Creative Practices: Doing it Live in a Virtual World?

About the Talk

Artists Mads Brimble, Tristan Sauer and Raavi Dhillon make up a small portion of the New Media Collective []tobreathe. Together they will talk about the experience of creating a collective, navigating physical exhibitions, venue spaces, and health and safety guidelines throughout a global pandemic.

About Room to Breathe

[ ]to breathe (external link)  is a collective of new media artists. Born out of a lack of space in the city, the collective aims to create room for themselves in the artistic community both physically and metaphorically. They explore relationships with various systems, allowing for the discovery of counter narratives, fictions, and alternate histories. Their practices recall, rewrite, and remix intersections with technology in order to demonstrate its influence and reassert their role in its use

Tristan Sauer  (external link) (he / him)...

is a media artist and curator... interested in physical computing, wearable technology, and 3D fabrication. Sauer's practice is critically focused on technology and capitalism, viewing their relationship as a potential modern-day Pandora's box. He is interested in the intersections between our digital and physical worlds, and how technology affects the various facets of human existence. Often expressed through his own identity as an Afro-Canadian, Sauer explores these topics through both an Afro-futuristic and Afro-Pessimistic lens.

Mads Brimble (external link)  (she / her)...

is a practicing new media artist and designer located in Toronto, Canada. Using genetic algorithms to create a kind of ‘unnatural’ selection, her work challenges the heteronormative ideas that surround life and being, giving way to a magical alterity. She uses these digital outputs as blueprints for her laser cut acrylic sculptures, embodying fully formed entities with a tangible past and evolving future.

Raavi Dhillon  (external link) (she/her)...

is a multidisciplinary artist, exploring her identity, passions, and dreams through the creation of physically computed, interactive, and kinetic sculptures. Born in ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ, ਪੰਜਾਬ, Amritsar, Punjab, her work explores themes of identity, relationships, and the immigrant experience. Raavi’s evolving art practice bridges the emotionality of these themes with tangible mediums, taking advantage of technology to carve out a small corner in the art world for the stories and experiences of her communities.