Sensoria: The Art and Science of Our Senses is a multi-site exhibition and hybrid symposium that bridges LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) in Gdansk, Poland and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts & Technology at York University in Toronto, Canada. Held simultaneously in both locations, the exhibition and symposium will engage multi-sensory research that revitalizes our sensory connections to our surroundings, through and despite technological tools, networks and latencies.
Join us for the opening of the Toronto exhibition on September 26 from 5:00 – 6:30 pm EST at Gales Gallery
Register here to attend the hybrid symposium in-person at Transmedia Lab or virtually online.
Register for the Workshop — Schizo-Somatic Session led by Csenge Kolozsvari Oct. 3, 3 – 5pm EST
Register to attend and get access to the live stream of keynote performances —
The Power of the Spill by Csenge Kolozsvari Oct. 4, 12:45 – 145 pm EST &
Doug Van Nort Electro-Acoustic Orchestra Oct. 5, 12:45 – 145 pm EST
EXHIBITION
September 26 – October 14, 2022
OPENING Sept 26th 5 – 6:30 pm EST
Gales Gallery, York University
105 Accolade West Building,
86 Fine Arts Road, Toronto, ON
open daily from 10:30am-3:30pm weekdays
[Reading week by appointment only]
Sensoria: The Art and Science of Our Senses is co-curated by distinguished curator Nina Czegledy (Agents for Change: Facing the Anthropocene, 2020 & Leonardo/ISAST 50th Celebrations, 2018) and Sensorium director Joel Ong, with the support of assistant curators Eva Lu and Cleo Sallis-Parchet. Sensoria explores the intersection of art, science and the senses, bringing together an international network of artists: Guy van Belle, Roberta Buiani, Lorella Di Cintio, Grace Grothaus, Kavi, Hrysovalanti Maheras, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Gayil Nalls, Michael Palumbo, Michaela Pnacekova, Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris. Sited concurrently in both Poland and Toronto, the exhibition will explore the dissociative potential of contemporary technologies on the senses, treating it not only as a social crisis but also an opportunity for creative play and experimentation. It aims to engage a conversation about the senses from the perspective of art, but also science, incorporating artists that straddle the boundaries of knowledge production in a variety of ways.
Held at the Gales Gallery, the Sensoria exhibition will feature the works:
Sun Eaters. Grace Grothaus
One Tree ID. Agnes Meyer-Brandis
World Sensorium. Gayil Nalls
Emergent: A Mobile Gallery featuring “The Connection”, Michaela Pňaček, Roberta Buiani, Lorella Di Cintio and Kavi
ReedRead. Raewyn Turner/ Brian Harris
Kinetic Shadows. Hrysovalanti Maheras
Fanfara Guy Van Belle
Please follow this link to artists biographies and more work information.
Join us for the opening of the Toronto exhibition on September 26 from 5:00 – 6:30 pm EST at Gales Gallery
The exhibition will be open during Nuit Blanche on October 1 from 7 pm – 7 am EST as part of Sensorium’s participation in the Art Gallery of York University’s “Streams” project
SYMPOSIUM
Oct 4th to October 5th, 2022
Online and at Transmedia Lab, York University
105 Accolade West Building,
86 Fine Arts Road, Toronto, ON
Symposium DAY ONE recording
Symposium DAY TWO recording
Sensoria: The Art and Science of Our Senses symposium presents keynote lectures, discussions and performances around the connective aesthetics of everyday sensing and the knowledge-creation potential of artists and scientists collaborations. All aspects of the symposium, including the workshop and keynote performances, will be presented with virtual components with livestreams via Zoom so as to allow both in-person engagement in Toronto and virtual presence in Gdansk and elsewhere.
The symposium leverages the exhibition content as the starting point for more in-depth conversation about the connective aesthetics of everyday sensing and the knowledge-creation potential of artists and scientists collaborating in innovative ways. The socio-political turbulences we have experienced worldwide during the last decade have created unprecedented social and personal strife. While connections are sustained now amongst virtual networks that straddle vast spaces, how might we consider the sharing of intimate senses through smell, touch, and bodily movement as a form of mutual support? The symposium explores questions such as these with keynote presentations by Ryszard Khuszcynski, Chris Salter and David Howse, as well as roundtables between artists and scientists: Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Gayil Nalls, Rasa Smite, Katarzyna Pastuszak, Grace Grothaus, Katarzyna Sloboda, Hilda Kosari, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Hrysovalanti Maheras, Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris.
Please follow this link for more details including schedules and biographies.
Register for the symposium Oct. 4–5, 2022 on Eventbrite
The symposium will be complemented by a workshop by Csenge Kolozsvari and keynote performances by Csenge Kolozsvari and Doug Van Nort. The workshop and performances will be held live with limited ticketed capacity for in-person attendance. A streaming link will be available for remote participation as well. Please register separately for each event below.
Workshop: Schizo-Somatic Session with Csenge Kolozsvari
October 3, 2022 3 – 5pm EST
Flex Space Sensorium
Room 326, Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
86 Fine Arts Road
Toronto, ON
Csenge Kolozsvari’s workshop brings together somatic practices (crawling side by side, drawing, moving with bags full of water, walking backwards, playing with breath, touching textures, voicing etc.) with the concept of the schiz, cut, or interval, following philosophers Deleuze and Guattari in their book Anti-Oedipus. The aim is to build practices that do not presuppose where bodies begin and end, and to agitate the habitual narratives of bodily borders and edges as solid and knowable.
Performance: The Power of the Spill by Csenge Kolozsvari
Video LINK -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TufIuXdWNbo
October 4, 2022 12:45 – 1:45pm EST
Online and Sensorium Flex Space
York University
Room 326, Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
86 Fine Arts Road
Toronto, ON
The Power of the Spill by Csenge Kolozsvari is a multidisciplinary live performance working at the intersection of digital and imaginary technologies. It uses live video feedback, algorithmic processes of image (Hydra), sound as well as a movement-choreography informed by somatic practices. This project is a study on visual perception and how it affects our ways of making sense of the world, aiming to create an alternative lens that acknowledges the vitality of objects, a topology that is cross-species, the ways seemingly separate entities are in constant exchange, towards a more ecological way of being. The performance is in collaboration with Kieran Maraj, with original live coding by Rodrigo Velasco. Performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artist.
Register for The Power of the Spill
Performance: The Doug Van Nort Electro-Acoustic Orchestra
STREAM LINK -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1g82RooH8
October 5, 2022 12:45 – 1:45pm EST
Online and DisPerSion Lab
York University
Room 334, Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
86 Fine Arts Road
Toronto, ON
The Doug Van Nort Electro-Acoustic Orchestra is an ensemble comprised of a mixture of acoustic and electronic performers. It is an emergent sonic organism that evolves through collective attention to all facets of sound, and soundpainting-based real-time composition. The conducting language used with the group is based on Soundpainting, with modifications and additions by Van Nort for the electro-acoustic context. In the words of the language’s inventor, Walter Thompson: “The Soundpainter (the composer) standing in front (usually) of the group communicates a series of signs using hand and body gestures indicating specific and/or aleatoric material to be performed by the group. The Soundpainter develops the responses of the performers, molding and shaping them into the composition then signs another series of gestures, a phrase, and continues in this process of composing the piece.”
For more information on the DisPerSion Lab please visit the website.
***This performance will be held live at the DisPerSion Lab and audience will be invited in to capacity, following which they will be directed to an ‘overflow’ room on the same floor. A streaming link will be available for remote participation as well. Masks are mandatory for in-person attendance at the DisPerSion Lab. We will also request that you remove your shoes when stepping up onto the haptic floor.
**** This performance features a short section of intense flashing light and sound
Register for The Doug Van Nort Electro-Acoustic Orchestra
Workshop and keynote performances are presented at the exhibition and symposium Sensoria: The Arts and Science of Our Senses curated by Nina Czegledy and Joel Ong with partnering organizations Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University, and the LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Arts in Gdansk, Poland.
The Toronto edition of Sensoria: The Arts and Science of Our Senses is programmed by Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology (Sensorium) at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) as part of the Year of the Arts Program. Sensoria is partly supported by funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.
