Vector Festival 2021

InterAccess is thrilled to announce the ninth annual Vector Festival, a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. This year’s theme, Network Dependencies, asks what post-isolation co-existence might look like, with the return to in-person activities on the horizon. Join us in exploring new ways of being together, finding community, and sharing space through a four-week program of mail-art dispatches, outdoor screenings, virtual workshops and discussions, and enactable participatory performances.

Network Dependencies launches on July 15 with three exhibition openings. The flagship exhibition, dis-ease, responds to screen-based escapism and exhaustion through an e-newsletter and mail art programme. Curated by Rea McNamara, it features works by Stefana Fratila, Driftnote, and Racquel Rowe. You can take part in the exhibition by registering for dis-ease’s mailing list. Constellation of Oracles—a virtual exhibition curated by Diasporic Futurisms (Vanessa Godden and Adrienne Matheuszik)—presents works by Alyssa Bistonath, Rah Eleh, Victoria Kamila, and Quentin VerCetty. Using sci-fi, fantasy, and digital culture to envision alternate realities, they foretell collective futures. Meanwhile, the multisite exhibition Infinite Scroll showcases GIF artworks that use abstraction and repetition to simulate the hypnotic effects of social media scrolling. GIFs by Khadija Aziz, Justine Durand, Peter Rahul, and Shaheer Zazai will be presented by Digital Arts Resource Centre (Ottawa), Factory Media Centre (Hamilton), InterAccess (Toronto), and Trinity Square Video’s Virtual Vitrine (online).

Over the course of four weeks, a series of participatory performances on Instagram Live (@interaccessto) will guide audiences through new somatic experiences in their homes and outdoor surroundings. Take part in an outdoor performance-based movement session with Kim Ninkuru. Learn how to create and bottle your own wild yeast soda with Meech Boakye. Follow risograph maps by Kristel Jax and Tasman Richardson (Hum Zine) that locate resonant sounds heard along the streets of Toronto. Jax and Richardson will host a dual live broadcast, touring and harmonizing those sonic locales.

This year’s Vector Festival workshops include “Place-making & Mapping Beyond Binaries” by Darian Razdar, “Understanding and Hacking Facial Recognition Technologies” by Aaron Tucker and Jae Seo, “Virtual Reality Life Drawing” by Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll (SpekWork), and a special Minecraft mini-series in partnership with Ender Gallery. Designed to foster proficiencies in digital worldbuilding, embodied counter/mapping and geo-data wrangling, and critical awareness of biometric surveillance, these technical seminars survey the many facets of network dependency. Please note that workshops require registration through Eventbrite.

All Vector Festival events will be offered for free or pay-what-you-can.

To learn more about our upcoming programs visit vectorfestival.org.