FEMeeting SisterLabs Beyond Borders
This program is the culmination of a term-long pedagogical effort to foster, connect, and consolidate interdisciplinary dialogues across the 5 courses at the NewONE Program (New College, University of Toronto). It is also part of a short-term mobile residency, based on the sustainable principles of sharing knowledge and resources, and the goal to foster interdisciplinary dialogues and new pedagogy across 4 institutions in Canada and in the US. Finally, the initiative is part of the FEMeeting SisterLabs series designed to support and lead to FEMeeting, a women and women-identified conference taking place on June 23-29 2024 at the University of Windsor.
Featuring:
Cecillia Vilca Ocharan — Peruvian transartist, feminist chola techno-witch, and language activist
Praba Pilar — diasporic Colombian interdisciplinary artist disrupting the overwhelmingly passive participation in the contemporary cult of the techno-logic
Nathalie Dubois — bioartist and plant science researcher based in Montreal, engaging in feminist acts of reconciliation with her non/human components
PUBLIC PROGRAM
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March 21, 1:00-3:00 pm William Doo Auditorium
45 Willcocks Street (entrance closer to Spadina)
SisterLab #1 Panel Discussion: Interdisciplinary and decolonial practices in art, science and technology
Cecilia Vilca Ocharan Transartist, Lima, Perú
Praba Pilar, Interdisciplinary Artist, US/Colombia
Nathalie Dubois-Calero, Bioartist and Plant Scientist, Montreal
March 27, 3:00-6:00 pm
The Fields Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Rm 230
222 College Street
Workshop #1 Visceral Data. A DIY/DIWO/DIT epigenetics workshop of Forensic Love project.
By Cecilia Vilca Ocharan
Description:
In this workshop, participants will extract their “visceral data,” that is, data as undervalued sensitive knowledge: history and personal (internal/external) territory, instinct, non-linear times, and the different scales we inhabit. Visceral data is the chronicle of our bodies and is the raw material of the bio-antidote (s) for romantic love. This is obtained from contrasting romantic love sayings with participants’ medical analysis.
March 28, 4:00-7:00 pm
William Doo Auditorium
45 Willcocks Street (entrance closer to Spadina)
Workshop #2 Mater Virus
Ontological Workshop-Game for Post-Pandemic Reconciliation
by Cecilia Vilca Ocharan and Nathalie Dubois-Calero
Description:
Mater Virus (Mother virus) is an ontological workshop-game where the public finds their more intimate specificities – baldness, communication ability, and disease susceptibilities – what makes us unique is being an inheritance from viruses at a different time in our history. Participants will not only learn about sequencing, SNPs, retroviruses, and evolution, but they will also “be ” viruses and be conscious that our body is also territory and identity. They will connect to the performativity of biology. The information is brought to bodies to generate reflection through play, acquiring knowledge, and scientific awareness.
Read More and Register here
April 1, 6:00-8:30 pm
The Fields Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Rm 230
222 College Street
Artist Talks and performances
Cecilia Vilca Ocharan
Praba Pilar
BacterHuman
A performance and talk by Nathalie Dubois Calero
This initiative has been possible thanks to the support of the Varsity Fund (UofT), n-D::StudioLab, Digital Media @York and Sensorium (YorkU) and is the product of the collaboration between NewONE, ArtSci Salon and the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, and York University’s Computational Arts. On Apr 2, the artists will travel to engage with two partner programs: the Department of Art and Coalesce Lab at the University at Buffalo and Nature Lab at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Cecilia Vilca Ocharan
Peruvian transartist, feminist chola techno-witch, and language activist. M.A. Digital Arts, UPF, BCN, Spain. Founding member of the creative and digital heritage division, MyAP Electron Microscopy Laboratory. From a decolonizing vision, she exercises her epistemological rebellion using technology as a tool and object of analysis. Her main goal and poetics are to encourage reflection through revelation. Her projects are born from her personal crusades, and therefore, they are micropolitical flesh. ISEA2020 Montreal and ISEA2023 Paris IPC Member. FEMeeting 2023 Taos and TTT2023 Malta Scientific & Artistic Committee member. Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR) Reviewer. Eight Art Residency Programs: Mexico, Bolivia, USA, and Canada. She has exhibited her work, organized exhibitions, and given lectures in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Chile, Norway, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Portugal,Austria, and the USA. Born, lives and dreams in/from Lima, Peru.
To learn more about Cecilia, visit ceciliavilca.com
Natalie Dubois-Calero
A fully self-accepted bacterhuman, bioartist (BFA, Concordia University, Montreal, CA MFA University of Windsor, CA), and scientist (Ph.D. in plant science, UPMC, Paris, FR) named Nathalie Dubois Calero, and her works are a feminist act of reconciliation with non (or too much?) human components. Microbes are the media she uses in workshops, performances, videos, and object-making.
Her recent project, BacterHuman, focuses on the cutaneous microbiota (all the microorganisms living on and inside the skin) and the multifaceted relationships individuals have with it. This work includes Microidentidad (residence, workshops and exhibition, ICA, Bacalar, Q.R., Mexico, 2020) Name: Nathalie Species: HomoBacter Insipiens (TTT Vienna, 2020 online), Queer and Biophilic Approach of the Cutaneous Microbiome (online workshop, ISEA, 2021), We are planets (hiflex workshop, HTLMlles festival, 2021), and Bodies of water about our microbiotal relationship with water (exhibition and video at Leamington Art Centre (LAC), Ontario, Canada, 2022) and Bacterhuman in son et lumiere (LAC, 2023, and TTT, Malta 2023). Natalie is collaborating with other artists: Cecilia Vilca (Mother Virus) and Ada Gogova (How to change wine in water?, residences at Cultivamos Cultura, Sao Luis, Portugal, 2022 and 2023), and a member of the Incubator Art Lab at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
To learn more about Nathalie, visit nathalieduboiscalero.com
Praba Pilar
A queer diasporic Colombian artist creating wildly interdisciplinary art projects that are critical of extraction-based approaches to technology. In search of better collective electric dreams, Prada is sharing approaches rooted in hemispheric resistance and resurgence by engaging the public through reflection, generosity, and criticality. Her work has been featured in museums, galleries, universities, festivals, and streets around the world. Pilar has a PhD in Performance Studies, Co-Directs the Bioarts Ethical Advisory Komission, teaches in Critical Studies at California College of the Arts.
To learn more about Praba, visit prabapilar.com