Tag: symposium

Categories
News

Montreal’s three major universities come together for the second annual inter-university Parkinson’s awareness symposium

This years Parkinson’s Awareness Month kicked off with the first in-person iteration of the Parkinson’s Awareness Symposium

On Friday, March 25 student representatives from Concordia University, McGill University, and The Université de Montréal gathered at the Montreal Neurological Institute for the second annual McGill x Concordia X Udem 2022 Parkinson’s Awareness Symposium.

The Parkinson’s Awareness symposium is an annual collaboration between Concordia Students for Parkinson’s (CSP), McGil Students for Parkinson’s Awareness and Parkinson UdeM, aimed at promoting awareness for Parkinson’s disease across the three universities

The three-hour long event featured presentations from a variety of guest speakers relating to the study and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. One other highlight of the event was a charity prize raffle, with the proceeds going directly to Parkinson’s Quebec.

Aymée Bray, third-year Concordia student and VP External for CSP, said “The goal for tonight was to get people out we wanted to get researchers out to talk about their work, to get the perspective of our presenters that are living with Parkinsons, and also to get students out in order to give hope to the patients that are also in attendance.”

As the first in-person iteration of the conference, the theme of this year’s symposium was dedicated to demystifying Parkinson’s disease within the general public. Each presentation by the event’s keynote speakers was devoted to examining a unique perspective relating to Parkinson’s disease.

One of the headliners of last week’s symposium was Sarah Humphrey, Parkinson’s activist and cofounder of the Montreal-based organisation Parkinson en Mouvement. Humphrey’s approach to the symposium was based on her experience living with Parkinson’s disease. These experiences led her to organise dance classes as a form of treatment.

Dr. Dalla Bella, Co-Director from the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAM) at the University of Montreal, presented cutting edge research on the effectiveness of rhythm-based games, as a form of treatment for motor-based diseases like Parkinson’s.

The symposium also gave those who have been personally affected by the disease the opportunity to find a sense of belonging within a larger community.

“I was motivated to get involved with the club [CSP] because my grandfather passed away from Parkinsons,” Bray said. “I thought that getting involved would be the best way to give back to the Parkinson’s community.”

Bray’s experience was one shared by many organisers and attendees of last week’s symposium, including McGill faculty member Dr. John Gillard.

“My dad developed Parkinson’s disease later in life,” said Dr. Gillard. “It was very hard to understand in the beginning and I just had to watch it, unfortunately, progress over a period of two years until his demise.”

However, Dr. Gillard remains impressed by the ability for Montreal’s student groups to unite across language barriers and university rivalries in the fight against Parkinson’s.

“The fact that we have three universities in Montreal coming together, and see the enthusiasm of the students, then to realise they are undergraduates, and then to have the dynamism to bring together these exceptional speakers is exceptional!”

Photos provided by Lucas Marsh

Categories
Arts

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Happening in and around the White Cube this week… should art history roll over and die? 

During the Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) Symposium, keynote speaker, Lindsay Nixon, spoke about their current work with Indigenous memes and digital futures. They spoke of the ethics of the dissemination of information and Indigenous knowledge and how apps like TikTok allow Indigenous youth to connect with communities across Turtle Island and the world.

But how does this bridge the gap between artist and influencer? Where does art history come into play?

Nixon, who graduated with a Specialization in Women’s Studies from the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and has completed their MA in Art History at Concordia, places the ethics of making first. The maker, the artist, before the art. Meaning over aesthetics.

While TikTok videos and memes are not always works of art, Indigenous TikToks and memes are a different category. They have the power to create a community and disseminate Indigenous knowledge, objects and experience in a way that was almost impossible earlier in the century. Nixon highlighted artists, like Dana Claxton and Fallon Simard among many others, who work in these ways and pull apart notions of what Indigenous art is.

When speaking about Indigenous art and memes, Nixon opts for “Indigenous digital humanities,” as opposed to contemporary art and art history. And when their talk was finished, a member of the audience raised their hand and said, “Art history should roll over and die.” Nixon, who is also the Indigenous Editor-at-Large for Canadian Art magazine, laughed and agreed.

Art history is definitely rooted in colonial notions of high art, and while craft practices come into the art historical discussion, Indigenous art cannot be looked at in the same way. Art history contends with an institutionalized space that Indigenous digital humanities tries to dismantle.

In Indigenous Art is so Camp, an article in Canadian Art from earlier this fall, Nixon wrote, “Art became my career. Somewhere along the way, I lost the joy of Indigenous art, of art generally, and the initial emotions that drew me to the gallery became conflated with the day-to-day grind of contending with an industry.” Indigenous art, unlike many art historical and anthropological thought, is not limited to a series of symbols and narratives but shares a universal love for camp, and all that is theatrical and truly extra.

These narratives—think of Kent Monkman’s paintings and his alter-ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle—surpass western knowledge and notions of art history.

Art history is, like so many other fields of study, one that should “roll over and die.” There’s still a lot of work to do to redefine the art world and beyond.

Categories
Arts

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Theatrical release: Dérive

What does it take to make a film? After 13 years of planning, writing and filming, Concordia film production graduate, David Uloth’s feature film was finally released in theatres on March 8, International Women’s Day. A drama, Dérive showcases the strength of a mother and her two daughters navigating a recent loss in the family.  

For showtimes, consult www.cinemamontreal.com

 

FARR Art Book Symposium

The Fine Arts Reading Room (FARR) is a library resource at Concordia University which offers residencies, computer access and printing services. The symposium will consist of a series of events and workshops. On March 26, Tommi Parrish will lead an artist talk at 3 p.m., followed by a zine-making event. At 3 p.m. on March 27, Taylor of Bookbinder’s Daughter will lead a binding workshop, and on March 28, the symposium will end with a zine fair from 12 to 5 p.m. and a publication grant finissage from 5 to 7 p.m.

  • When: March 26-28
  • Where: EV Junction (EV2.785)
  • All events are free and required materials will be provided

 

apəTHē/

apəTHē/, or “apathy” is a play created and written by the students of PERC490, Performance Creation Mainstage, a year-long theatre production class. Sara Jarvie-Clark, FASA general coordinator, theatre student and musician (who performed at Somewhere Shared’s event, Somewhere Inside), and Scarlet Fountain, intern at Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) and artist behind the Rope Project, are among several students involved in the production.  

  • When: March 27-30
  • Where: F.C Smith Building, The Cazalet Theatre (Loyola Campus)
  • For show times and tickets visit www.facebook.com/events/2249566458636290/
  • Tickets are $12 for general admission and $7 students and seniors.
Conversations in Contemporary Art presents Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron

Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron is a Montreal-based artist, teacher, Concordia alumna and current artist-in-residence at Concordia University as the 2017 recipient of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Abbondanza-Bergeron is inspired by architecture, working with sculpture and installation to “point out the disparities between inside and outside, as they point out to various forms of built and social structures of control; dictating access or rejection into a specific structure or relationship,” as described on the event page. For more information about the Conversations in Contemporary Art talk series, visit concordia.ca/cica.

  • When: March 29 at 6 p.m.
  • Where: de Sève Cinema, McConnell Library Building (LB-125).
  • The event is free and open to the general public
Exit mobile version