Don’t miss the closing night panel talk for solastalgia [soon to be what once was] — the new exhibit by current School of Music Master’s student in music technology & Ocean Networks Canada artist-in-residence Megan Harton. This event will feature fascinating insights and lively discussion from artists and experts in melding art with science, and environmental activism.
Join us at 7pm Friday, Sept 6, in room 103 of the Fine Arts building, with a guided tour of the exhibit to follow. Panelists include Megan Harton (2024 ONC Artist in Residence), Neil Griffin (2023 ONC Artist in Residence), Pieter Romer (Filmmaker & ONC Indigenous Community Liaison) and Dwight Owens (ONC Associate Director of Learning and Community Engagement).
This exhibit explores the emotional response to environmental change using soundscapes, experimental photography, and video elements alongside nostalgic retro iconography to evoke a sense of “solastalgia”—distress caused by the disruption of familiar environments. By integrating scientific data from ONC’s observatories with artistic mediums, Harton’s work invites visitors to reflect on the impact of climate change, memory and place.
A passionate composer, audio engineer and sound artist, Harton is the fifth artist-in-residence in this continuing partnership between ONC and the Faculty of Fine Arts. “My artistic practice is primarily about using sound technologies in artistic ways,” Harton explains.
For his part, Griffin will share writings developed during his time as ONC’s 2023 artist-in-residence, exploring the mystery of “whale falls” — what happens after whales die, which still remains something of a biological mystery.
“Imagine you build a new apartment building and various people live there as it ages and eventually falls apart,” Griffin says. “That’s what happens with a whale carcass: various scavengers and decomposers move in and out . . . there are even worms that take hundreds of years to burrow single-mindedly through a thick whale vertebrae to get to the marrow inside.”
A graduate student partnership between Fine Arts and ONC, previous artists-in-residence include Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2020) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2018).
The call for 2025’s Ocean Networks Canada Artist-in-Residence will be released this fall.