OCT 6-8
Kelowna
OCT 2-5
Vancouver
Photo: Matjaz Tancic
After the Data/Cultural Climate Futures
SCI_ART 2026 convenes artists, scientists, and research institutions from Canada and the European Union for a transnational Artist-in-Residence program and festival taking place in Vancouver and Kelowna, British Columbia, October 1-8, 2026.
At its core, SCI_ART is a science-based art initiative that positions artistic practice as a form of research capable of engaging environmental transformation through critical inquiry, experimentation, and public activation. Grounded in a science-based approach to artistic practice, the program positions art as a mode of inquiry; one capable of translating complex environmental, technological, and social systems into forms that can be experienced, questioned, and collectively understood. Under the theme After the Data/Cultural Climate Futures, we will move beyond representation to engage climate systems, Northern research, and technological infrastructures through embodied, immersive, and critically situated methodologies.
programme at a glance
Vancouver OCT 2-5
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Anvil Centre/New Media Gallery
Studio 417 & Lab 311
777 Columbia St, New Westminster, BC11:00 am - 5:30 pm
This symposium features a series of artist talks and panel discussions that bring together diverse perspectives on emerging ideas and practices. Together, these conversations will consider new possibilities for the future of contemporary and media arts in our community.
11:00 am — SCI_ART 2026: Cultural Climate Futures [Studio 417]
1:00 pm — Ben Bogart: Artist Talk [Studio 417]
2:30 pm — Workshop: Interactive Miniatures [Art & Tech Lab 311]
4:30 pm — MOVE37XR: Indigenous Media & the Future [Studio 417]
Click here to visit the New Media Gallery Website for more details.
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H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, British ColumbiaDoors: 6:00 pm
Open Dome: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pmRegister Here on Luma: luma.com/yse6kld4
Come experience Vancouver’s first Open Dome jam session in the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre’s Star Theatre planetarium dome! Watch or participate in the jam with artists from across the European Union and Western Canada here as part of this year's SCI_ART programme.
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Multimodal Media Lab
375 Water Street Vancouver, British Columbia9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Register here on Luma: luma.com/g1pt6g0y
SCI_ART 2026's Vancouver Symposium brings together European and Canadian artists working across art, science, technology, and environmental research. Through three extended artist conversations, live demonstrations, and a closing international exchange, the day considers how artistic research can make complex environmental and technological systems perceptible, create spaces for imagining possible futures, and reshape how environmental transformation is culturally experienced.
Symposium Schedule
9:00 am — Arrival and Coffee
9:30 am — Intro and Welcome
9:45 am — Making the Invisible Sensible
11:15 am — Rehearsing Possible Worlds
12:45 pm — Lunch + Exchange
1:45 pm — Ecologies of Experience
3:15 pm — Demos + Performances
EU-Canada Conversation & Mixer
4:00 pm — Introduction
4:10 pm — After the Data: Art, Science and What Comes Next
4:30 pm — Round Table: Art, Science and Int'l Knowledge Exchange
5:30 – 7:00 pm — EU–Canada Mixer
Click here for the Full Programme.
Kelowna OCT 6-8
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UBC Okanagan University Theatre
1138 Alumni Avenue Kelowna, British ColumbiaDoors: 6:30 pm
Screening: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pmRegister Here on Luma: luma.com/duudgp02
The 2025 Ars Electronica Festival title PANIC: Yes/No found strong reflections also in several of the awarded works of the Prix Ars Electronica, which share underlying sentiments of doom and unease. This thematic resonance prompted the selection for the On Tour compilation PANIC – Prix Ars Electronica Selection.
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Critical Future Studio/Lab
UBC Innovation Precinct Annex 1 3505 Spectrum Court Kelowna, British Columbia9:00 am - 5:30 pm
Register Here on Luma: luma.com/k5z83pud
SCI_ART 2026 Kelowna brings European and Canadian artists into conversation with researchers to examine artistic practice as a mode of inquiry. Rather than positioning art primarily as a means of communicating scientific knowledge after it has been produced, Art as Research considers artistic practice as a site where knowledge itself can emerge through observation, experimentation, situated encounter, technological mediation, and critical interpretation.
9:00 am — Arrival and Coffee
9:30 am — Intro and Welcome
9:45 am — Art as Research
10:00 am — Sensing Environmental Change
11:30 pm — Lunch + Research Exchange
1:00 pm — Fieldwork and Situated Research
2:30 pm — Coffee + Research Exchange
3:00 pm — Instruments of Seeing
4:20 pm — What Remains After the Experiment?
4:40-pm — Closing Roundtable: What Can Art Know?