Traces of Words: Rethinking ‘Script’ through Interactive New Media

Traces of Words: Rethinking ‘Script’ through Interactive New Media
In our highly globalized, networked society, how are contemporary artists mobilizing interactive new media to catalyze meaningful intercultural encounters? In conjunction with the Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, this forum explores the underlying structures of culture, script, and identity through new media around the work by Tokyo based interdisciplinary group of ultra-technologists teamLab, a featured artist in the exhibition. The forum also features Vancouver based artist Maria Lantin. Join us for lively conversations.
Registration required
Co-organized by the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC and the Centre for Digital Media (CDM).

Schedule:

17:30 – 17:40: Welcome remarks by Dr. Richard Smith, Director, CDM & Professor, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
17:40 – 17:45: Introducing the Traces of Words exhibition by Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, Curator, Asia, MOA
17:45 – 18:20: When Words meet Sound and Space
Conversations with Dr. Maria Lantin, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, moderated by Mr. Malcolm Levy, CDM
18:20 – 18:30: Short break
18:30 – 19:30: Calligraphy and Ultrasubjective Space
Conversations with Mr. Takashi Kudo, teamLab via Skype, moderated by Professor Larry Bafia, CDM and Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, MOA

19:30 – 20:30: Reception

Presenters:
Takashi Kudo is the Communication Director of teamLab. teamLab (co-founded by Toshiyuki Inoko in 2001) is an interdisciplinary group of ultra-technologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, technology, design, and the natural world. Rooted in the tradition of ancient Japanese art and in contemporary forms of anime, teamLab operates from a distinctly Japanese sense of spatial recognition and investigates human behaviour in the information era and proposes innovative models for societal development. teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. They have participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including a projection-mapping work on the façade of the Grand Palais in Paris (2015).

Maria Lantin is the Director of the Basically Good Media Lab at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has a deep interest in language, space, and movement both physical and metaphorical, and this is woven through her work in immersive media and interaction. She takes pleasure in scanning the technological horizon for trends in human fascination – what is grabbing our attention and why. Formative experiences include a BSc and PhD in Computing Science (Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University), a wonderful stint at Mainframe Entertainment working on the first ever stereoscopic animation for the IMAX screen (it never made it to the screen but it was amazing), three fantastic years at the ground-breaking Banff New Media Institute’s Advanced Art and Technology (A.R.T) labs.