In this critical juncture of human evolution, where both the potential and detrimental effects of our unbridled emerging technologies are especially being felt – we see great opportunities for positive change. But not without an informed public.
This year’s curation fosters a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary discourse on the pivotal questions that concern us all. As we navigate this new landscape together, we intentionally bring the knowledge and voices of Indigenous and racialized creative technologists to the forefront of these conversations.
We share the concept of Na wa shéw̓ay̓ ta sp’en̓ém meaning “the seed is growing” as a guiding vision of Signals. IM4 Lab matriarch Tracey Kim Bonneau has stated that Indigenous people have always had what is called “futurism”, based on the concept of renewal, embodied by a seed. This is shared by Indigenous people across Turtle Island. Senaqwila Wyss, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh artist and ethnobotanist, was asked by the IM4 Lab to share a way of expressing this in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim. Na wa shéw̓ay̓ ta sp’en̓ém means “the seed is growing”. May this curated experience be the soil where seeds of change take root, empowering you to add your unique voice to the critical dialogues shaping our tomorrow and the tomorrow of future generations.
Don’t miss your chance to experience these works that will only be available Oct 1-7.
Tickets $15 for a 1 hour and 45 minute entry.
Experience the World Premiere of the interactive immersive experience We Are Entanglement, inspired by the motif of the forest and its underground fungal network. The artist team Artificial Nature invites visitors into this multi-sensory, multi-dimensional immersive and interactive environment where we humans, visible and invisible forests, and generative AI are continuously intertwined with each other.
Experience a large scale projection mapping of Walk in a Circle by Dene artist Casey Koyczan. This body of work was created by re-imagining materials from the North as an embodiment of human characteristics and walk cycles within a 3D environment to bring out their spirit.
Come experience a made for Signals gamified brain wave experience! SinkInSync presents the design and prototype of a cross-person EEG neurofeedback experience. This generative gamified platform uses one user’s brainwave data to procedurally render 3D scenes and passively displays visual cues that are synchronized with the real-time brainwave frequency to another user. With the platform, we aim to enhance cognitive and emotional social connectedness during remote interactions via external cues for brainwave synchronization between pairs of individuals and through pair-based gamification.
Meneath, a unique installation experience created for SIGNALS, based on Métis creator Terril Calder’s installation Meneath: The Mirrors of Ethics, winner of the New Voices Award at New York’s Tribeca Festival. Meneath charts the challenging journey of a precocious Métis Baby Girl as she contemplates her path to Hell. Using interfering screens in an object reminiscent of a puppet theatre, this stop-motion installation unearths hidden Indigenous values and illuminates the bias of our colonial systems.
Experience the first hands on exclusive sneak peek installation where you can play the upcoming Homeworld 3 by BlackBird Interactive and published by Gearbox months before its release in 2024. Homeworld 3’s campaign is set in a galaxy that has enjoyed an age of abundance thanks to the Hyperspace Gate Network, with the cycles of peace and war having come and gone. The gates themselves are now catastrophically failing and Karan, who has passed into myth and religious idolatry, is the key to the mystery threatening the entire galaxy’s future.
This digital work represents the next generation of elders in spirit form within the woods as they safely assist those who have passed into the afterlife.
This VR / 3D animated short film presents multiple overlapping timelines of Denendeh; the giant animals that roamed the North of the past, the present landscape, and the future infused with technology and habitable orbiting stations for our population as the world rebuilds itself.
The Interactive Polyphonic Garden is an interactive, ambisonic piece that intimately explores our relationship with the living, breathing and animate world. Using tools of biosonification and a curated garden of Indigenous plants, Ruby Singh and Cease Wyss raise songs and melodies from flora and fungi, transforming bioelectricity into midi data to inform pitch and rhythm.
The interactive installation premiere of Fae Farm, where you create your own cozy home in the enchanted world of Azoria. Craft, cultivate, and decorate to grow your shared homestead—and use spells to explore the enchanted island of Azoria! You’ll forge new bonds with residents, discover fae magic, and trek across mysterious realms. And as the seasons change, you’ll use all you've learned and discovered together to restore the world around you.
reCollection uses interactive AI to assemble and display synthetic collective memories based on language input. The AI system learns from Alzheimer patients’ visual and descriptive memories and then imagines new memories by interpreting real-time narratives from participants in the installation. It offers an artistic approach and future prototype for cultural heritage reproduction and re-imagination and explores the tensions in the co-relations between visual representations, language, and narratives.
A narrative-based game featuring characters voiced by local asian-canadian actors. 1000xRESIST is an exploratory experience of walking through locations that traverse diverse and multiple timelines.
Echoes of Chinatown: A Walk with Goong Goong is a two-part 180-degree video projection and AR installation exploring the history of Vancouver's Chinatown through the use of memory. The video projection is an animated 4-minute film, A Walk with Goong Goong, about a WWII veteran revisiting Chinatown with his granddaughter and reliving bittersweet memories. As a counterpart, the AR installation, A Parade to Remember, features an AR interactive projection of the V-DAY parade celebrating the end of WWII against a physical backdrop of the Wing Sang building. Through both pieces, we hope to acknowledge the resilience and efforts that our Chinese-Canadian ancestors have paved the way for Chinese-Canadians today.
Indigenous storytellers from across Turtle Island attended the first ever in the world Indigenous video production training program. Using Unreal Engine, the program that is transforming the media industry (see Mandolorian, Star Trek: Strange New Words), they created short films that tell stories never seen before. Celebrate these artists as they apply tech innovation to stories that tell our many histories, lived lives and metaphysical experiences.
AR Projects Commissioned from artists from xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), & Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.
Do you have any projects in development that you might want to showcase October 1 - 7 at the Signals Beta Lounge? It’s a chance to test something not public ready in a controlled environment with audience. We’re also using it as a meeting spot of convergence for creative technologists and a way for you to invite people that you may want to meet with or have a coffee with.
Book your “Signals Experience Ticket” and venture into a unique interactive and immersive experience for 1 hour and 45 mins where you will explore 19 projects in a 3500 square foot gallery space.
A unique interactive exhibition, Signals celebrates the creative power, playfulness, and storytelling potential of new technologies.
