Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology (York University, Canada) is pleased to present the exhibition “Life, A Sensorium,” as part of the International Symposium of Electronic Art 
(October 13-18 2020).

View the exhibition here: https://sensorium.ampd.yorku.ca/isea-2020/

The exhibition unfolds at the nexus of art, science and technology through the works of artists affiliated with Sensorium, who collectively explore the entangled ecologies of the post-natural world. Through multi-sensory experiences that include installations, virtual and mixed reality, 360° videos, performances, expanded media and sculptural forms, these artists explore the different ways that contemporary sensorial relations―human/non-human, natural/ artificial―stage complex articulations and expansions of the real.

In this show, computer-generated organisms interact with viewing bodies. Site-specific installations, kinetic sculptures, virtual environments, and video games explore our interactions and collaborations with multi-species ecologies. The works in “Life, A Sensorium” range from shadow plays and optical illusions to VR wanderings through cosmic orchestral stagings. The blended physical and virtual nature of these aesthetic interactions and environments provide access into worlds not ordinarily perceptible.

In this virtual iteration of the exhibition, we present excerpts of documentation and interviews with the artists as “capsules” of their artistic practice. For these videos, artists were asked: “What does sentience mean to you with respect to your work?” and “Why sentience now?” as prompts to explore the situation of their work within the ISEA 2020 theme.

Curated by Janine Marchessault & Melanie Wilmink, with support from Joel Ong

Featuring:

Freya Björg Olafson - “MAE-Motion Aftereffect”

Nicole Clouston - “Lake Ontario Portrait”

Friend Generator (David Han & Aidan Waite) - “Is there a way to be gone and still belong?”

Mark-David Hosale & Jim Madsen - “Messages from the Horizon”

Alison Humphrey - “Shadowpox: Citizen Science Fiction”

Artificial Nature (Haru Ji & Graham Wakefield) - “Infranet”

Evan Light - “Snowden Archive-in-a-Box”

Taien Ng-Chan - “Inside the Chrysalis”

Jenn E Norton - “Cucoloris domesticus”

Joel Ong - “Terra Et Venti”

Michaela Pnacekova - “Symphony of Noise VR”

Dan Tapper - “Machines to Listen to the Sky”

Michael Trommer - “Ancient Thoughts and Electric Buildings”

Doug Van Nort - “GSO: Genetically Sonified Organisms”

John Greyson - “Hammer”