Artists: Tyler Cunningham, Joyce To, Sara Maston, and Rebecca Watson | Photos: provided by artists
NEL2R Collective – Artists in Residence
Residency Project: The Machines that Hold Us
Residency 2022:
June 2022 @ The Little Station
15 Elias Street, Port Hope, on Lent Lane
Studio Hours:
Saturdays, 10 a.m.- 2pm
Workshops:
Saturday, June 11 @12 p.m; 1 p.m
Saturday, June 18 @12 p.m
Artist Talk
Saturday, June 25 @12 p.m.
Attendance will be limited to comply with COVID-safety regulations.
The artist talk will also be recorded and shared on our social channels.
Workshop sign up sheet available at Little Station, or email RSVP to info@criticalmassart.com
Location:
The Little Station
15 Elias Street, on Lent Lane
Port Hope, Ontario
Connect with the artists!
Instagram:
Tyler Cunningham @t_cunningham13
Joyce To
@_joy.jpg
Sara Maston
@malafax
Rebecca Watson
@rxjxw
RESIDENCY PROJECT – June 2022
Where do we go from here? – NEL2R’s residency at Critical Mass will consider the relationship between humans, the environment, and our future with more-than-human entities in an age where collaboration with AIs and non-human animals is more urgent than ever.
Their project coalesces around the question, “how could our relationship with technology facilitate a kinship to our ecological surroundings?”. NEL2R aims to demonstrate strategies where technology brings us closer to the land we stand on.
NEL2R’s installation features two sculptures made of repurposed tech objects (such as CRT computers or TVs). The sculptures are a physical vessel that represents the “mind” of two individual machine-learning models (a subfield of artificial intelligence that makes predictions from data) that will be trained by the Port Hope community over the course of our residency.
The sculptures interact with one another via a central algorithm which will materialize in the form of text, video, and computer-synthesized voice. They will converse about Port Hope’s relationships with the environment, technology, community, and land over the course of the residency.
ABOUT NEL2R
Nothing Else Left to Read Collecitve (NEL2R collective) is a Toronto-based collective that began as a digital concert series exploring new online mediums as a basis for live performative frameworks. This series focused on celebrating emerging artists, new compositions and innovative developments during this digital performance age, and the current collective is now focused on research-led, interdisciplinary performance creation. The collective includes Joyce To, Tyler Cunningham, and Julie Zhu, but regularly features guests performers and artists.
Tyler Cunningham and Joyce To are Toronto-based percussionists, researchers, curators, and new-media/sound artists. Joining them for this Port Hope residency project are multi-disciplinary researchers and visual artists, Sara Maston and Rebecca Watson, also based in Toronto.
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Video: What I don’t do
https://youtu.be/B0BVGKgIrhM
Tyler Cunningham and Joyce To (2019/20)
Joyce To
https://www.joyceto.com/
Host: Press Play, Continuum Contemporary Music
https://www.continuummusic.ca/press-play/
Co-Artistic Director: Nothing Else Left to Read
https://nel2r.joyceto.com
Tyler Cunningham
https://tylercunningham.me
Sara Maston
https://saramaston.com
Rebecca Watson
https://rebeccajeanwatson.com
BUZZ & BOUNCE
Saturday, June 11
12:00 p.m. & 1:00 p.m.
$5 or pwyc
Location: the Little Station (meet us at the picnic tables)
RSVP to: info@criticalmassart.com
(Materials are limited for those wanting to take home a kit)
NEL2R will be hosting an all-ages introduction to circuits and sound. You will build a circuit to make a speaker BUZZ. Put some light objects on the speaker and watch how the vibrations make them BOUNCE.
What vibrational patterns do we feel? How do these patterns affect the objects on the speaker?
As part of their Critical Mass residency installation process, NEL2R are looking at how the vibrations from sound can create patterns on sand, water, dirt and what they may reveal beyond the surface when we do glimpse these patterns.
IMAGINATION STATION
Saturday, June 18
12:00 p.m.
free
Location: the Little Station (meet us at the picnic tables)
RSVP to: info@criticalmassart.com
or Drop in!
NEL2R will be hosting an all-ages tactile workshop that encourages imagination, exploring nature and methods of observation. Participants will select from objects available/encouraged to bring in items found in the environment (leaf, feather etc.).
The objects will be used to trace/colour onto the translucent paper. In the end, you will have a beautiful artwork to take home to place on the window and admire as the sun seeps through.
Pencils/crayons will be provided, you are welcome to BYO materials if you prefer.