Project Team
Ruth Beer
Ruth Beer is a Vancouver-based artist/researcher interested in interdisciplinary approaches to artistic, collaborative and pedagogical practices. She has an extensive record of exhibitions including in Canada, United States, UK, Japan and China and completed public art commissions, most recently for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Her sculpture, video artworks and interactive projections explore descriptive, imaginary and expressive ways to interpret cultural and geographic conditions related to social history and the present. Beer is the recipient of Canada Council Visual Art Grants and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. She was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Research/Creation Grant as principal investigator (2009-2012) for Catch and Release: Mapping stories of cultural and geographic transition, a project involving research and the creation of interactive artworks that address the social history and geo/marine conditions by focusing on the fishing industry and coastal communities. Dr. Ruth Beer is a Professor and former Assistant Dean of Visual Art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Kit Grauer
Kit Grauer is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Sheis actively involved in art education organizations at the local, national, and international levels. Dr. Grauer's interests include arts-based and image-based research, international issues in art education, teacher education, museum education, and art curriculum and instruction. She has given numerous presentations, in-service sessions, and keynote addresses in these areas. Her current research includes the use of artistic pedagogical strategies in both pre-service and in-service teacher education, museum education, and community-based new media education.
Jim Budd
Jim Budd is currently the Chair of Georgia Tech's School of Industrial Design. Until 2010, he was associate professor of industrial and interaction design at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he headed the Wearables and Interactive Products Lab. He has 15 years of academic and research leadership in human-centered, interactive product design, as well as two decades of corporate design experience. He has an extensive research and publication record and has received several design and teaching awards.
Miles Thorogood
Miles Thorogood is a practicing new media artist specializing in the design and development of adaptive and interactive software systems. These systems explore convergences between the body, environments and technology. Miles holds a Bachelor of Digital Arts from Australian National University Centre for New Media Arts, a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and is currently a PhD student at Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Current research interests include artificial intelligence and semantic representations of media in the broader context of understanding creativity.
Erin Siddall
Erin Siddall holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and is current Master of Fine Arts Candidate at the University of British Columbia. She is most at home behind a camera, and loves the collaborative nature of media and media education. She feels that photography, film and animation are important artistic mediums that can question the nature of reality, and socially constructed representation. Erin has previously worked professionally as a educator, photographer, graphic designer, and media creator. She has a 6 year old daughter, who inspires her passion for mentorship and art education with children and youth.
Gabriella Solti
Gabriella Solti is a multi-disciplinary artist whose artist books have been exhibited in Italy, Germany, Japan, and Canada. As winner of the prestigious Alcuin Award for Excellence in Book Design in Canada in 2010, her limited edition book, "The Sensory Delights of Text" was Canada's official entry in the February 2011 international book design competition in Leipzig: Best Book Design From all Over the World. She has worked in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science before graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She holds a Master of Computer Science degree from the University of Eotvos Lorand, Budapest, Hungary and started her professional career as a research fellow in Logic Programming, a specialized field of artificial intelligence. Her knowledge and interest in cognitive science, perception, and memory continues to inform her art practice; stressing the importance of experiential, physical, and sensory engagement with artwork.
Jay Pozo
Jay Pozo holds a Computer Science degree from Capilano University and undertook art and technology studies at Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Art and Technology. His interest in art and technology has led to his position as Senior ActionScript Programmer at Disney Online Studios Canada. Jay has exhibited works at artist run centers around Vancouver and for the Cultural Olympiad during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
Dawn Johnston
Dawn Johnston holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. Her interest specializes in taking things apart, seeing their inner structures, and relating it to everyday life. She recently returned from an artists' residence that took place on a ship traveling in the Arctic.
Amy Zion
Amy Zion graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada in 2009. Her new media work, Le Bateau L'Avenir (2009) was exhibited in Vancouver's New Forms Festival in 2009. She is an Assistant Editor of Fillip, a contemporary art magazine published in Vancouver. She is currently in her second year at Bard College where she is completing her Masters Degree in Curatorial Studies.
Kyle Martin
Kyle Martin is a wiz as a programmer of Arduino, C++ programming, and builds and designs open source electronic devices. He is also a a talented competitive sailor. Having joined the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club race team in an Optimist dinghy when he was 7, Kyle has become an elite athlete in the sport. He represented Canada in the Radial at the 2011 ISAF Youth World Championships and has competed in international regattas in the Laser class.
Tim Barnsley
Tim Barnsley holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree from Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) majoring in Film and Digital Art. He is a director, director of photography and editor at Astrolux Films in Australia. He directed, produced and photographed short films, music videos, television drama and commercials.
