SENSORIA: the Art & Science of Our Senses is a multi-site exhibition and symposium that bridges LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) in Gdansk, Poland and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts & Technology at York University in Toronto, Canada. Held simultaneously in both locations, the exhibition and symposium will engage multi-sensory research that revitalizes our sensory connections to our surroundings, through and despite technological tools, networks and latencies.
The exhibition is co-curated by distinguished curator Nina Czegledy (Agents for Change: Facing the Anthropocene, 2020 & Leonardo/ ISAST 50th Celebrations, 2018) and Sensorium director Joel Ong. Czegledy brings together an international network of artists and scholars who explore the intersection of art, science and the senses in the project that she has meticulously developed over multiple years. Sited concurrently in both Poland and Toronto, the Sensoria exhibition will explore the dissociative potential of contemporary technologies on the senses, treating it not only as a social crisis but also an opportunity for creative play and experimentation. It aims to engage a conversation about the senses from the perspective of art, but also science, incorporating artists that straddle the boundaries of knowledge production in a variety of ways.
The symposium leverages the exhibition content as the starting point for more in-depth conversation about the connective aesthetics of everyday sensing and the knowledge-creation potential of artists and scientists collaborating in innovative ways. The socio-political turbulences we have experienced worldwide during the last decade have created unprecedented social and personal strife. While connections are sustained now amongst virtual networks that straddle vast spaces, how might we consider the sharing of intimate senses through smell, touch, and bodily movement as a form of mutual support? The symposium explores questions such as these with keynote presentations by Ryszard Khuszcynski, Chris Salter and David Howse, as well as roundtables between artists and scientists, and performances by Csenge Kolozsvari and York University’s DisPerSions Lab (led by Doug Van Nort). All aspects of the symposium will be presented with virtual components, so as to allow both in-person engagement in Toronto and virtual presence in Gdansk and elsewhere.
The SENSORIA exhibition will run:
LAZNIA CCA : Sept 16th – Oct 30th 2022
Gales Gallery, York University Toronto : Sept 26th – Oct 14th 2022
The symposium will be held in person at York University, and streamed online on Oct 4-5th 2022
In addition, the exhibition and exhibiting artists will be open to the public during Nuit Blanche on Oct 1 2022.
Sensoria’s Toronto edition is programmed by Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology (Sensorium) at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) as part of the Year of the Arts Program
Artists
Guy van Belle, Roberta Buiani, Lorella Di Cintio and Kavi, Grace Grothaus, Hrysovalanti Maheras, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Gayil Nalls, Michael Palumbo, Michaela Pnacekova, Raewyn Turner & Brian Harris.