UNews - Robyn Moody

Documentary film Visualizing Agriculture to premiere at Crossing Boundaries

trevor.kenney — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 16:47:25 +0000

What started as a class project became a creative collision of art and science on display. Fortunately, it was all captured on film. Visualizing Agriculture, a documentary co-directed by Leanne Elias (MEd ’03; BFA – Art ’95) and Bryn Hewko (MFA – New Media ’16), premieres at the Crossing Boundaries Symposium, October 26 at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Elias, Crossing Boundaries keynote speaker and Department of New Media professor, will premiere the documentary and discuss the collaborative efforts of artists and scientists in the work executed in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Data Physicalization Lab.

The film features the collaborative efforts of artists and scientists in the work executed in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Data Physicalization Lab.

With the desire to build a method for interdisciplinary research and creation, Elias and Department of Art faculty colleague Denton Fredrickson, took on the challenge of finding a way for art to play a role in the dissemination of scientific research data. They didn’t just want to use art to communicate science, they aimed to develop a method of cross-collaborative research and development that put scientists and artists from different disciplines in the same room, tackling the same project. This endeavour was the launch of the Data Physicalization Lab.

Data physicalization is a relatively new field of study. Data visualization can be understood simply as a bar chart, a 2D visual of information. Data physicalization takes that a step further, by mapping information to something that is physical, taking it off the screen and putting it into objects.

Inviting Art and New Media students to participate, research scientists from the Lethbridge Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, provided a dataset for the students to analyze and visualize. Through semesters of engagement with this process, Elias and Fredrickson were able to develop an instructional pedagogy and creative practice.

“We wanted to make sure that the data was accurately represented in all the work so we knew the scientist needed to be an integral part of the critique process,” explains Elias.

The students and scientists participated in critiques every three weeks, allowing them to continuously adapt or recreate their works before the next critique. At first, the artists were engaging with the dataset alone. Eventually a student asked for more context, to see first-hand the research that provided the data. After visiting the research station, the work exploded.

“It became really, really good after that. It changed the concept of the data in their minds; they understood it and could ask questions about it because it was all visual,” says Elias. “Those visuals worked their way into the art and design work. From there, Denton and I knew that it was a key element in this interdisciplinary formula – it wasn’t enough to bring science to art. We had to take the art into the science as well.”

Dr. Leanne Elias is the Crossing Boundaries keynote speaker and a Department of New Media professor.

Each semester the process of working with different disciplines became clearer until Elias and Fredrickson were ready to take the idea one step further. Using the formula created, they joined forces with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG), and with funding from Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities (CREDO) program of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, a professional artist residency, documentary film and exhibition was put into motion.

The results of this 18-month science-meets-art collaboration are produced in Visualizing Agriculture, a 20-minute documentary premiering at Crossing Boundaries, October 26 in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Recital Hall. With the help of the research funding, Bryn Hewko’s Output Media accepted the challenge of documenting the process from the first meeting through the final exhibition.

Six professional artists, Jackson 2Bears, Tori Foster, Mary-Anne McTrowe (BFA – Art ’98), Robyn Moody, Adrien Segal, and Michelle Sylvestre (MFA – New Media candidate; BFA – Art ’17), joined research scientists, Dr. André Laroche and Dr. Jamie Larson, for a weekend residency where they spent time at the research station analyzing two datasets around the genetic code of wheat. After the intensive residency, the artists returned to their own studios across Canada and the US.

“That's the period that Denton and I were really interested in because instead of having these check-ins every three weeks, now we were giving them the time to make their work. We were really interested in how much support they would need. How many times would they talk to the scientists? What were those conversations like? How often did they, or could they, return to the station for additional information?”

In February 2017, the Visualizing Agriculture exhibition opened at the SAAG, curated by Christina Cuthbertson (BFA – Art ‘05). “It was absolutely fascinating. All the artists approached it very differently… which you’ll see in the film,” teases Elias.

The documentary takes the audience through the whole process, from first meeting to the final exhibition highlighting the challenges and success of the facilitators, curator, artists and scientists. Filming any footage they could of the process and interviewing participants throughout project, the narrative came together as the exhibition did.

“This project was different than anything I’ve done before,” says Hewko. “Normally things are heavily scripted at the beginning, but here we didn’t know where it was going to go, so we just started filming and gathering interviews, and through the editing process we were able to find the real story.”

Audiences will be as surprised by the findings as Elias and Hewko were.

“I don’t want to spoil the documentary, but I think the key discovery for many of us was a changing definition of what data visualization or data physicalization is,” explains Hewko. “We had some expectation of what the artists might contribute, but what actually happened in a lot of cases was the artist’s reaction to the data. It wasn’t a direct representation, it was more of a reaction or a translation of the data. Their own processing of the information.”

See the final products from the artists, hear more from Leanne Elias on this interdisciplinary research method, and take in the premiere of Visualizing Agriculture during the keynote presentation at Crossing Boundaries. Purchase tickets online at ulethbridge.ca/tickets or by phone, Monday to Friday, 12:30-3:30 at 403-329-2616.

For a full schedule of activities and speakers visit go.uleth.ca/cboundaries.

Alma Matters

trevor.kenney — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:54:27 +0000

What's new with our alumni? Let your classmates know what you are up to by sharing a note about your life. Share your news with us through e-mail (alumni@uleth.ca), or by phone (toll free 1-866-552-2582).

Check out the latest news from our alumni below.

1970

Kinahan holds community focus
Brian Kinahan (BMgt '79) believes his time spent at the U of L was foundational for his career. "At the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ I gained the ability to think through problems and come up with solutions, to expand my mind and think beyond more than just one focus," he says.

Now the president and CEO of 1st Choice Savings, Kinahan has played an integral part in the growth of the credit union, which currently boasts a balance sheet in excess of $400 million. While helping to build a successful financial institution is something he is proud of, he is also grateful for the opportunities he has to serve his community.

"My goal is to continue building on the success of 1st Choice Savings, guiding it to be a viable and important part of the financial world that focuses on being a community-minded institution that cares about individuals."

1980

Nancy Walker BMgt '82
Walker was awarded a Fellow of Chartered Accountants (FCA) from the Alberta Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Bill Neudorf BEd '88
"In memory: some of you may remember the little three-year-old girl who would come to class with her dad and spend the time colouring or playing with dolls. Her name was Bobbi Renee Neudorf. Bobbi later suffered from Crohn's disease through her time at university but finished a BSc in Occupational Therapy at the U of A and worked for three years in the QEII hospital in Grande Prairie. Bobbi succumbed to complications from the disease and passed away from a massive blood clot on Sept. 21, 2009. She was 25 years and two months old."

Pamela Zollner BEd '86
After graduating from the U of L, Zollner taught for a couple of years in Alberta before developing a taste for international travel by backpacking around Australia and New Zealand. Zollner incorporated this love for travel into her work by teaching in Singapore and India. Zollner completed her Master of Education in June 2008 and is currently teaching Grade 2 in Calgary.

1990

Winner of the $10,000 Alberta Readers' Choice Award
Michael Davie (BMgt '94) won the inaugural $10,000 Alberta Readers' Choice Award for his first novel

Author Michael Davie

, Fishing for Bacon. The Alberta Readers' Choice Award is modelled on the very popular Canada Reads prize. Five books, each one championed by a celebrity, vie to win a popular vote. With $10,000 going to the winner, the competition is on the same financial level as the Governor General's Awards.

Aaron Berg BSc '95, MSc '97
Dr. Aaron Berg was recognized as GeogNews' (News Digest of the Canadian Association of Geographers) Geographer of the Week. Berg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph. He completed a BSc and an MSc degree in Geography at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, an MS in Geological Sciences at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Texas at Austin and his PhD in Earth System Science at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of California, Irvine. His research focuses on hydrology and hydro-climate simulation. Areas of current research interest include: macro-scale modeling of hydrological states and fluxes; climate change and water resources; the spatial scaling of hydrological properties; and evaluating the impact of land use change on regional hydrologic cycles.

Thomas Latta BMgt '97
"I am currently working as the manager, Operations Accounting and Business Solutions for Enerplus Resources Fund and have been with Enerplus for a year and a half. Prior to that, I was with ConocoPhillips Canada and its predecessor companies for 15 years."

2000

Amos Altman BA '04
Altman's play FORTITUDE is part of Fuse 2010 (The Enbridge New Play Development Program) at Theatre Calgary. This heartwarming and hilarious play emerged from the 2008/09 FUEL Playwrights' Circle at Theatre Calgary.

Ryan Epp BA/BMgt '05
Epp, former captain of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey team, is now a constable with the Lethbridge Police Department.

Barry Gergel BSc '05, MSc '07
"I'm currently working toward my PhD in the Department of Computing Science at the U of A."

William Katelnikoff BMgt '05
"I received my chartered accountant designation in January, and I am currently assistant coach with the Pronghorns men's hockey team."

Matthew Berrigan BEd/BA '06
Lethbridge College announced their 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients and recognized U of L alumnus Matthew Berrigan with the Rising Star Award. Since completing his education degree, Berrigan's rise as a teacher has been meteoric. Named best new teacher by the Foothills School Division for his work in Cayley, Berrigan is now a lead teacher in Turner Valley. The success of his teaching is reflected in his students' achievement results.

Angela Kastelic BN '06
"I am currently pursuing a Master of Nursing (Family/All Ages) with intent to become a family nurse practitioner."

Keely (Kavanagh) Semenuik BEd/BA '09
Following graduation in April 2009, Semenuik was married and travelled to France. She is now excited to begin her teaching career with École St. Mary School in Lethbridge, teaching French immersion kindergarten.

Kinley passes on the inspiration
After attending a presentation by guest speaker John Carr from Pixar, Brad Kinley (BFA '04) remembers telling a friend that the talk was life-changing.

"Seeing what he does and his approach to the whole process of character animation crystallized what I wanted to do," says Kinley.

Now, after being a key player in the design of Mass Effect 2, one of the most popular and highly rated games ever made for the Xbox platform, Kinley returned to the U of L this spring and gave a presentation to the next generation of new media students.

"I know how influential my exposure was to somebody actually working in the business," he says. "If I can lend a little knowledge or inspiration to someone else, hopefully it will help them the way it helped me."

Congratulations
Daniel Wong (BFA '03), Mary-Anne McTrowe (BFA '98) and Robyn Moody (BFA '00) have made the long list (Prairies and North region) for the 2010 Sobey Art Award.

Munton & Co. chartered accountants recently announced that Curtis Michaelis (BMgt '03) and Michael Quinton (BMgt '04) have been admitted to partnership.

Susie Martin (BEd '81), Judy Lynn Miller (BA '91, BEd '93), Matthew Berrigan (BA/BEd '06) and Tracy Inaba (BEd '92) were among 23 outstanding Alberta teachers selected to receive the prestigious 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award.

Sports Hall of Fame

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Chinooks women's basketball team (1970/1971) was inducted into the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame at this year's celebration. The team won the provincial and national championships and represented Lethbridge with pride.

Members of the team included: (Back row, L-R) Wilma Winter (coach), Dixie Dow, Linda Dogterom, Leona Voth, Minnie Van Dieren and Sharon Giduk (BA '73, BEd '75). (Front row, L-R) Marge Moore, Linda Voth, Rosemary Brodrick, Joan Cannady and Linda Dow (BEd '71).

Andrea Hlady (BEd'93) and Sharon Chmielewski (BEd'75) were also inducted at this year's celebration. Hlady was recognized in the athletes category. She was a two-time All-Canadian basketball player with the U of L Pronghorns. Chmielewski, recognized in the builder category, was honoured for building high school and high-level curling in Lethbridge with her work as an official, instructor and coach.

To view the entire issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:51:13 +0000

Shelley Scott (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) is presenting a paper called Asian Canadian Women Playwrights: The Ties that Bind at the GENesis Asian-Canadian Theatre Conference, May 3-9 in Toronto. The conference is the first of its kind in Canada.

Three U of L alumni have made the long list (Prairies and North region) for the 2010 Sobey Art Award. Daniel Wong (BFA '03) and Mary-Anne McTrowe (BFA '98), as The Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonorealistes, and Robyn Moody (BFA '00) are all in the running for this prestigious award.

Deric Olsen (New Media) has been invited to be an artist/filmmaker-in-residence at the New Media Studio Laboratory (NMSL) at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina, July 5-9. While there he will work on high definition post-production and delivery methods, and present New Format, New Challenges: Exploring Techniques in High Definition Disc Authoring and Design.

Alumnus Zoran Rajcic (BMgt '94) won the Western Hockey League's 2009-10 Marketing/Public Relations Award. Rajcic is the director of business operations for the Everett Silvertips.

The Faculty of Fine Arts video site (www.lethbridgefinearts.ca) is a finalist in the Best Non-Commercial Website category of Digital Alberta's Media Fresh awards. The web designer was New Media major Jesse Johnston and the advisory committee included:
Dr. Desmond Rochfort, Emily Luce, Chris Morris, Venkat Mahadevan and Katherine Wasiak.

Dr. Ed Jurkowski (Music) presented a paper entitled, How Formal Function Theory can inform Nineteenth-Century Deformed Sonata Designs: A Case Study using Bruckner's Symphonies, at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Arizona (Tucson, Ariz.) during the annual joint meeting of the Rocky Mountain Societies for Music Theory and Musicology.

Dr. Arlan Schultz (Music) had his composition Ikos-kun tu 'bar ba premiered by The Rubbing Stone Ensemble at a concert at the Rozsa Centre in Calgary.

Karen Mahar (dean's office) received a $3,000 scholarship from Alberta Advanced Education in recognition of her exceptional work in her first year as a graduate student. Mahar is now in her second year of an MA in English.

Deanna Oye (Music) and Peter Visentin (Music) presented recitals of solo and duo music at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba and Canadian Mennonite ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Winnipeg last month. They also conducted master's classes and lessons in the areas of collaborative piano and violin. Visentin gave a lecture on his research into musicians' injuries to the Medical Rehabilitation Faculty of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba, and Oye also played a solo recital in Brandon, Man. following a week as senior piano adjudicator at the Brandon Festival of the Arts.

Campus Kudos - November

trevor.kenney — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:02:12 +0000

Denton Fredrickson (Art) is part of an exhibition entitled 'sciencefictionsciencefair' at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ont., alongside Brian McKenna and Robyn Moody. On display from Nov. 6 to Jan. 3, the exhibition also includes a collaboration with Glen MacKinnon (Art). 'sciencefictionsciencefair' will also travel to the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ont., and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

Former ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns thrower Jim Steacy (BASc '09) has been named as an award finalist for the Athletics Canada Field Athlete of the Year category as well as the Best ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Athlete of the Year classification. Athletics Canada will announce award winners Nov. 14 in Vancouver.

Chai Duncan (Art Technician) and collaborator Leila Armstrong have an exhibition entitled 12 Point Buck in the Southern Alberta Art Gallery's storefront gallery until Nov. 22.

Git 'er Done by Corinne Thiessen Hepher (BFA, New Media '08) appeared at the Southern Alberta Film Festival. This 10-minute documentary explores what it means to be a "Redneck" and offers new insight into an old stereotype.

Ron Chambers's (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) first film, Apocalyptic Hero, was selected for presentation at the Southern Alberta Film Festival. Apocalyptic Hero looks at a young boy's life after his grandmother dies. He sets out to ensure his own survival as well as a girl he has chosen to save when the apocalypse comes.

Blaine Hendsbee (Music) sings the role of Sellem (the auctioneer) in Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical operatic masterpiece, The Rake's Progress, presented by Pacific Opera Victoria in the Royal Theatre, Victoria. Performances are Nov. 12, 14, 17, 19 and 21.

UNews - Robyn Moody

Documentary film Visualizing Agriculture to premiere at Crossing Boundaries

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Campus Kudos - November

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