by John Threlfall | Feb 23, 2015 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Faculty, Research
Digital scholarship is one of the big buzzwords on campuses everywhere these days. But how is scholarship being transformed and expanded by digital possibilities? What are the significant challenges in digital scholarship? Those are some of the key questions being explored by the Department of Art History & Visual Studies in the annual Faculty Research Symposium happening on February 27.
“The digital turn is already here,” says department chair and symposium organizer Catherine Harding. “We need to get in there and really claim a presence as Fine Arts—and that’s the hard part. That’s why we need these conversations at the faculty level, to discusses these questions of what digital scholarship looks like for the fine arts.”
Running from 9:15am to 3:45pm in the Haro Room of UVic’s Cadboro Commons building, New Directions in Digital Scholarship offers a range of interdisciplinary presentations from Fine Arts faculty members plus guests from across campus, as well as a keynote address by guest Orion Lecturer Fabrizio Nevola of the University of Exeter.
“The faculty research symposium used to be just for us, but we’ve expanded out in the past few years and it’s been really cool to hear what other people in Fine Arts are doing,” says Harding.
The day is broken into three programs—Digital Initiatives in Fine Arts, Digital Pedagogy and Digital Initiatives in Fine Arts and Humanities—wrapping up with Dr. Nevola’s final presentation, “Seeing and Being in the Renaissance City: Digital Tools for a Context-aware History of Material Culture.”
Among the Fine Arts presenters are Kirk McNally (School of Music) on “Music Archives in Higher Education: A Case Study”, Associate Dean Eva Baboula with student researcher 
Elsie Mountford (Art History & Visual Studies) on “Design and Process in Building an Online Research Tool: the Ottoman architecture of southern Greece”, Dennine Dudley (Art History & Visual Studies) on “Dr. Strangeworld or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love the Technology”, Department of Writing chair and gamification expert David Leach on “Enter the Labyrinth: The promise and perils of video games in higher education”and School of Music director Susan Lewis Hammond with student researcher Bradley Pickard on “Searching for Claudio Monteverdi in Cyberspace: Digital Bibliography and Early Music.”
Also presenting are Kim McLean-Fiander (English) on “Something Old, Something New: Digital Innovations in Early Modern Scholarship” and Lisa Goddard (Libraries) with “A Second Look: Library Services to Support Digital Scholarship in the Visual Arts.”
Harding says she was inspired by attending a digital scholarship for departmental chairs seminar last summer, although she does admit that she’s “slower to embrace the potential” than some of the newer faculty members. She also points out that digital scholarship is particularly tricky in Art History, given the dynamic work being done by UVic’s own Dr. Ray Siemens in the Digital Humanities.
“We are working on digital projects in Art History, but we’re a bit shy about it because we don’t feel we’ve done anything really extraordinary yet,” she says. “No question, Digital Humanities is way ahead of us. But I wanted to create a space with this symposium where we could safely explore these issues without any performance expectations. Digital scholarship isn’t owned by any one area, as we see by the involvement of the English department and Libraries.”
Harding is particularly looking forward to the presentation by Lisa Goddard, recently appointed as an associate university librarian specializing in digital scholarship and strategy. “The question really is, how do we embrace multidisciplinary knowledges? I’ll be interested to see whether she means just art history or if she is indeed able to platform in a way that works for visual arts too.”
Another highlight of the day will be Nevola’s presentation. The creator of Hidden Florence, a website and free smartphone app that takes you on a unique tour of the Renaissance city through the eyes of a “contemporary” guide—a 1490s wool worker called Giovanni—Nevola’s intention is to use digital scholarship to allow visitors the chance to engage imaginatively with Renaissance Florence as a lived experience, while going to places that most tourist guides tend to neglect.
Department of Writing professor Kevin Kerr tackled a similar project with his Circa 1948 National Film Board collaboration with multimedia artist Stan Douglas, which allows viewers to virtually explore such former districts and Vancouver landmarks in as Hogan’s Alley and the original Hotel Vancouver in 1948.
“There are digital projects already happening in the fine arts, as evidenced by these presentations,” Harding says. She points to What Jane Saw, a reconstructed digital exhibition based on Jane Austen’s 1813 text of an art exhibit she visited, complete with room diagrams and art. The project was created by the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of English. “It’s extraordinary what people are doing with digital pedagogy.”
Department of Art History & Visual Studies Faculty Research Symposium
9:15am – 3:45pm Friday, Feb. 27, Haro Room, Cadboro Commons
All are welcome • Free • Lunch provided
by John Threlfall | Feb 19, 2015 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Faculty, Research, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
Back for its fourth year, UVic’s IdeaFest is celebrating ideas that can change everything. Organized by the Office of the Vice President Research, IdeaFest runs March 2 to 7 at various venues across campus and offers over 50 panels, workshops, exhibits, lectures and tours presented by UVic thinkers, innovators and artists. Join us as we explore dozens of world changing ideas!
Fine Arts is heavily involved IdeaFest once again, with five separate presentations as well as participation in two exhibits and the annual Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award fair. (See our full-lineup below.) But with over 50 events at IdeaFest as a whole, the hardest part will be choosing which to attend. Keep in mind, all events are free (unless indicated) and no advance registration is required.
Graphic ideas @UVic
12:30-3pm Monday, March 2 • UVic Bookstore
If you love graphic novels, comics, or cartoons, don’t miss this comic book fair with presentations from students, profs and visitors! Writing professor Lee Henderson will be on hand to discuss his new comic strip-focused novel, The Road Narrows As You Go. Come with your favourite graphic work for a discussion between readers and creators about graphic art. Organized by the departments of French, Curriculum & Instruction, Indigenous Law Research Unit, Hispanic & Italian Studies, Germanic & Slavic Studies, and Pacific & Asian Studies, with support from the Bookstore and Libraries.
Testing 1, 2, 3: New approaches to music courses in the 21st century
6-8pm Monday, March 2 • MacLaurin B037
From Beyoncé and the Beatles to jazz legends and rock divas, our School of Music is always looking for new approaches to its music courses. Through a look at course content, shifting tastes and audience demands in popular music, this illustrated lecture will demonstrate the need for innovative course design. Featuring Music professor Patrick Boyle and instructors Melissa Avdeeff and Colleen Eccleston.
Medieval Minutes
12:30-1:30pm Tuesday, March 3 • McPherson Library A003
Marking an evocative time in history, the medieval period lasted from the 5th to 15th century. Fast-forward to modern day and imagine a large circle of people coming from diverse areas of the campus and the community, some even dressed in medieval attire. All have a medieval story, memory or performance to share. Join the Medieval Studies Program and Art History & Visual Studies professors Jamie Kemp and Catherine Harding for this open-mic event—everyone wishing to step into the circle is welcome and has three minutes to be “medieval”.
The mythology of the mad genius: Five myths about creativity
4-6pm Tuesday, March 3 • MacLaurin D110
Where do ideas come from? Do you have to suffer for your art? And are all artists really that eccentric? Find out when moderator and Acting Dean of Fine Arts Lynne Van Luven deconstructs the myths of creativity in this zesty and informative panel discussion featuring one faculty member from each Fine Arts department: Christopher Butterfield (Music), Kevin Kerr (Writing), Brian Richmond (Theatre), Paul Walde (Visual Arts) and Erin Campbell (Art History & Visual Studies).
Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards symposium
11:30am-3pm Wednesday, March 4 • the SUB’s Michele Pujol room
Join us in celebrating the outstanding research produced by 110 Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards scholars. Fine Arts will be ably represented by Holly Cecil, Aimee Hawker & Laurie White (Art History & Visual Studies), Jerry Flexer & Cody Gles (Writing), Elizabeth Charters, Hovey Eyres & Olivia Prior (Visual Arts) and Chase Hiebert & Emma Leck (Theatre).
The best liar wins: Hidden information and role-playing
1-3pm Wednesday, March 4 • Phoenix Theatre Lobby
What happens when the audience becomes the performer? Join Theatre professor Anthony Vickery for a fun and dynamic role-playing event where audience members must make a decision with limited information—your figurative life is on the line as you engage in lies, acts of deception and leaps of faith. Members will engage in a battle of wits where they role play a villager in the midst of a crisis and ultimately try to out-perform their peers. This event involves participating in the performance as a villager with guided direction from a leader, followed by a discussion of the performative aspects of role playing.
Inside JM’s Diary: Researching a WWI “History Mystery”
4:30-6pm Wednesday, March 4 • McPherson Library Special Collections A003
Join Art History & Visual Studies professor Marcus Millwright as he shares clues and tips from around the world that may help him solve a long-standing UVic historical mystery—the search for the true identity of the now-famous “JM,” the author and artist of a World War I diary. The two-volume diary, currently on display at his Legacy-Maltwood exhibit The Arts of World War I, will be on hand so participants can view first-hand over 130 watercolour illustrations and pen and ink drawings detailing the author’s life during the war.
Can computers and art produce aesthetic work?
10-11:30am Friday, March 6 • Room 150 of the Visual Arts building
Visual Arts professor Lynda Gammon is joined by colleagues and students from the departments of Computer Science and Visual Arts to discuss projects using computation to produce artwork difficult to make with traditional media. This includes a Flowsnake algorithm that creates detailed single-line drawing with a digital pen, and a composition motivated lighting algorithm that renders animated light patterns from a single sketch. Feel inspired as artists and scientists discuss the symbiosis between the groups and give a demonstration of the creation process.
Light and Colour
Running March 2-7 • Audain Gallery, Visual Arts Building
Visual Arts instructor and exhibit organizer David Gifford invites you to discover a broader understanding of light and colour through a diverse showcase of student-led exhibits. The exhibit includes a presentation by James Tyrwhitt-Drake on particle wavelength duality, a demonstration on synaesthesia by Music student Gowan McQuarrie, and a workshop on LEDs by Olivia Prior. Interactive elements include a camera obscura tent, a rainbow competition and a device that tells the time through colour.
d. bradley muir, The Supernova Scene
In Session – ONE
Running 10am – 4pm March 4-7 • Legacy Art Gallery
Step out of digital overload and explore the significance and power of photo-based art. Come explore a showcase of new works by Visual Arts sessional instructors Megan Dickie, Laura Dutton, d. bradley muir and Tara Nicholson. Note: this event takes place off campus at the Legacy Art Gallery Downtown, 630 Yates St.
Please come out and support our Fine Arts faculty and students. And be sure to check out the rest of the fascinating options on view at IdeaFest 2015. What’s your idea that will change the world?
by John Threlfall | Feb 17, 2015 | Events, Faculty, Theatre, Undergraduate
It’s another strong batch of reviews for Phoenix Theatre’s latest production, Lion in the Streets. “Brilliant,” “brave and intrepid” and “tremendously successful” are just a few of the accolades that have been rolling in from local theatre reviewers.
Lion in the Streets director Conrad Alexandrowicz on CTV VI
Lion in the Streets is directed by Department of Theatre professor Conrad Alexandrowicz, who uses his extensive background in physical theatre to fuel his compelling direction of Canadian playwright Judith Thompson’s award-winning play. This is third production in Phoenix‘s 2014/15 season and continues until February 21.
CBC Radio’s On The Island theatre reviewer David Lennam was utterly effusive in his praise for the production, the cast and the direction, noting he could describe it in “one word: brilliant. It’s simply one of the best productions of the year.” Lennam praised the “really professional ensemble acting” and director Alexandrowicz‘s “lively, emotionaly gripping direction.” You can listen to the full review here.
The cast of Lion in the Streets (photo: David Lowes)
Times Colonist theatre critic Adrian Chamberlain gave the show four out of five stars in this review, noting “the production, skilfully directed . . . offers a variant on magic realism. Scenes begin in a naturalistic manner, then shift to a nightmarish realm as Thompson plunges into unconscious worlds. This is where the playwright is at her best—her subterranean visions are unrelentingly honest, brave and highly imaginative . . .”
Chamberlain also praised Alexandrowicz’s direction. “The directorial approach, here and elsewhere, is tremendously successful . . . . Alexandrowicz has a thorough understanding of the play—the extra physicality adds much.” Summing up, Chamberlain felt “this is one of the most consistently strong student casts in recent memory . . . . this show will be enjoyed by open-minded, intelligent audiences. It’s not easily forgettable . . . . the excellence of the production makes it all worthwhile.”
The cast of Lion in the Streets (photo: David Lowes)
And local theatre blogger Janis LaCouvee also felt the entire production was top drawer in this review, noting “cast and crew have succeeded beyond measure. Lion in the Streets is dark, disturbing, revelatory and illuminating—it demands an audience equally as brave and intrepid.”
LaCouvee also praised the design elements of the show, singling out Colette Habel’s “brooding sound design [which] immediately sets a mood of disquiet and unease, a portent of the tales to come” and Allan Stichbury’s set “[which] oozes muck and mire with sculpted floors and chairs.” She also noted Bryan Kenney‘s lighting (“dark, with narrow slivers of illumination, focusing attention”) and projections (“reminiscent of a child’s drawings, pulling the audience into a world seen through Isabelle’s eyes”), as well as costume designs by Emma Welsh which “bring in elements of the period to punctuate the often-monochromatic colour scheme.”
Lindsay Curl as 9-year-old Isobel in Lion in the Streets (photo: David Lowes)
Lion in the Streets follows Isobel, a lost Portuguese girl wandering around her neighbourhood, frightened and looking for answers. She witnesses a series of dark moments in the intertwined and troubled lives of several strangers in her community as they try to hold on to their own humanity; by watching them, she finds understanding, forgiveness, and ultimately redemption. And although the scenes in Lion in the Streets are set in a Toronto neighbourhood, the play itself brings the audience to a place somewhere between reality and dreams, memories and fantasies.
The production also received strong previews in this Times Colonist article, in which director Alexandrowicz noted his cast immediately embraced playwright Thompson’s dark vision. “Listen, these kids, are you kidding me? Young people these days are, well, they’ve seen it all. They grow up very quickly in a digital age.” Adam Sawatsky of CTV Vancouver Island also offered a preview in this TV interview with Alexandrowicz (skip ahead to the 5:28 mark) and both director Alexandrowicz and set designer Stichbury were interviewed in this Oak Bay News piece. And Gordie Tupper of CHEK TV profiled the Lion in the Streets cast and interviewed Conrad Alexandrowicz in this clip.
Finally, click hear to listen to a recording of director Alexandrowicz’s pre-show lecture about the history of Judith Thompson’s award-winning play and his process of collaborating with the actors to develop this production.
Lion in the Streets continues until February 21 at UVic’s Phoenix Theatre. The show runs 8pm Mondays to Saturdays, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday, February 21. Tickets $14-$24.
by John Threlfall | Feb 17, 2015 | Events, Visual Arts
The Department of Visual Arts is proud to present Canadian photographer Jessica Eaton as the latest guest to appear in their long-running Visiting Artist program. Recently described by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as “the hottest photographic artist to come out of Canada since Jeff Wall,” the Montreal-based Eaton is acclaimed for her innovative experiments in color photography.
An example of Jessica Eaton’s unique photographic manipulations
She’ll be presenting a free illustrated lecture of her work and practices at 8pm Wednesday, Feb 18 in room 162 of the Visual Arts building. All are welcome.
Working with large format cameras, she applies unique analog techniques to manipulate properties of light. By creating photographic practice experiments blending and splitting light using lenses and geometric forms, Eaton creates photographs whose subject is light itself.
In her vibrant images she pushes the rhetoric of abstraction to provoke questions about perceptual experience. “[Analog photography] doesn’t have to be intrinsically bound to the visible world,” she says. “It is full of possibility.”
As noted in the Guardian article, Eaton uses light the way other painters mix colours and her images offer referential nods to colour field painting and the likes of Bridget Riley, Josef Albers and Sol LeWitt. And while her images may look like they came out of a Photoshop experiment, they’re actually the result of technical expertise and “hit-and-miss, old-school technology.”
Jessica Eaton in her studio (photo: Roger LeMoyne, from Canadian Art)
“My fuck-up rate is pretty high,” she admits. “On average, one work out of every 200 sheets of film. I think of it as a kind of strategy game. There is a lot of waiting and concentration involved.”
Born in Regina and trained at Vancouver’s Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Eaton has shown across Canada and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in Toronto, Los Angeles and Cleveland, and a solo show at the Photographers’ Gallery/The Hospital Club in London, UK. She is represented by Jessica Bradley (Toronto), Higher Pictures (New York), and M + B Gallery (Los Angeles).
So far this year, the Visiting Artist series has welcomed the likes of Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada, and sculptor Michel de Broin. Coming up next is Nigel Prince, executive director of Vancouver’s
Contemporary Art Gallery (March 4) and painter Melanie Authier (March 18).
by John Threlfall | Feb 13, 2015 | Events, Writing
One of the most talented and celebrated younger poets in Europe, the award-winning Tomasz Różycki will be on campus from February 14 to 20, thanks to the collaborative efforts of UVic’s departments of Writing and Germanic & Slavic Studies.
Tomas Różycki
“He really is one of the most remarkable younger poets in Europe,” says Writing professor and tour organizer Tim Lilburn. “He’s published scads of books and they’re almost automatically being translated in English, which is quite rare. He’s really attracting a lot of attention.”
A critic and translator living in the Silesian city of Opole, Tomasz Różycki has published nine books since the mid-1990s, most notably 2004’s book-length Twelve Stations and 2006’s Colonies—both of which are multiple award-winners. His work has been translated into six languages and he is a jury member of the Koscielski Prize (Lausanne) and Prix du Jeune Ecrivain (France).
Mira Rosenthal’s 2013 English translation of Colonies was also long-listed for the 2014 PEN Poetry in Translation Award, shortlisted for both the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (UK), and won the Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation. Różycki has also been nominated twice for the NIKE Prize (2005 & 2007), and once for the Paszport Polityki, Poland’s top literary award.
Lilburn says he first ran across Colonies at a Seattle book store in 2013 and was immediately captivated. “I thought, ‘Whoa—what’s this?’,” he recalls. They then met at an international poetry festival in Hong Kong. “I was really impressed by him,” Lilburn says. “He seemed to be a perfect fit for us here at UVic. There’s also a lot of interest in his visit by the local Polish community as well.”
During his February 14 to 20 week on campus, Różycki will be meeting with faculty, students and the local poetry community, as well as doing a number of readings. First up is his appearance at the long-running Open Word: Readings & Ideas series at 7:30pm Tuesday, Feb 17, at Open Space (510 Fort, by donation). Following a reading of his work—in Polish, followed by English translations (“his English is serviceable, but the translations are lovely,” says Lilburn)—who will also conduct a live interview with Różycki after the reading.
Różycki’s next presentation is with the Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies, speaking on “History and Memory in Eastern European Cultures” at 3:30pm Thursday, Feb 19 in Clearihue C112. “His family comes from Eastern Poland, and most were uprooted after WWII and transplanted into Silesia while Germans were moved further west,” explains Lilburn. “That was his parent’s and grandparent’s generation, but it really shapes his work; you can tell he’s afflicted with nostalgia.”
Finally, Różycki will present an Orion Lecture for the Faculty of Fine Arts on “Post-war Polish Poetry (or, To Write a Poem After the End of the World)” from 3 to 4:30pm on Friday, Feb 20 in room 103 of the Fine Arts Building (free, all are welcome).
“It’s good to bring international poets of this prominence to the city,” concludes Lilburn, himself an internationally recognized poet of note. noting the 2009 visit by renowned Chinese poet Xi Chuan as one of UVic’s Visiting Scholars. “We’re all quite excited about his visit.”
“The digital turn is already here,” says department chair and symposium organizer Catherine Harding. “We need to get in there and really claim a presence as Fine Arts—and that’s the hard part. That’s why we need these conversations at the faculty level, to discusses these questions of what digital scholarship looks like for the fine arts.”
Elsie Mountford (Art History & Visual Studies) on “Design and Process in Building an Online Research Tool: the Ottoman architecture of southern Greece”, Dennine Dudley (Art History & Visual Studies) on “Dr. Strangeworld or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love the Technology”, Department of Writing chair and gamification expert David Leach on “Enter the Labyrinth: The promise and perils of video games in higher education”and School of Music director Susan Lewis Hammond with student researcher Bradley Pickard on “Searching for Claudio Monteverdi in Cyberspace: Digital Bibliography and Early Music.”
Harding says she was inspired by attending a digital scholarship for departmental chairs seminar last summer, although she does admit that she’s “slower to embrace the potential” than some of the newer faculty members. She also points out that digital scholarship is particularly tricky in Art History, given the dynamic work being done by UVic’s own Dr. Ray Siemens in the Digital Humanities.
Another highlight of the day will be Nevola’s presentation. The creator of Hidden Florence, a website and free smartphone app that takes you on a unique tour of the Renaissance city through the eyes of a “contemporary” guide—a 1490s wool worker called Giovanni—Nevola’s intention is to use digital scholarship to allow visitors the chance to engage imaginatively with Renaissance Florence as a lived experience, while going to places that most tourist guides tend to neglect.
Department of Writing professor Kevin Kerr tackled a similar project with his Circa 1948 National Film Board collaboration with multimedia artist Stan Douglas, which allows viewers to virtually explore such former districts and Vancouver landmarks in as Hogan’s Alley and the original Hotel Vancouver in 1948.
