Plug In ICA Summer Institute: Summer Institute Session I: DIS, Thumbs That Type and Swipe: The DIS Edutainment Network

We are so pleased to have another installment of Summer Institute at Plug In ICA! With the session starting on the 25th, we welcomed representative Marco Roso of DIS as the faculty member along with twelve amazing artists. As part of this ongoing blog, we'll be presenting you with interviews, photos, and updates on what we've been up to. We are already onto the second (and last) week before we finish the Summer Institute and we'll be ending the session with an open studio to see what the artists have accomplished on Saturday, July 7, 2018. In the meantime, the accompanying exhibition Thumbs that Type and Swipe: The DIS Edutainment Network is running until Sunday, July 29, 2018.

We kicked off the Summer Institute with basic introductions and administrative things. On the very first day we already had one screening of The Seasteaders and a video call with creators, Daniel Keller and Jacob Hurwitz Goodman. The interest in anarcho-futurist and libertarian society and the pursuit of new, self sustaining nation in isolation from the rest of the world made for a darker examination of the cost of freedom.

For the second day, artists were asked to make short 10-15 minute presentations about themselves, their practice, and what they would be working on during the Summer Institute (Yes, everyone did go over their time, but it was worth it!) Presentations took place in one of the classrooms in the University of Winnipeg building and the gallery space that Plug In has converted to a shared studio space for the Summer Institute. I had the opportunity to sit in on most of the presentations and learn about everyone's practices. It was interesting to see the different ways people present information, in particular, about themselves. We have such a wide variety of artists coming from different backgrounds and practices, all exploring ideas from their unique perspectives. We've had folks exploring the nuances of colour, exploring the self and how the body navigates as a technology, interest in the ways technology responds to being used as a tool, etc. There's so much information and ideas that the artists are sharing with us, I can't wait to post about the chats I've had with them!

Here are some photos from the presentations, captions will include the artist presenting: