SPEAKERS

BAL, Alex
BARDINI, Thierry
CHATONSKY, Grégory
CONESA, Jean-Claude
COTE, Mario
CZEGLEDY, Nina
DANIELS, Steve
DUBOIS, Jean
ELDER, R. Bruce
EPOQUE, Martine
FISCHER, Hervé
FLEISCHER, Alain
GARDNER, Paula
JOOSSE, Angela
LaBELLE, Guillaume
LANGILL, Caroline
MATHIEU, Marie-Christine
NOLAN, Jason
OUELLET, Pierre
PALMIERI, Christine
PAPON, Frédéric
POISSANT, Louise
POULIN, Denis
PRUSKA-OLDENHOF, Izabella
RODIONOFF, Anolga
SLOPEK, Edward
SNYDER, Don
TREMBLAY, Pierre
VAN ALSTYNE, Greg

Edward Slopek
Ryerson University, School of Image Arts, New Media

- Conference Video

Edward Slopek has over three decades of experience as a teacher and practitioner in the fields of Communication Studies, Media Studies and Fine Arts. Currently a member of the faculty of the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University, he also teaches in the MFA in Documentary Media Program and the Joint Ryerson/York Graduate Program in Communication and Culture. He has taught and developed courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels at other leading institutions across Canada, among them, the University of Calgary and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.  He holds degrees in the Fine Arts and Communication Studies from McGill University (PhD), Leicester University (Masters), the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design. Since the mid-70s, his video art and installation works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in various museum collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. Complementing his visual work, he has maintained an active performance practice throughout and has published on a range of media- and arts-related topics.

GRAND TOURS: TRAVELING WITH THE LIKES OF CHARLES BABBAGE, RAYMOND ROUSSEL AND VACHEL LINDSAY IN VIRTUAL SPACE
Taking as its metaphorical starting point the eccentric travel practices of Charles Baggage, the computer pioneer who traveled Europe in his “Dormobile” bearing gifts and spreading the word on computing, Raymond Roussel, the mad French playwright and author who took round trips in the early years of the 20th Century to Switzerland, Alsace and other locales in his 30 by 8 foot “house on wheels” but never stepped outside it, and Vachel Lindsay, the sound poet and author of the first book on film aesthetics and inspiration to the Beat poets of the late 50s who eschewed any form of vehicular transport and walked hundreds of miles across North America performing his works, this paper seek to explore the nature of travel and place in virtual space. The intention will to be raise questions related to mobility practices and the construction of not only locale but self.