The world of art and technology has converged. Every new advancement is yielding exciting methods of creative expression. With the pace of innovation being so relentless, the space for exploration is seemingly endless. Artists are at the forefront of this discovery, pushing hardware and software in ways their designers never intended. In the process, they are and finding collaborators and inspiration in unlikely places.

Join us for a roundtable discussion with 6 incredible artists as they discuss the intersection of art and digital technology; the experiences, opportunities, challenges and achievements.

Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR, painting, and performance. Their praxis engages with identity and the body, as informed by technology and the Internet. Olafson’s work has been presented and exhibited at venues around the world. In their piece, MÆ-Motion Aftereffect Freya creates a digital collage of motion-capture data, ready-made 3D models and a range of monologues sourced from the Internet that recount experiences with virtual reality in live gameplay. MÆ – Motion Aftereffect delivers an experience of what VR is like without the viewer ever putting on a headset, offering a performance as surreal as VR to those who show up in the physical realm to share the experience!  https://www.freyaolafson.com

Curtis L. Wiebe is a short-film maker, illustrator, animator, musician and sculptor. His films have screened at festivals around the world, including the Jim Henson Foundation’s Puppets on Film Festival in New York, as well as at a Robotics Festival in Belgrade, Serbia. He has gone on to help found the Winnipeg Puppet Collective. His goal for his musical project, the Thrift Shop Band was to create an automated back-up to accompany him. With the amount of complexity in the project quickly scaling, Curtis realized he needed a collaborator to help realize his vision. http://curtislwiebe.com/about/

Enter Rylaan Gimby, a filmmaker with interest in electronic prototyping platforms that allow artists to create interactive electronic objects. For nearly a year, the two worked together to bring this unique project to life. In this profile, Curtis and Rylaan discuss the nature of their creative and technical collaboration and how they brought the project to life using a mixture of homemade puppets, off-the-shelf mechanical parts and consumer-grade circuit boards.

Casey Koyczan is a Tlicho Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT, that works with a variety of mediums to communicate how culture and technology coincide together alongside the political, economic, and environmental challenges in the world. In his latest installation work, Ełexiìtǫ ; Ehtsʼǫǫ̀ / Connected ; Apart From Each Other, Casey has created an interactive installation that communicates the journey of learning about ones culture from a distance. Utilizing and adapting natural elements to work with technology and communication tools he has created a viable resources for learning language, tradition, stories, and spiritual beliefs. https://www.caseykoyczan.com

Taylor McArthur is a digital artist who works at the intersection of 3D animation, video game design, and video. Her developing body of work is evocative of Indigenous Futurisms and seeks to situate her Indigenous culture within both the modern and a potential future vision.

Dallas Flett-Wapash is an Ininew/Seaulteax digital artist working with video game design, expanded reality, and other interactive technologies. His practice is an ongoing digital reconstruction of his cultural identity – including cosmology, culture, language, and lifestyle – using video game aesthetics. The two friends are frequent collaborators and bring a shared love of video games into this work. Their most recent work together is, Azimuth Nitehi, a title that is a combination of Nakota and Swampy Cree, which roughly translates to “Moving Hearts. Inspired by the need to connect during the isolation of the pandemic. Users of the app are brought together by the rhythm of their beating hearts in a contemplative and thoughtful connection.

About Merging Mindsets
In cities around the world, the creative arts and interactive digital media sectors are bringing their respective skills together to imagine and create exciting new events, art and products – merging digital technologies with artistic practice. In Manitoba, we’re ready to showcase what our vibrant arts community and interactive digital media sector can do together.

Merging Mindsets will expand opportunities for artists to create using digital technologies while broadening connections with interactive digital media (IDM) related companies that want to innovate using creative talent. Join us as we embark on an exciting series of community-building events exploring the digital tech in art and the art in digital tech while connecting the people in between.

Merging Mindsets is an initiative of Creative Manitoba with partners, New Media Manitoba and Video Pool Media Arts Centre; and is funded with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund.

Together we will expand the relationships between our creative arts and digital tech communities to foster new opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.