How deep is the difference?

This paper follows the blurriness of the concept of difference as it relates to the Canadian idea of diversity, and its manifestation in governmental forms and official documents. It highlights the paradoxical (inconsistent) function of such documents in addressing diversity, individuation and change. This research was informed by the concept of difference, defined (interpreted) by Manuel DeLanda, and is expressed in a multimedia installation titled Illegal Entries, which reconfigures the Canadian Passport Application form (PPTC 153-154) as a three-dimensional space. This installation shows viewers that this official document, which operates to legitimize state power over citizens’ bodies, is designed to undermine the concept of difference, which is at the core of individuation and is the backbone of diversity and multiculturalism in Canada. This paper provides an account of how a document is transformed into a documentary. The installation creates a bilingual, audio-visual conundrum that consists of institutional texts, commands and warnings. This is juxtaposed with animated graphics, icons and shapes that appear in the document in addition to the image of the passport ID photograph.

Seeing fashion through sound

The 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) has legislated museums to amend tangible and intangible barriers within their curatorial practices by 2025. In this study, a Métis researcher-practitioner explored artistic ways that museums might curate direct and accessible experiences with artefacts through wearable technology. Utilizing a practice-led creative process, non-traditional aboriginal regalia was developed and displayed in a multimedia installation. The artifact was inspired by the Ojibwe Jingle Dress and dance, which empower and heal through sound. To augment the exhibition experience, a wearable audio system enhances sound from the Jingle Dress and touchless elements, such as electromagnetically induced sound, created an environment where visitor interaction would not compromise artefact preservation. A sound experience was only accessible if a visitor learned how to respectfully interact with the artefact. Both artefact and installation serve as recommendations for museums to effectuate inclusive exhibition experiences and address AODA requirements.

How deep is the difference?

This paper follows the blurriness of the concept of difference as it relates to the Canadian idea of diversity, and its manifestation in governmental forms and official documents. It highlights the paradoxical (inconsistent) function of such documents in addressing diversity, individuation and change. This research was informed by the concept of difference, defined (interpreted) by Manuel DeLanda, and is expressed in a multimedia installation titled Illegal Entries, which reconfigures the Canadian Passport Application form (PPTC 153-154) as a three-dimensional space. This installation shows viewers that this official document, which operates to legitimize state power over citizens’ bodies, is designed to undermine the concept of difference, which is at the core of individuation and is the backbone of diversity and multiculturalism in Canada. This paper provides an account of how a document is transformed into a documentary. The installation creates a bilingual, audio-visual conundrum that consists of institutional texts, commands and warnings. This is juxtaposed with animated graphics, icons and shapes that appear in the document in addition to the image of the passport ID photograph.

Seeing fashion through sound

The 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) has legislated museums to amend tangible and intangible barriers within their curatorial practices by 2025. In this study, a Métis researcher-practitioner explored artistic ways that museums might curate direct and accessible experiences with artefacts through wearable technology. Utilizing a practice-led creative process, non-traditional aboriginal regalia was developed and displayed in a multimedia installation. The artifact was inspired by the Ojibwe Jingle Dress and dance, which empower and heal through sound. To augment the exhibition experience, a wearable audio system enhances sound from the Jingle Dress and touchless elements, such as electromagnetically induced sound, created an environment where visitor interaction would not compromise artefact preservation. A sound experience was only accessible if a visitor learned how to respectfully interact with the artefact. Both artefact and installation serve as recommendations for museums to effectuate inclusive exhibition experiences and address AODA requirements.

Reenacting Modernist Time

In The Refusal of Time (2012), South African artist William Kentridge reveals how the Western time regime is a central tenet of modernity, capitalism, and colonialism. Featuring a remarkable reenactment of the famous serpentine dance of Loïe Fuller, this multimedia installation provides a sharp comment on the Western conception of dance history. In having this iconic dance reenacted by Dada Masilo, a dancer of color, Kentridge questions white supremacy in the history of dance. Moreover, having the film sequence of the dance solo shown backward, the images also dismantle the modernist, chronological conception of time and history. This critical reenactment, like the dancing figures in the closing parade of The Refusal of Time, in fact reveal the modernist desire to reenact history along a chronological timeline. Connecting Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time with Deleuze’s onto-aesthetics, this chapter observes how reenactment can articulate an ontological politics of time and movement.

Exile, Within and Without: New Work in Two Modes from Rithy Panh

Franco-Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh has two new works titled Exil (Exile). His 2016 poetic film is a sepia-toned meditation on time, memory, revolution, and resistance that materializes dreams, fantasies, and nightmares with the mundane realities of his childhood survival of genocide. This survival is juxtaposed with a complex, disembodied narration on being-in-exile. Inspired by this original film, Panh's 2017 immersive multimedia installation embraces the current global refugee crisis, combining photographs, archival film footage, selected objects, and an audio track all designed to elicit understanding and compassion for people fleeing war, oppression, and catastrophe. Both film and installation are intellectually rigorous and aesthetically compelling, and both share visual motifs, but each stakes out a different perspective—the former offers an introspective vision of one man's experience of exile while the latter documents the plight of millions of stateless people. Together they represent the latest achievements of a major artist who is driven to remember and to affirm his own humanity and the humanity of Others.