Vancouver, Canada – The Arts in Society Conference

In Vancouver, Canada – How Art Makes Things Happen
Situating Social Practice in Research, Practice, and Action

From June 27 – 29, 2018, I attended the 13th International Conference on The Arts in Society, held at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, Canada.  This year’s title was: How Art Makes Things Happen – Situating Social Practice in Research, Practice, and Action.
This annual conference addresses and discusses critical questions of our time in relation to the role of the arts in society. Presentations are given in the following categories:  
- Arts Education
- Arts Theory and History
- New Media, Technology and the Arts
- Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts

I have been presenting at these conferences each year since 2014. This year
I attended but did not present. I plan to be presenting at next year’s Conference, in Lisbon, Portugal! Again, it will be based on my performance art and reflections on Identity, a topic on which I presented a paper “Can Social Media and democratisation of photography affect identity?” at the 2015 Arts in Society Conference in London. This paper was published digitally by Common Ground in April 2016 Arts Connections, and in hard copy in June 2016 in The International Journal of New Media, Technology and the Arts (Volume 11, Issue 2). My paper is a study of the effects of social media and the democratization of photography on one's sense of identity.
The following are photos relate to some of this year presentations I attended at the Conference in Vancouver.

List of photos:

• 1 & 2 – Western Front artist-run centre, 303 East 8th Ave – part of pre-conference walking tour of Vancouver's Artist-Run Centers and street murals in the Emily Carr University area
  
• 3 – Emily Carr University of Art + Design
  
• 4 to 7 – Conference Program booklet and nametag
  
• 8 & 9 – Pierre Leichner’s presentation, SpART: Bringing People Together through Sport and Art      
  
• 10 to 12 – Lisa A. Fusillo`s presentation, The Ballet That Defined Surrealism
  
• 13 to 16 – Joan Wine’s presentation, Antithetical Art in the Age of Trump: Multiple Approaches to Political Commentary    
  
• 17 to 20 – Steve Lambert & Stephen Duncombe: Plenary session - Making Art Work    
  
• 21 to 23 – Debra Keenahan presentation, “Little Signification” in the Visual Arts; the Disability Aesthetic through the Analysis of the Representation of Dwarfism
  
• 24 to 28 – Ingrid Mundel, Carla Rice, Eliza Chandler, Hannah Fowlie - Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life       
  
• 29 – Equinox Gallery and Monte Clark Gallery: End of Conference reception