 2012 apocalypse.

– Jacqueline Wallace

More workshops will be scheduled and anyone interested in participating can contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required.




Coms Alumni Win $45,000 from NFB, TVO

Posted: February 4th, 2010

Two winning documentary pitches will go from the concept stage to television and web broadcast thanks to a $45,000 cash prize for each from the National Film Board and TVOntario, which on Monday unveiled the winners of the Calling Card Program.

Aaron Hancox and Allie Caldwell‘s 30-minute doc Unheralded will be developed for broadcast on TVO’s flagship doc series The View From Here, while Shahid Quadri and Alex Jansen’s new media project The Next Day will be created and launched on both nfb.ca and tvo.org. Both projects will debut during the 2010/11 season.

For the full story please visit:
http://cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/February2010/01/c5637.html




Screen World: A Symposium on Screen Technology, Media Space, and Mobile Media

Posted: February 3rd, 2010

The Department of Communication Studies and Screen Culture Research Group Present

Screen World: A Symposium on Screen Technology, Media Space, and Mobile Media

February 12, 2010
CJ 1.114
Panels Begin at 9 am and run through to 5 pm

This event showcases recent scholarship investigating screens and mobility as dominant features of our media environment. Participants will address such topics as hand-held mobile devices, digital and celluloid exhibition, locative media, and artistic practice in gaming and augmented reality.

Featuring a keynote address from

Dr. Janine Marchessault (CRC York University)

“The Screen as World: Terre des hommes as Global Media Experiment”

For more information and for a full schedule of presentations, contact Charles Acland at email hidden; JavaScript is required or Zach Melzer at email hidden; JavaScript is required .

Support for this event comes from the Concordia University Research Chair in Communication Studies, Dept. of Communication Studies, TAG, ARTHEMIS, and Mediamixx (McGill University).




Concordia University Research Chair in Communication Studies Wins Major Award

Posted: February 3rd, 2010

Charles Acland (CURC, Communication Studies) has won the 2010 Kovács Award for best essay in film and media studies. This prize is awarded annually by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

The award recognizes the most original essay – published in a peer-reviewed journal during the previous year – that significantly advances scholarship in film and media studies. Acland’s winning article “Curtain, Carts, and the Mobile Screen” appears in the fiftieth anniversary issue of Screen 50:1 (2009). This is the first time this twenty-one year old essay award has gone to a scholar at a Canadian university.




Haiti : Holdup

Posted: January 12th, 2010


New Exhibition Opens in Media Gallery

The Media Gallery in the Department of Communication Studies proudly presents the exhibition Haiti : Holdup by Darren Ell.

A photographer, activist and journalist, Ell produces photographic work dedicated to human rights and social justice issues. Ell’s commitment to the responsibility of bearing witness and using art as a tool for social transformation is evident in this provocative installation. In Ell’s words “Since all of my projects focus on victimized groups of people, I involve myself in their struggle as an artist-citizen. During the two to three years it takes to complete a project, I engage in journalism and activism to bring their cause to a larger audience. This in turn generates interest in my artwork.”

Haiti : Holdup runs from January 13th until February 26th April 2nd, in the Media Gallery, CJ Building 1.419, located at Concordia University’s Loyola campus, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal.

Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday 9-4:45 pm and Friday 9-12:45 pm.
For additional information please call 514-848-2424 x2555.