Tag Archives: Marco Donnarumma

Toronto’s ArtSci Salon is hosting a couple more October 2025 events

Leave a reply

I have two art/science events and one art/science conference/festival (IRL [in real life or in person] and Zoom) taking place in Toronto, Ontario.

October 16, 2025

There is a closing event for the “I don’t do Math” series mentioned in my September 8, 2025 posting,

…

ABOUT
“I don’t do math” is a photographic series referencing dyscalculia, a learning difference affecting a person’s ability to understand and manipulate number-based information.

This initiative seeks to raise awareness about the challenges posed by dyscalculia with educators, fellow mathematicians, and parents, and to normalize its existence, leading to early detection and augmented support. In addition, it seeks to reflect on and question broader issues and assumptions about the role and significance of Mathematics and Math education in today’s changing socio-cultural and economic contexts. 

The exhibition will contain pedagogical information and activities for visitors and students. The artist will also address the extensive research that led to the exhibition. The exhibition will feature two panel discussions following the opening and to conclude the exhibition.

…

I have some information from an October 12, 2025 ArtSci Salon announcement (received via email) about the “I don’t do math” closing event,

in us for 

Closing Exhibition Panel Discussion
Thursday, October 16 2025
10:00 am -12:00 pm room 309
The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (or online)

Artist Ann Piché will be in conversation with
Andrew Fiss, Jacqueline Wernimont, Amenda Chow, Ellen Abrams, Michael Barany and JP Ascher

RSVP here

…

October 21, 2025

The second event mentioned in the October 12, 2025 ArtSci Salon announcement, Note 1: A link has been removed, Note 2: This event is part of a larger series,

…

Marco Donnarumma 
Monsters of Grace: bodies, sounds, and machines

Tuesday, October 21, 2025
3:30-4:30 PM
Sensorium Research Loft 
4th floor
Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
York University

About the talk
What is sound to those who do not hear it? How does one listen to something that cannot be heard? What kind of sensory gaps are created by aiding technologies such as prostheses and artificial intelligence (AI)? As a matter of fact, the majority of non-deaf people hear only partially due to age and personal experience. Still, sound is most often considered through the normalizing viewpoint of the non-deaf. If I become your body, what does sound become for me? Join us to welcome Marco Donnarumma  ahead of his new installation/performance at Paul Cadario Conference Room (Oct 22, 8-10 PM University College [University of Toronto] – 15 King’s College Circle). His talk will focus on this latest work in the context of a largest body of work titled “I Am Your Body,” an ongoing project investigating how normative power is enforced through the technological mediation of the senses.

About the artist:
Marco Donnarumma is an artist, inventor and theorist. His oeuvre confronts normative body politics with uncompromising counter-narratives, where bodies are in tension between control and agency, presence and absence, grace and monstrosity. He is best known for using sound, AI, biosensors, and robotics to turn the body into a site of resistance and transformation. He has presented his work in thirty-seven countries across Asia, Europe, North and South America and is the recipient of numerous accolades, most notably the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education’s Artist of the Science Year 2018, and the Prix Ars Electronica’s Award of Distinction in Sound Art 2017. Donnarumma received a ZER01NE Creator grant in 2024 and was named a pioneer of performing arts with advanced technologies by the major national newspaper Der Standard, Austria. His writings are published in Frontiers in Computer Science, Computer Music Journal and Performance Research, among others, and his newest book chapter, co-authored with Elizabeth Jochum, will appear in Robot Theaters by Routledge. Together with Margherita Pevere he runs the performance group Fronte Vacuo.

…

I wonder if Donnarumma’s “Monsters of Grace: bodies, sounds, and machines’ received any inspiration from “Monsters of Grace” (Wikipedia entry) or if it’s just happenstance, Note: Links have been removed,

Monsters of Grace is a multimedia chamber opera in 13 short acts directed by Robert Wilson, with music by Philip Glass and libretto from the works of 13th-century Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi. The title is said to be a reference to Wilson’s corruption of a line from Hamlet: “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” (1.4.39).

So, the October 21, 2025 event is a talk at York University taking place before the “Who’s afraid of AI? Arts, Sciences, and the Futures of Intelligence” (more below).

“Who’s afraid of AI? Arts, Sciences, and the Futures of Intelligence,” a conference and arts festival at the University of Toronto

The conference (October 23 – 24, 2025) is concurrent with the arts festival (October 19 – 25, 2025) at the University of Toronto. Here’s more from the event homepage on the https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca/ website, Note: BMO stands for Bank of Montreal, Note: No mention of Edward Albee and “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?,”

2025 marks an inflection point in our technological landscape, driven by seismic shifts in AI innovation.

Who’s Afraid of AI? Arts, Science, and the Futures of Intelligence is a week-long inquiry into the implications and future directions of AI for our creative and collective imaginings, and the many possible futures of intelligence. The complexity of these immediate future calls for interdisciplinary dialogue, bringing together artists, AI researchers, and humanities scholars.

In this volatile domain, the question of who envisions our futures is vital. Artists explore with complexity and humanity, while the humanities reveal the histories of intelligence and the often-overlooked ways knowledge and decision-making have been shaped. By placing these voices in dialogue with AI researchers and technologists, Who’s Afraid of AI? examines the social dimensions of technology, questions tech solutionism from a social-impact perspective, and challenges profit-driven AI with innovation guided by public values.

The two-day conference at the University of Toronto’s University College anchors the week and features panels and debates with leading figures in these disciplines, including a keynote by 2025 Nobel Laureate in Physics Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI” and 2025 Neil Graham Lecturer in Science, Fei-Fei Li, an AI pioneer.

Throughout the week, the conversation continues across the city with:

  • AI-themed and AI powered art shows and exhibitions
  • Film screenings
  • Innovative theatre
  • Experimental music

Who’s Afraid of AI? demonstrates that Toronto has not only shaped the history of AI but continues to prepare its future.Step into this changing landscape and be part of this transformative dialogue — register today!

Organizing Committee:

Pia Kleber, Professor-Emerita, Comparative Literature, and Drama, U of T
Dirk Bernhardt-Walther, Department of Psychology, Program Director, Cognitive Science, U of T
David Rokeby, Director, BMO Lab, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, U of T
Rayyan Dabbous, PhD candidate, Centre for Comparative Literature, U of T

…

This looks like a pretty interesting programme (if you’re mainly focused on AI and the creative arts), from the event homepage on the https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca/ website, Note 1: All times are ET, Note 2: I have not included speakers’ photos,

The conference will explore core questions about AI such as its capabilities, possibilities and challenges, bringing their unique research, creative practice, scholarship and experience to the discussion. Speakers will also engage in an interdisciplinary conversation on topics including AI’s implications for theories of mind and embodiment, its influence on creation, innovation, and discovery, its recognition of diverse perspectives, and its transformation of artistic, cultural, political and everyday practices.

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Mind the World

9 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

What are the merits and limits of artificial intelligence within the larger debate on embodiment? This session brings together an artist who has given AI a physical dimension, a neuroscientist who reckons with the biological neural networks inspiring AI, and a humanist knowledgeable of the longer history in which the human has tried to decouple itself from its bodily needs and wants.

Suzanne Kite
Director, The Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI

James DiCarlo
Director, MIT Quest for Intelligence

N. Katherine Hayles
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature

Staging AI

11 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

How is AI changing the arts? To answer this question, we bring together theatre directors and artists who have made AI the main driving plot of their stories and those who opted to keep technology secondary in their productions.

Kay Voges
Artistic Director, Schauspiel Köln

Roland Schimmelpfennig
Playwright and Director, Berlin

Hito Steyerl
Artist, Filmmaker and Writer, Berlin

Recognizing ‘Noise’

2 PM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

How can we design a more inclusive AI? This session brings together an artist who has worked with AI and has been sensitive to groups who may be excluded by its practice, an inclusive design scholar who has grappled with AI’s potential for personalized accessibility, and a humanist who understands the longer history on pattern and recognition from which emerged AI.

Marco Donnarumma
Artist, Inventor, Theorist, Berlin

Jutta Treviranus
Director, OCADU [Ontario College of Art & Design University],
Inclusive Design Research Centre

Eryk Salvaggio
Media Artist and Tech Policy Press Fellow, Rochester

Art, Design, and Application are the Solution to AI’s Charlie Chaplain Problem

4 PM | Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Circle

Daniel Wigdor
CoFounder and Chief Executive Officer, AXL

Keynote and Neil Graham Lecture in Science

4:15 PM | Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Circle

Fei-Fei Li
Sequoia Professor in Computer Science, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI

Geoffrey Hinton
2024 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor Emeritus in Computer Science

…

Friday, October 24, 2025

Life with AI

9 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

How do machine minds relate to human minds? What can we learn from one about the other? In this session we interrogate the impact of AI on our understanding of human knowledge and tool-making, from the perspective of philosophy, computer science, as well as the arts.

Jeanette Winterson
Author, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Great Britain

Leif Weatherby
Professor of German and Director of Digital Theory Lab at
New York University

Jennifer Nagel
Professor, Philosophy, University of Toronto Mississauga

Discovery & In/Sight

11 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

This session explores creative practice through the lens of innovation and cultural/scientific advancement. An artist who creates with critical inspiration from AI joins forces with an innovation scholar who investigates the effects of AI on our decision making, as well as a philosopher of science who understands scientific discovery and inference as well as their limits.

Vladan Joler
Visual Artist and Professor of
New Media, University of Novi Sad [Serbia]

Alán Aspuru-Guzik
Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science, University of Toronto

Brian Baigrie
Professor, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of Toronto

Social history & Possible Futures

2 PM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

How does AI ownership and its private uses coexist within a framework of public good? It brings together an artist who has created AI tools to be used by others, an AI ethics researcher who has turned algorithmic bias into collective insight, and a philosopher who understands the connection between AI and the longer history of automation and work from which AI emerged.

Memo Akten
Artist working with Code, Data and AI, UC San Diego

Beth Coleman
Professor, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, University of Toronto

Matteo Pasquinelli
Professor, Philosophy and Cultural Heritage Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia [Italy]

A Theory of Latent Spaces | Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

4 PM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

Antonio Somaini, curator of the remarkable ‘World through AI’ exhibition at the Museé du Jeu de Paume in Paris, will discuss the way in which ‘latent spaces’, a core characteristic of current AI models as “meta-archives” that shape profoundly our relation with the past.

Following this, we will engage in a larger discussion amongst the various conference speakers and attendees on how we can, as artists, humanities scholars, scientists and the general public, collectively imagine and cultivate a future where AI serves the public good and enhances our individual and collective lives.”

Antonio Somaini
Curator and Professor, Sorbonne Nouvelle [Université Sorbonne Nouvelle]

…

You can register here for this free conference, although, there’s now a waitlist for in person attendance. Do not despair, there’s access by Zoom,

In case you can’t make it in person, join us by Zoom:

Link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/82603012955

Webinar ID: 826 0301 2955

Passcode: 512183

I have not forgotten the festival, from the event homepage on the https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca/ website,

Events Also Happening

October 22 | 2 PM | Student Forum and AI Commentary Contest Award | Paul Cadario Conference Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

October 22 | 8 – 10 PM | Marco Donnarumma, world première of a new performance installation | Paul Cadario Conference Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

October 23 | 2 PM | Jeanette Winterson: Arts & AI Talk | Paul Cadario Conference Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle

October 24 | 7 PM | The Kiss by Roland Schimmelpfennig | The BMO Lab, University College – 15 King’s College Circle (Note: we are scheduling more performances. Check back for more info soon!)

October 25 | 8 PM | AI Cabaret featuring Jason Sherman, Rick Miller, Cole Lewis, BMO Lab projects and more| Crow’s Theatre, Nada Ristich Studio-Gallery – 345 Carlaw Avenue..

Get tickets for the AI Cabaret

(Use promo code AICAB for 100% discount)

Enjoy!

Emergence in Toronto and Ottawa and brains in Vancouver (Canada): three April 2018 events

Leave a reply

April 2018 is shaping up to be quite the month where art/sci events are concerned. I just published a March 27, 2018 posting titled ‘Curiosity collides with the quantum and with the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada in Vancouver (Canada)‘ and I’ve now received news about more happenings in Toronto and Ottawa.  Plus, there’s a science-themed meeting organized by ARPICO (Society of Italian Researchers &; Professionals in Western Canada) featuring brains and brain imaging in Vancouver.

Toronto’s and Ottawa’s Emergence

There’s an art/sci exhibit opening, from a March 27, 2018 Art/Sci Salon announcement (received via email),

You are invited!

FaceBook event:

The Oakwood Village Library and Arts Centre event:

341 Oakwood Avenue, Toronto, ON  M6E 2W1

I check the library webpage listed in the above and found this artist’s statement,

Artist / Scientist Statement [Stephen Morris]

I am interested in self-organized, emergent patterns and textures. I make images of patterns both from the natural world and of experiments in my laboratory in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto. Patterns naturally attract casual attention but are also the subject of serious scientific research. Some things just evolve all by themselves into strikingly regular shapes and textures. Why? These shapes emerge spontaneously from a dynamic process of growing, folding, cracking, wrinkling, branching, flowing and other kinds of morphological development. My photos are informed by the scientific aesthetic of nonlinear physics, and celebrate the subtle interplay of order and complexity in emergent patterns. They are a kind of “Scientific Folk Art” of the science of Emergence.

While the official opening is April 5, 2018, the event itself runs from April 1 – 30, 2018.

Next, there’s another March 27, 2018 announcement (received via email) from the Art/Sci Salon but this one concerns a series of talks about ’emergence’, Note: Some of the event information was a little difficult to decipher so I’ve added a note to the relevant section).

What is Emergent Form?

Nature teems with self-organized forms that seem to spring spontaneously from the smooth background of things, by mechanisms that are not always apparent. Think of rippled sand on a beach or regular stripes in the clouds.  Plants, insects and animals exhibit spirals and spots and stripes in an exuberant riot of colours.  Fluid flows in amazingly regular swirls and eddies.  The emergence of form is ubiquitous, and presents a challenge and an inspiration to both artists and scientists. In mathematics, patterns appear as solutions of the nonlinear partial differential equations in the continuum limit of classical physics, chemistry and biology. In the arts and humanities, “emergent form” addresses the entangled ways in which humans, plants animals, microorganisms inevitably co-exist in the universe; the way that human intervention and natural transformation can generate new landscapes and new forms of life.

With Emergent Form, we want to question the idea of a fixed world.

For us, Emergent Form is not just a series of natural and human phenomena too complicated to understand, measure or predict, but also a concept to help us identify ways in which we can come to term with, and embrace their complexity as a source of inspiration.

Join us in Toronto and Ottawa for a series of interdisciplinary discussions, performances and exhibitions on Emergent Form on Apr 10, 11, 12 (Toronto) and Apr. 14 [2018] (Ottawa).

This series is the result of a collaboration among several parties. Each event of the series is different and has its dedicated RSVP 

Tue. Apr 10 The Fields Institute, 222 College Street

Emergent form: an interdisciplinary concept 6:00-8:00 pm Pier Luigi Capucci, Accademia di Belle Arti Urbino. Founder and director, Noemalab*, Charles Sowers, Independent artist and exhibit designer, the Exploratorium, Stephen Morris, Professor of of Physics University of Toronto, Ron Wild, smART Maps

CLICK HERE FOR MORE AND TO RSVP

Wed. Apr 11 The Fields Institute6:00-8:00 pm

Anatomy of an Interconnected SystemA Performative Lecture with Margherita Pevere, Aalto University, Helsinki

CLICK HERE FOR MORE AND TO RSVP

Thu. Apr 12 (Note: I believe that from 5 – 6 pm, you’re invited to see Pevere’s exhibit and then proceed to Luella Massey Studio Theatre for performances)

5:00 pm  Cabinets in the Koffler Student Centre [I believe this is at the University of Toronto] Anatomy of an Interconnected System An exhibition by Margherita Pevere

6:00 pm Luella Massey Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris Ave., Toronto biopoetriX – conFiGURing AI

6:00-8:00 pm Performance: 

6:00pm Performance “Corpus Nil. A Ritual of Birth for a Modified Body” conceived and performed by Marco Donnarumma

6.30pm LAB dance: Blitz media posters on labs in the arts, sciences and engineering

7.10pm Panel: Performing AI, hybrid media and humans in/as technologyMarco Donnarumma, Doug van Nort (Dispersion Lab, York U.), Jane Tingley (Stratford User Research & Gameful Experiences Lab –SURGE-, U of Waterloo), Angela Schoellig (Dynamic Systems Lab, U of T)

Panel animators: Antje Budde (Digital Dramaturgy Lab) and Roberta Buiani (ArtSci Salon)

8.15pm Reception at the Italian Cultural Institute, 496 Huron St, Toronto

CLICK HERE FOR MORE AND TO RSVP

Ottawa. Sat. Apr. 14 National Arts Centre, 1 Elgin Street11:00 am-1:00 pm

Emergent Form and complex phenomenaA creative panel discussion and surprise demonstrationsWith Pier Luigi Capucci, Margherita Pevere, Marco Donnarumma, Stephen Morris

CLICK HERE FOR MORE AND TO RSVP

This event would not be possible without the support of The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Science, The Italian Embassy, the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, the Digital Dramaturgy Lab, and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Many thanks to our community partner BYOR (Bring your own Robot)

I wonder if some of the funding from Italy is in support of Italian Research in World Day. This is the inaugural year for the event, which will be held annually on April 15.

Vancouver’s brains

The Society of Italian Researchers and Professionals in Western Canada (ARPICO) is hosting an event in Vancouver (from a March 22, 2018 ARICO announcement received via email),

Our second speaking event of the year, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver, has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 11th, 2018 at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Professor Vesna Sossi’s talk will be examining how positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has contributed to better understanding of the brain function and disease with particular focus on Parkinson’s disease. You can read a summary of Prof. Sossi’s lecture as well as her short professional biography at the bottom of this message.

This event is organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver to celebrate the newly instituted Italian Research in the World Day, as part of the Piano Straordinario “Vivere all’Italiana” – Giornata della ricerca Italiana nel mondo. You can read more on our website event page.

We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Please register for the event by visiting the EventBrite link or RSVPing to info@arpico.ca.

The evening agenda is as follows:

  • 6:45 pm – Doors Open
  • 7:00 pm – Lecture by Prof. Vesna Sossi
  • ~8:00 pm – Q & A Period
  • Mingling & Refreshments until about 9:30 pm

If you have not yet RSVP’d, please do so on our EventBrite page.

Further details are also available at arpico.ca, our facebook page, and Eventbrite.

Imaging: A Window into the Brain

Brain illness, comprising neurological disorders, mental illness and addiction, is considered the major health challenge in the 21st century with a socio-economic cost greater than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. There are at least three unique challenges hampering brain disease management: relative inaccessibility, disease onset often preceding the onset of clinical symptoms by many years and overlap between clinical and pathological symptoms that makes accurate disease identification often difficult. This talk will give examples of how positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has contributed to better understanding of the brain function and disease with particular focus on Parkinson’s disease. Emphasis will be placed on the interplay between scientific discoveries and instrumentation and data analysis development as exemplified by the current understanding of the brain function as comprised by interactions between connectivity networks and neurochemistry and advancement in multi-modal imaging such as simultaneous PET and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Vesna Sossi is a Professor in the University of British Columbia (UBC) Physics and Astronomy Department and at the UBC Djavad Mowafaghian Center for Brain Health. She directs the UBC Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging centre, which is known for its use of imaging as applied to neurodegeneration with emphasis on Parkinson’s disease. Her main areas of interest comprise development of imaging methods to enhance the investigation of neurochemical mechanisms that lead to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and mechanisms that contribute to treatment-related complications. She uses PET imaging to explore how alterations of the different neurotransmitter systems contribute to different trajectories of disease progression. Her other areas of interest are PET image analysis, instrumentation and multi-modal, multi-parameter data analysis. She published more than 180 peer review papers, is funded by several granting agencies, including the Michael J Fox Foundation, and sits on several national and international review panels.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 11th, 2018 at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:45pm)
WHERE: Roundhouse Community Centre, Room B – 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2W3
RSVP: Please RSVP at EventBrite (https://imaging-a-window-into-the-brain.eventbrite.ca) or email info@arpico.ca

Tickets are Needed

  • Tickets are FREE, but all individuals are requested to obtain “free-admission” tickets on EventBrite site due to limited seating at the venue. Organizers need accurate registration numbers to manage wait lists and prepare name tags.
  • All ARPICO events are 100% staffed by volunteer organizers and helpers, however, room rental, stationery, and guest refreshments are costs incurred and underwritten by members of ARPICO. Therefore to be fair, all audience participants are asked to donate to the best of their ability at the door or via EventBrite to “help” defray costs of the event.

You can find directions for the Roundhouse Community Centre here

I have one idle question. What’s going to happen these groups if Canadians change their use of  Facebook or abandon the platform as they are threatening to do in the face of Cambridge Analytica’s use of their data? A March 25, 2018 article on huffingtonpost.ca outlines the latest about Canadians’ reaction to the Cambridge Analytical news according to an Angus Reid poll,

…

A survey by Angus Reid Institute suggests 73 per cent of Canadian Facebook users say they will make changes, while 27 per cent say it will be “business as usual.”

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) said they would use Facebook less in the future, and 41 per cent of users said they would check and/or change their privacy settings.

The survey also found that one in 10 say they plan to abandon the platform, at least temporarily.

Facebook has been under fire for its ability to protect user privacy after Cambridge Analytica was accused of lifting the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission.

There you have it.

*Well, a bit more information about one of the “Emergent’ speakers was received in an April 4, 2018 ArtSci Salon email announcement,

Do make sure to check out Pier Luigi Capucci’s EU-based (but with international breadth) Noemalab platform. https://noemalab.eu/ since the mid-nineties, this platform has been an important node of information for New Media Art and the relation between the arts and science.

noemalab’s blog regularly hosts reviews of events and conferences occurring around the world, including  the Subtle Technologies Festival between 2007 and 2014. you can search its archives here http://blogs.noemalab.eu/

Capucci has been writing several reflections on emergent forms of Life and theorized what he called the “third life”. See a recent essay https://noemalab.eu/memo/events/evolutionary-creativity-the-inner-life-and-meaning-of-art/ here is a picture which I would love him to explain during Emergent Form. Intrigued? come listen to him!