David Bobier is a hard of hearing and disabled media artist whose creative practice is exploring multi-modal means of art making. His other focus is in developing accessible vibrotactile technology as an artistic and experiential medium that led to the establishment in 2014 of VibraFusionLab, a multi-sensory creative research centre now situated in Hamilton that has an international reputation as a leader in accessibility for the Deaf and Disability Arts movement.
His exhibition career includes 19 solo and over 30 group exhibitions in Canada and internationally as well as two public art commissions.
As an artist and through VibraFusionLab, Bobier has received funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, SSHRC Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Grand National Centres of Excellence, Farnham Maltings (UK), High Commission of Canada in the UK, Province of Quebec and British Council Canada.
Bobier served in advisory roles in developing Deaf and Disability Arts Equity programs for both Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, was an invited participant in the Canada Council for the Arts – The Arts in a Digital World Summit and a presenter at the Global Disability Summit in London (UK).
Jim Ruxton has been working as an artist and engineer in installation, performance, theatre, dance, and film and has collaborated with many other artists throughout his career. His company, Cinematronics, has helped numerous artists realize their technically ambitious projects and provided special effects for numerous films, TV series, commercials, and science museums.
Jim uses electronics in multiple creative ways, whether it be in creating interactive systems, developing evocative lighting installations or robotic systems. He is the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, was awarded a Chalmers Fellowship, a Hamilton Arts Award and has been the recipient of numerous arts grants. Jim is also a founder and former Director of Programs for Subtle Technologies, a 20-year-old organization that creates links between artists and scientists with events throughout the year and during its annual festival in Toronto.
He is a member of the Hamilton based VibraFusionLab. Jim is passionate about bringing people together from different disciplines to facilitate work that extends beyond traditional genres.
Ailís Ní Ríain is an Irish composer & writer based in rural Lancashire. Her work has been performed across Europe, in Israel, Brazil, USA and Japan and broadcast on BBC and RTÉ. Her artistic interests are diverse she has worked broadly in the areas of concert music, installation, music-theatre and has collaborated with writers, dancers, visual artists, filmmakers and theatre artists. In 2016 she was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.
Ailís has hearing impairments and has made work referencing deafness, disability and mental health since 2006 working with DadaFest, Unlimited, Arts & Disability Ireland, Shape Arts, Drake Music and Outside In.
She has been awarded international fellowships, associate artist positions and residences in the USA including Yaddo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Ragdale Foundation, ArtOMI; Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris and the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy.
Site-specific music-installations include music installations for a lighthouse in Cumbria, a K6 telephone box in Manchester, a dis-used former cotton mill in Lancashire, the Brontë Parsonage in West Yorkshire, a Clitheroe Castle keep and a railway station accumulator tower at Edge Hill, Merseyside.
Her Debut Disc portrait album will be released by NMC Recordings in 2023. Current & recent commissions include new work for the RTE Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Evelyn Glennie and the New London Chamber Ensemble, Con Tempo String Quartet, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Unlimited and the Royal Academy of Music.
As a writer of words for stage, Ailís’ work is published by Nick Hern and Bloomsbury and has been translated into French, German and Swedish and produced in Ireland, UK, New York, Germany and Sweden. Her work in French is represented by L’Arche.
Composer, sound designer, musician, and instrument maker, John Gzowski has worked on over 300 theatre, dance and film productions for which he has done composition, sound design, live foley, live music, and as musical director. He has played banjo for opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India, and played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe. His theatre work has won him six Dora Awards, from 18 nominations for companies like Stratford, Shaw Festival, Luminato, National Arts Centre, Mirvish Productions, Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Arts Club, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Red Sky, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre and Young People’s Theatre. John has played on numerous CDs including recent releases with Patricia O’Callghan, Tasa, and Autorickshaw, as well receiving a Juno nomination with Maza Meze. John ran Canada’s first microtonal group touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch; he has composed and performed with several new music groups; and he has worked as co-artistic director of the Music Gallery.