This multi-site exhibition takes place at Centre[3] for Print at Media Arts at 173 James St. N. (hours: M-F 10-6, Sat 11-5) as well as 126 James St. N. in Hamilton, ON (hours: M-F 11-4, Sat 12-4). Both venues are accessible.
An ASL interpreter will be present at the opening. Audio description is available.
Door-to-door, accessible transportation in Hamilton can be booked with Darts Transit – www.dartstransit.com
Established as a media arts centre based in London, Ontario VibraFusionLab (VFL) provides opportunities for the creation and presentation of multi-sensory artistic practice. As an interactive, creative media studio VFL promotes the creation of new accessible art forms; focusing on inclusive technologies that expand art-making practices in the deaf, blind, disabled and non-disabled communities. The Lab features several inclusively designed systems aimed at inspiring artists, participants and audiences of all abilities.
‘VibraFusionLab: Bridging Practices in Accessibility, Art and Communication’ brings together seven artists, all with an affiliation with VibraFusionLab – four self-identified deaf and/or disabled and three non-disabled. The works selected for this exhibition specialize in the exploration of “vibrotactility” in technology and as a creative medium that combines visual, audio and tactile elements into a highly emotional and sensorial art practice. In considering accessible technologies as creative mediums these artists explore the bridging of methods of communication.
It has always been the intent of VFL to be inclusive in its programming, believing that greater accessibility is beneficial to all. Bridging ability differences within the shared creative space leads to greater insight, understanding, tolerance and expands art making as an inclusive experience.
Click below for full artist biographies:
Artist Bios – VibraFusionLab
About the Curator:
David Bobier is a self-identified hard of hearing media artist with a mental health diagnosis and is the parent of 2 deaf children. His work has been exhibited internationally and has been the focus of prominent touring exhibitions in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Bobier has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Grand NCE, Ontario Arts Council and New Brunswick Arts Council.
He is currently partnering with Inclusive Media and Design Centre at Ryerson University, Toronto and Tactile Audio Displays Inc. in researching and employing vibrotactile technology as a creative medium. As an extension of this research Bobier has established and is Director of VibraFusionLab in London, Ontario, Canada. The Lab emphasizes a holistic approach to considering vibration as a language of creation and exploration and to investigating broader and more inclusive applications of the sensory interpretation and emotionality of sound and vibration in art making practices. Through VibraFusionLab and in his own art practice Bobier aims at creating opportunities of greater accessibility in art making, art appreciation and in viewer experiences of art practices and presentations.
Using performance and interactive installation Bobier explores the bridging of methods of communication and language and ways of interpreting or transforming one modality to another. His work is engaged in a multi-sensory approach and experimentation that allows for the transitioning and re-interpreting of content and experience from one medium to another with particular emphasis on the tactile as a form of creative expression.