Art Focus, Spoken‪.‬ Art Focus Exchanges

In this episode of the Beyond Codes and Aesthetics podcast, we speak with Michael and Shaiyan, postdoctoral fellows who research emerging topics and innovations in human and computer vision, virtual reality and sense of presence, and very relevant to all of us now, zoom fatigue.

About the speakers:
Michael is a postdoctoral fellow at York University. He is currently using virtual reality (VR) to study the relationship between the 3D space depicted on a screen and the space that an observer is in. He wants to use the findings of this line of research to improve existing telecommunication technology and provide an increased sense of presence when interacting with digital contents on the screen.

Shaiyan is also a postdoctoral fellow at York University. His goal is to understand the computational mechanisms that underlie human vision. His approach tests modern machine vision and graphics algorithms as models of human behaviour. Apart from elucidating biological vision, his work has the potential to improve computer vision applications.

Websites: www.shaiyan.com wxyresearch.com

-----

2:30 groundwork of research focuses -from human and computer vision to VR and presence

11:10 Zoom fatigue and VR workplace in the future and

13:03 Future of VR & art and challenges

15:55 VR art exhibitions & biennales

21:40 Programming realistic VR scene, avatars, haptics,

23:45 Human-computer vision relationship, tests, and improvements

30:32 Vision and art: shadows, Colour constancy, space, and atmosphere

42:06 Perceptions of the world with visual or hearing impairments

43:58 Making art more accessible and digital creators making virtual experiences realistic to human senses

50:10 Deep learning process and human brain comparatively

55:10 Data protection and personal privacy

59:00 Art-science collaboration potential

In this episode of the Beyond Codes and Aesthetics series of the Art Focus Spoken podcast, we spoke with Yishen Chen about her new curatorial project Parallelism·Futurism (2020). This exhibition takes a holistic approach to explore the collective consciousness of humankind, something that transcends the shackles imposed by our bodies. In the process of this exploration, she raises concerns about modern technology, the perpetual connectedness and the reduction of someone’s existence into a single datum that challenges the very existence of consciousness itself. This curatorial project realized amidst the challenges of 2020 intends to be a response to the concerns and questions raised in quarantine. Overall it conveys a renewed faith in humanity, in 2020 and this exhibition presents the opportunity for the audience to explore their own answers.



About the speaker:
London and Shanghai based artist and digital art curator, Yishen Chen received her Master’s degree in Visual Art (book arts) at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London (2018). Yishen's work has been selected for exhibitions in London, Oxford, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Changsha, among others. She continually develops cross-disciplinary research that connects her linguistics, sociology backgrounds with art and philosophy. She mainly works with artists’ books, performance, sound arts and installations. 

To explore a more undefined realm of expression, Yishen started her practice in both art and tech as a curator who focuses on the field of digital art, and collaborated with artists from all over the world since 2019. Her previous curation and production projects include: the opening exhibition of Aranya Art Centre After Colors (2019), SHIMAO 30th Anniversary Theme Exhibition 30 under 30 (2019), and touring exhibition Parallelism·Futurism (2020).



Check out Kimberly and her work:
https://www.instagram.com/easooon/

Delighted to introduce Beyond Codes and Aesthetics, a new podcast series from Art Focus that explores innovative art-science collaborations that engage with society. This series offers an in-depth look from the perspective of artists, curators, and scientists into the realms of art and science and how they come together to create unexpectedly interesting sparks. 



For its first-ever episode, we spoke with art historian, curator, and digital communicator, Kimberly Glassman to discuss the fascinating intersections of art and science in exhibitions, digital outreach projects, and art residencies at scientific research institutes. The Montreal born, Oxford based art historian has curated several interdisciplinary exhibitions, founded the Diversifying Academia research residency at Concordia, and the Interrogating Art-Science Relationship conference at University of Oxford. She has worked at the McCord Museum, the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Jewish Montreal, the Convergence Initiative, and the North Wall Art Centre. Kim  obtained her BFA in Art History and Psychology at Concordia University and completed her Master of Studies in History of Art and Visual Culture at the University of Oxford. Working with Pissarro Family Archives at the Ashmolean Museum, Kim has investigated the Post-Impressionist use of Chevreulian colour theory. She will continue to explore this area of research in a PhD at Queen Mary University London. 



Check out Kimberly and her work:
instagram.com/kimcurates
twitter.com/KCurates

On this episode we spoke with Toronto based artist Oliver Pauk. Oliver's work cent​res around photographic, sculptural, and video-based elements straddling the boundary between physical and digital art. Oliver's work has been featured in exhibitions such as Volta 12 Basel; Mercer Union; Art Gallery of Ontario; Angell Gallery; Patrick Mikhail Gallery; Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF); Gardiner Museum, etc. Oliver is also the Founder and Co-director of Akin, which started as a shared studio space in Toronto 12 years ago to keep rent prices down and create a sense of community for artists in the city. Today, Akin has 9 locations, serving over 300 artists in Toronto. We speak with Oliver about his journey as an artist and social entrepreneur and what it has been like for an art organisation and artist collective amidst Covid-19.

Check out Oliver and his work:
oliverpauk.com
instagram.com/oliverpauk
https://www.facebook.com/oliverpauk/

A fun and insightful conversation with Vancouver and Europe based creative fine art photographer and pianist Lillian Liu. Lillian shares how she brings immersive stories to life in her photoshoot processes, key skills for nurturing passions into a profession, and merging photography and music to inspire each other. Notable features of her work includes Vogue Taiwan and Marie Claire Taiwan. Lillian has a Masters degree in classical performance from the Royal College of Music in London, and is a full time teacher and collaborator with other artists.

Check out Lillian and her work:
lillianliu.squarespace.com
instagram.com/lillianliuphotography
https://www.facebook.com/LillianLiuPhotography/

A motivational and fun conversation with North Carolina based Canadian artist Katherine Boxall. Katherine shares her journey on how she set priorities to achieve her goals as a full-time artist and leveraged social media for her art practice to develop honest connections after moving to new cities. Katherine received her MFA at San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from Queen's University with international exchange at the University of New South Wales Art & Design. Katherine has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Australia and the United States. She is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation artist grant. 

Check out Katherine and her work:
https://www.katherineboxall.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katherineboxall/
https://mintmuseum.org/constellation_clt/