Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Artists: Erick Oh (United States), Lau Wai (Hong Kong), Yu Shien Yang & Jin Keon (Taiwan), fleuryfontaine (France) and Total Refusal (Austria)
Programming
SCI_ART
Symposium
Alma Duncan Salon, Ottawa Art Gallery, Club SAW, Artengine
SAW, the European Union, through its Delegation to Canada, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia, the Embassy of Slovenia, and the University of British Columbia, in partnership with Artengine, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Austrian Embassy, Culture Ireland, the Embassy of Denmark, the Embassy of Ireland, the Embassy of Italy, the Embassy of Mexico, the Embassy of Poland, the Embassy of Portugal, the Institut français du Canada, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal, present:
SCI_ART
Art, Science and Technology Symposium
October 4 and 5, 2025
Locations: Alma Duncan Salon, Ottawa Art Gallery (10 Daly Avenue, Ottawa) and Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street, Ottawa)
The 3rd edition of SCI_ART brings together artists, scientists and scholars for a two-day program of panel discussions, artist talks, performances, screenings and workshops, offering a wide range of perspectives on artistic and scientific collaboration. The symposium examines emerging art forms and technological innovations that arise when research and creative practice intersect. Many of the participating artists and thinkers address some of the most urgent issues of our time—from environmental degradation to pressing social challenges—opening pathways to new ways of perceiving and reimagining the world.
Programming Committee: Konstantinos Kapsouropoulos, Inès Mastellotto-Lesny, Jason St-Laurent, Remco Volmer
SAW Funding Partners: Canada Council for the Arts, City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council, Government of Ontario, Government of Canada, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Cultural Partners: Artengine, Ottawa Art Gallery, Sporobole, Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal, Ars Electronica
Registration includes a full weekend of activities, including complimentary coffee and tea, a networking lunch and a VIP cocktail reception.
Early-bird price: $20 / $15 for SAW members, students, seniors and unwaged
After September 26: $30 / $25 for SAW members, students, seniors and unwaged
SCI_ART Schedule
ALL SCI_ART PROGRAMS ARE OFFERED IN ENGLISH
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Alma Duncan Salon (10 Daly Avenue)
Alma Duncan Salon (10 Daly Avenue)
Alma Duncan Salon (10 Daly Avenue)
Speakers: Przemysław Jasielski (Poland), Borut Jerman (Slovenia) and Isabella Salas (Canada)
Moderator: Megan Smith (Canada)
Przemysław Jasielski is a visual artist working at the intersection of engineering, art, and science. Many of his projects explore the contemporary art–science paradigm, treating art as an experimental scientific practice while approaching science through the lens of contemporary art theory. His work spans a range of technologies, from simple paper-based architectural constructions to complex artificial life–management systems.
Born in 1970, Jasielski studied at the State Higher School of Visual Arts (now the University of Fine Arts) in Poznań from 1989 to 1994, graduating with diplomas in sculpture (under Professor Jan Berdyszak) and drawing (under Professor Jarosław Kozłowski). Since the 1990s, he has been creating installations, objects, drawings, and auteur machines with unusual and surprising functions. His work has been exhibited internationally, including in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Korea, Japan, and the Czech Republic.
Jasielski’s practice engages in an ongoing dialogue with contemporary definitions of technology and science, and their interrelation in post-technological culture. His work can be understood not only as critical practice but also as the creation of prototypes for artificial life and artificial intelligence, framed within biomimetics and post-humanist discourse.
His installation was featured in the Polish Pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale (2024), where it ironically dissects the entanglement of civilizational ambitions and their tangible and imagined consequences. Jasielski constructs his own machines for image-making, drawing on a rich spectrum of visual representations of the future—from modernist and socialist-realist to pop culture and science-fiction references. His work provocatively questions whether the future looks back to the past or vice versa.
Simultaneously, it explores the aesthetics of technological progress as experienced from diverse Polish and peripheral perspectives. The original design of the installation was conceived for the unrealized concept of the Polish Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia by Prof. Agnieszka Jelewska and Dr. Michał Krawczak.
Borut Jerman is the president of the Association for Culture and Education PiNA, where his work focuses on the creative industries, participation, culture, art, and critical reflection. He is an experienced planner, coordinator, and leader of national and international projects spanning art, culture, active citizenship, and creative innovation.
Jerman leads the HEKA Art & Science Laboratory and serves as producer of the new media art festival IZIS. In recent years, his work has centered on developing HEKA as a platform for dialogue and collaboration between society and science through art and artistic thinking. HEKA’s guiding principle is to bring empathy, curiosity, and compassion—qualities intrinsic to art—into scientific research methodologies.
At the core of his practice is the recognition that technology, art, and the economy continuously shape both individuals and society, and that fostering exchange across disciplines is key to addressing today’s complex challenges.
Isabella Salas works at the intersection of memory, media, and ecology.
Born in Mexico City and now based on Turtle Island, her practice explores the fractures and frequencies of our time through experimental cinema, AI-assisted image-making, and immersive forms that entwine technology with ecological and ethical principles.
Her work attunes itself to the quiet tension between what has vanished and what insists on remaining.
As co-founder of the International Digital Arts Alliance and co-creator of smART: the collective memory of digital arts, Salas develops frameworks for collaboration that move across borders, disciplines, and histories. Her projects often unfold in the space between institutions and underground networks, weaving together artistic research, ethical inquiry, and attentive forms of practice.
At the core of her work lies what she calls “soft resistance”: the conviction that care is political, that presence can be a form of force, and that not all futures must be accelerated.
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Alma Duncan Salon (10 Daly Avenue)
Speakers: Jacob Kirkegaard (Denmark), Fiona McDonald (Ireland) and Swamp_Matter (Netherlands – Slovenia)
Moderator : Cindy Stelmackowich
The work of Jacob Kirkegaard investigates ways to reflect on complex, often overlooked or inaccessible conditions and environments. His projects have addressed themes such as radioactivity in Chernobyl, melting ice in the Arctic, border walls in both literal and metaphorical contexts, immersive acoustic explorations of global waste management, and the processes surrounding human death.
In recent work, Kirkegaard has explored the sounds of warfare, orchestrating recordings of firearms, grenades, and tanks for the Royal Lifeguard’s Music Corps. Another recent project examines the mechanical elements of agriculture and food production, revealing the hidden rhythms of industrial processes.
Since 2006, he has also been researching, recording, and creating works using otoacoustic emissions—tones generated by the human ear itself.
At the core of Kirkegaard’s practice is the translation of intangible phenomena into tangible sound. His method consistently draws on sound recordings as a means to make perceptible the unseen or otherwise inaccessible aspects of the world.
Fiona McDonald is a Dublin-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice bridges art, science, and technology. She holds a BSc in Biological Chemistry (University of Ulster), a BA and MA in Fine Art (NCAD), and an MSc in Multimedia Systems (Trinity College Dublin).
She is currently an Artist in Residence at the RHA Gallery Studios and a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Project Award (2023). Previous residencies include AIR in Innovation and Technology at Talent Garden, DCU Alpha Campus (2020–21); An Urgent Enquiry Artist Residency (2019); and Art in Science Residency at UCD Parity Studios (2016). She has also held residencies at Fire Station Artists’ Studios (Digital Media Residency) and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios (Project Studio Award). From 2016 to 2019, she was a visiting research assistant with the Orthogonal Methods Group at CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for future communication networks.
McDonald’s recent exhibitions include the solo show Transcoding – The Living Mountain (Talent Garden, DCU Alpha Campus); Woman in the Machine (VISUAL Carlow, 2021), where she received the ARTWORK Prize; In the Age of Conscious Makers (NCAD Gallery, 2020); Gateways (Roscommon Arts Centre, 2018, curated by Linda Shevlin); In Case of Emergency (Science Gallery Dublin, 2017–18); Light Lines (Mermaid Arts Centre, 2017); Quantum Leap (Foundation15, 2015); and U-turn (The Library Project, 2015).
Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at Broadstone Studios, the LAB, Green on Red Gallery, Hugh Lane Gallery, the Digital Hub, and the Drawing Project Dublin, as well as internationally in Copenhagen, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and at the Cologne Art Fair. Her work is held in public and private collections including AIB, UCD, the Digital Hub, Thomas Street Dublin, Scott Tallon Walker Architects, and Arc.
Alongside her artistic practice, McDonald has lectured at NCAD on the MA in Interactive Design, MA in Art in the Digital World, and BA Media Studies, as well as teaching at IADT and DIT. She co-delivered lectures on Critical Practices of Environment and Ecology at NCAD in 2021–22.
Swamp_Matter is the collaborative duo of Eva Garibaldi and Ana Laura Richter, whose work investigates ecological issues and the impact of the Anthropocene on ecosystems. Their practice examines the relationship between humans and nature across geological time, focusing on marginal and economically “unproductive” landscapes such as swamps and caves. They create immersive spatial installations that integrate digital media and speculative fiction.
Eva Garibaldi, born in 1996 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is an artist, designer, and researcher. She holds a Master’s in Interior Architecture: Research + Design (Cum Laude, 2021) from the Piet Zwart Institute (Netherlands) and a BA in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design Ljubljana (2018).
Ana Laura Richter, born in 1996 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is an artist and dramaturg. She earned her MA in Ecology Futures (2022) at St. Joost School of Art & Design (Netherlands) and a BA in Dramaturgy from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television (2019).
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Unless otherwise noted, all programs on October 5 are presented free of charge and are open to the general public.
Artengine (67 Nicholas Street)
Fabien Léaustic (France)
By invitation only.
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Speakers: Teresa Almeida (Portugal), Luca Spano (Italy) and Yolanda Uriz (Netherlands)
Moderator: Charlene Lau Ahier
Teresa Almeida is an artist and researcher whose practice bridges art, science, and technology. Her work explores the creative and material possibilities of glass, with a particular focus on luminescent glass and enamels developed during her doctoral and postdoctoral research. She is equally engaged with ecological art, the intersections of craft and technology, and collaborative projects between artists and scientists.
Almeida holds a Master’s in Glass from the University of Sunderland, UK, and postgraduate certificates in Glass and Architecture and Glass and Fine Art from Central Saint Martin’s College, London. She earned her BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Porto, where she has taught since 2009. Currently, she coordinates the technical area for glass, ceramics, and mosaic, and serves on both the Scientific Committee of the Master’s in Fine Arts and the Department Council of Fine Arts.
She is an active member of the VICARTE Research Unit “Glass and Ceramics for the Arts,” where she previously served as artistic coordinator of the Contemporary Creativity and Materials group (2014–2019) and on the board of directors (2013–2018). She is also affiliated with i2ADS – Research Institute in Art, Design and Society at the University of Porto.
Almeida has received international recognition, including the Prémio Femina (2013), an Honorable Mention at the Jutta Cuny Franz Memorial Award, Düsseldorf (2009), and multiple national awards. Her work has been presented in exhibitions and conferences across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, and is represented in both public and private collections.
Her professional development has been supported by scholarships and grants from the Pilchuck Glass School, the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Luso-American Foundation, and the Portuguese National Science Foundation.
Luca Spano (b. 1982, Italy) is a multidisciplinary artist. He trained in Europe and the United States, earning a degree in Communication Sciences from Sapienza University in Rome, an MA in Photography from the London College of Communication, and an MFA in Visual Arts from Cornell University in Ithaca (US). His work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and festivals including the Triennale di Milano, MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome), BredaPhoto Festival (Netherlands), Malta Festival (Poland), Saavy Contemporary (Berlin), Luis Adelantado Gallery (Spain), Paolo Erbetta Gallery (Italy), Caelum Gallery (New York), the Italian Cultural Institutes in Paris and Hamburg, and the Higher Regional Ethnographic Institute.
Spano has participated in residencies at Fundación Botín (Spain), NoArte Paese Museo (Italy), Künstlerischen Tatsache (Germany), Kultur einer Digitalstadt (Germany), and as a visiting artist at Arts Letters and Numbers Residency (US), among others. He has received numerous awards and grants, including the MEAD Fellowship (UK), CCA Grant and Einaudi Research Grant (US), the John Hartell Award (US), Graziadei Prize (Italy), Premio del Paesaggio Regione Sardegna (Italy), New Work Prospect Art Grant (US), and Photography Strategy 2022 MiBACT (Italy).
He served as one of the directors of the OnOff Picture photographic agency in Rome, co-directed the NYC Creative Salon organization in New York, and founded OCCHIO, an image research and teaching laboratory based in Cagliari.
His work is held in public and private collections, including the MAXXI Museum in Rome, the Cornell University artist’s book collection, the Graziadei Collection, and the Sardinian Higher Regional Ethnographic Institute.
Formed at the ArtScience department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK), Yolanda Uriz developed a passion for merging science and art through perception. Her practice explores physical phenomena such as vibration, electromagnetic waves, and chemical molecules—elements we experience as sound, light, or smell—transforming them into multi-sensory immersive experiences.
With a particular focus on the proximity senses of smell, taste, and touch, Yolanda Uriz currently concentrates her research on the synesthetic connections between sound and smell. By combining digital tools with DIY perfumery, experimenting with materials, and tinkering in the Fab-Lab, she seeks new ways to expand the margins of human perception.
Her work takes the form of installations and performances presented internationally at festivals including Sonic Acts (NL), WRO Media-Art Biennale (PL), Kontraste (AT), STRP (NL), SPARK (USA), Todays Art (NL), ISEA (ES), and Ars Electronica (AT).
Since 2013, Yolanda Uriz has been a member of iii, an artist-run collective that supports radical interdisciplinary practices engaging with image, sound, space, and the body.
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Marc-Olivier Ducharme (Canada)
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Fiona McDonald (Ireland)
Club SAW (67 Nicholas Street)
Felix Lenz (Austria)
