ARTS Southeast is pleased to host
Leslie putnam and david bobier
in the on::View residency from june 13th - july 5th, 2024.
Artist Talk:
Saturday, June 29th at 2PM
Project Finale:
Friday, July 5th from 5 - 9PM in conjunction with First Fridays in Starland
About the Project:
During their Residency, Putnam and Bobier will create a community space where vibrotactile elements can be explored and created with input from the public. As they explain, “vibrotactile artwork involves the use of transducers to change sound into vibration, allowing for the audience to experience what is known as haptic empathy: conveying emotional meaning through vibrotactile feedback.” Collecting sounds from the city and surrounding landscape, the artists will transform the Residency windows into vibrotacile speakers, allowing passerby to feel sound through vibration. They will also invite the community to contribute to a collaborative vibrotactile quilt, and to interact with vibrotactile pillows and wearables.
“Transducers are essential accessibility components that we explore in our own practices…This emphasis has evolved over many years of working with Deaf and disabled artists and arts organizations internationally, with a critical focus on imagining beyond the ‘normal’ in art making and art experiencing and questioning mainstream paradigms by asking ‘who is missing as artists, who is missing as audience.’
“Breaking down social, intellectual, emotional and physical barriers has been essential toward offering greater diversity and exchange of artistic experiences for both artist and audience. In exploring sensory transformation of language, information and perception from one modality to another with particular emphasis on the tactile as a form of creative expression, prompts consideration of multiple senses as channels of communication and exchange.”
– Leslie Putnam & David Bobier (Ontario, Canada)
About the Artists:
David Bobier is a self-identified hard of hearing media artist with a mental health diagnosis and is the parent of 2 deaf children, now adults. His work has been exhibited internationally and has been the focus of prominent touring exhibitions in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Bobier has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Grand NCE, British Council, Ontario Arts Council and New Brunswick Arts Council.
He has partnered with Inclusive Media and Design Centre at Ryerson University, Toronto and Tactile Audio Displays Inc. in researching and employing vibrotactile technology as a creative medium. As an extension of this research Bobier has established and is Director of VibraFusionLab in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The Lab emphasizes a holistic approach to considering vibration as a language of creation and exploration and to investigating broader and more inclusive applications of the sensory interpretation and emotionality of sound and vibration in art making practices. Through VibraFusionLab and in his own art practice Bobier aims at creating opportunities of greater accessibility in art making, art appreciation and in viewer experiences of art practices and presentations.
Leslie Putnam is a London Ontario based artist and educator. She earned her BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec with a Major in Studio Art and BEd from Western University in London, Ontario.Putnam’s work includes exhibitions in Europe and now in Ontario, her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions including Electric Eclectics, Toronto-(Nuit Blanche and Hard Twist), JNAAG, Museum London and the Canadian Clay and Glass Museum. She has received research, exhibition, and multi and inter arts projects grants from the Ontario Arts Council.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, Leslie creates multi-modal sculptures and installations on the premise that sculpture can and should include the ability of access though multiple senses, removing the barrier of “do not touch”created by the limitations of institutions. In 2010 she and David Bobier formed the o’honey collective as a platform for research and creation relating to the natural world.
