Author: Tyler Stewart

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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: The Hows and Whys of Artistic Collaboration

Tuesday, January 12 7:30 – 9:00 p.m. online through Zoom

What does collaboration really mean? When artists seek to collaborate without shared understanding about what this means, conflicts may arise. However, collaboration often leads to stronger artistic projects and new ways of learning that may not happen while working alone. 

Featuring guest speakers Thea Patterson (uAlberta Ph.D. student) and Migueltzinta Solís (uLethbridge Ph.D. student), and hosted by ASTeRIX graduate assistant Tyler Stewart, this Intersections panel-style discussion seeks to clarify what artistic collaboration really entails, with participants learning how to work creatively in a collaborative environment that emphasizes communication, visualization, and presentation of information. While this event primarily focuses on supporting student and emerging artist/scholars seeking to engage in new collaborative projects, all are welcome. 

Main discussion topics include the following points; however, open discussion event structure allows and encourages all participants to contribute to the conversation and engage with their peers.  

  • What does collaboration really mean? 
  • The hows and whys of collaboration 
  • When is it not collaboration? 
  • Common collaboration challenges 

Collaboration in the Arts Intersections Session
Tuesday, January 12, 2021  7:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Zoom Link: https://uleth.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0kdO-qrD8oGdbLAAd8XvoliyEqxkrPpQkZ 

Passcode: 174219

SPEAKER BIOS 

Thea Patterson is a choreographer, performer, dramaturge, and researcher. Her performance practice and research revolve around an acute set of questions about the nature of objecthood, perception, vitality, time and the body. She is currently pursuing a SSHRC funded PhD in Performance Studies at the University of Alberta and is co-editor-in-chief of Intonations, an online Graduate run journal.

Thea Patterson is a choreographer, performer, dramaturge, and researcher. Her performance practice and research revolve around an acute set of questions about the nature of objecthood, perception, vitality, time and the body. She is currently pursuing a SSHRC funded PhD in Performance Studies at the University of Alberta and is co-editor-in-chief of Intonations, an online Graduate run journal.  
 photo credit:
Eleonora Barna 





Hali Heavy Shield is a member of the Blood Tribe of southern Alberta and a PhD student studying visual art and Blackfoot storytelling. 


Migueltzinta Solís is a mestizXXX interdisciplinary artist currently working on a PhD in Cultural, Social and Political Thought at the University of Lethbridge in traditional Blackfoot territory, where he received his MFA in Art. He is trans.




Migueltzinta Solís is a mestizXXX interdisciplinary artist currently working on a PhD in Cultural, Social and Political Thought at the University of Lethbridge in traditional Blackfoot territory, where he received his MFA in Art. He is trans.

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ASTeRIX Fine Arts Student Resource Guide

This guide aims to empower students, ensuring you have what you need to be successful as artist-scholars engaged in research-creation at the University of Lethbridge, and beyond into the wider Alberta arts community. It is also designed to integrate with in-person events that help tangibly introduce artist-scholars to the resources mentioned here. Find the full PDF linked below and please visit the home page for more information on related upcoming events.

ASTeRIX Fine Arts Student Resource Guide 2020Download
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ASteRIX Creative Conversations

Feeling isolated? Want to stay in touch with fellow students and faculty about your artistic practice during the summer months and ongoing social distancing restrictions? Join ASTeRIX Zoom Drops for weekly Creative Conversations where participants are invited to hang out and share what’s keeping you busy in the realm of artistic research-creation (or just talk about your pets). Make new connections or get back in touch with folks you haven’t heard from in a while. Whether you’re a musician, programmer, visual artist, performer, or anything else – we’d love to have you join our casual conversation group. 


Join us via zoom link every Tuesday between 1-2pm: https://uleth.zoom.us/j/96885676553

Use this invite link to add our recurring event to your calendar.

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Craft Beer Friday @ SAAG – Live Coding & Sound

ASTeRIX, in collaboration with SAAG and New Music L.AB presents an evening of live coding and sound performance.

Friday | July 17
6 to 9 PM
$10 | $5 with SAAG pass (Includes one beverage and a slice of pizza) |
Limited attendance

Live coding is a 21st-century creative process for making music with computer technology – think of it like musical improvisation, but with a digital twist! Live coding involves an analytical mindset, asking the composer/performer to problem solve by arranging numerical values (integers, floats) and text variables (symbols) following the rules of syntax of a computer programming language.

Bring your own laptop (or iPad with keyboard) to join in the performance, which will feature:

  • D. Andrew Stewart (ASTeRIX)
  • Lavinia Kell Parker (New Music LAB)
  • Sam Parker (New Music LAB)
  • Scott Edward Godin (New Music LAB)
  • Jordan Berg (New Music LAB)
  • Shuan Bellamy (New Music LAB)

SAAG’s Craft Beer Friday is a fun way to connect at the end of the week, choose from a selection of new and exciting craft brews selected by the SAAG staff and the experts at Andrew Hilton Wine & Spirits, topped off with delicious pizza by the slice from Two Guys & A Pizza Place.

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Call for Student Representatives

Are you a Uleth student who will remain enrolled until April 2021? Are you interested in interdisciplinary research-creation in the arts? Would you like to see more support for students through workshops, events, and activities that encourage interdisciplinary research-creation? If yes, then this exciting volunteer opportunity offers you the opportunity to work with a dynamic team of artist-scholars, and gain relevant experience that you can add to your CV.

ASTeRIX is seeking one (1) Graduate Student Representative and one (1) Undergraduate Student Representative from the Uleth student population to sit on the ASTeRIX Steering Committee. These positions entail a commitment to attending one 90-minute meeting per month (on average) between September 2020-April 2021, where you will be asked to provide input and constructive feedback towards ASTeRIX objectives in supporting interdisciplinary research-creation in the arts. Not only will you be adding your voice to ensure student needs are better represented by ASTeRIX events and activities, this role as Student Representative looks great on scholarship and grant applications!

Interested applicants are to submit a statement (150-200 words) that highlights your interest and background, along with links to past artistic work (optional) to asterix@uleth.ca by 4:00pm on July 3, 2020. If you have any questions regarding the role, please contact ASTeRIX Graduate Assistant Tyler Stewart at t.stewart@uleth.ca

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How to Raise a Ghost? (haunting 1.3) – March 5, 2020

Image: “Fredericks” Artist: Angela Deane

Continuing our collaboration with SAAG‘s Bletcher Reading Hour, the latest ASTeRIX Gathering+ event  brings together scholar-artists focused on nascent concepts and works in progress. Mia van Leeuwen invites D. Andrew Stewart, Annie Martin, Julia Wasilewski and Ekida Laurie into a performance-research process that explores the ‘life and death’ of objects through sound, movement, ritual, costume and photography.

This event builds on the readings and discussion from our last Gathering+ event in October, but no previous knowledge or preparation is required to attend – all are welcome! However, you may contact asterix@uleth.ca for copies of the previous readings if you are interested. Please join us for this free event on March 5, 2020 from 6:00-8:00pm at the SAAG (601 3rd Ave South).

The readings can be found via this link as a PDF.

Schedule:

6:00-6:45pm: Context provided for performance research with reference to Bletcher Readings (from Oct 17); open for discussion.

6:45-7:15pm: Performance-research demo How to Raise a Ghost? (haunting 1.3)

7:15-8:00pm: Open discussion and conversation

ASTeRIX Gathering+ events are an informal and conversational opportunity to talk about research creation, encouraging interaction among colleagues from different fields and disciplines, and to discuss nascent concepts and works-in-progress in a more casual off-campus atmosphere.

Performer bios:

Ekida Laurie studied dance at Kyung Hee University in Korea and then went to the Netherlands to dance with the NDT 1 company. She has performed and presented her choreographic work on various stages around the world, including Korea, Japan, Belgium, England, Canada and the USA.

Annie Martin’s practice moves between audio installation, drawing, painting, textile, performance and video. Her work has been exhibited widely in Canada, and also internationally.

D. Andrew Stewart is a composer, pianist and digital musical instrumentalist. A convergence of acoustic and electroacoustic instrumental praxis is at the centre of Stewart’s oeuvre. His music is dedicated to exploring composition and performance for new interfaces for musical expression by adapting and evolving traditional praxis.

Mia van Leeuwen practices the body of performance to explore wide-ranging themes, playfully blurring the lines between theatre and visual art. Altering perspective, baring process, queering, unsettling, combining different forms, making strange, fragmenting time, and juxtaposing imagery, are actions that inform the making of her various projects.

Julia Wasilewski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge as well as a Lethbridge-based costume, set, and lighting designer. Julia’s practice embraces the intersection between traditional design conventions and contemporary renewable approaches in an effort to embrace sustainable theatre-making.

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ASTeRIX Student Engagement Session

On Thursday, Nov 28, ASTeRIX is hosting a student engagement session that focuses on how the centre can better serve and represent student projects. This session will be casual and conversational in nature, and will include asking the following questions:

• What are your research interests and areas of artistic practice?
• What resources/equipment would be most valuable to support your student experience?
• What speakers/facilitators/artists would you most like to have visit Uleth to speak/present/etc (perhaps even in the Spring 2020 term)?
• What types of events/workshops/etc might ASTeRIX plan/provide that you would be interested in?

This 2-hour event will take place in the Switch Lab (W520A) on Thursday, November 28 from 4:00-6:00pm. Please drop in for as much or as little as you can. Please RSVP to asterix@uleth.ca

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Intersections: Student Engagement Session

On Thursday, Nov 28, ASTeRIX will host a student engagement session that focuses on how the centre can better serve and represent student projects. This session will be casual and conversational in nature, and will include asking the following questions:

• What are your research interests and areas of artistic practice?
• What resources/equipment would be most valuable to support your student experience?
• What speakers/facilitators/artists would you most like to have visit Uleth to speak/present/etc (perhaps even in the Spring 2020 term)?
• What types of events/workshops/etc might ASTeRIX plan/provide that you would be interested in?

We will hold a 2-hour event in the Switch Lab (W520A) on Thursday, November 28. We will do our best to find a time that works well for everyone:

• Does 28 Nov. work for you?
• Are you free between 3-8pm and if yes, what is your availability during this this timeframe?
• We’ll provide some refreshments and probably some Pizza (Junction) – do you have any dietary restrictions?

Please RSVP to asterix@uleth.ca to let us know if you can make it!

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Networking and arts-based-research centre workshop with Dr. Natalie Loveless

As part of the ASTeRIX 2019 AGM, Dr. Natalie Loveless provided a detailed explanation of the UAlberta Research-Creation CoLABoratory (CoLAB), which she co-directs. For instance, Natalie talked about their regular season of topic-based meetings, as well as their organising and co-sponsoring events in other
faculties and departments.

Following her CoLAB presentation, we considered two questions with respect to our own R-C practices and activities at ULethbridge:

(1) What barriers/challenges do you face while conducting R-C?

(2) In the next three years, what is your ideal vision for advancing R-C with respect to the university and local communities, and beyond?