Wednesday November 11, 2015
5 to 7
@ STUDIO XX - 4001, Berri (corner Duluth) space 201
Suggested donation: 2$, *FREE* for members
Refreshments will be served

Come experience Daniella Ben-Bassat’s Taskmaster! This new piece consists of four sculptural sound machines that she produced during her residency at Studio XX (September 28 to November 6, 2015).

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Taskmaster aims to counter the absurd idea of “user control” advertised as a feature of digital technology. Instead, Daniella’s point of departure is that users’ actions are enabled but also constrained by the very code of the digital machine. While tech-developers and designers hide the code, “the wires,” and the true nature of their mechanisms, Daniella aims to expose them.

Each one of the sculptural machines functions as a moving diorama enclosed within a cube. The spinning pieces within each cube are programmed to rotate in different directions at different time intervals. The performer can control the speeds of these pre-determined rotations. The result is a series of loops of live sound as amplified motors, violin strings, and tenuously arranged metal scraps knock and scrape against each other.

The sculptures, in both their states of pre-programmed automation and human intervention, will work together with washes of droning guitar and motor tones to create a complex soundscape both industrial in texture and humanly idiosyncratic in nature.

Revealing the hidden systems inherent to mainstream media and technology is not just important as functional users, but as a feminist practice to further deconstruct and make visible the systems which permeate our lives.

Tuesday November 24, 2015, 6pm
@ STUDIO XX - 4001, Berri (corner Duluth) space 201
Suggested donation: 2$, *FREE* for members
Refreshments will be served

In collaboration with Perte de Signal, Studio XX presents a conversation between Rehab Hazgui (Tunisia) and Sophie Toupin (Montreal), Tuesday November 24, 6pm. 

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Hacking is the practice where Rehab Hazgui and Sophie Toupin intersect. Rehab has traveled to Montreal for an artistic residence at Perte de Signal, where she is creating a series of audiovisual instruments made of electronic waste she has found in the city. Sophie Toupin’s research focuses on anti-colonial hacking, feminist approaches to digital security and privacy and, feminist, queer + trans hacker culture. In this conversation, Rehab and Sophie will talk about the ways in which they work with open-source models and DIY methods to engage with so-called marginal communities, to nourish a culture of cooperation, and to discuss how their research and practice becomes the means for political action.

Rehab Hazgui (Tunisia) explores experimental electronics and biohacking through electromechanical sound installations and performances involving handmade audio devices. Active in community initiatives, she considers DIY culture and digital creation as mediums for civic action. She is the co-founder of El FABRIKA, a platform for experimental art, alternative design, and activism.

Sophie Toupin (Montreal) explores the linkages between technology, feminism and activism through ethnographic studies and projects. Sophie works for Media@McGill, a hub for research and scholarship on media, technology and culture at McGill University in Montreal. Her current research focuses on anti-colonial hacking, feminist approaches to digital security and privacy and, feminist, queer + trans hacker culture.

PERTE DE SIGNAL welcomes Rehab Hazgui (Tunisia) at RUSTINES|LAB, from October 14 to November 27, 2015, as part of its pilot project, the Quebec-Africa Digital Art Residency with the support of Conseil des arts de Montréal. The residency supports African artists to research and create digital art projects of open-source software and hardware in Montreal.