SCA | Quick News | September 2, 2022
New Assistant Professors: James Long, Stefan Maier, and Noé Rodríguez
We're very excited to welcome two new faculty members for the 2022 fall term, James Long and Stefan Maier, and to announce the promotion of Noé Rodríguez, with all three at the level of Assistant Professor.
James Long is a director, actor, writer and teacher whose creative practice occurs in a wide variety of interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts, including as a founding Artistic Director (2003–22) of Theatre Replacement and as an independent artist working in live performance, community engaged practice, screenwriting and public art. James’s work has been presented across North America, Europe and Asia. In 2016, James and co-writer Marcus Youssef were nominated for the Governor General’s Award for playwriting for Winners and Losers. In 2019, he and Theatre Replacement co-artistic director Maiko Yamamoto were awarded the Siminovitch prize for their work at Theatre Replacement and as freelance artists. Long graduated from Simon Fraser University’s Theatre Program in 2000 and received a Master’s in Urban Studies, also from SFU, in 2018. He currently sits on The City of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Advisory Council and serves as the president of the organization that stewards Vancouver’s Russian Hall, a multi-purpose performance and gathering space. He has and continues to receive funding from a variety of private foundations, The City of Vancouver, The Province of British Columbia, BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for his creative research and performance work blending interdisciplinary collaborative processes and urban concerns.
Stefan Maier is a Vancouver-based artist and composer. Through composition, performance, and multi-media installation, his practice explores the chaotic flows of sonic matter through instruments, buildings, sound systems, software, and bodies. Highlighting material instability and seeking out unruliness, his work aims to uncover alternate modes of authorship and listenings through historical and contemporary sound technology. His work has been presented by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Germany), Unsound Festival (Poland), Ultima Festival (Norway), SPOR festival (Denmark), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Neatherlands), Liquid Architecture (Australia), and the National Music Centre (Canada) among many others. Recent projects for dance and film have been presented at Sterischer Herbst (Austria), International Film Festival Rotterdam (Neatherlands), and V-A-C foundation (Russia). Stefan's writing appears in Circuit and Indexical Publications, and in 2018 he curated and edited an edition of Haus der Kulturen der Welt's Technosphere Magazine on Machine Listening. He was a 2019 Macdowell Colony Fellow, and has held residencies at NOTAM (Norway), Lobe Studios (Canada), and IAC Malmö (Sweden) among others. In 2017 he received a Mayor’s Art Award as an emerging musician from the City of Vancouver. Stefan holds a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Bard College, and an MA in Digital Music from Dartmouth College.
Using analog film, digital imaging, field recordings and prepared instruments, Noé Rodriguez’s work ponders upon the lyrical qualities of the real and responds to the material and temporal traces of collective life in the terraformed landscape. His film Ceiba received the Pasajes Award to the Best Spanish Film in Filmadrid International Film Festival and was screened at the TIFF lightbox in the program The Roots That Thirst, as part of the Wavelengths year-round screening series. Aadat, codirected with Xisela Franco, won several awards, including the Premio Ciudad de Madrid to the best Spanish documentary in DocumentaMadrid, 2006, and was screened at multiple festivals internationally. As a cinematographer, Rodriguez has collaborated in Luo Li’s I Went to the Zoo the Other Day (2009), Eva Kolcke’s All that is Solid (2014) and Andrea Bussman’s & Nicolás Pereda´s Tales of Two Who Dreamt (premiered at Berlinale 2016). Rodriguez has a MFA from York University and both a BA and a BFA from Universidad Europea de Madrid.
TPE's Music of Displacement
Turning Point Ensemble, which has the SCA's Owen Underhill as Artistic Director and conductor, has put tickets on sale for their next concert, Music of Displacement, which takes place September 17 & 18, 2022, at the Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour Street, Vancouver). More HERE.
Latta co-organizes Waltz and co-presents HOME / LAND
Co-organized by the SCA's Erika Latta, choreographer and dancer Sasha Waltz will be presenting her work Körper and holding a hybrid lecture and Q&A on October 2, 2022, at 12:00 PM (EST) at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, curated by Ivan Talijančić (co-founder and co-Artistic Director, with Latta, WaxFactory), who is the Special Visiting Professor of Directing at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, with support from the 2022-2023 Sylvia & David Steiner Speaker Series, The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and us, the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. More HERE. Also, HOME / LAND, a collaboration between Portland’s Hand2Mouth Theatre, France's Begat Theater, and WaxFactory, is running 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM on Thursdays – Sundays from September 1 – 18, 2022, at 3121 South Moody Ave., in Portland, OR. More HERE.
Eigenfeldt in Surrender
When he's not training his musebots, the SCA's Arne Eigenfeldt fills his recreation time playing bass with local U2 tribute band Surrender, which he joined earlier this year. Follow them on Facebook for their latest gig info.
withintensions' R & R
Download the latest issue of withintensions, the monthly art mag from SCA alumni, this time on the theme of Rest & Relaxation. Download it HERE.
MacCaull's 003_playback
New Works are presenting a Performance in Development showing of 003_playback by SCA alumnus Caroline MacCaull, who's also a member of Chimerik 似不像, on Sunday, October 2, 2022, at 5:00 PM at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver). More HERE.
Wallgrin's YOLK
Listen to SCA alumnus Wallgrin / Tegan Wahlgren new track YOLK, released just today. Listen HERE. Also, click through to her Instagram to read a little about the track, too.
Kotowich and Goodman in Düsseldorf
SCA alumni Jeanette Kotowich, presenting Kisiskâciwan - solo offering, and Vanessa Goodman, with collaborator Caroline Shaw, presenting Graveyards and Gardens, are part of the Canada Programme in the internationale tanzmesse nrw, which concludes Saturday, August 3, 2022, in Düsseldorf, Germany.
O'Callaghan's album Alone and unalone reviewed
Read a review of SCA alumnus James O'Callaghan's album Alone and unalone, recorded with Ensemble Paramirabo. Read it HERE.
Lum's The Buffalo and the Buffalo Fur Trader
SCA alumnus Ken Lum's public art work, The Buffalo and the Buffalo Fur Trader, which was commissioned by the city of Edmonton over a decade ago, has been deaccessioned by the city. Set to be installed on both sides of Edmonton's Walterdale Bridge, with a bronze-cast buffalo and "fur trader," depicted atop a pile of buffalo pelts, staring at each other across the North Saskatchewan River. Doubtlessly informed by the discovery (more grim recognition of what was already well known in Indigenous communities) of unmarked graves at multiple sites of former residential schools across so-called Canada, as well as an overdue but increasing critical recognition of the the brutality of colonial history in this country, the city argued that the work might be "misinterpreted as a celebration of colonization," with Lum responding that "shelving" the work "not only hurts artistic expression, but also hurts any ability to have a dialogue about the country’s colonial past and the conditions of coloniality that continue to mark the present." For more on this, multiple news sources have covered this story, including APTN News, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, CTV News in Edmonton, the CBC, The Tyee, and elsewhere. In other, less controversial news, read a long conversation with Lum and Neil Price from Ocula HERE.
O'Brien's Dream Home Hotline
SCA alumnus Keely O'Brien, who's the current artist-in-residence at The Blue Cabin, has set up a Dream Home Hotline as part of residency. Click through to The Blue Cabin's Instagram to get the Hotline's number and to read more about the project.
SFU Galleries calling Indigenous Artists and Community
Our friends and colleagues at SFU Galleries have shared a "Call to Indigenous Artists and Community – Request for Qualifications." Here's the "background" for the call:
"Simon Fraser University (SFU) – Surrey Campus invites local Indigenous artists connected to the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), q’ʷa:n̓ƛ’ən̓ (Kwantlen), Səmyámə (Semiahmoo), and sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nations, to create artworks near the Surrey Centre or School of Sustainable Energy Engineering buildings, to share Indigenous art and culture at the core of our learning spaces.
This process reflects the goals of a multi-pronged approach — that engages community, provides mentorship, and shares Indigenous art and culture — as articulated priorities established during a feast with local Elders and Indigenous community participants in May, 2022. Four artworks will be commissioned in total, and installed in summer 2023, with a celebration launch in September 2023."
Read the full call HERE.
Kanagawa in World Equal
SCA alumnus Hiro Kanagawa is featured in the latest edition of World Equal Magazine. More HERE.
Aoki's More Alike than Unalike workshop
SCA alumnus Jennifer Aoki is presenting her current work in progress, More Alike than Unalike, as a workshop for Voirelia, on Saturday, September 10, 2022, at 11:00 AM. More HERE.
Lord's Soft-Spoken Weepy Cult Child
Watch the trailer for SCA alumnus Irina Lord's Soft-Spoken Weepy Cult Child, which will be presented at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, running September 17 – 22, 2022. Watch it HERE.
Escolán's August in El Salvador
SCA alumnus María Escolán spent this last August "developing a work in my country, based on experiences of women in my family, with a group of amazing artists, with so many years of dedication to art, culture to, the theater in El Salvador." Read more and see some photos from her time in El Salvador on her Instagram.
Fire of Love at VIFF Centre
Sara Dosa's Fire of Love, which was edited by SCA alumnus Jocelyne Chaput – her first feature as editor, which also won an award for editing at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival – is being presented September 2 – 8, 2022, by the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF Centre – 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver). More HERE.
Stir on I see; I breathe; I am! and Concealed Cultures: Visualizing the Black Vernacular
Read Stir Vancouver on the upcoming exhibitions, I see; I breathe; I am! and Concealed Cultures: Visualizing the Black Vernacular, curated by The Black Arts Centre (which has SCA MA student Moroti Soji-George as a member) for the Surrey Art Gallery, both running September 17 – December 11, 2022. Read it HERE.
After School with Velasquez and Milosavic
The latest episode of After School, the podcast produced by the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology that features FCAT students in conversation with FCAT alumni, including SCA folks, has School of Interactive Arts + Technology student Chloe Narcisse Velasquez speaking with SIAT alumna Sara Milosavic. Listen HERE.
Chambers and Young's One hundred more
Frequent SCA instructor and incoming SCA MFA student Justine A. Chambers and her collaborator Laurie Young are presenting One hundred more on Thursday, October 13 + Friday, October 14, 2022, at 8:00 PM at The Dance Centre, presented as part of Global Dance Connections series. More HERE.
North Barn Theatre Collective's A Gorgon's Tale
North Barn Theatre Collective, which formed in the Spring of 2020 by Laura Stinson and SCA alumnus Ian McFarlane, is presenting A Gorgon's Tale "a field near you" in Nova Scotia. More HERE.
Zaurrini plays
Listen to the archive recording of a free online show on August 31, 2022, that SCA alumnus Joey Zaurrini played as part of Ensemble 1. Listen HERE.
Member spotlight on D’Anunciação
Read a "member spotlight" of SCA alumnus Luciana Freire D’Anunciação by The Dance Centre. Read it HERE.
Le Sigh Issue 4
Read Issue 4 of Le Sigh, the online arts magazine from SCA alumnus Didier Morelli and Charlene K. Lau, HERE.
Carter talks to the CBC
SCA alumnus Shion Skye Carter is included in this report from CBC Vancouver about "performance artists" making a "hopeful return to B.C. festival stages" after COVID. Read it HERE.
Big City and Kamikaze Nurse at Victory Square
Groups with SCA folks – Big City (the duo of SCA MFA student Katayoon Yousefbigloo and PhD student Dave Biddle) and Kamikaze Nurse (with SCA alumnus and incoming SCA PhD student Casey Wei) – are the bookends for the Victory Square Block Party 2022 on Sunday, September 4, presented by CITR 101.9FM & Discorder Magazine, Music Waste Festival, and SFU's CJSF 90.1. More HERE.