Jon Vickery

Dr. Vickery joined UBCO in 2006 as a sessional instructor, and is now a full time Lecturer in the Department of English and Cultural studies. He is currently teaching first-year courses in literary genre, second year courses in historical literature, and a popular literature course in science fiction.

Dr. Vickery shared some insights on his research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

What brought you to UBCO?

My wife and I were living in downtown Toronto when we felt a strong tug to exchange the big city for big mountain views. Once I had completed the residency for my doctoral program at the University of Toronto, we moved to Kelowna where I wrote my dissertation while working as a sessional instructor (starting in 2006) at the newly minted UBC Okanagan. It was an important move for us and one that we’ve never regretted. Being part of UBCO since its early days, watching it grow and develop, has been a rich experience and I’m excited for good things to come.

Tell us about your research interests.

My research focuses on religious text in sixteenth and seventeenth century England, a period when Europe changed profoundly through the seismic activity of multiple reformations, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. These religious renewal movements affected society at every level and the literature of the period reflects the deep spirituality and the theological energies of the time. My own research looks to the complex phenomenon of English Puritanism which had a profound influence on such momentous literary figures as John Milton and John Bunyan. My writing considers Puritanism as an intellectual movement, looking to its sources and demonstrating, among other things, its dependence upon the philosophical wealth of medieval scholasticism. While some influential studies have characterized the Puritans as largely distrustful of and hostile to the larger Catholic tradition, I seek to situate some notable Puritan writers in a more intellectually generous and ecumenical stream.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor?

Not long before entering my BA program, I purchased a volume by the Oxford scholar, CS Lewis: his Preface to Paradise Lost. At the time, I was out of my depth, but Lewis’ influence upon me was and continues to be incalculable. When I entered the university as an undergraduate, I knew that I wanted, in some small way at least, to be like this Oxford writer. Happily, my first English professor turned out to be an admirer of Lewis as well, which mutual appreciation has been profoundly formative in its own way.

In the fourth year of my undergrad, I presented a paper to my fellow students on Hamlet and the Kierkegaardian concept of dread. The next day my Shakespeare professor stopped me in the hall and strongly recommended that I dedicate my life to this kind of teaching. It was a striking moment, and it underscores for me the significance of a professor’s influence outside the classroom. I’ve carried her words (and Kierkegaard’s concept) with me ever since.

What is your own process in writing?

I’ve learned over time to expect relatively little from myself in my first draft. It took a wise professor to persuade me that my first draft will usually be poor indeed (he used a scatological term) and that it’s the editorial process that transforms base elements into richer metals. Without the pressure of creating a brilliant first draft, writing is a much more enjoyable and far more fruitful enterprise. Martin Luther in the sixteenth century famously encouraged his readers to “sin boldly.” He has since been widely misunderstood, but, if I might apply his dictum in a literary direction, I think it’s good advice for the writer. Sin boldly in the draft. Get it out, with all its faults and defects. Editing takes what is weak and makes it strong.

Saeed Sabzian

Saeed Sabzian is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. He specializes in the theory of rhetoric in an interdisciplinary scope, using multimodal frameworks in the analysis of language, literature, cinema and culture in general. Saeed has taught courses in rhetoric, composition, literature, and communication in the sciences and engineering. He has translated several literary theory and fictional books from English to Farsi and has published a book on disability studies.

Dr. Sabzian shared some insights on his research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

What brought you to UBCO

The wide spectrum of programs and courses at UBCO is a great fit for my interdisciplinary interests, where I see opportunities for research and teaching rhetorical theory in most of the programs that FCCS offers such as Visual Culture, Aural Culture, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, English, and Media Studies, Science Communication, and more.

Tell us about your research/teaching interests and what excites you about your field of work

I am interested in bringing rhetorical theory into an interdisciplinary framework to explain cultural artefacts, literary texts, film. I engage in these by combining classical concepts in rhetoric with more modern fields of study, such as cognitive science, sound studies, visual theory, and narratology to draw meanings hidden to non-interdisciplinary methods of study. I have utilized these hybrid regimes of analysis to explain anxiety in American culture as signaled in novels and films. I’m excited about the abundance of interdisciplinary activities in the realm of rhetoric. With the transition of universities toward interdisciplinary research in social and cultural phenomena, I see exciting opportunities to explore my favorite topics in culture, language, philosophy, science and technology.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor

Years ago, while I was a high school English teacher, I used to teach translation, literature, and literary theory. This experience brought my two passions together: I could teach and publish the same ideas, expanding my reach in the two realms. I think the desire to become a professor was incepted there.

What kind of learning experiences do you offer your students

Experiences that would equip students with life-long skills by internalizing these experiences through practice. Among these is “critical thinking”, which is vital to students “flourishing” in life, a skill that I foster through broadening students’ perspectives by exposure to conflicting perspectives. Th experience of adopting an enlarged perspective on the world (science, technology, and people) enhances students’ reasoning, argumentation, and cooperation with others.

What is your process in writing

My most recent publication began with several books in translation, basically fiction, literary theory, and literary dictionaries. Following a co-authored literary lexicon in 2009, I shifted to multimodal rhetoric, researching how rhetoric can be used to explain the psyche and motives of a culture through its manifestation in language, sounds, and images, for example anxiety in American culture in postapocalyptic films. Post-2015, I published a book in Farsi on Disability Studies, from the perspective of interdisciplinary rhetoric. Currently, I am re-shaping my research for publication, while I am also exploring the real of “rhetoric of science”.

What do you enjoy about living here and working at UBC Okanagan

I like UBCO both for its positive and diversified environment, and for its location on the landscape of Okanagan, which draws me to daily connection with nature. I was born in a mountainous small town, so I am endlessly interested in and grateful for the Okanagan mountains, lakes, and woods, where I enjoy hiking, walking, swimming, and paddling in the Okanagan. UBCO’s campus is a place of positivity, cooperation, and connectedness.

Kanako Uzawa demonstrating a traditional mouth harp

Local residents and members of the Indigenous community in Vernon enjoyed an introduction to the culture of the Ainu, the Indigenous people of Japan, in an outdoor event sponsored by FCCS on July 31. The event was entitled, Reframing Ainu Indigeneity.

Ainu scholar, artist and activist, Kanako Uzawa, discussed traditional and contemporary cultural and political issues, then demonstrated a traditional mouth harp and presented an original dance composition.

The audience also participated enthusiastically in singing an Upopo, a traditional song in the round, followed by a question-and-answer session. Dr. Uzawa was in transit between Banff, where she participated in a 3-week Indigenous choreographers and dancers lab at the Banff Centre, and Vancouver, where she spoke and performed at Haida House at the UBC Vancouver Museum of Anthropology.

More information about Dr. Uzawa and contemporary Ainu culture can be found on the Ainu Today website that she administers.

Photo credit: Wayne Emde Photography

FCCS prof, Nina Langton introducing Kanako Uzawa at the event

Kanako Uzawa presenting an original dance composition

Kanako Uzawa

Dr. Michael Treschow

Dr. Michael Treschow is the Head of the Department of English and Cultural Studies, and a researcher and teacher in early English Literature, both Old and Middle English. He was born in Calgary to parents who had immigrated from Denmark after World War II, and grew up in a quiet neighbourhood close to the Elbow River, which in those days was a wonderful playground. After graduating with a BA from the University of Calgary, Treschow began graduate work at Regent College in Old Testament Studies, but after a couple of years, he left Regent to do a Masters and PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He has lived in Kelowna since 1990.

Dr. Treschow shared some insights on his research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

Tell us about your research interests. 

As a medievalist and Anglo-Saxonist, my scholarship is grounded in the early European tradition. My attention goes primarily to the Anglo-Saxon period (the time of Beowulf), secondarily to the later Middle English period (the time of Chaucer and the Pearl poet), and after that reverts to late antiquity. My large concern is with the transmission and transformation of classical and biblical literature into early English cultural forms. Lately, I have become particularly interested in early expressions of English mysticism in the Anglo-Saxon period. For some years, I have had an eye on the late medieval development of English mystical writing in the fourteenth century, when, for instance, an anonymous writer composed The Cloud of Unknowing (a wondrous invitation into apophaticism), and when Julian of Norwich wrote her beautiful and now celebrated Shewings. But I have begun to perceive expressions of the contemplative and mystical in some Old English writings from several centuries earlier. I am looking to understand how those texts function, how they affect the reader, but also how they developed, what their relationship might be to Carolingian writings in Francia, especially those of John Scottus Eriugena, another eloquent voice of apophaticism.

On another note, I have been working slowly for many years on a digital edition of the Old English Soliloquies (which I call the Soliloquiorum), a translation and adaptation of Augustine’s Soliloquia. Very recently, I have begun to collaborate with a couple of Digital Humanists at the University of Exeter, who are much more expert in XML encoding than I am. It looks like this project may finally have a chance to come to light. This edition intersects with my interest in Old English mysticism, since this text is one of those in which I have begun to discern the contemplative and mystical.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor? 

Strangely enough, when I began university, I intended to study Math or Chemistry. On a whim though, I took a course in Ancient Greek which in turn led me to a course on Biblical Hebrew. These old dead languages captivated me. As a result, my undergraduate degree ended up focussing on classical and biblical studies. After I had finished my BA, I took a course on medieval biblical exegesis. It led me to my first encounter with St. Augustine, my first reading of his Confessions and de Doctrina Christiana. With him, I discovered a new way to read that came to me as something entirely refreshing. At the same time, I was taking a side interest in my own Danish heritage, especially the heroic age of the North. I read Beowulf and some Old Norse Sagas, and began looking more closely at Tolkien and his scholarship on things northern. Thus, I found my way into the Anglo-Saxon period, especially the time of Alfred the Great, when both Augustine’s salutary writings and the brutal invasions of the Vikings were in play. That period caught my attention entirely, with the wealth of understanding that it offers. I started into it and just kept going. The clearest path was into the professoriate.

What kind of learning experiences do you offer your students? 

Formative ones, I hope. In the classroom, I rely on Aristotle’s insight that stories have a kinship with philosophy. A good story has both intellectual and emotional power. It brings about a sense of wonder, which, as Socrates said, is the beginning of philosophy. The academic investigation of the literary text is a way of taking care to notice its wonders and investigate them. It takes a bit of work, though, to develop the philological skills for that investigation: grammatical, linguistic, historical, and conceptual. One of my favourite books to teach is The Hobbit, though I haven’t taught it for a very long time. It is wonderful when we come to consider Gandalf’s concluding words: “My dear Bilbo! Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were.” We as a class, a small scholarly community, have journeyed with Bilbo “there and back again.” Gandalf invites Bilbo, and us, into a profound moment, a reflection on the getting of virtue and wisdom.

What most excites you about your field of work?  

Editing an early text from an old and damaged manuscript is painstaking, but it can be extremely satisfying work. The puzzles and problems that a manuscript presents bring challenges, sometimes insoluble ones. Working through them as best one can is what brings the text into the light, even with gaps, flaws, deficiencies. Preparing a digital edition adds further layers of complication, but with valuable analytic possibilities.

What I most appreciate in my work is the adventure of reading old, outdated books in old, outdated languages. That may seem escapist, and it may well be sometimes. But it can be a good thing to escape, as Tolkien says in “On Fairy Stories.” My reading is also often difficult and painstaking work, but when I pay attention, I sometimes find the task becomes more about the text reading me than me reading it.  Much as that may feel discomforting, it can also be like a dip in the ocean, that refreshes and renews for the drudgery of other things.

Jordan Stouck

Dr. Jordan Stouck is currently the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. She is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of English and Cultural Studies, teaching English and Communications and Rhetoric. Her recent research has been focused on multilingual learning and graduate writing.

Dr. Stouck shared some insights on her research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

What brought you to UBCO?  

I came to UBCO in 2009, excited both to return to British Columbia where I’m from and to participate in the rapid development of the Okanagan campus. For me, the move has brought so many opportunities to work with great people and shape innovative programming.

Tell us about your research interests.

My area is writing and composition studies, and most recently the development of programming in Communications and Rhetoric. In teaching, my primary objective centres around giving students a voice to participate in research through better understandings of professional audiences, purposes, and knowledge-making conventions. I’m also in the Educational Leadership stream so my research focuses on scholarship of teaching and learning related to blended delivery, graduate writing, and, most recently, culturally and linguistically inclusive approaches.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor? 

I wasn’t sure I did want to be a professor until after my Master’s degree. At that point, I took a year away from studying and realized that I missed teaching and research. It wasn’t always a smooth path, but I am grateful for that “gap” year which gave me perspective and a renewed focus going into my PhD. In fact, as Associate Dean Undergraduate, I’ve seen how students – like I did – can really benefit from time away to identify priorities and assess where they want to be.

What kind of learning experiences do offer your students? 

I regularly teach English 109, 112 and now Communication (CORH) courses. All of my courses are workshop-based, encouraging students to develop their research writing skills in a hands-on way. While I have taught first year composition many times, I never find it repetitive because of the practice-based classes and student interaction. I sincerely want every student to leave my course with an appreciation for the language and writing styles that they have encountered there.

Tell us about a recent project that you are excited about.

I am currently a team-member on two projects that question the values embedded in university-level writing instruction. One project is looking at culturally and linguistically inclusive approaches to writing and composition, considering what we value when we create or assess a piece of writing and how academic communication can become more inclusive. A lot of this work is embedded in the Communications and Rhetoric certificate and now minor that we are developing. Connected to this, I am a team member on a second project, led by Dr. Kerrie Charnley, developing a land-based Indigenous writing guide. This resource, intended for Indigenous post-secondary students, links writing practice to Indigenous methodologies and both fills a gap in existing resources as well as contributing to the rethinking of current approaches. Both the Communications programming and Indigenous writing guide are supported by ALT funding.

Kohlbey Ozipko with her masters degree

Kohlbey Ozipko received her Master of Arts in English from the University of British Columbia – Okanagan (UBCO) in early 2021. Her thesis, “No eclipse lasts forever”: Confronting Gendered Violence in Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne, sparked her interest in contemporary feminism, which she continues to explore in her blog titled Little Feminist Movement.

We met up with Kohlbey to talk to her about her time here at UBC Okanagan.

Give us some insight into your thesis project.

In my thesis, I analyze representations of gendered violence in two works by American author Stephen King: Gerald’s Game (1992) and Dolores Claiborne (1993). King’s works are part of the Gothic literary tradition which oftentimes receives criticism for representing women as stereotypical “damsels in distress” and glorifying acts of violence against women. However, I argue that King’s works, and the Gothic genre do not glorify violence against women in any way. Rather, King’s works and the genre expose the flawed and violent treatment of women within our society and act as a call to action in order to invoke change.

Tell us a bit more about your research.

While I was in graduate school, my research spanned all the way from representations of women in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) to Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne (1993). I break down some of the archetypal representations we see in the Gothic and use the #MeToo Movement as a framework to discuss their significance in relation to contemporary North American society using a feminist lens.

Why did you choose UBC’s Okanagan campus? How did you change or overcome challenges along the way?

I chose to attend UBCO because I found a professor, Dr. Jodey Castricano, who shared my love for Stephen King’s works. It’s rare to find other academics who can appreciate King’s works. So, when I managed to find that person there was no question as to where I would be completing my degree. However, completing my Master of Arts in English proved to be a challenge. There were points throughout my journey where I seriously considered quitting or taking a break. I managed to battle my way through graduate school with the help of a few very good friends (also in the same program) and a committee that was determined to get me to the finish line. While writing my thesis, I came to realize that completing a degree and writing a thesis are not individual efforts. It really does take an army. It’s an army worth building.

You graduated in 2021. Can you tell us a bit about what you are doing now, your future plans, and how your graduate studies may have helped you with your career goals?

I’m currently doing quality assurance work full-time for a cannabis company in the Kootenays, working part-time as a yoga instructor at a local studio, and writing for my blog – Little Feminist Movement—on the weekends. My partner and I are also expecting a little one in the new year, so I guess I can add “mother” to that list, as well. My plan for the future is to find a way to work more closely with women, whether that be offering yoga workshops or women’s circles for self-empowerment, expanding the scope of my blog to reach more women world-wide, offering mentoring or personal support services for women, becoming a womb-worker or doula, or writing short stories or novels that focus upon women’s struggles and overcoming those struggles. I’d like to do all of those things, actually.

Lastly, what advice would you have for a student who is contemplating currently pursuing their graduate degree at UBCO?

I would advise a student to pick a topic that they’re passionate about because there’s nothing worse than writing a 15,000-20,000-word thesis on a topic that you don’t care about or that doesn’t interest you. I’ve written enough essays on Shakespeare to know that. I would also advise a student to start building their army as early as they possibly can. Make sure you have friends, family, and a committee with whom you feel comfortable enough that you can reach out for help and advice when you need.

Kholbey in her yoga studio

Marie Loughlin

Marie Loughlin is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. Marie Loughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario and attended McMaster University (BA, ENGL Hons.) before doing her graduate degrees in English, with a specialization in early modern drama, at Queen’s University, Kingston. She taught briefly at the University of Calgary before returning to the Okanagan; she has taught at UBCO since its inception in 2005.

What brought you to UBCO? 

After graduating with my PhD’s in the early 1990s, I was lucky enough to land a sessional position at Okanagan University College (OUC), the precursor of the Okanagan campus of UBC. After 2 years of working with exceptional colleagues, I left for the University of Calgary. Returning to Kelowna in 1998, I took up a permanent position as a college professor at OUC. I was privileged to be here when OUC became UBCO, and I have watched our campus grow and develop in ways that I would never have imagined possible.

Tell us about your research interests.

My research interests have tended to remain, until fairly recently, in the area of early modern English literature. Both of the anthologies I have edited deal with literature between 1550 and 1735. My two monographs are also on early modern literature. My most recent monograph,  Early Modern Women Writers Engendering Descent: Mary Sidney Herbert, Mary Sidney Wroth and their Genealogical Communities (Routledge, 2022), concerns how two central women writers of the famous Sidney family employed and occasionally subverted the power of family, ancestry, and descent to write original works of poetry and prose at the very beginning of the women’s literary tradition. Recently, however, I have begun to teach and publish in the area of popular literature, focusing particularly on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and that modern mythic figure: the superhero.

What most excites you about your field of work? 

As I move into studying, teaching, and researching popular literature, I find that I am returning to the genres that were so important to me as a child: fantasy fiction, science fiction, myth, and detective fiction. I find it exciting to share my enthusiasm for these kinds of stories with students who are not English majors, but for whom Frodo Baggins, Iron Man, and Sherlock Holmes are figures that they are often passionately invested in. I developed ENGL 395 Popular Literature in order to allow non-English majors to explore those characters and narratives that have been, and in many cases remain, deeply resonant for them. Teaching this course has been a very rewarding experience, as has supervising Dana Mateline Penney, who will soon be officially awarded her MA ENGL with a titled “The Woman Warrior and Her Bodymind in Action: An Analysis of Bodies, Minds, Gender, and Movement in Wonder Woman, 1941 – 2017.” Working with new scholars like Dana has been a real joy!

Tell us about your work.

I’ve talked a great deal about my research and teaching in the field of English literature, but recently I have become very involved in the faculty’s new communications programming. In January 2023, I will teach CORH 216 Communication and Media for the second time, with a focus on the LEGO® Building System and its multi-media ‘reach.’ In this course, we will examine the LEGO® building system as a material medium of communication and rhetoric that has moved into other popular culture media—audio, visual, textual, and digital. I am very excited to discuss with my students how audience and message are inter-related for the LEGO® building system’s diverse audiences.

What do you enjoy about living here and working at UBC Okanagan?

Having grown up in an older Eastern city with enormous urban sprawl, I have most enjoyed living in such a beautiful place. I remember being driven to my BNB when I arrived first in Kelowna with my host apologizing for the ugliness of Highway 97’s feedlot, pawnshops, and strip malls. I only had eyes for the mountains. I walk here in nature frequently and feel grateful that I have been able to live and work here. UBC Okanagan specifically has been a wonderful place to work, open to innovation and the development of new areas of instruction and focus.

The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies is committed to supporting and encouraging our students to reach their full potential while at UBC Okanagan. Each year, FCCS has a competition for research awards for domestic and international undergraduate students to provide an opportunity for them to pursue innovative and original research as part of their learning experience over the summer months.

The research awards are available to domestic and International students who are enrolled in a major, or combined major, in FCCS B.A., B.F.A. or B.M.S. program (English, Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Culture, French, Creative Writing, Visual Arts, Media Studies).

Summer 2021 Awards

In 2021, awards were given to three students, Camila Labarta-Garcia, Ashleigh Giffen and Maura Tamez. All three recipients have now completed their degrees – Labarta-Garcia completed her BA with a major in Cultural Studies, Giffen completed her degree in Creative Writing and Indigenous Studies, and Tamez completed her BFA.

Labarta-Garcia’s project investigated how Latin pop music tropes are adopted and appropriated in South Korean pop music (K-Pop) and how Latin American fans of K-Pop respond to this process of cultural appropriation and commodification. The project was conducted through a combination of the musicological textual analysis of Latin music tropes of major K-pop songs, and qualitative interviews with young Latin American K-Pop fans.

“My hope is that the project will make a significant contribution to the intercultural understanding of popular music, music industries, and audiences, while enhancing the empirical analysis of transnational cultural flows,” says Labarta-Garcia.

Giffen created a multimedia poetry chapbook including different forms of poetry and collage visuals. The chapbook focuses on the trades industry within Canada with a focus on BC., exploring toxic masculinity and the poor work conditions centered in rural industrialization, and as a result, the ongoing pandemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women within these environments.

“My research revolved around the question, ‘how do the socio-economic, racial, and mental health issues that greatly affect the men in the trades industry affect their families, cultures, and quality of life, while also systematically affecting the history and treatment of Indigenous peoples lives and lands?’” explains Giffen.

Tamez worked to create an original, experimental film focusing on Indigenous pasts, presents, and futures through a Dene lens. She was able to use tools to advance her technical skills and gain experience working with the Sony FS7 & Panasonic GH4 DSLR cameras.

Tamez says that her identity as a Dene Ndé woman informs her art practice based in sculpture, and recently, through filmmaking.

“My research engages Ndé peoples’ knowledge and perspectives. Community-based mentorships with Indigenous artists and Elders have nurtured my learnings,” she adds.

Summer 2022 Awards

For 2022, the faculty offered two awards, one to Rachel Pickard, and one to Eun Jee Lee. Pickard is a domestic student completing a combined major in Cultural Studies and English, and Lee is an international student completing a BA in an Art History and Visual Culture.

Rachel Pickard’s project is to create a multi-media digital edition of the Pocket Desert radio documentary, the original of which is housed in the Pocket Desert fonds (1993-1996) in the UBC Okanagan Archives. Through this digital edition, she plans to investigate the relevance of recorded oral histories and their significance to the Okanagan from the time they were produced to our present day.

“The funds will allow me specifically to engage with oral histories found in the audio recordings of interviews and discussions between experts such as Dr. Jeannette Armstrong and Dr. Geoffrey Scudder, regarding concerns around the diverse and unique desert climate and ecology in and around Osoyoos in the Okanagan valley and the significance the land has with the Syilx Okanagan people,” Pickard explains.

Eun Jee Lee will be exploring the interrelated and paradoxical relationship between the Christian and queer identity in the fine arts during the Modern period, in particular, the Renaissance and the Baroque, and its impact on how we understand the contemporary discipline of art history.

“The influence of the Church was powerful in the early modern period. While artists commissioned by the Churches depicted religious iconography and stories, allusions to queer identity can also be found,” says Lee.

More information on these awards and other funding opportunities in FCCS can be found here: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/student-resources/funding-awards

While UBCO has access to some more wild spaces such as the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre, this is quite a distance from campus. To deal with this, Tania Willard is working to establish a new research creation space here at UBCO, the Site/ation studio, supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Site/ation studio will allow for creative making tied to Indigenous knowledges and creative practice on campus, and will also be activated during the Indigenous Art Intensive program each spring.

CFI gives infrastructure funding to create research centres and labs on campus, which can include renovating or building space, the purchase of equipment and software as well as operational funds to get spaces up and running.

Site/ation studio is a research-creation space that uses collaborative creative practice as a methodology to acknowledge advocate and advance Indigenous land-based knowledges through creative making. The new research/creation space will be located in the portable near the University House here on campus, and with this funding, the space will be renovated and new equipment will include 3D scanners and projectors for projects. This eco-interface zone allows for outdoor making with accessible equipment to interact with the wild and native plants and other life at the edges of campus.

Projects will include a focus on Interior Salish basketry, the Indigenous art Intensive and projection-based work among other research activities. The ‘Site/ation Studio’ describes the ways that land, as a basis for Indigenous knowledge, can be a site of knowledge production and knowledge transfer equal to the value of academic text-based citations, Willard explains.

“I am planning several research creation projects in the space again considering skills-based making such as basketry, gardening and working with native plants, light projections and 3D scanning as it relates to cultural practices and virtuality, augmented reality and other manifestations of claiming virtual Indigenous spaces to create connections to urban and or global spaces that tether specific Indigenous knowledges of place,” she says.

Willard adds that that students and researchers will have the opportunity to work outdoors in a covered area in relation to natural surroundings.

“This will allow us to consider knowledge as embedded in land and Indigenous knowledges of land and work with new technologies in Audio Visual to research and create works that are interested in the interfaces of Indigenous knowledge the land and learning,” she says.

Renovations are underway, with plans to open this new space in 2023.

AR filters and video art installation from ‘Distant Distraction, Foul Breach, Separate Sensation’ by Lark Spartin. Images CC BY-SA 2022

Lark Spartin, a recent graduate from UBC Okanagan, presented her first academic publication on Digital Relationality at EVA London this July. EVA London is one of the international Electronic Visualization & the Arts conferences. Through her Bachelor of Media Studies degree, Spartin explored various ways to blend art and technology, and developed a strong technical skillset across a variety of digital media. In John Desnoyers-Stewart’s Media Studies Seminar Series (MDST 490), she began to uncover the under-utilized relational potential that these tools have to connect individuals and inspire creative expression among a wider demographic. John saw the potential value of Lark’s ideas to the larger digital art community and encouraged her to publish, which led them to co-author the EVA London article on Digital Relationality.

“Digital Relationality: Relational Aesthetics in Contemporary Interactive Art” by Lark Spartin and John Desnoyers-Stewart proposes ways in which Nicholas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics can be integrated with contemporary interactive art. Through their publication, presented at the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) London conference in July 2022, they analyse their own artworks as examples of how merging relational aesthetics with interactive digital art can benefit both realms. Applying relational aesthetics to digital media reveals the antagonism within the structures imposed by technology that is ordinarily taken for granted. Drawing attention to these structures, and subverting the typical uses of these platforms, allows for reflection and discourse. This can lead both artist and viewer to imagine alternative ways of living beyond the constraints we ordinarily operate within, becoming active participants in constructing a digitally relational future. When relationality is infused into technology by inverting its typical use, artists can encourage those who participate to become creators and performers. Digital relationality provides a way to bring awareness to the role we all have in reshaping the technology we use daily and reflect on the technology that shapes us.

Colours and shapes responding to movement in Gestures by Lark Spartin. Photo CC BY-SA 2021

Lark Spartin’s relational artwork, including Gestures and Distant Distraction, Foul Breach, Separate Sensation, has been exhibited at the UBC Okanagan FINA Gallery. Her artwork, mostly focused within digital art, interactive installation, and augmented reality, aims to invert the typical use of digital media to confront entrenched norms of social separation and disembodiment within the use of these tools. As such, she exhibits through online platforms that can reach a broad audience including Instagram filters and websites such as larkbutonline.com. By exploiting and subverting technology that is used to quite literally filter how we relate to our world, ourselves and one another, her work emphasizes the creative and relational potential of the tools that are so ingrained in our everyday communication and creation practices. She aims to continue her research and art practice to create relational artwork that encourages connection and expression from its viewers, changing the landscape of how individuals interact with technology, social media, and each other daily.

John Desnoyers-Stewart is a PhD Candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. His practice-based research centres around pushing the boundaries of virtual reality, encouraging new perspectives on its capacity to facilitate social connection and encourage self-expression. His interactive VR artworks including Transcending Perception and Body-RemiXer reframe how immersants see each other, encouraging them to dance, play, and connect with one another. His recent telepresent social experience Star-Stuff transforms immersants into constellations and galaxies and is available on AppLab, and will be exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2022 and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre this fall. He is also collaborating with an international team on a cutting-edge VR performance, Eve 3.0, that transforms audience members into performers through touch and movement. He teaches online courses at UBC Okanagan including MDST 490 Seminar Series and IGS 501 Creative Research Methods.

View Lark’s projects below.