TingLi Lorigiano during her stay in Santorini, Greece. Photo courtesy of TingLi Lorigiano
Concordia alumna, TingLi Lorigiano shares her travel exchange journey
Travelling across Europe, going on student exchange, learning a new language and starting a business all sound like goals many students have on their bucket list. One student not only managed to accomplish all these thing, but she did it in just one year.
Concordia alumna TingLi Lorigiano embarked on a year-long student exchange to Italy, during which time she also visited 30 cities in 10 countries. During her stay in Italy, Lorigiano founded Roma Experiences, the first Chinese tour operator service in Rome.
Mountains in the northern part of Italy at Bolzano-Trentino Alto Adige. Photo by TingLi Lorigiano
“I was at the Colosseum in Rome, and I realised that there weren’t any Chinese tour groups,” she said. “So, I inquired what the situation was like, and I decided that I would just start my own.”
Lorigiano is of Italian and Chinese descent and grew up immersed in both cultures. “I grew up with serious Chinese traditions and very traditional Italian traditions. I always had to explain Italian traditions to my Chinese friends and vice versa,” she said. “I felt that it’s important for Chinese visitors to learn about Italian traditions, so I wanted to help them learn about Italian culture.”
According to Lorigiano, no one working in the piazza of the Colosseum spoke Chinese—most were European. “There was a language barrier,” she said. “I connected the two worlds.” Lorigiano speaks fluent Mandarin and was learning to speak Italian at that time. She is now fluent in Italian.
Pasta at Osteria Da Fortunata in Rome, Italy. Photo by TingLi Lorigiano
She started by organizing tours where she would bring Chinese tourists to various restaurants and to visit historical sites such as the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.
With a major in genetic engineering and experience in the tech industry, Lorigiano had no problem setting up her own website and logistics for her business. After creating all the social media accounts, she hired 10 people to be part of her team. “I raised a team from one to 10 in my first three months in a country that I’ve never worked in before, and I didn’t yet speak fluent Italian. I hired tour guides and team promoters. We delivered wonderful historical experiences to Chinese tourists at least three times a day,” she said. “I had to be very meticulous with logistics. I had to buy tickets ahead of time, I had to know how the Colosseum ticketing system worked.”
According to Lorigiano, Roma Experiences has been running for the last eight months and has generated $40,000 CAD in sales revenue. “I was able to sustain myself for the last seven months in Italy. I used the money to travel, pay my rent, live in Rome,” she said.
The business is still running now that Lorigiano is home. The company’s vice-president took over the company. “It’s pretty cool to know that, before this year, in Rome, there were no Chinese tours available. And now they are,” Lorigiano said.
Creating Roma Experiences was an enriching leadership experience for Lorigiano. “It taught me a lot about business, and it showed me that my passions are not in tourism. My passion is in tech. I was way more interested in the website, e-commerce and the retail technology part of it.”
Camels in the Marrakech Morocco desert. Photo by TingLi Lorigiano
In November, Lorigiano is moving to London to work for a tech startup. “I knew that I wanted to work somewhere where the tech scene was more apparent, more vivid and vibrant, so London was the best choice for me,” she said.
Based on her experience, Lorigiano insisted that studying abroad can be life-changing. “You never know what is going to happen,” she said. “That’s why it’s important to go on exchange […] People grow up in Montreal, they work in Montreal, but there are so many other opportunities. Being Canadian, you have great visa opportunities as well.”
Lorigiano said she would advise students to check out all the job, volunteer and internship opportunities offered at Concordia to see what might interest them. “Make a list of things that you think are really important, and just highlight what you want to go visit or inquire about,” she said. “You need to think about what you are losing and what you are gaining.”
“You grow the most when you are put in the most uncomfortable situations such as travelling and being part of things that you are not comfortable with,” Lorigiano said. “It’s just a really great experience.”
Urmila Deb uses a 3D printer at the Technology Sandbox to create a reduced prototype of a project for her final year as a mechanical engineering student.
Technology Sandbox offers a place to learn about emerging technologies and create innovative projects
Through the glass walls, students passing by witness the familiar sight of hundreds of heads bent down with eyes fixed on textbooks and computer screens. Yet just a few steps further down the hall is a vastly different scene. The smiles on the faces of people holding game controllers and screwdrivers break the oppressive stillness on the second floor of the Webster Library.
Last winter, the Technology Sandbox at Concordia was created based on the concept of makerspace—a public space that gives people access to machines and tools for small-scale projects. It is the brainchild of Concordia’s head librarian, Guylaine Beaudry, and part of the Webster Library’s renovations. According to Jasia Stuart, the Sandbox’s technology analyst, the idea is to offer students and staff experiential learning using new technologies in a hazard-free environment.
Stuart’s job is to decide what equipment is purchased for the space and what will be made available for rent. “It is about finding the fine balance between distinguishing established technologies from trends and finding interesting and stimulating material that is good value,” she said. In addition to the many machines available for use at the Sandbox, equipment can be rented for three days or two weeks by all Concordia students and staff members.
Cooney’s interest in electronics makes it easy for him to unsolder a delicate piece from a hardware for a student. Photo by Elisa Barbier
Stuart’s co-worker, Sean Cooney—known by his middle name, Tailor—is the Sandbox’s technician. He oversees the functioning of most of the space’s technology, including the 3D printers, the virtual reality (VR) headsets as well as the soldering and electronic equipment. Cooney also helps students use the machines and software.
The Sandbox’s services are divided into four categories: 3D printing, electronics, media creation and virtual reality. Each category has equipment that can be loaned-out, including alienware computers, Playstation VR, cameras, microphones, green screens and Raspberry Pi programming kits.
“We make sure to have a lot of the common tools that people would use for their projects,” Cooney said. Other machinery, such as a sewing machine, a vinyl sticker cutter, synthesizers, motor kits and brainwave scanners are available for use at the Sandbox.
Since its opening in February, the Sandbox’s users and following has steadily increased, according to Cooney. “The summer was certainly busier than expected,” he said. Thanks to a thriving community of volunteers, in addition to Cooney and Stuart, the Sandbox managed to handle an unprecedented number of people and projects, and prepared equipment for the new semester. “It got really busy during the end of the winter semester with all the engineering students finishing their projects, and I believe it’s safe to assume the same for this semester,” Cooney said.
Technology has been part of Cooney’s life for as long as he can remember. “I have just been intensely curious about technology,” he said. “Anything you need to know, we can teach you—material-wise, we usually have it all on hand.” Stuart mentioned it is not always easy to properly welcome newcomers to the Sandbox since she and her co-workers are often busy helping others. Yet, she and Cooney still make an effort to approach students who look intrigued by the machines, inviting them to print a small design from the 3D printers or try VR applications.
Stuart is also responsible for developing, planning and hosting workshops. “The workshops are there to help new people break into new technologies,” she said. Stuart pointed out that most workshops serve as introductions for Concordia staff or students to learn complicated vocabulary or interface in a structured environment. “It is also a way for students [who] are less assertive to come and know as much as others who would walk in and say, right off the bat, what they want to do,” she added. Workshops are held once or twice a week. “We try to keep them up to two hours for students to attend between their classes,” Cooney said.
Jasia Stuart helps Julie Ménard, student in First Nation people, to install thread on the sewing machine so she can complete a project for her class. Photo by Elisa Barbier
“There doesn’t have to be a direct correlation between what people are studying and what they do at the Sandbox,” Stuart said. The space counts many engineering and computer science students as regulars, but also welcomes students studying business, fine arts and humanities. “It is a place where you can have fun, learn and develop projects with people from different departments,” Cooney said. Described as a “dream job” by both Cooney and Stuart, the Sandbox is a place where people can create from their own imagination and meet like-minded people with a burning sense of curiosity.
Virtual reality
According to Cooney, VR is just a stepping stone to more advanced technologies. “Virtual reality is an emerging technology with a lot of potential recognized by people inside and outside of the tech community,” he said.
Omar Qadri paints mid air as he tries virtual reality for the first time with the HTC vive headset at the Technology Sandbox. Photo by Elisa Barbier
One of the Sandbox’s purposes is to teach people how to develop their own VR applications. Users can explore these skills through introductory workshops on Unity—a game developing software—and by using one of two computers with HTC vive headsets—which are currently the best on the market.
The headsets, equipped with a unique tracking system, allow instant localization and orientation of the users so they can move freely in a wide playing area. This allows students developing applications to create content using spatial movement, an important characteristic of VR. “This [system] varies from traditional virtual reality headsets, with which you need to look at a computer and sit down,” Cooney said.
In order to get newcomers accustomed to VR, the Sandbox uses a 3D painting application. “Very few people are going to be making their masterworks with this application, but it is a very polished, very tamed first experience,” Cooney said. Other applications, such as Google Earth, flight simulators, zombie games or a roller-coaster simulator are available once users feel more comfortable with VR.
The Sandbox also offers two student-made applications— application that explores the rules of gravity and a multidimensional application that allows players to pass through windows into a world of Van Gogh-style watercolours. “We are aiming to have as much student-generated content as possible,” Cooney said.
He added that he loves to see people try VR for the first time. “Just to see the reactions, varying from a fairly mute awe to a full-on wow of people being flabbergasted, is incredible.” For Cooney, VR is unique because there aren’t many experiences that allows someone to be surrounded by stars. He said he believes in the educational power of VR. “because it is so immersive. It is a very effective learning experience—you will definitely remember things,” he said.
Regulars at the Sandbox
When Daron Kasbar (right) is not studying software engineering, he comes to the Technology Sandbox to work on his electric longboard. Photo by Elisa Barbier
Lloyd Bureau
A Concordia student majoring in Supply Chain Operations Management at the John Molson School of Business, Lloyd Bureau is one of many students who comes to the Sandbox to work on a personal project. “I heard about Technology Sandbox and their five 3D printers earlier this semester,” he said. “All the softwares are available for us and easy to use—all of this is free for students. It’s amazing how much support we get from Concordia.”
Bureau is the founder of a startup company called TRYNYTY, which makes freestyle scooter products. “We design, manufacture and distribute the products to specialized action sport retailers all around the world,” he said. All of TRYNYTY’s products are currently manufactured in Montreal. “We hope to keep it that way for as many of our products as possible,” Bureau added.
TRYNYTY currently sells four products that have been developed over the last year, in six different international stores. Among these locations is the California-based The Vault Pro Scooters. “It’s the biggest online retail store in the world for freestyle scooters,” Bureau said.
“Bureau regularly brings his scooter to the Technology Sandbox in order to improve and work on his products. “This is the first product we came up with,” he said, proudly holding up his scooter to show off the pegs he and his team created at the Sandbox using a 3D printer. “Basically, we are rethinking the scooter from A to Z, every single part on it, so that we can find a way to improve it,” he said.
Rahul Ranjan
Ranjan is doing his masters at Concordia in information system security. He is passionate about the technological world and is a staff member at the Sandbox. “I work here to help people. I help people learn about technology. If there is someone who wants to learn how to use the 3D printer, I am here to guide them,” he said.
Of the Sandbox’s five 3D printers, one is is multi-material—it creates products in more than one colour, contrary to the typical single-material 3D printers.
The first step to 3D printing at the Sandbox, Ranjan explained, is to bring in the design of the item. “We can also help you create the design here and download it,” he said. The design needs to be downloaded as an STL file. “After downloading the file, we use a software known as Slicer which converts the STL file into G-Code,” he said.
According to Ranjan, G-Code combines X, Y and Z axes to produce a three-dimensional result. “If there is a print that is five centimetres, it will create coordinate points and then the points will connect. Slicer will create the layers of your model,” he explained. The final step is to actually print the 3D version of the model.
The time it takes to print something in 3D depends on the size of the project, Ranjan said. Generally, for something three centimetres tall, it takes about two hours.
Ranjan also helps out with the Sandbox’s media creation lab, which offers users access to software such as Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop and Illustrator. To create music, Garageband and Ableton are also available, and there are two synthesizers on-site for students to produce their own music. “If you have any idea, or if you think about a cool project and say ‘I want to do this, but how can I do this?’ We can help you get started with your idea,” Ranjan said.
Daron Kasbar
When Daron Kasbar is not studying software engineering, he comes to the Technology Sandbox to work on his electric longboard. Photo by Elisa Barbier
Daron Kasbar is also a regular at the Sandbox, where he spends his time building his own electric longboard. “It’s a fun project,” he said. “I didn’t do it for school. I did it mostly to help myself get around.” Kasbar is currently taking prerequisite courses in order to study software engineering at Concordia.
According to Kasbar, his electric longboard was inspired by Casey Neistat, a YouTuber from New York City who vlogs about electric longboards and skateboards. The electric longboards Neistat features on his YouTube channel are expensive, Kasbar said. “One board is around $1,000 to $2,000 minimum. I can’t afford it so I decided to make my own instead,” he said.
While Kasbar used some parts of his old longboard to create the new one, other elements, such as the enclosures for the electronic components and the motor, were made using the Sandbox’s 3D printers. “The wheels, the motor, the 3D printed parts, that’s all from me. The enclosures and all plastic parts that you see here came from my own 3D printing, and most of them are from my own designs,” he said.
Kasbar said building an electric longboard is not as complex as it seems. “It’s simple to build. You can do it on any longboard or skateboard. You just need a battery, an ESC (electric speed controler) and a motor,” he explained.
The longboard can go up to 30 kilometres an hour and can run for three straight hours at that speed. Kasbar also built in a crucial safety mechanism. “If there is a shortage of battery, the electric speed controller will plug itself out of the battery so that it doesn’t overheat” he said.
For Kasbar, the Sandbox is one of his favourite places at Concordia. “I can be myself and share my creativity with anyone,” he said. “The people here will either improve my ideas or understand what I’m talking about—I feel comfortable sharing my ideas here.”
A creative arts workshop day will be held as part of Mental Illness Awareness Week
Connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment make up the acronym Chime In, which is a recently created student services group. “Our mandate is to help students better understand what the services are [at Concordia], how to access them and let them know what they do have access to,” said Alia Nurmohamed, a student representative at Chime In. “We are here for you. If you need something, there is always a willing hand to help.”
According to Nurmohamed, it can be very daunting to ask someone for help when starting at a new school. The vast service networks at universities can be confusing, particularly for students fresh out of CEGEP or high school. “It’s not that the [services] are hard to access, but sometimes it’s hard to navigate and the information isn’t always easy to find,” Nurmohamed said. “So having some place or some people who are always there to better direct students is a good goal to have.”
The group began in May 2017 and consists of students representatives Nurmohamed and Jade Se; Howard Magonet, the director of Concordia’s Counselling and Psychological Services; Jillian Ritchie, an outreach coordinator from AMI Quebec; and Alexis Lahorra, a student representative and youth mental health advocate for the mental health awareness student group Jack.org.
Chime In will be hosting a day of creative arts workshops on Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Library Building auditorium as part of Mental Illness Awareness Week. “To have a day of creative arts workshops speaks to everyone,” Nurmohamed said. “I personally believe that we all have our natural talents. Some of us naturally love music, reading—we all have these aspects in our lives that we turn to fulfill us, to sustain us.”
The various groups from Campus Wellness and Support Services will be present at the workshops, including Counselling and Psychological Services, Jack.org, AMI Quebec and Multi-Faith and Spirituality Centre. “There will be a Chime In member to help direct and talk to people—all of us are going to be there for this one purpose to raise awareness for mental health and well-being,” she said.
The event will feature five different workshops, one of which will be given by La Ruche, a community art studio created by Concordia’s creative arts therapy department. A large amount of art supplies for painting, drawing and sculpting will be made available to workshop participants. There will also be a creative writing workshop allowing participants to create their own graphic novel. “When you are writing for your well-being, it can be so deeply introspective, reflective and very personal—I think art and writing intersects in so many beautiful ways,” Nurmohamed said.
CJLO has prepared a silent disco as part of the music workshop where people can tune in to the radio with their smartphones, pop in their headphones and groove however they feel like in the moment. For those who enjoy physical relaxation, there will be a session of chair yoga. If you’re a fan of Concordia’s pet therapy program that takes place during midterm and finals, there will be a workshop offering some relaxing play time with a number of dogs. Cupcakes will also be provided at the event.
In addition to the workshops, there will be a banner where people can leave their own message of what well-being means for them. The banner will then be placed in common areas around campus. “Other students will be able to see what well-being means to their peers and just how much it touches every one of us all the time,” Nurmohamed said.
According to Nurmohamed, when people think of services at Concordia, they often think of health services in terms of physical bodily functions. “There is much more to that. Your well-being is every aspect of you—it is physical, mental, emotional and spiritual,” she said.
In order to fill in the gaps in the university’s services, Chime In student representative Jade Se is leading a new initiative called the Concordia Student Nightline. This active listening service will add to the similar services by other groups at Concordia. This student nightline will be available as a hotline for students to call and obtain well-being services at night and on the weekends.
Nurmohamed said students can access active listening services during the day from Counselling and Psychological Services and peer support at the Centre for Gender Advocacy and the Multi-Faith and Spirituality Centre. “But what happens at night? Or over the weekend?” she asked. Jack.org is among the other campus groups looking to better the well-being of students. The group often hosts social events like poetry slams, open mic nights and parties.
The university’s Counselling and Psychological Services also offer students access to eight sessions with a registered therapist. According to Nurmohamed, you can go through a 15-minute psychological triage, where you can talk to a professional and get some help, support, tools and resources.
“That’s what I like about Concordia—they never forget their students,” Nurmohamed said. “I’ve never met a group of administrators who are so willing to help all the time. Everyone that I have talked to about doing this, about the organization of this event, every group on campus is so for it. They just want to help. It’s a great way to remind people that we are here for you.”
All workshops are free and will take place on Thursday Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. in Concordia University’s Library Building auditorium.
Montreal celebrated International Day of Peace by honouring John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in for peace movement
When John Lennon, Yoko Ono and her daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, arrived in Montreal in the spring of 1969 for their stay at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel, they brought peace and love to our city.
As John Lennon said, “Peace is not something you wish for. It’s something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.” The couple held their second bed-in for peace in Montreal, where they remained in bed for eight consecutive days and invited musicians to sing and journalists to talk about world peace. It was also in their hotel suite, room 1742, that Lennon and Ono composed the famous peace anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.”
Archives of podcasts, exclusive interviews and photos from the bed-in in 1969, inside suite 1742. Photo by Kirubel Mehari
This year, on Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel revealed a redesigned version of suite 1742 that reflects the iconic bed-in scene. “While recreating suite 1742, we realized that we wanted to bring back that powerful cry for peace and make it far-reaching,” said Philippe Demers, the CEO and senior partner of MASSIVart, a Montreal-based production and art agency that collaborated on the project. Real estate agency Ivanhoé Cambridge and Sid Lee were also involved in the remodeling.
According to Demers, it took his company and Sid Lee Architecture over two years to redesign the room. “We began on Nov. 13, 2015, the day of the terror attacks in Paris,” he said. “We felt that people did not understand what John Lennon and Yoko Ono tried to say here back in 1969. It made sense for us to bring their message back, which is a message of peace that is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.”
Montrealers gathered to lie down for peace in celebration of the International Day of Peace at the Place Ville Marie esplanade. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
The concept of the redesign was developed by Sid Lee Architecture, which rearranged the furniture in the suite to match its 1969 layout and reproduced the famous handwritten Hair Peace and Bed Peace signs on the windows. The lyrics of Lennon and Ono’s peace anthem are inscribed on walls and framed photographs of their bed-in hang around the room.
The suite also has interactive features, such as a virtual reality video. “We began shooting with UNLIMITED to make a realistic virtual reality film which brings us back in time to the bed-in of 1969,” said Hanae Bossert, the project manager at MASSIVart. The video allows people to experience the original bed-in as if they were actually there. It presents a 360-degree view of the best moments of the event by condensing eight days into a few powerful minutes.
Montrealers gathered to lie down for peace in celebration of the International Day of Peace at the Place Ville Marie esplanade. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
The room includes an archive cabinet with 12 interactive drawers filled with an assortment of photographs, podcasts, videos, testimonies and historical objects. These elements showcased the couple’s commitment to peace during that famous week nearly 50 years ago. “We also needed to include available archives for people to take the time to read and understand what the bed-in was all about—understand their message of peace and its importance,” Bossert said.
There are three objects around the room that present these archives in an interactive format—one of which is a telephone. “Just pick up the phone, and you’ll automatically hear a registered conversation of John Lennon speaking about peace because he spent so much time talking about peace to the entire world,” Bossert said.
There is also a television showing archive images of the bed-in, and a tape recorder which plays exclusive interviews from journalists with Lennon at the press of a button.
Sophia Alachouzos volunteered at the bed-in. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
According to Bossert, she helped install about 150 pieces of art around the room, a process that was carefully overseen by Arthur Gaillard, the chief curator of MASSIVart. “It was a long selection process—we worked hand in hand with architects to find the right pieces of art which would endure with time,” Gaillard said. All the pieces that were selected were created by Quebec artists.
Also on the International Day of Peace, Sid Lee Collective and MASSIVart invited the public to attend the largest outdoor bed-in ever held in North America. Over 40 beds were placed on Place Ville Marie’s esplanade, each with a unique peace poster printed on its sheets.
Montrealers gathered to lie down for peace in celebration of the International Day of Peace at the Place Ville Marie esplanade. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
These posters were part of the Posters for Peace exhibition which featured the work of 40 international graphic artists depicting their visions for peace, its current state in the world and what needs to be done to achieve it.
“We’ve learned that even the smallest actions can spark change,” said Philippe Meunier, the chief creative officer, co-founder and senior partner at Sid Lee. “With Posters for Peace, we want to give artists a global platform to express themselves on this issue and start a conversation, so that we can build a better tomorrow.”
Five kids sleep on the bed while their mother sleeps on the floor. Photo by Barbara Davidson in her feature on gang violence for the Los Angeles Times.
Concordia University invited Barbara Davidson to share insights about her life and career
In the words of renowned war photographer Robert Capa: “If your photographs aren’t good enough, then you’re just not close enough.” One thing is certain: Barbara Davidson has gotten close enough to produce emotional photos that evoke empathy.“The most important thing my upbringing taught me is empathy,” Davidson said. “It’s something that one really has to possess in order to be a really good photojournalist or good journalist.”
On Sept. 14, Concordia University invited Davidson to a homecoming keynote panel at the DB Clarke Theatre. Since graduating from Concordia with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts 27 years ago, Davidson has won three Pulitzer prizes, which is the most prestigious award for journalists. Davidson has also earned a national Emmy Award and was twice named newspaper photographer of the year by Pictures of the Year International. “I usually don’t talk about myself in these presentations. I’m usually far more interested in the people that I document,” she said. “Since it’s Montreal and I’m coming home, I thought that it would be nice to give people a perspective of how I ended up living in the United States and covering all the stories that I covered.”
Davidson discussed elements of her career and life as an award-winning photojournalist, and how she paved her way to success with nothing but hard work and perseverance. She was raised by her Irish mother, who worked part-time while taking care of seven children. “My upbringing had a profound influence on the journalist I became,” she said. “It really taught me what it’s like to go without, to live a life that was difficult. It taught me about the human condition from first-hand experience.”
Barbara Davidson speaking at the homecoming keynote panel at Concordia University. Photo by Kirubel Mehari
According to Davidson, it was her grandfather, who took pictures of her family, who inspired her passion for photography. “He was the original photographer of the family,” she said. “He had an incredible passion for taking pictures.” When Davidson’s parents left Ireland for Canada in search of a better life, they packed bundles of family photos into their suitcases. “We had this drawer that was full of all these family photos, and I loved them so much,” she said. “Photography really meant something in my family. It was a really special thing.”
Davidson was 15 when she first decided she wanted to become a photographer. “I didn’t really know that I would be this kind of photographer. I didn’t know that my dream would end up here on the front page of the Los Angeles Times,” she said.
Davidson began her career working for one of Concordia’s student newspapers, The Link. “I learned a lot about my craft here at Concordia University, working for the student newspaper. It was incredibly important for me,” she said. “I spent more time on that newspaper than I ever did in class.”
Since then, she has travelled around the world, covering different crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States. She documented the catastrophe and repercussions of hurricane Katrina and was recently in Texas covering the devastation of hurricane Harvey for the New York Times. “I had been trained as a Red Cross worker before I became a journalist, so I was and still am always interested in the most vulnerable people,” she said.
Davidson has also done a lot of work abroad. “It was like parachute journalism, where I would be dispatched to Iraq and hit the ground and figure out how to navigate,” she said. During the presentation, Davidson showed a video compilation of some of her photos taken abroad. The rawness of the photos demonstrated how close Davidson managed to get to the lives of thousands of different people all around the world. These pictures said more than a thousand words—they showed the strong emotions people experienced in their most vulnerable life situations.
Ten-year-old Erica Miranda was shot three times in the back, knee and hip March 2 while playing basketball outside her home in Compton. A young man had walked up to the crowded street corner and started firing a handgun in what police believe was a gang assault. A 17-year-old relative of her stepfather and a 45-year-old family friend, both men, were also shot three times and survived. At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center: Miller Children¹s Hospital, Erica waits for her bandage to be changed.
Davidson made it clear that her career did not come easily. It has taken her a long time to get to this point, and she discussed how rejection was part of her journey. “I [used] my rejection to fuel my desire to make it because this craft of photojournalism is so competitive and it’s so difficult so that rejection could have made me fall into a corner and have me cry a lot—but it just made me angry and it made me want it even more,” she said. “It made me say, ‘I’ll show you.’”
Davidson also explained that it isn’t necessary to travel overseas to document death and destruction—it can happen right in your backyard. When Davidson moved to Los Angeles, she said she noticed that many people were desensitized to violence. In nearby low-income neighbourhoods, people were experiencing a high level of gang violence. She decided it was her time to tell a substantive story about the victims of gang violence.
As part of her talk, she showed a short film which introduced the audience to the families she ended up spending a lot of time with for this project. “I always paid attention to people caught in the crossfire, the innocent victims who really had nothing to do with conflict but were caught in it,” Davidson said. When she initially approached her editors at the Los Angeles Times with her story idea, the newspaper rejected it. Davidson ended up working on the story for about six months on her own before she was given the green light to have her work published in the newspaper.
Davidson told the audience loud and clear: “You can study to be a journalist, which is a wonderful thing, but if you don’t have it inside of you to really be a journalist, you’re not going to be a journalist. It’s something a lot more than just learning trade—it’s a way of life. It’s not just a job for me.”
Main photo by Barbara Davidson in her feature on gang violence for the Los Angeles Times
Moderator Benoît Touchette alongside VFX film producers during a panel discussion at Effects MTL. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
Montreal hosted the east coast’s largest international VFX and animation conference
The high-quality visual effects seen in newly released films such as Ghosts in the Shell and Deadpool are a testament to how the visual effects (VFX) and animation industries are thriving. In both of these movies, the outstanding imagery was created by the Montreal-based VFX studio, Atomic Fiction.
“Every year the creative challenges are different,” said Kevin Baillie, the co-founder and VFX supervisor at Atomic Fiction. “Nineteen of the 20 highest-grossing films of 2016 were VFX and animation driven. This shows how people care about the work that we do—they love it.”
Baillie had high praise for the VFX industry as he addressed the crowd at this year’s Effects MTL, the largest international VFX and animation conference on the North American east coast. On Sept. 6 and 7, film producers, graphic designers, artists, students and fans of VFX films gathered at Palais des congrès for the conference.
During the opening keynote talk, Baillie discussed the challenges he has faced as an artist and a studio owner. “We put ourselves on the line everyday. We do so creatively, technically and financially,” he said. “When I put something on the line, I feel like the world is looking at me, waiting for me to screw up.” In retrospect, Baillie said, he should not be so worried about making mistakes. “It’s important to embrace the fact that people aren’t watching you that closely and to take some risks, move forward and be open,” he said.
Being among leaders of the VFX film industry and hearing about their journeys as producers was a rich learning experience for attendees looking to make a career in VFX or film production. The event included a multitude of panel conferences featuring major producers from companies such as Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), one of the most well-known VFX companies in the world. The discussed topics ranged from the lack of women in the VFX field to the visual effects seen on Game of Thrones.
A representative from Atomic Fiction (right) speaks with an Effects MTL conference attendee. Photos by Sandra Hercegova.
Effects MTL also offered master classes (similar to workshops), where artists and animators got one-on-one time with experts on specific topics such as animal and human anatomy in VFX. There was also a job fair, which was a great opportunity for networking. It was a hub for aspiring graphic designers and visual artists searching for a career with leading companies in the industry.
During his talk, Baillie suggested the best way to advance the VFX industry is to recognize the full potential and talent of the visual effects and animation industries. He listed a few things he believes can help companies within the VFX industry in the future. Baillie said he has noticed that VFX companies often try to have too many specialities.“There are lots of different categories, such as episodic, film, special venues—it’s important that we, as visual effects companies, recognize the limits of what each of these areas of focus demands and make sure not to be over-committed,” he said.
Baillie’s company, Atomic Fiction, is currently working on the Netflix-original drama TV series Stranger Things as well as some movies. “It’s really hard getting into the groove and context switching from one work to another even if they are similar,” he said.
Baillie also mentioned how hiring the right people and having diversity and culture in the work environment are important tools for success. “Nobody wants to work with a whole bunch of people who are exactly like themselves. I think that is the killer of creativity,” he said. “We want to make sure that we have an as diversified workforce as possible.”
Effects MTL had a total of 1,100 attendees this year, and welcomed 266 companies along with 60 exhibitors and sponsors. The conference’s main sponsors were Atomic Fiction and the Montreal-based video production company, MELS.
Another Effects MTL panel, presented by the Québec Film and Television Council, assembled VFX film producers to share their work experiences. Among them were Gretchen Libby from ILM; Nancy St. John, who is an independent VFX director; film producer William W. Wilson III; Randy Starr from Legendary Pictures and Eli Dolleman from Amazon Studios. The panel moderator was Benoît Touchette, the head of visuals at MELS Studios.
The audience was composed of people working for visual effect companies, graphic designers, visual artists and students. An important yet simple question was raised: how does one become a VFX film producer? The panelists agreed that a strong work ethic and great communication skills are important qualities to have for this job. According to Libby, it’s also important for aspiring film producers to understand the many roles and steps that go into producing a live-action shot.
“We really are the meeting place of the film world—everything that the film world does eventually comes to us,” she said. “If you can involve yourself in student projects that touch on various other elements of the filmmaking process, I think it’s really important to bring that knowledge to what we do in visual effects.”
Dolleman, who worked as a freelance producer, said producing for television or movies is a unique career. “As a person who could never figure out what to do, if you have a lot of different interests, producing is almost the perfect track to take—one day you are worried about the balance sheet, another day you are trying to solve a creative problem, another day you are dealing with political issues,” he said. “It truly gives an opportunity to deal with a lot of different things.”
Everything from two orphans in love to eating painful memories away to escaping an American culture crisis
Summer is coming to an end and you’ve just bought your new textbooks. You might think reading books for your own pleasure is something you’ll have to put on hold for the semester. But midterms are still long away, and you might be able to squeeze one more book onto your summer reads list. Here are a few recommendations.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
Montreal-born novelist Heather O’Neill tells a spellbinding story in her newly released novel, The Lonely Hearts Hotel. You might have read O’Neill’s previous work, such as her award-winning Lullabies for Little Criminals.
This time around, O’Neill delivers another majestic tale, unlike any of her previous novels. In fact, this story’s lively characters with distinct personalities make this book unlike any I’ve ever read before. The tale takes place in Montreal during the 1910s. O’Neill references specific areas of our city, which will give Montreal readers vivid imagery of the scenery. The 1910s are a dark time in this novel, a time when kids are frequently abandoned at orphanages and poverty floods the city.
Amidst that, The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story about two gifted orphans named Pierrot and Rose. They fall in love at an orphanage where they share their unique talents—Pierrot was born a gifted musician, and Rose is a charismatic performer who can make anyone laugh with her flamboyant and courageous personality. Their talents and unconditional love for each other allow them to dream big. Among other aspirations, they want to create and direct the most extraordinary circus show the world has ever seen.
However, separated as teenagers during the Great Depression, they both spend their early adulthood dabbling with addiction, extreme poverty and theft in order to survive. It’s when Rose and Pierrot reunite after years of longing for each other that their childhood dreams become reality once again.
The two main characters come to life beyond O’Neill’s written words. Pierrot and Rose’s personalities are so lively their souls will haunt you and remain with you weeks after you finish this book.
Favourite quote: “There was something so generous about her personality, like a man on a winning streak in a casino. She tossed her personality out onto the table recklessly like poker chips.”
Hunger by Roxane Gay
If you are a fan of raw and honest memoirs, American writer Roxane Gay, delivers just that in her own personal life story, Hunger. In this memoir, Gay shares the truth about her body and her hunger. Having struggled with obesity and eating disorders since she was a teenager. From the very first page, she makes it loud and clear: “This story of my body is not a story of triumph. This is not a weight-loss memoir.” Instead, Hunger is about a secret she kept for far too long, a secret that fueled her food addiction.
The devastating act of violence committed against her at the age of 12 becomes a turning point in her life. As she reveals what happened, the imagery is hurtful. You can feel the sharp pain and emotional scars through her words. Gay has written a number of renown books, such as Bad Feminist, however, she mentions that this book was the hardest thing she has ever written. The courage she needed to be this honest with herself and everybody else is outstanding, refreshing and exceptionally inspiring.
I’m sure many people can relate to this memoir in one way or another. Hunger is so human, so vulnerable—it makes you want to personally thank Gay for having the courage to write it. Many people face challenges, but not many would be able to speak about them as openly as Gay does.
Favourite quote: “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I had been because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere….”
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D, Vance
J.D. Vance offers a compassionate, discerning sociological memoir of the white underclass that influenced last year’s American election results. Hillbilly Elegy is his own personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of poor white Americans living in the southern part of Appalachia, in states such as Kentucky, Ohio and Alabama.
Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate made it out of his poor neighborhood successfully. However, he is a rare case. As he reveals, Vance lived through a series of tormented events as a child growing up in a poor community in Jacksonville, Ky.As a child, he moved with his family to Middletown, Ohio, a place where most residents from Jacksonville fled to in order to escape poverty and disintegration. Living through domestic violence and decades of chaos, Vance didn’t want to follow the route of the white working-class life. Instead, his goal was to pursue a higher education.
According to Vance, he watched some of his friends from back home blossom into successful adults while others fell victim to the worst of Middletown’s pitfalls—premature parenthood, drugs and incarceration. As Vance writes, “what separates the successful with the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives.”
Vance talks about his family’s struggles and how he managed to pursue a higher education in a place where people could not even keep or find a decent job. This memoir reflects how societal expectations have the potential to affect the trajectory of your life.
Favourite quote: “There’s something powerful about realizing that you undersold yourself. That somehow your mind confused lack of effort for inability.”
The process of hair braiding creates a bond between black women. Photo courtesy of Ubuntu Talks. Photo courtesy of Courtesy of Ubuntu Talks
Chelsy Monie has been working on a photo series exhibition which aims to celebrate blackness
Third-year communications and art history student at Concordia University, Chelsy Monie will present her first art exhibition, BEING, on Aug.30. The exhibition, which runs until Sept. 3, is a photography series that observes skin, bodies and hair of various black individuals in Montreal. Chelsy Monie, the art director of the project, developed this idea alongside her team: photographer Kirubel Mehari and videographers Afoali Ngwakum and Jackie Batsinduka.
Two years ago, Monie started a YouTube channel called Ubuntu Talks, which she used as a platform to celebrate blackness. “I feel that we are being misrepresented in the media and that we are portrayed in a way that I don’t agree with. So I decided to start a platform that challenges those ideas and celebrates black people by having us actually talking about our experiences,” said Monie.
Ubuntu Talks discusses people’s stories, individuals and communities that haven’t had the opportunity to speak out and share their experiences in the past.
After working on her YouTube channel, Monie decided to take Ubuntu Talks into a physical space. “I really like the idea of having something tangible. It’s not just an online platform where people can have access anytime. In this exhibition, people can come and talk to each other — it’s a physical type of experience,” she said. Monie knew she wanted to create something using photography and decided to do so by showcasing three themes: hair, skin and body. “I’m still exploring blackness, looking at people’s individuality with photography to show people that Ubuntu Talks is evolving,” said Monie.
The first theme of Monie’s exhibition is skin and the types of skin products people use. “I am amazed by skin care –you were not born knowing exactly what to put on your skin– it’s a process, a journey,” she said.
The second theme is hair; it highlights the special relationship between the hairdresser and the client. According to Monie, this can be observed while black women get their hair braided. The women are given hair extensions, which they then pass along to the hairdresser. Monie added that most times, women go to the hairdresser’s homes to get their hair done. “It’s not a surprise that you might sit on the floor and the hairdresser might sit on a couch — I’ve had interesting conversations with people about hair environments,” Monie said.
The third theme is body image, fashion and how the media portrays the black community. “The body theme is really about appearances. I’ve heard people comment about the way that I dress but this is not their place. It’s my body and I can do what I want,” said Monie. “I hope that inspires people to wear what they want and to look the way they want.”
Through Ubuntu Talks, Monie’s mission is to celebrate blackness. “I just want to show the complexities and the layers of black people because we are not given that enough. I am portraying people as individuals, I am not portraying them as a one size fits all,” she said. “I would like people to feel that Ubuntu Talks is a platform for them to be represented. If anybody has any ideas, I want them to be open and come tell me so that we can work on it,” she said.
Ubuntu Talks taught Monie that being busy is not an excuse for putting your personal ideas or projects on hold. “I find that you will always be busy, there will never be the perfect time, it never gets easier. Ubuntu Talks encouraged me to just dive into things, for the most part. If you want to do something, you should have that fire inside of you and start it as soon as possible,” she said.
It’s also important to Monie that the black community takes up space. “For the five days of the exhibition, it will be a black space, it is open to everyone, but it will be showcasing us. It’s hard to do but we need to take up space to stop letting oppressors make us feel small,” said Monie.
BEING will take place at Mainline Gallery from Aug. 30 until Sept. 3. The vernissage will be on Aug. 31 from 5:30 p.m to 10 p.m. People are encouraged to donate what they can as this is a free event. All donated funds will be used towards future projects by Ubuntu Talks. This event is wheelchair accessible.
The TouchDesigner Workshop gathered technicians to learn more about audio visualization techniques. Photo by Sandra Hercegova
Inviting media artists from around the world to discuss the future of creative spaces in cities
The evolution and future of creative spaces in urban cities was the focus of the 18th edition of the MUTEK international festival of digital creativity and electronic music. Top artists within the digital media realm from London, Mexico City, Barcelona and Berlin gathered in Montreal from Aug. 22 to 27.
The festival featured panel conferences, an exhibition focusing on subversions of reality and electronic music parties. There was also a digital lab workshop set up by TouchDesigner, a real-time visual development platform used for creating interactive media systems, such as visuals for music. The workshop allowed digital technicians to learn more about audio visualization techniques on the TouchDesigner platform.
Immersive technology, visual art and live music performances under a stratosphere at the SAT for MUTEK. Photo by Sébastien Roy
On the second day of the festival, the focus was on the city of London and its creative spaces. Londoners who play a role in their local digital art or music communities were invited to participate in panel conferences to discuss their projects and challenges. One speaker was Marie McPartlin, the studio director for Somerset House Studios, which commissions one of those more well-known series of events in London. McPartlin explained how this creative space, Nocturnal City, plays a big role in London’s nightlife and pushes the boundaries of underground culture.
Alongside McPartlin at the panel conference was the director of Montreal’s Never Apart, Anthony Galati; Oliver Baurhenn, the curator and organizer of the CTM Festival in Berlin; and Danji Buck-Moore, a collective member of the creative events space, La Plante, in Montreal.
The panelists discussed the need for spaces that allow artistic experimentation in urban environments and how new, creative spaces can foster diversity and inclusion.
Galati is the music director at Never Apart, a non-profit organization in Montreal which aims to bring social change and spiritual awareness through cultural programming.
Galati has been helping creatives in Montreal gain visibility by providing them with resources to evolve their artistic endeavours. According to Galati, access to creative spaces is difficult and venues in Montreal are lacking. “People are creating more, but access to creative space is a bit tougher nowadays, and this is why we need spaces that promote and perpetuate artistic behaviour and endeavours,” he said.
While there is a general need for creative space in the city, Galati put a particular emphasis on providing such spaces for low-income families and teenagers. The reason is that price is another limiting factor for participants. “It’s expensive to make music, it’s expensive to make art — more collaboration is what cities need,” Galati said.
Immersive technology, visual art and live music performances under a stratosphere at the SAT for MUTEK. Photo by Sébastien Roy
The second panel conference discussed the present and future of audiovisual practices in music festivals, film and digital arts. The panel invited the senior director of the British Film Institute, Tim Stevens; Montreal-based digital artist Myriam Bleau; Antonia Folguera, a content creator for the Sonar Festival in Barcelona; and multidisciplinary artist Paul Purgas from London.
“It’s a very fertile time for art because everyone has a story to tell — we want to support experimentation in the U.K,” said Stevens, who has more than 16 years of experience in film, live cinema and digital media. This was his third time attending the MUTEK festival in Montreal. According to Stevens, creative expression is currently too focused on technological mediums rather than the story itself. “We’re at a time where people are thinking, ‘I want to tell a story, now what’s the best form of technology to use to tell this story?’” he said. “I think my biggest advice would be: don’t worry about technology. Think of the story that you want to tell because that’s where the emotion, passion and the drive comes from.”
“When you are telling a good story, it doesn’t matter what you use,” he added. “I think people obsess too much about the form that they are using when they should just focus on their story.”
Furthermore, the panel discussed the role of immersive technology in the future of audiovisual practices, such as sound and visual aesthetics in movies. According to Stevens, at the moment, VR is only monetized through video games. As it transitions to film and art, people are trying to work out what that means for the future of these mediums. “My biggest concern about VR is that it takes away community experience,” Stevens said. “There is no audience there — it’s just an experience that one person is having. What I love about visual and audio stuff is doing live cinema and seeing everyone’s reactions.”
Stevens also made a point to reflect on the challenges creativity faces in his city. “London is a big city, and there is a lot going on. There [are] a lot of problems with the culture there when it comes to art because you need to make a very loud noise and spend a lot of money to be able to cut through.”
The common thread that emerged throughout the festival was the need to include more space for creativity in urban cities and to make these spaces more accessible and inclusive. “In an ideal world,” Galati said, “there would be cubes everywhere that people can use as multi-purpose spaces.”
Chantal Barriault, the director of the Science Communication Graduate Program at Laurentian University, alongside Tim Lougheed, a freelance science writer. Photo by Sandra Hercegova
The Science Journalism Educator Summit welcomed scientists and journalists to a three-day panel conference at Concordia University
Scientists, journalists and professors from across North America gathered to discuss the importance of science in the field of journalism at the first Science Journalism Educator (SJE) Summit, hosted by Concordia University.
From Aug. 10 to 12, the summit examined the way science journalism is taught in Canada and developed a research plan for exploring new and improved ways of teaching this subject. It was also an opportunity to establish connections between professors and students across Canada to support the future of science journalism.
The summit was organized by Concordia’s chair of journalism, David Secko, alongside the SJE Summit team, Concordia’s journalism department and faculty of arts and science, the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) and the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC).
The first panel discussion focused on the challenges of teaching science journalism, and was led by Dan Fagin, a journalism professor at New York University.
“Unfortunately, professional science journalism is increasingly dominated by a relatively small number of folks coming from a relatively small number of institutions, and that is not healthy,” he said.
According to Fagin, who is the director of NYU’s science, health and environmental reporting program, many science journalism programs are expensive and, therefore, inaccessible for many students. For this reason, he has been trying to obtain financial aid to support demographically, racially and geographically diverse students interested in completing the program.
In recent years, Fagin has also been working on a series of science communication workshops. “The idea behind these workshops is to fight, train and preserve journalistic values amongst folks who are not necessarily going to be full-time professional science journalists,” he said.
This idea of teaching journalism skills to people outside of the field was linked to an important topic debated throughout the summit: the contrast between science communication and science journalism.
Science journalism is done through articles generally written by experts in a specific field of science with a purpose of providing the public with accurate and vital information. According to Fagin, like all journalism, science journalism is a specific type of communication that puts the needs of the audience first. “Its priority is giving the audience the most interesting and most important information,” he said. There is no agenda in science journalism, he added.
However, science communication is generally affiliated with promotion and public relations. According to Fagin, science communicators share information with the goals of the institution that employs them in mind.
Teaching public relations and institutional communications people to employ journalistic practices like accuracy, fairness and transparency in their work, Fagin said, could be a solution to the decrease in traditional financial resources for journalism.
Four students from Secko’s Projected Futures science journalism class. The two front speakers are, from left, Kristin Brown and Allison Chua. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
However, this idea of promoting science communication was not unanimous among speakers at the summit. Jim Handman, a freelance science journalist, for one, said he would like to see a revival of specialist science reporters in mainstream media.
“I am worried about science communications taking over science journalism. There is more science in the news today than ever before — we’ve got climate change, vaccines and extreme weather, forest fires, and yet we don’t have specialists covering it,” Handman said. “I think this is a crisis, not just for the media but for society, because you’re going to have a less informed public.”
Yet for some, including Elyse Amend, a member of the SJE Summit team, science communication is about explaining scientific concepts to people in a way they can better understand.
“Science journalism should be much more than just explaining the science, but also explaining the complexity that surrounds whatever scientific issue you are covering,“ she said. “It doesn’t just explain — it illuminates and helps connect and illicit emotions, too.”
According to Amend, good science journalism can have a healthy future if it becomes more collaborative. She said this collaboration will require more conversations between journalists and the variety of people who participate in science.
“(We should be) building relationships with the actual researchers, building relationships with communities that are affected by science and building relationships with people who traditionally wouldn’t be considered experts but still should be,” she said. She offered the example of farmers: “They are not scientists, but they are experts because they apply that science on a daily basis on the field.”
The summit also welcomed students from a summer course called Projected Futures, taught by Secko. The concept of the course, he explained, was to engage students in the idea of making science more accessible to society. Most of the students were scientists or master’s and PhD candidates with little or no experience in journalism, so the course also helped them acquire and practice science journalism skills that would allow them to communicate their knowledge more effectively to the public, Secko said.
At the summit, the 20 students were separated into groups to present their solutions to the issues discussed and to offer their perspectives on how their own scientific work should be covered by journalists in the media.
“We made a lot of progress this week by thinking about the future of science journalism through these student experiences,” Secko said. “Those 20 students are the future of science journalism.”
Feature image: Chantal Barriault, the director of the Science Communication Graduate Program at Laurentian University, alongside Tim Lougheed, a freelance science writer. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.
Creative director and co-founder of ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING (AFE), Monika Bielskyte (left), during a panel discussion at C2 Montreal alongside interviewer and executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada, Hugues Sweeney (right). Photo by Kirubel Mehari.
Creative director and co-founder of ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING (AFE), Monika Bielskyte (left), during a panel discussion at C2 Montreal alongside interviewer and executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada, Hugues Sweeney (right). Photo by Kirubel Mehari.
C2 Montreal invited creative director, Monika Bielskyte, to discuss the future of virtual reality
C2 Montreal is an international conference that gathers visionaries and innovative thinkers from around the world for a three-day event filled with panel discussions based on creativity and commerce. This year’s edition of the event, which ran from May 23 to 25, featured a talk given by Monika Bielskyte on virtual reality (VR) technology and how it might help create a better future.
Bielskyte is the founder of ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING (AFE), a company that designs and builds futuristic virtual worlds using computer-generated simulations of three-dimensional images that people can physically interact with. For example, the company creates simulations of how cities will look 50 years from now.
Bielskyte is a creative director at AFE, specializing in immersive technology such as augmented reality, a technology that uses goggles to superimpose computer-generated images on a user’s view of the real world. She also works with mixed reality, which merges the real and virtual world to produce new environments, and she creates VR prototypes.
For Bielskyte, creating these futuristic virtual worlds offers a way to possibly change our future.“Why I am interested in speaking about the future is because it gives us this necessary distance to look at the present with fresh eyes,” she said during her C2 Montreal talk. “But ultimately, it’s always about the choices that we are making today because there are no answers, only choices.”
According to Bielskyte, the prototypes designed and created using immersive technology and media can have a direct impact on our culture—which influences our reality and eventually our future. And although artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a more common component of immersive technology, she said, it doesn’t really help improve our world or our future. “We’ve been designing into AI the failures of humanity,” she said. “So our AI will fail as we fail.”
For this reason, Bielskyte designs virtual futures that depict how culture and humanity can be utilized to improve the world. “I am interested in showing how cultures of the world can cohabit and enrich each other rather than fighting each other,” she said. This idea of cohabitation and collaboration has been a focus of Bielskyte for a long time. “From a very young age, I realized that everything is truly connected,”she said. “What interests me is to find how cultures affect each other, because no culture is self-contained.”
The idea that technological innovation without humanitarian revolution leads to a dystopian future is part of what drives Bielskyte’s focus on culture in her virtual prototypes of the future.“Technological change is much easier than cultural change, but if culture doesn’t change, nothing does,” she said. “We’ve been a little too focused on technology. Technology is important, but it’s truly just an extension of ourselves—it’s a tool. Technology is not good or bad, humanity is.”
During the talk, Bielskyte also tackled some misconceptions she said people often have concerning VR. “Technology/content companies haven’t done a great job in marketing this new technology and these new ideas,” she said. “[Virtual reality] is mostly perceived as an entertainment gimmick.” The ideas Bielskyte discussed about VR, in comparison, were not about entertainment, but rather about building a glimpse into the future and broadening our horizons with tangible experiences. VR is a world where people no longer sit in front of a computer to get a glimpse into another world, she said. Instead, they become immersed in other realities. “It’s about leaving the rectangular screens behind and stepping into a space where the world is our desktop,” Bielskyte said, describing a world where VR simulations would allow users to feel like they’re truly experiencing another reality.
According to Bielskyte, when immersive technology becomes the new common form of communication, it will cause major changes to our view of reality. “When most of the content we consume is no longer something that we watch, but truly something that we are in—is it just virtual? If it can cause real physical damage, is it only a simulation?” Bielskyte asked the audience. “[Mixed, augmented and virtual realities] are in some way as real and as impactful as real experiences might be.”
Bielskyte also spent part of her talk delving into the storytelling aspect of immersive technology. “People are only at the beginning of learning how to tell stories through interaction [with the audience], and VR does not exist without interaction,” she said.
At the moment, VR simulations are set up in closed environments, such as small rooms or booths, which Bielskyte said is an example of how old media habits are still being applied to this new medium. Instead, she encourages more creative thinking in the development of immersive technology—particularly VRs that interact more thoroughly with the real world. “The digital world will soon enough be meshed with the physical in such a way that our reality will be the transparency that we choose,” she said.
This distinction between reality and virtual reality, however, is more significant in the Western world, Bielskyte said. During her extensive travels, she has learned that places like Central and South America have different perceptions of what is real. “With my Colombian friends, we can shift the conversation about physical experience to dreams, to art, to shamanistic and psychedelic experiences in a blink of an eye—all of these things in their culture are real,” she said.
These varying perspectives of virtual reality are why Bielskyte said she enjoys teaching workshops on immersive creativity around the world. “I can definitely say that the students I had in places like Rio de Janeiro and in Bogotá come up with ideas for virtual reality that are not only equally good as the projects that are being pitched to me in Los Angeles or Silicon Valley—they are way more inspiring and way more interesting,” she said.
For Bielskyte, creativity is the key to developing immersive technology that will truly help humanity. “Humans are creative animals, and it’s only through creativity that we might find ourselves in a habitable future,” she said.
Recently, some of Bielskyte’s work has extended to creating participatory story worlds for Hollywood, including the design and prototyping of the world in Ghost in the Shell. She is also working on a project called Future Nation, which aims to bring fictional worlds from Hollywood into the real world. “It’s about imagining these fictional futures for actual places, for real countries, cities and geographic regions—to help the policy-makers imagine how they could build a better future,” she said.
Portrait of musician and ethnomusicologist, Rob Simms playing the tanbur. Photo courtesy of Rob Simms
York University music professor to perform Middle Eastern music at Casa del Popolo
A music professor from York University, Rob Simms will be performing a benefit show in Montreal to raise awareness for Mosul refugee relief on June 20 at Casa del Popolo at 8:30 p.m. It will be a free show, though people can donate money to the United Nations Refugee Agency in Canada (UNHCR) to help refugees from Mosul, Iraq. Simms will be performing a combination of solo improvisations and traditional Iraqi, Kurdish and Turkish songs.
Simms has been teaching in the music department of York University in Toronto since 2000. He is an ethnomusicologist—meaning he studies music in a cultural context—and also a multi-instrumentalist, specializing in traditional Middle Eastern and West African music. His passion for Middle Eastern music developed from his love of Spanish flamenco music. “I followed my passion of being a listener,” he said. “I got very deep into flamenco, and I started exploring the roots of flamenco—it took me to Arab music,” he said.
Simms said playing Middle Eastern music became even more enjoyable than listening to it because it allowed him to meet other passionate people and expand his knowledge of the music. “You start poking around, and you find more things that are more to your taste. There is an introduction, and then you find exactly what turns you on musically,” he said. “It’s a fantastic thing—it’s cultural, intellectual and pleasurable.” Over the years, Simms has learned to play the oud (a short-necked lute), the setar (a long-necked lute), the tanbur (a string instrument), the kora (a harp) and various percussion instruments.
Even though there are political differences between Middle Eastern countries, Simms said their music shares similarities. “The music is all related and complementary,” he said. “As soon as you put borders, it creates conflict—but when you listen to the music from these countries, they all fit together nicely.” According to Simms, when you bring these cultures together, musically and spiritually, they are like one big family. “I look at it as a family reunion. Of course there was a lot of agitation and colonization, but it’s a reminder of the connection as opposed of the division,” he said.
As he explored Middle Eastern music, Simms said he realized there had been great cultural loss in Iraq due to all the political conflict. “Many aspects of their culture have been destroyed in the last couple of decades due to the political turmoil,” he said. “It’s chaos there—the music has been lost.” According to Simms, this disruption of Iraqi culture significantly lessened the amount of available information about Middle Eastern music—and it’s what led him to write a book about the music. He has also written two books on Persian classical music. “Even though I am not the best person to write about Iraqi music, I did so to satisfy my own questions about it,” he said. “Then I realized that this music needs advocacy—it needs people to keep interest in this music.”
In 2003, Simms published The Repertoire of Iraqi Maqam, a book about the classical music of Iraq, known as Iraqi maqam. According to Simms, the word maqam also refers to your state of consciousness. “Maqam creates an atmosphere and hopefully it elevates people. Surely, as I play the music, it elevates me—you go deeper and deeper, and get into higher degrees of spiritual realization,” he said.
Simms will be performing classical Iraqi maqam at the benefit performance. He will be playing the oud, the Kurdish tanbur and the ney, a Turkish flute. According to Simms, Iraqi maqam sounds more like chamber music than concert music. “The music is heavy and slow—it’s ritual music used for meditation. It’s music that makes you go inside of yourself,” he said. He hopes his performance will allow people to reflect on the tragedies Iraqis have faced.
During the show, photographs depicting the realities of life in Mosul, Iraq and the experiences of its refugees will be projected behind the stage. According to the UNHCR, the fighting in Mosul started in October 2016, leaving 400,000 people trapped in Mosul refugee camps that lack clean water, food, support, shelter and fuel to generate heat.
“We need to have compassion for human beings. Forget about nationalities or religion, we have people suffering,” Simms said. “We need to remind people about the situation there. It’s not just about raising money, it’s about raising awareness.”
