These audio works are “field recordings” produced by students in the Sound for Artists course taught by Professor Marc Couroux in the Department of Visual Arts. Students are given free rein to either capture the sound of an existing space or to conjure one, by editing or “preparing” the environment to create a sound documentary or fiction.

Listen to an Audio Out compilation culled from sound works by (in heard sequence) Marcelino Da Costa, Evelyn Hall, Ana Cristina Cornejo, Jennifer MacDonald, Miles Forrester and Brock Wreford:

“Sound as an art medium is growing exponentially,” said Couroux. “Exposing visual arts students to its possibilities and putting recording equipment into their hands is adding York’s voice to an important international art dialogue.”

While the projects show a great deal of diversity, they all had the same starting point. Couroux asked the class a number of questions – How wide is the field? Where is the frame? – and suggested some possibilities and considerations,  such as  allowing or activating the environment do the work,  creating folds and dips in time, background noise and the artifacts of capture.

As important as the creative process is, the artists also want their works to be heard. In addition to AGYU’s Audio Out broadcast, several sound interventions were presented in the Fine Arts complex on York’s Keele campus this season, including audio installations at the Visual Arts Open House exhibition Psychopomp in March and a dedicated show in the Special Project Gallery last December that made some serious waves in the Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts.

“People are still talking about that show,” said Couroux.  “You could hear it throughout most of the building, including in the painting and drawing studios. Sound art poses a bit of a challenge to visual media. It’s inherently temporal, and how the experience of the work unfolds over time becomes part of how you relate to the work. Sound is also very immersive. It’s harder to avoid than many other types of visual art.

“If we’re causing a disruption, I think it’s a positive one.”

Robert Haché, York University’s vice-president research & innovation, and Barbara Sellers-Young, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, are co-hosting the event, which takes place from 2 to 4 pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building at York’s Keele campus.

The program features a live dance performance, film clips, and four presentations reflecting the depth and breadth of academic and applied creative work being done by Fine Arts faculty and graduate student researchers.

Image of artist Wanda Koop from Visual Arts Professor Katherine Knight's documentary film "KOOP"

“This research celebration highlights multi-disciplinarity in the Faculty of Fine Arts, from dance to music to digital media and beyond,” said Haché. “We invite the York research community to join us to learn more about the exceptional research activities taking place in this Faculty.”

“The arts are so much more than entertainment,” said Sellers-Young. “Arts and culture are at the heart of our day-to-day lives, and those who are engaged in the arts – as practising artists, theorists, historians, critics and many other ways – play an important role in shaping civic society and addressing the critical issues of our day. The presentations at the Fine Arts Research Celebration illustrate this engagement and the diverse contributions our researchers are making.”

Visitors to the Fine Arts Research Celebration will be greeted by clips of Visual Arts Professor Katherine Knight‘s vivid feature documentary, KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop. Knight’s film follows the renowned Canadian artist as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar, yet disquieting, landscapes for two 30-year retrospectives: one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa.

Drawing the viewer into the framework in which the artist works, the film explores the science of vision, colour and perception – including Koop’s visit to York’s Centre for Vision Research to have her vision tested in the 3D Vision Research lab (see story).

Design Professor Sandra Gabriele investigates the application of typographic variations in lettering to help distinguish similar medication names

Design Professor Sandra Gabriele will present a talk titled “Evaluating graphic design for patient safety: An investigation of the use of typographic principles to differentiate look-alike medication names”.

She was the principal investigator on a recent study conducted at Toronto’s University Health Network, investigating how the principles and practices of graphic design and typography might be used for interventions intended to help healthcare professionals make accurate medication selections.

 “We know that look-alike, or orthographically similar, medication names are one of the causes of medication errors,” said Gabriele. “Tallman lettering (enhancement of words by changing parts of the word to capital letters) is currently recommended to help differentiate similar names.”

In her new study, she tested tallman lettering applied to look-alike medication names alongside other ways of enhancing names using three different scenarios. “Results indicated that tallman lettering might not be as effective as previously reported,” she said. “The research also revealed the importance of designing and testing interventions for specific users in contexts that reflect actual situations and activities in practice.”

Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair of Jazz Performance

In his lecture-demonstration “Music is Math: An effective approach to teaching jazz improvisation within general music education,” Professor Ron Westray, York’s Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance, explores how the mathematical qualities inherent in western music can be used as a tool for ear training through music improv.

“You can view the chord-to-scale relationship in jazz improvisation as virtual data that can be transposed throughout relative and absolute functions, much like basic math,” said Westray. “Translating music into math helps demystify simple improvisation. It levels the playing field and makes it easier for non-specialists to teach jazz improv.”

Westray, an internationally known jazz trombonist, will illustrate the concept by means of a Powerpoint presentation punctuated with live performance examples, including the participation jazz majors from the Department of Music.

Digital Media Professor Mark-David Hosale will discuss “Nonlinear Narrative as a Conceptual Framework for Media Art”, with an overview of the core technical and aesthetic motivations unpinning his work as a media artist.

Digital Media Professor Mark-David Hosale explores non-linear narrative as a framework for media art

“The approach to addressing narrative issues in my work is derived from thinking of narrative as a model of knowledge,” he said. “I see the stories we tell each other and ourselves as an expression of what we know. From this perspective, my works can be understood as knowledge spaces that are a conceptual reflection of a modern understanding of knowledge and nature, which is inherently nonlinear.”

The challenge of capturing the qualities of nonlinear narratives has led Hosale to develop an abstract model useful in the conceptual analysis and practical development of his work. In his presentation, he will explain how the model is based on a composite of operations, structures and characteristics that provide the governing principles behind a software framework and hardware platform.

Canadian dance history is the focus of the presentation by dance Professors Darcey Callison and Carol Anderson and Professor Emerita Selma Odom. They will read excerpts from their contributions to Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s, an anthology accompanying an exhibition of the same name organized by Dance Collection Danse in partnership with the Theatre Museum of Canada.

During the 1970s dance boom, audiences worldwide flocked to performances. Artists were energized and innovative. In Canada, dance finally found an intellectual home in universities across the country. The decade was also defined in Canada by political, social and cultural debate inspired by second-wave feminism, gay rights, multiculturalism, separatism and nationalism.

How was this turbulent decade reflected in dance? How did the major issues and ideas of the day inspire or influence dancers and choreographers, and how did they respond? Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s explores how the art form contributed to, and was informed by, this vibrant zeitgeist.

Graduate student researcher Nancy Latszewski

Moving from the page to the stage, dance MFA candidate Nancy Latoszewski will perform a five-minute excerpt from her solo dance, Carriage. The work revisits the challenge the artist faced in transitioning from the life of a prima ballerina to motherhood. While intensely personal, the work also speaks to the wider experience of undergoing a tremendous life change. Through her choreographic and performance research, with works such as Carriage, Latoszewski investigates how danced narratives can communicate personal stories and contribute to current interests in oral history and storytelling.

In addition to the public presentations, there will be a display of books and materials in other publication formats authored by Fine Arts faculty.

Faculty, students and staff from across the University are cordially invited to attend the Fine Arts Research Celebration. Light refreshments will be provided.  Admission is free, but RSVP is requested. To confirm your attendance, please respond online or call Lia Novario at ext. 33782.

The community will have the opportunity to engage with other research projects by Fine Arts faculty on Fine Arts Research Day in Vari Hall on Wednesday, February 29 from 10am to 2pm, as part of York University’s Research Month.

“We already have a well-established program of international participation, but we’re always looking to expand our outreach and involvement,” said Dr. Barbara Sellers-Young, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, who is leading the delegation.

Studio and theory courses with a South Asian focus are a standard part of the curriculum in York’s Departments of Dance, Film, Music and Visual Arts. Special projects in recent years include Theatre @ York’s premiere of a modern adaptation of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala written and directed by then graduate student Charles Roy, who took the play on to its first Canadian professional production and to the Cultural Olympics at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The Faculty of Fine Arts has several times hosted DanceIntense Canada in partnership with Sampradaya Dance Creations, headed by alumna Lata Pada, a recipient of the Order of Canada and India’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.

A number of distinguished artist-scholars of Indian heritage hold professorships in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts. They include internationally-acclaimed master percussionist Trichy Sankaran, who co-founded York’s groundbreaking South Indian music studies program 40 years ago; jazz musician, composer, recording and touring artist Sundar Viswanathan; award-winning documentary filmmaker Ali Kazimi, and adjunct professor, choreographer and dancer Menaka Thakkar, who is credited with bringing classical Indian dance into the cultural mainstream in Canada.

Underpinning these artistic and academic connections are both longstanding and recent linkages between York University and educational institutions in India.

York has agreements in place with the University of Madras and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and the team from the Faculty of Fine Arts will be visiting both institutions to explore opportunities to build on these relationships. York’s Schulich School of Business maintains a Satellite Centre partnered with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad, IIM Bangalore and the Indian School of Business. It also runs the Schulich MBA in India program in partnership with the Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, and is opening its own campus in Hyderabad in 2013. The renowned A.J.K. Mass Communications Research Centre at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University was originally set up in collaboration with York, and Film professors from the Faculty of Fine Arts were among the first generation of teachers there.

This solid foundation of existing connections makes India a natural choice for a concerted exploratory visit by York’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

“Our main objective is to promote research collaboration and expand student learning opportunities, with a focus on exchange opportunities for international scholars and students to mutually enhance the academic and research culture in each organization,” said Dr. Sellers-Young.

She is joined on the trip by Dr. Sheila Embleton, Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, a lead architect of York University’s India Strategy who has served as York’s representative at the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute for the past decade; Design Professor Michael Longford, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Fine Arts; Film Professor Ali Kazimi; and Ina Agastra, International Relations and Development Officer in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Full itinerary and delegate bios below.

York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts is one of North America’s premier training and research institutions for the visual and performing arts. One of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind in Canada, it brings together more than 3,400 undergraduate and graduate students and 250 full-time and part-time faculty working at the leading edge of fine arts practice and scholarship. The Faculty of Fine Arts offers in-depth academic studies and hands-on professional training in all the fine arts: dance, design, digital media, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Degree programs include the BA, BFA, BDes, MA, MFA, MDes and PhD, plus graduate diplomas and joint MA/MBA programs with York’s Graduate Program in Arts and Media Administration. All of these programs are informed by the Faculty’s strong commitment to the inclusion of global cultures, collaborative and interdisciplinary work, and intercultural research.

______________________________________

York U Faculty of Fine Arts Delegation in India
Itinerary January 1-18, 2012

CHENNAI: January 1-5

Sunday, January 1
Music Academy, Madras- Karnatic music training academy, where the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi title and award will be bestowed upon York University Music Professor Trichy Sankaran at the annual graduation ceremony

Monday, January 2
Brhaddhvani- research and training centre for musics of the world
Kalakshetra– centre for training and performancein dance, music, visual arts, crafts, textile design, aesthetics, history and philosophy

Tuesday, January 3
University of Madras - Centre for International Relations

Wednesday, January 4
DakshinaChitra centre for local arts, crafts and architecture
Nrithyodaya school of music and dance

BANGALORE: January 6-7

Friday, January 6
National Institute of Design – R&D Campus
National Institute of Creative Communication India

NEW DELHI: January 8-14

Monday, January 9
Jawaharlal Nehru UniversitySchool of Arts and Aesthetics
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute – bi-national organization that promotes understanding between India and Canada through academic activities and exchanges

Tuesday, January 10
High Commission of Canada to India

Wednesday, January 11
Jamia Millia Islamia Faculty of Fine Arts and A.J.K. Mass Communications Research Centre

Thursday, January 12
Indian Council for Cultural Relations
National School of Drama

Friday, January 13
Sanskriti Foundation- dedicated to preserving traditional Indian arts and culture

MUMBAI: January 15–18

Monday, January 16
Whistling Woods International – acting, filmmaking, animation and business school
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Ltd. – creating India’s first augmented reality project

Tuesday, January 17
Tata Institute for Social Sciences
Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art

______________________________________

York U Faculty of Fine Arts Delegation in India

Dr. Barbara Sellers-Young, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

Barbara Sellers-Young has a BS in Sociology, MS in Dance and a PhD in Theatre from the University of Oregon. She is currently Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University.  Previously she was a Professor at University of California, Davis, where she served as Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance and Executive Director of the Robert and Margit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. She has also taught at universities in England, China, and Australia.  Her research projects on the intersections of performance, body and globalization have taken place in Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Nepal, China, England, and Australia. Her articles can be found in The Journal of Popular Culture, Theatre Topics, Asian Theatre Journal, Dance Research Journal and elsewhere. She is the author of three books: Teaching Personality with Gracefulness, Breathing, Movement, Exploration and an edited volume titled Bellydance: Orientalism, Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy.

Dr. Sellers-Young’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada), American Council of Learned Societies and the Centre for Cultural Research into Risk, Charles Sturt University, (Australia), as well as numerous grants, including a Davis Humanities Fellowship and a Pacific Rim Planning Grant. She served for two years as convener of the International Federation of Theatre Research Working Group: Theory and Practice of Performing and from 2007 to 2010 as president of the Congress on Research in Dance. She is the recipient of the 2011 Dixie Durr Award for Outstanding Service to Dance Research and the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Music and Dance at the University of Oregon.

Dr. Sheila Embleton, Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, York University

Dr. Embleton has been involved in many aspects of academic relations between Canada and India, and frequently lectures, writes for the media, and leads panels on the rapidly evolving higher education scene in India. She has represented York University at the Shastri Indo- Canadian Institute since 2001, and was Shastri’s Vice-President and then President from 2008 to 2010, during which time she led a strategic planning process. She led York University’s India Strategy from 2005 to 2009 and was closely involved in the preparation, negotiation and approvals for the establishment of York University’s Schulich School of Business MBA program in India. As Chair of OCAV, she conceived, established and secured government funding for the Ontario-Maharashtra-Goa exchange program. She has travelled and lectured widely in India, visiting dozens of universities, institutes and government ministries. She was involved in advising and planning for the academic portions of the visits to India by Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper (2009), Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (2007 and 2009), Québec Premier Jean Charest (2010) and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark (2011). She is a member of the Focus India Group of the Government of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and was a member of the Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Joint Study Group Advisory Committee. She currently serves as President of the Canada India Education Council and Chair of CIEC’s Academic Relations Committee.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor Embleton has served as Vice-President Academic and Provost at York University (2000-2009) and prior to that as Associate Dean of York’s Faculty of Arts. She also served as Chair of the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents (2004-2008) and of the National Vice-Presidents Academic Council (2006-2007). Her academic background and graduate work are in both mathematics (BSc, MSc , University of Toronto) and linguistics (PhD, University of Toronto). Her areas of scholarly interest include historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, mathematical/statistical methods in linguistics, onomastics, semiotics, and women and language, and she has published extensively in all of these areas.

Michael Longford, Associate Professor, Department of Design and Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

Professor Longford holds undergraduate degrees in photography (Ryerson University) and sculpture (York University) and an MFA from Rugers University. He is also an alumnus of the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. His teaching areas are interface design, digital media and visual culture. His creative work and research activities reside at the intersection of photography, graphic design, digital media and mobile communication technologies. He recently completed a three-year project as the co-principal investigator for the Mobile Digital Commons Network (MDCN), a Canadian research network developing technology and media-rich content for mobile devices. He was a founding member of Hexagram: Institute for Research and Creation in Media Arts and Technologies in Montreal, and served for three years as director for the Advanced Digital Imaging and 3D Rapid Prototyping Group. Currently, he co-directs the Mobile Media Lab located at York and Concordia University and is an editor for the Visual Communication Journal.

Professor Longford is a lead organizer of the Faculty of Fine Arts’ Sensorium Institute for Digital Arts and Technology, an ambitious new initiative to foster a broad spectrum of research-intensive, interdisciplinary and collaborative projects focusing on both digital  technologies and human factors, emphasizing immersion, connectivity, mobility and networked media cultures. Slated to launch in 2012, Sensorium will encompass researchers from across York University as well as academic partnerships with a dozen other universities plus a wide range of industry partners.

Ali Kazimi, Associate Professor, Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

Born and raised in India, Ali Kazimi holds a BSc degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and a BFA in Film from York University. He is a documentary filmmaker whose research interests include race, migration, indigeneity, history and memory. His productions have been shown at festivals around the world, winning more than 30 national and international awards and a host of nominations. His prize-winning films include Narmada: A Valley Rises (International Critics’ Award, Mumbai International Film Festival), Passage from India (Best Television Series, Houston World Filmfest),  Continuous Journey, on the 1914 Komagata Maru incident (Golden Conch, Mumbai International Film Festival; Best Documentary Feature, San Francisco International Asian American Filmfest; Ram Bahadur Trophy,  Best of Fest, Kathmandu), Runaway Grooms (Gemini – Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary) and Rex versus Singh (Best Canadian Film, Reel Asian International Filmfest, Toronto). His credits as cinematographer include Bollywood Bound and the Genie Award-winning A Song for Tibet.  He has been honoured with retrospectives at the Toronto’s Images Festival of Independent Film & Video (1998), Pacific Film Archives/Berkeley Art Museum (2006), Mumbai International Film Festival (2008) and ViBGYOR International Documentary Film Festival in Thrissur, India (2009).

Professor Kazimi is a collaborative researcher in the interdisciplinary Future Cinema Lab in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts and lead filmmaker with the York-based 3D Film Innovation Consortium (3D FLIC), an innovative academic/industry initiative that bridges research in stereoscopic perception and the development of stereoscopic 3D film language and production to build S3D production capacity.

Ina Agastra, International Relations and Development Officer, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

Ina Agastra oversees activities related to the advancement of the international scope and reputation of York’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Her portfolio includes cultivating mechanisms to enhance students’ international experience and expand opportunities for students to study abroad. She also works with the Faculty’s international alumni to foster alumni communities in various regions and engage graduates with current students. Prior to this role at York, she worked in the non-profit sector where she coordinated international development projects, assisting women in developing countries through micro-credit lending initiatives. She holds an Honours BA in International Studies from Glendon College, York University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Policy, Administration and Law.

The second-year undergrad who gets by on student loans has cobbled together just enough money for a return flight to Los Angeles and two nights in a hotel for the  chance to rub shoulders with legends at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards – and perhaps bring home a prize or two.

At 21, Garcia is the youngest nominee this year for the “Oscars” in music composition for film, TV shows and video games. His fan-made piece, The Battle of Hogwarts, is nominated for a music genre award in the classical/orchestral category (chances are 15 to 1). And his Dream:scape soundtrack is up against  two other pieces for best  original song/score for a mobile video game.

Not bad for someone who started playing clarinet, sax and piano in high school, never had a private lesson and learned everything he knows about composing film scores from Music Composition for Dummies, which remains his bible today.

Music began as an escape for Garcia. Born in Canada, he spent his childhood in Argentina. He grew up listening to tango and salsa, and remembers Sunday barbecues when his grandfather, Rodolfo, who sacrificed a musical career to support his siblings, would strum his guitar and sing folk songs and original ballads. (See the documentary, Isaias & Rodolfo, part one and part two, about their recent reunion.)

At 11, Garcia convinced his mother to send him back to Canada to live with his older sister.  He spent hours watching movies with subtitles to master English. That’s when he began to notice soundtracks. In Grade 8, he picked up the clarinet, in Grade 9 the sax, and in Grade 10, he says,  “I started a love affair with the piano.” His music teacher, Andrew Rozbicki, became a mentor and gave Garcia access to the school music room after hours. “I would practise until 11 at night. It was my musical playground. I was the only one left in the school with the janitors.” For a lonely kid from Argentina, “music became a place where I could forget about everything else.” Rozbicki, impressed with Garcia’s flair for learning instruments, invited his student to play percussion in his professional Celebrity Orchestra.

That connection would be a boon for the boy who would go on to not only play, but also write music.

While he explored Chopin on the piano, Garcia discovered the work of John Williams, who composed the scores for Star Wars, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the first three Harry Potter movies, and Alexandre Desplat,  composer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Isaias Garcia in concert. Photo by Kimal Lloyd-Phillip  

“I remember the exact day when I said to myself: ‘I want to be a composer,’” says Garcia. He had watched two movies – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – rushed out, bought both soundtracks, put them on his iPod and listened to them over and over. “I said to myself, I want to create really epic music for films. I want to tell a story through music that is so vivid you can imagine the visuals. I want to paint musical pictures.”

He bought Music Composition for Dummies and software that transposes the melodies he fashions on an electronic keyboard for each instrument. When Rozbicki’s Celebrity Orchestra performed his orchestral tribute to the Polish president who died in a 2010 plane crash, “it was the biggest day of my life,” says Garcia. He also got some invaluable advice from the musicians on human and instrumental capabilities.

Meanwhile, the budding composer was trying his hand at film scores. He has set 19 major scenes in the Harry Potter series to music, including his lush, evocative nine-minute Battle of Hogwarts.  He wrote it in a month and posted it on YouTube before the movie came out, keen to compare his soundtrack to the real one. His fan-made soundtrack has had more than a million hits, been mistaken for the real soundtrack, brought him 2,000 subscribers from all over the world and led to a contract. G. Norman Lippert hired Garcia to compose the music for his fan-fiction series, James Potter, based on Harry’s children, and the score for his video game Dream:scape.

At York, Garcia is collaborating with friends on a 15-minute piece that serves as the score for an original choreographic work premiering later this month at Dance Innovations, the Dance Department’s annual student showcase. He’s also scoring a film made by students in California who discovered his work on YouTube. And he expects to compose a score for the next Dream:scape video game.

His Hollywood Music in Media award nominations came as a happy surprise.  “I wasn’t expecting to be nominated for anything,” Garcia says. Winner or not, he can hardly wait for the industry mixer, an opportunity to mingle with veteran film composers and learn what it takes to succeed.

“Facebook is the new business card and YouTube is the new resume,” he says. He’ll be handing out cards with both addresses in Hollywood. “At this point in my career, I’m more interested in developing connections than making big money. Because the money will come.”

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer

Bugzzz aims to challenge the notion of progress, particularly our uncritical obsession with technology. The project proceeds as if human civilization has self-destructed because of our over-consumption of resources. Only insects remain, and it is they who take an archaeological look at the value of civilization through art — specifically through Giacomo Puccini’s opera, Tosca.

Mackwood and Dobie co-founded Out of The Box Productions to present drama, dance and opera in novel, multidisciplinary projects. Their productions use music and movement to provide an emotional and spiritual experience expressive of the human condition. The shows are usually performed in one-of-a-kind venues, such as nightclubs and other ‘found’ spaces. This more intimate experience, which Mackwood and Dobie refer to as “lounge opera”, encourages audiences to sit on carpets, pillows, chairs or couches, often in unconventional configurations. Their unique aesthetic is attracting new and diverse audiences.

Although Out of The Box productions are always interdisciplinary, the freedom of performance fusion can be problematic. Mackwood, who teaches production and design in the Department of Dance,  admits that funding is a constant issue. Multidisciplinary work often does not fit into any one category of performing art.

“Committees have a hard time classifying us, hence our name,” quips Mackwood. “But having said that, both the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council have granted much appreciated development funding for Bugzzz.”

On the other hand, artistic tension is the kind of conflict Mackwood welcomes. People bring different artistic visions to the table, he says, and that creates a healthy tension in which everyone has a voice – evidence of a creative team hard at work.

Bugzzz will be an exciting musical, movement and design challenge.

Professor Gwen Dobie

As co-creator, Dobie, a movement professor in the Department of Theatre, is serving as dramaturg and will co-produce, direct and choreograph the production. She will interpret how different insects move, implementing core proprioceptive training (CPT). CPT develops one’s awareness of direction, orientation in space, and the extent and rate of limb movement based on information relayed from sensory receptors in the joints, tendons and muscles.

The staging for Bugzzz is also contemporary in its rejection of Brecht’s principle of de-familiarization (or Verfremdungseffekt) in favour of recent mirror neuron theories that emphasize the human capacity for emotionally empathetic response.

Danish performance artist Thomas Sandberg is on board as the composer for Bugzzz. One of his creative challenges is to imagine an insect interpretation of the original Tosca score. He must compose the piece using found objects, imagining what bugs might use for musical instruments.

Mackwood will write, co-produce and create the lighting design for the show. By working with the approach of sustainable “design on demand”, which involves all members of the production in the creative process, Mackwood is able to explore choices in colour, texture and imagery instantly, on the spot. This approach to lighting design allows for more flexibility and efficient collaboration between directors, choreographers and designers, while also being ecologically friendly.

Mackwood’s interest in “green” or sustainable theatre practice was sparked by his faculty colleague, York Theatre Professor James McKernan, with whom he worked on Out of the Box Productions’ Sound in Silence (story). Noting the lack of money allocated to sets in dance, Mackwood recognized a desire in the industry for materials that could be recycled, such as lights, projections and soft goods. Green initiatives, however, need to produce superior quality results if they are to offer an alternative to current production practices.

Professor William MackwoodTo this end, Mackwood experimented with LED lights with great success during the 2010 remount of Opera Erotique (story). LEDs use one-third of the power and produce less heat than conventional lights, providing savings on electricity and air conditioning, while making it more comfortable for the performers. The LED lights are also almost always built with red, green and blue optics for full colour mixing.

Fine Arts Professor Don Sinclair joins the Bugzzz team as the sound and interactive projections designer. He will map performers’ bodies on stage using 3-D motion capture technology to create a mesh outline. From the 3-D model, Sinclair can manipulate exact projections of colour, image and light onto performers’ bodies, permitting them to be illuminated without background spill.

The software developed by Sinclair will advance the field of interactive technology in theatre performance. Undergraduate and graduate students in York’s dance and theatre programs will have access to the technology in a new course, The Interactive Stage: Developing Digital Design Tools for Live Performances.

A.C. Lighting Inc. and its managing director J.F. Canuel are partnering  once again with Mackwood as industry partners for Bugzzz. The company previously worked on the LED remounting of Opera Erotique, providing  support with equipment, technicians and Canuel’s participation in a roundtable discussion on opening night.  A.C. Lighting’s renewed collaboration on Bugzzz will provide Mackwood with a team of engineers and researchers to assist in the development of LED costumes and sets. In turn, the opportunity to observe artists’ design needs first-hand provides  A.C. Lighting with useful information for the continued evolution of LED technology.

Knowing the value of a good story, Mackwood will soon shift his attention away from the design components and towards script development for Bugzzz. The Faculty of Fine Arts has offered the use of studio space and a multimedia lab for rehearsals and creative development, for which Mackwood is grateful. “The staff and facilities are all world class,” he says.

Bugzzz will premiere  in Toronto in June 2012, with the possibility of a  performance in Vancouver and an international production in Copenhagen the following year.

Written by Faculty of Fine Arts research assistant Crystal Basaez and reprinted from the summer 2011 issue of the Faculty of Fine Arts Research Newsletter