Nancy Lee & Kiran Bhumber^CA

© Jenn Xu

Nancy Lee’s work stimulates and enlivens space, making a provocative statement about how inescapably interconnected we are with our surroundings. This notion of staging is a constant in Lee’s work and underpins their projects, from their early work as a filmmaker, through their conception of live events, and into the realms of XR, new media performance and installation, where their art practice continues to coalesce and evolve. Lee co-founded CURRENT, a feminist intersectional and multidisciplinary initiative, featuring artistic and educational programming. Their interdisciplinary works have been presented at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, MUTEK.JP, Berlin International Film Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and more. They are an XR instructor at IM4 Media Lab at Emily Carr University and artistic mentor at Festival of Recorded Movement. They also run a DIY studio in Vancouver Chinatown hosting cross-genre shows, workshops and residencies. As a Sundance Institute New Frontier Alumni, Lee has been collaborating with Kiran Bhumber on a speculative sci-fi exhibition UNION, exploring 3D scanning/printing, XR, and multi-channel sound and video installation. They recently completed a sci-fi writing program at the School for Poetic Computations in NYC.

Kiran Bhumber is an Indo-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, audio designer, performer and educator. Her practice considers the mediation of emerging technologies through the body by constructing interactive installations and performances examining social choreography, touch and performativity. As an audio designer, Bhumber’s practice centers around multichannel and spatial arrangements and how the choreography of sound can influence the listeners notion of space, time and narrative. Considering physical and virtual presence, Bhumber co-created Telepresence, a live 8.2-channel VR performance presented by Western Front, and was a composer and sound designer for Tidal Traces, a 360° VR dance film with the National Film Board of Canada. Her interdisciplinary and compositional work has been presented at MUTEK (Japan), The International Symposium of Electronic Art (South Africa, Korea), SXSW, Cannes Film Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, New Interfaces for Musical Expression (Australia, Denmark), Toronto International Electroacoustic Festival and more. Bhumber is co-director of INTER/MEDIATE, a media art educational festival focused on cultivating growth within Vancouver’s media art communities and empowering marginalized communities with access to workshops, artist talks and collaborative opportunities.

UNION is an immersive tale of two beings discovering their ancestral memories through the desire for touch and the rituals practiced in their post-apocalyptic wedding ceremony. The narrative draws on the diasporic identities of the artists to reveal and reconstruct cultural memory through the sacred ritual of spiritual union and physical intimacy.

This performance takes place on August 23 as part of the Satosphère series in collaboration with the Society for Arts and Technology [SAT]: more information
not included in passes
However, MUTEK Pass and Passeport holders can benefit from a 15% discount for this event. This offer is available in person at the Society for Arts and Technology box office (1201, boul. St-Laurent). Subject to availability.