Foolish Operations

We are fortunate to have a fabulous series of artists working on our mobile clubbing research lab. Each brings distinct experiences to mobile clubbing, and is contributing in a myriad of ways.

Christina Leist, children’s book illustrator and graphic designer

Christina Leist was born and raised in germany. She studied graphic design at the university of applied sciences in wiesbaden, germany and worked as an art director in advertising for agencies like “publicis”, “Leo Burnett” and “Satchi and Saatchi”.
Now she is dividing her time between Germany and Canada and is focussing on writing and illustrating children’s books. She has published “Baaaad Animals” with tradewind books, vancouver and will be publishing “Jack The Bear” with Simply Read Books, Vancouver.

Elisha Clement, photographer

Elisha Clement has trained with both Peter Eastwood and Linda Mackie, top photographers in their field, and continues to enjoy their support and mentorship, as well as managing their larger photography projects.Fluent in German and English, Elisha has lived and worked in Europe, traveled extensively in Central America, the Middle East, and the United States.Her background includes: National gymnastic competition, contemporary dance training, business, social arts, performance, yoga, martial arts, meditation and her newfound love of aerial dance.
www.elishaclement.com

Jean Routhier, audio wrapper

Jean Routhier has an audio leaning art production. Routhier is an
audio wrapper, his approach similar to a store clerk, bagging
everything into their sonic essence. Interested in the gaps and gasps
in sounds conducive to the transmission of tales he sometimes hears in
the ether, Routhier finds inspiration in everyday situation. Born in
Montréal, Québec, where he completed a BFA at Concordia
University(1993) he is presently based in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada.

Jesse Scott, new media

Jesse Scott - aka metre, aka CineCitta - is a new media artist, promoter, curator, and theorist working from Vancouver, BC. Jesse works within many stylistic domains, in the context of live performance, recorded, and installation-based art. His work is preoccupied with the crossover of sound and listening practice with radical political gesture, with the autonomy of the image and sovereignty from recuperation, and the political role of the artist.

Rina Liddle, visual artist

Rina Liddle is an artist, a curator and a costumer. At the core of her practice is the belief that art making is a social practice. Her work mostly takes the form of installations and interventions. Her projects include digital projections, photography installations, motorized dresses and tripe handbags. She has a fascination with the absurd in sociological methodologies and has an interest in the collaborative process.
As part of her MA Photography and Urban Cultures thesis, she carried out an unsanctioned public art installation in London, England entitled This is Public Art, 2006, where CCTV (closed circuit television) footage was projected back into the space from which it originated. This project used the controls of public space, namely public art policy and video surveillance to disrupt the assumption –largely professed by the language of public art policy—that public space is a democratic space. This is Public Art also functioned to provide a bodily experience for the viewer for something that was previously only known conceptually, specifically the condition of urban life in London of being watched.
Liddle has a BFA from Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver Canada and a Masters of Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths College University of London, UK. She has shown internationally in London, Los Angeles, Posnan (Poland) and Jyvaskyla (Finland) and was the recipient of the Renata de Silva Award on two occasions. She also has a Certificate of Costume Studies from Dalhousie University and has spent over ten years making a living in the theatre and film industries across Canada.
http://liddlethought.blogspot.com

Nola Semczyszyn, visual artist/academic

Nola Semczyszyn is a Vancouver based artist and academic. While her identity shifts, less fluidly than she would like, between philosopher and artist, fundamentally she believes that these are not separate activities. Her philosophical interests cluster around the intersection of Aesthetics, Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Mind. Her work, both philosophical and artistic, is often concerned with the nature of representation and the centrality of visual representation within human systems of knowledge and belief. The analysis of these systems, and the kinds of social practices that both constitute and perpetuate them, also plays a central role in her work.

Nola earned a joint honours degree in philosophy and studio art from the University of Waterloo. It was called, “the shoddiest, most slapped together degree I’ve ever seen” by her undergrad advisor. She holds an MA in Philosophy (with high distinction), also from the University of Waterloo, and is currently working towards a PhD in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation focuses on issues of depiction in scientific images of non-visible entities. She has shown her work across south western Ontario and in Belfast and has earned numerous fellowships and scholarships including the prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral fellowship.

Julie Lebel, dance artist

Julie Lebel graduated from Université du Québec à Montréal, with a BFA in 1998. Since, choreography (Field Notes, Violent Frankness Project, Duet for a Woman and a Girl) and improvisation (Daniel Lepkoff, Lisa Nelson, Nina Martin) have been her main focus. Her projects are community based and she loves to work with non-dancers (Non-Dancer Research group, Scale: Human, Mobile Clubbing, Drift-Walks). She started rock climbing 5 years ago to train and play. She is artistic director of Ensemble Indépendant, based in Sept-Îles (QC). It provides administrative and technical support for the production of dance and related arts events on Côte-Nord. She now lives in Vancouver, BC. www.ensembleindependant.org/jlebel

Robyn Campbell, dance artist

Robyn Campbell organizes community-engaged and site-specific dance in Canada. She believes that access is vital to the continuation of art, and that community and professional art are mutually reinforcing. She earned a Master of Art Degree in Dance Studies with distinction at the Laban Centre in 2002, and continues to be an active researcher for dance (www.terminalcitydance.blogspot.com, www.canadacommunitydance.com). She has worked in Canada and England as a freelance community dance facilitator, and in universities as scheduling manager, lecturer and deputy degree officer. She has delivered conference papers in India and England.

Before leaving British Columbia for London in 1999, she taught creative dance for children and adults in south western British Columbia, and performed in venues around the Vancouver. Robyn trained in contemporary dance in Vancouver, Toronto and in England and has performed internationally. She is currently working as executive director of Made in BC - Dance on Tour.

*Benoit Faure, Photographer (Tours, France)

Most of Benoit Faure’s photography work consists of attempts to
capture atmospheres –places, events, people’s attitudes, whatever
makes him go “Wow, I have to stop and shoot that!” The resulting
images are then carefully put together to tell a story through what I
call “photomix”. The final piece consists of vertical or horizontal
strips resulting in something that sits between photography and movie
making. When there are a lot of things that make him go “wow”, the
photomix becomes a kaleidoscpicphotomix, and needs more room than a
video screen, even if presented on the latest and biggest HDTV & Co
equipment.

*Merci à la contribution de Benoit qui a nous a offert son travail, qu’on a de suite intégré à l’exposition du 15 septembre 2007 au Dance Centre.