MAP Presentation Series

Fri., Mar. 31, 2017 3:30 p.m. - Fri., Mar. 31, 2017 5:30 p.m.

Location: ED 113

Megan Smith

Riding Through Walls: Reflections on Physically Piercing the Internet

Megan Smith is a new media artist and curator. Her art practice probes new systems for delivering syndicated data through narrative structure and she often works with geo-location, live-feed installation, performance, and community projects as methods for storytelling. In December 2016 she embarked on a durational performance in physical computing called 'Riding Through Walls', which involved a live-cast, cross-Canada cycle through Google Street View from her studio in Regina. This project is part of the 2016 Project Anywhere global exhibition. In July 2016, she took part in the Canadian Wilderness Artist Residency and canoed a 700km stretch of the Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City with 10 artists as part of her growing series of research called 'Adrift'. In 2015, she partook in a 12 day art residency travelling from Lake Ontario through the Rideau waterway system to Ottawa by canoe. During this time, she mapped and collected zooplankton samples en route. Her work has been shown internationally and most recent at 'The Works Art Festival', Edmonton (June 2015), "Conversations Electriques, La Panacee', Montpellier, France (June-December 2013) and 'Electric Fields', Ottawa (september 2013). Smith was Creative Director and co-Founder of Canada's national capital Nuit Blanche festival (2012-2015), a pop-up contemporart art event focus on embedding temporary transformative projects into public spaces. Smith holds a PhD in Contemporary Art & Graphic Design from Leeds Beckett University, and is Assistant Professor in Creative Technoloy within the faculty of Media, Art, and Performance at the University of Regina.