Arrival, sign-in, and informal networking.

Remarks by:

Dr. Suzie Currie, Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation (UBCO),

Dr. Megan Smith, SCI_ART Kelowna Program Director (UBCO)

Simon Pribac, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia

Monika Norkute, Delegation of the European Union to Canada

Hybrid presentation and Q&A,

Introduced and moderated by Monika Norkute (EU).

• Felix Lenz (Austria)

  Felix Lenz is a research-driven artist and filmmaker based in Vienna. Their practice explores how systems of image-making and knowledge production shape the very environments they seek to describe. Working through installations, films, and cross-disciplinary strategies, Lenz interweaves geopolitical, ecological, and technological analysis to reveal underlying power structures, question dominant narratives, and propose new modes of sensing and understanding.

  Their films and installations have been presented internationally at the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale, London Design Biennale, Istanbul Design Biennale, Ars Electronica Festival, Digital Art Festival Zurich, European Forum Alpbach, Hyundai Motor Studio Busan, Biennale Warszawa, and the Vienna Biennale, among others. Their work is also held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna. In 2024, Lenz received the Outstanding Artist Award from the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture, and in 2025 represented Austria at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition.

  Alongside their artistic practice, Lenz has been invited to lecture and lead workshops at institutions including the Royal College of Art (London), Design Academy Eindhoven, Humboldt University (Berlin), Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where they also completed their master’s degree.

Speakers: Borut Jerman, Fiona McDonald, Teresa Almeida, Astrida Neimanis
Moderator: Simon Pribac, Embassy of Slovenia
Audience Q&A.

• Borut Jerman (Slovenia)

  Borut Jerman is the president of the Association for Culture and Education PiNA, where his work focuses on the creative industries, participation, culture, art, and critical reflection. He is an experienced planner, coordinator, and leader of national and international projects spanning art, culture, active citizenship, and creative innovation.

  Jerman leads the HEKA Art & Science Laboratory and serves as producer of the new media art festival IZIS. In recent years, his work has centered on developing HEKA as a platform for dialogue and collaboration between society and science through art and artistic thinking. HEKA’s guiding principle is to bring empathy, curiosity, and compassion—qualities intrinsic to art—into scientific research methodologies.

  At the core of his practice is the recognition that technology, art, and the economy continuously shape both individuals and society, and that fostering exchange across disciplines is key to addressing today’s complex challenges.

• Fiona McDonald (Ireland)

  Fiona McDonald is a Dublin-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice bridges art, science, and technology. She holds a BSc in Biological Chemistry (University of Ulster), a BA and MA in Fine Art (NCAD), and an MSc in Multimedia Systems (Trinity College Dublin).

  She is currently an Artist in Residence at the RHA Gallery Studios and a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Project Award (2023). Previous residencies include AIR in Innovation and Technology at Talent Garden, DCU Alpha Campus (2020–21); An Urgent Enquiry Artist Residency (2019); and Art in Science Residency at UCD Parity Studios (2016). She has also held residencies at Fire Station Artists’ Studios (Digital Media Residency) and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios (Project Studio Award). From 2016 to 2019, she was a visiting research assistant with the Orthogonal Methods Group at CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for future communication networks.

  McDonald’s recent exhibitions include the solo show Transcoding – The Living Mountain (Talent Garden, DCU Alpha Campus); Woman in the Machine (VISUAL Carlow, 2021), where she received the ARTWORK Prize; In the Age of Conscious Makers (NCAD Gallery, 2020); Gateways (Roscommon Arts Centre, 2018, curated by Linda Shevlin); In Case of Emergency (Science Gallery Dublin, 2017–18); Light Lines (Mermaid Arts Centre, 2017); Quantum Leap (Foundation15, 2015); and U-turn (The Library Project, 2015).

• Teresa Almeida (Portugal)

  Teresa Almeida is an artist and researcher whose practice bridges art, science, and technology. Her work explores the creative and material possibilities of glass, with a particular focus on luminescent glass and enamels developed during her doctoral and postdoctoral research. She is equally engaged with ecological art, the intersections of craft and technology, and collaborative projects between artists and scientists.

  Almeida holds a Master’s in Glass from the University of Sunderland, UK, and postgraduate certificates in Glass and Architecture and Glass and Fine Art from Central Saint Martin’s College, London. She earned her BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Porto, where she has taught since 2009. Currently, she coordinates the technical area for glass, ceramics, and mosaic, and serves on both the Scientific Committee of the Master’s in Fine Arts and the Department Council of Fine Arts.

  She is an active member of the VICARTE Research Unit “Glass and Ceramics for the Arts,” where she previously served as artistic coordinator of the Contemporary Creativity and Materials group (2014–2019) and on the board of directors (2013–2018). She is also affiliated with i2ADS – Research Institute in Art, Design and Society at the University of Porto.

  Almeida has received international recognition, including the Prémio Femina (2013), an Honorable Mention at the Jutta Cuny Franz Memorial Award, Düsseldorf (2009), and multiple national awards. Her work has been presented in exhibitions and conferences across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, and is represented in both public and private collections.

  Her professional development has been supported by scholarships and grants from the Pilchuck Glass School, the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Luso-American Foundation, and the Portuguese National Science Foundation.

• Astrida Neimanis (Canada)

  Dr. Astrida Neimanis is a cultural theorist working at the intersection of feminism and environmental change. Her research focuses on bodies, water, and weather as critical sites for rethinking justice, care, and responsibility in the time of climate crisis. She is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at UBC Okanagan, located on the unceded lands of the syilx Okanagan people.

  How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change, co-authored with Jennifer Hamilton with illustrations by Tessa Zettel, is forthcoming in 2026. Her book, Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (2017), calls for humans to reconsider their relationships to oceans, watersheds, and aquatic life forms through the perspective of our own watery bodies. Beyond writing, her practice includes collaborations with artists, scientists, writers, and communities through experimental public pedagogies. Her work engages feminist epistemologies, multispecies justice, intersectionality, and ecological imaginaries.

Speakers: WhiteFeather Hunter, Ruby Singh, Swamp_Matter (Eva Garibaldi & Ana Laura Richter)
Moderator: Dr. Emily Murphy
Audience Q&A.

• WhiteFeather Hunter (Canada)

  Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter is an internationally recognized Canadian artist and researcher working at the intersections of feminist theory, biotechnology, and performance. She holds a PhD in Biological Art from SymbioticA, University of Western Australia, and an MFA in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. She is currently a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts & Technology in the critical media arts studio.

  Her doctoral thesis, The Witch in the Lab Coat, reimagined tissue engineering through the use of taboo materials such as menstrual fluid, incorporating witchcraft as a feminist resistance to medicalized control over women’s bodies. Her recent project, Sentient Clit—The Pussification of Biotech, a speculative 3D-bioprinting work embedding menstrual stem cells, was nominated for the Ars Electronica S+T+ARTS Prize (2024). Hunter exhibits internationally in venues across the UK, Europe, North America, and beyond, and collaborates with leading biolabs such as the Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and the DZNE German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Her research-creation is widely published, and she is a frequent keynote speaker at international festivals, conferences, and residencies.

• Ruby Singh (Canada) is a multi-award-winning performer, composer, and producer residing on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ / Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, BC). His practice spans music, poetry, photography, and film, engaging with myth, memory, justice, and fantasy. Drawing inspiration from both natural and cosmic soundscapes, Singh merges traditional and emergent sonic practices to create works celebrated across theatre, film, and dance. In recent years, Singh has received the Lieutenant Governor’s Jubilee Award for Excellence in Art and Music (2022), a Juno Award nomination (2023), the Western Canadian Music Award for Global Music Artist of the Year (2023), and BC Touring Council’s Artist of the Year (2023). His projects include the immersive Polyphonic Garden, the Sufi hip hop album Jhalaak recorded in Rajasthan, the acclaimed a cappella project Vox.infold, the interactive solo live-looping project RupLoops, and the hip hop ensemble The Future Ancestors. Singh believes in art’s ability to reimagine futures, to repurpose aesthetic freedoms toward civil and environmental justice.

• Swamp_Matter (Netherlands/Slovenia)

  Swamp_Matter is the collaborative duo of Eva Garibaldi and Ana Laura Richter, whose work investigates ecological issues and the impact of the Anthropocene on ecosystems. Their practice examines the relationship between humans and nature across geological time, focusing on marginal and economically “unproductive” landscapes such as swamps and caves. They create immersive spatial installations that integrate digital media and speculative fiction.

  Eva Garibaldi, born in 1996 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is an artist, designer, and researcher. She holds a Master’s in Interior Architecture: Research + Design (Cum Laude, 2021) from the Piet Zwart Institute (Netherlands) and a BA in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design Ljubljana (2018).

  Ana Laura Richter, born in 1996 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is an artist and dramaturg. She earned her MA in Ecology Futures (2022) at St. Joost School of Art & Design (Netherlands) and a BA in Dramaturgy from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television (2019).
  
  Emily Murphy (Canada): I am currently Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. I completed my PhD in English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in 2017. Since then, I have held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Linked Modernisms Project at the University of Victoria and a jointly sponsored Mellon Foundation and Harry Ransom Centre Research Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin.

Speakers: Przemysław Jasielski, John Desnoyers-Stewart, Gao Yujie
Moderator: Dr. Megan Smith
Interactive discussion and Q&A.

• Przemysław Jasielski (Poland) is an artist, researcher, and professor whose work explores the dynamic intersections of art, science, and technology. With backgrounds in both sculpture and drawing, his practice spans installations, interactive machines, objects, and conceptual drawings that often challenge conventional perspectives on technological progress, artificial life, and human–machine relations. Jasielski is best known for projects that combine rigorous scientific research and precise engineering with critical humour and irony. His series of “Control Units” — such as the Earth Rotation Speed Control Unit, Global Warming Control Unit, and Emotions Control Unit — exemplify his approach of proposing speculative, large-scale interventions that provoke reflection on the possibilities and limitations of science and technology. His works frequently raise questions about isolation, artificiality, post-humanism, and the aesthetics of scientific experimentation, blurring the boundary between laboratory prototype and artistic gesture. Over the course of his career, Jasielski has exhibited extensively in Poland and abroad. His solo presentations have taken place in Montreal, Seoul, Tokyo, Prague, Cleveland, and Warsaw, among other cities, and his works have been featured in international group exhibitions engaging with media art, contemporary science, and speculative design. In addition to his exhibitions, he regularly participates in research residencies, workshops, and interdisciplinary projects that connect artists, engineers, and scientists. Beyond his artistic practice, Jasielski is engaged in academic and research contexts, contributing to dialogue at the intersection of visual arts, new technologies, and critical theory. His dual role as both an artist and educator reflects his commitment to fostering cross-disciplinary inquiry and encouraging critical engagement with the technological landscapes that shape contemporary life. Jasielski’s work invites audiences to reconsider not only the function of machines and scientific systems, but also the human desire to control, predict, and reshape the world through technology.

• Dr. John Desnoyers-Stewart (Canada) is an interdisciplinary artist/researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Critical Future Studio/Lab. He integrates artistic practice with engineering knowledge to create innovative artworks to connect people and evoke new perspectives on our shared physical reality. He has exhibited his multi-user mixed reality installations, Star-Stuff, Eve 3.0, and more in over 80 exhibitions at art galleries and festivals around the world. Through his art and research, he explores positive social applications of mixed reality, investigating its potential to connect us more deeply to ourselves, each other, and our surrounding physical reality.

• Dr. Gao Yujie (Canada/China) is a media artist, performer, and researcher whose work explores time as an artistic material through generative systems, site-specific performances, and interactive installations. Her research investigates how computational and performative practices shape our taken-for-granted perceptions of time across physical, digital, and intercultural contexts.

  She holds a PhD in Digital Arts and Humanities from the University of British Columbia and teaches Creative and Media Studies, where she fosters research-creation through experimental, process-based art making. Her work has been presented internationally, recognized with an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica (2022) and a Lumen Prize longlisting (2017).

• Dr. Megan Smith (Canada/UK) is a new media artist, designer, and UBC 2022 Killam Laureate. Her practice-based research probes systems for delivering syndicated data through narrative structure. She works with scientific data, AI, and virtual and augmented reality, geo-location, live-feed installation, and performance as storytelling methods. She has shown artwork internationally for over two decades.

  She co-created All the Stars We Cannot See (2020–2024) with Dr. Gao, an immersive installation of a virtual sky activated by 29,000+ satellites orbiting Earth. It won an Ars Electronica Honorary Mention in 2022, was funded by the Killam Trusts, and has shown at Kelowna Art Gallery, York University, and venues in the USA, UK, and Pakistan.

  Smith holds a PhD in Contemporary Art & Graphic Design from Leeds Beckett University. She has taught at Leeds College of Art, University of Ottawa, University of Regina, and joined UBC in July 2020.

End-of-day remarks and invitation to future SCI_ART events.

Presented by: Ars Electronica and the Austrian Embassy Ottawa

This is a free event.

Address: ADM 026, FCCS Theatre, Campus Administration Building, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7

The 2024 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation.

Like every year, Ars Electronica Animation Festival On Tour showcases recent artistic trends in the field of digital animation. The selection, compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2024 in its recently renewed category New Animation Art demonstrates the transformations and dynamics occurring within the field of animation. Even more strongly than previous years, one could observe the tendency of many creators to utilize specific tools (such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, DALL-E, Sora, Runway, or ChatGPT) in a self-reflexive manner enabling critical commentary on the socio-technical nature of these systems and their impact on our society. Moreover, we noticed that a remarkable one-third of the submissions were projects created using AI tools or centered around AI as a theme—the highest number to date.

From the nearly 900 submissions, around 45 projects were selected and showcased at Ars Electronica Animation Festival in September 2024. More than a half of them have been included in the On Tour program, and available now as four outstanding compilations: Best-Of Prix Ars Electronica, Austrian Animation, Young Animations, Science and Data Visualizations.

https://youtu.be/eUGU63-gtIM

The Ars Electronica ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2024 is curated by Juergen Hagler (University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus) and Daniela Duca De Tey (Ars Electronica).

The Ars Electronica ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2024 ON TOUR was produced with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.

This SCI_ART event is presented by the Austrian Embassy Ottawa and Ars Electronica.