Biographies

Liane Davison, Director, Surrey Art Gallery

Liane Davison serves as the Director for the Surrey Art Gallery, and is Manager of Visual and Community Art for the City of Surrey. In 1999, she initiated the development of the TechLab, a unique venue dedicated to supporting the production and presentation of digital and electronic art forms. In 2007, after consultation with artists, she added the ongoing exhibition program, Open Sound, which features audio art forms. In 2010 she will launch an outreach venue, Surrey Urban Screen.

Ms. Davison has curated well over 100 exhibitions on a diverse range of contemporary art practice from interactive media through to lawn ornaments as public art, and exploring themes as varied as conceptual art and the sexuality of muscle cars. Her writing has been published in over 30 catalogues including retrospective books on the work of Canadian artists Nancy Paterson, Micah Lexier, Alan Storey and Mowry Baden. Her writing in the publication “Hot Clay” was excerpted intact, and reproduced in both national and international journals on contemporary ceramic art practice.

In addition to her responsibilities for the overall operation of the Surrey Art Gallery, she is also responsible for the Public Art Program for the City of Surrey, which has commissioned over 40 artworks since 1999. She also manages the Community Art Program for the City, including the Surrey Children’s Festival.

Ms. Davison has taught art history, and studio and is an active as a guest lecturer and as a volunteer on boards and committees for visual art programming and arts funding. She has served on provincial, national and international advisory committees on digital media arts. In 2004 she was recognized by BC Business magazine as one of the province’s “elite innovators” for her work with digital art and artists.

Prior to her position at the Surrey Art Gallery, Ms. Davison worked for the Royal BC Museum, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, taught at Camosun College and was President of X-Changes, an artist-run centre in Victoria, and President of the Arts Council of Victoria.

Alain Depocas, Director, Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D)
Daniel Langlois Foundation

Alain Depocas has been head of the Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) of the Daniel Langlois Foundation (DLF) since 1999. In this capacity, he manages a documentary collection that covers media, electronic and digital art history, works and practices. He has also developed a database to manage the collection and the information relevant to the areas of interest of the CR+D, and is the Foundation’s webmaster [www.fondation-langlois.org].

After studying art history at Université de Montréal, where he received a master’s degree based on the history of photographic theory, he was a documentalist from 1991 to 1999 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, where he was in charge of the Museum’s mediatheque Web site. From 2002 to 2004, he was a co-director of the Variable Media Network [www.variablemedia.net] under a partnership between New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the Daniel Langlois Foundation. Since 2005, he has been the research director at DOCAM [www.docam.ca], an international research alliance on documentation and conservation of media art.

Sara Diamond, President, Ontario College of Art and Design

Sara Diamond is the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Canada’s “university of the imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications from the United Kingdom and Canada.

President Diamond is currently a member of the Ontario Ministry of Culture’s Minister’s Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, the Board of Directors of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation and of ORANO, Ontario’s high speed network. She is a founding member of CONCERT and the Chair of the OMDC funded Mobile Experience Innovation Centre. She has received numerous research awards for her work in visualization, mobile content design, wearable technologies and collaborative tools. She is a visualization software researcher and developer www.codezebra.net. Diamond created and was Editor-in-Chief of www.horizonzero.ca, an on-line showcase for new media art and design, in collaboration with Heritage Canada. Diamond participates in peer review publication and diverse editorial boards such as Leonardo on-line and Convergence. She provides media consulting to Heritage Canada, SSHRC, CFI, Industry Canada, CHRC and DFAIT, as well as international governments, institutions and agencies as diverse as China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Finland, Australia, Brazil and the USA.

Prior to her presidency at OCAD Diamond was the Director of Research for the prestigious Banff Centre. She created the renowned Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) in 1995 and led it until coming to Toronto in 2005. Diamond developed international summits and business development workshops and accelerators that explored the near future of new media. She built alliances between artists, designers, architects, scientists, social scientists, and international and Canadian businesses. Diamond taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, The California Institute for the Arts and remains Adjunct Professor, University of California, Los Angeles in the Design/Media Department. In 2007 she was named one of Canada’s fifty most significant artists as part of the Canada Council’s fiftieth anniversary celebration. Her work resides in collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, where she was honored with a retrospective in 1992 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Victoria Dickenson, Chief Knowledge Officer, Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Victoria Dickenson is Chief Knowledge Officer of the new federal institution, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was formerly Executive Director, McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal from 1998-2009. She is a graduate of the Master in Museum Studies Programme at the University of Toronto and has over thirty-five years experience working in the Canadian and international museum communities.

Dr Dickenson has long experience and deep interest in the application of information technology to museology. In 1980, she developed her first information project, a searchable database of newspaper advertisements for use by historical researchers. Since that time she has worked with software engineering and design teams to produce award-winning projects, ranging from kiosk based applications, CD ROMs, and websites, to pioneering high-speed online databases (1997, for Bell Canada). In 1999, at the McCord Museum, she spearheaded the effort that won the Museum, with its partners McGill University and UQAM, a SSHRC grant to develop curriculum-linked on-line material history resources for teaching history in elementary and secondary schools, a cornerstone of the McCord’s outstanding web presence. She has presented papers on these projects and others to the IEEE, SIGCHI, CMA, AAM, Canadian Historical Association (Digital History group), and university groups.

Her current interest focus is in working with CMHR staff on the incorporation of new media interfaces to exhibitions, and the development of a content-driven interactive web presence for Canada’s newest national museum.

Stephen Fai, Associate Professor, Carleton University

Stephen Fai is an Associate Professor at, and the former Director of, the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, Carleton University. He is currently the Director of the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS). Dr. Fai holds a professional degree in architecture and a PhD in Religious Studies. He has written and lectured on the theory and practice of architectural representation and the history and theory of Christian architecture. His professional work includes renovations to the Convent Filles de la Sagesse, Ottawa (with Cecilia Humphreys Architect), an addition to St. James Anglican Church, Manotick (with Graham Murfitt Architect), and The Sound of One Hand Recording Studio, Ottawa. He has received project funding from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, the Millennium Bureau of Canada, the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

Jérôme Gédéon, Senior Heritage Information Analyst,
Canadian Heritage Information Network

Jérôme Gédéon is a Senior Heritage Information Analyst at the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). He is responsible for managing the development and maintenance work of the Virtual Museum of Canada (www.virtualmuseum.ca) and managing various projects related to the VMC. Prior to joining CHIN, Jerome has lead projects in the field of museology, from exhibit development projects to interpretation and web projects. Jérôme’s interest resides in using project management tools and process in the conception and development of heritage and museum related projects.

Robert Labossière, Executive Director,
Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization

Robert Labossière is the Executive Director of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization. He is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (M.F.A. 1985) and of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University (Ll.B. 1989). He has been engaged in the visual arts community since 1991, including serving as the Managing Director of the Association of National Non-Profit Artist-Run Centres (ANNPAC), advising creators and arts organizations with respect to legal organizational, licensing and rights matters, and producing research for the Canada Council for the Arts and other agencies. Between 2004 and 2008, as Managing Editor of YYZBOOKS he brought to press fourteen influential titles on Canadian visual art, including Decentre: Concerning Artist-run Culture. Labossière has been working with online media since 1996 and was a resident at the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab in 2001.

Graham Larkin, Curator of European & American Art,
National Gallery of Canada

Graham Larkin is Curator of European & American Art at the National Gallery of Canada, where he recently reinstalled the collection of non-Canadian, pre-contemporary paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. His doctoral dissertation (The Elusive Oeuvre of Jacques Callot, Harvard 2003) examines the origins of the catalogue raisonné in early modern print albums. Before returning to Ottawa in 2005 he curated exhibitions at the Houghton Library (Harvard U) and the Cantor Center for Visual Arts (Stanford U), and he has published in various journals including Print Quarterly, Word & Image, ArtForum and Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. In the field of information design he is a devotee of Edward Tufte, whom he assisted with various projects including the book Beautiful Evidence (2006).

Chris Mathieson, Executive Director, Vancouver Police Museum

Chris Mathieson is the Executive Director of the Vancouver Police Museum and has a passion for the stories of places, people and objects. Beginning as a front–line interpreter (and blacksmith) at Burnaby Village Museum, he has since had the chance to interpret subjects as varied as classical Chinese architecture, the history of brothels in Vancouver and the modern rituals of death. He is on the Interpretation Canada National Executive and the BC Museums Association Council.

Lisa McIntosh, Director of Learning, HR MacMillan Space Centre

Lisa McIntosh has worked in the field of informal education for over 20 years and has extensive experience in the development of educational programs and training museum educators. She has a keen interest, with a dash of healthy scepticism, in how museums are using technology to connect with their visitors, particularly in the claim that technology ‘enhances learning’ in museums.

Lisa has worked at the Vancouver Aquarium, the Vancouver Maritime Museum and is currently the Director of Learning at the HR MacMillan Space Centre. In addition to her work at the Space Centre she is pursuing her PhD in education, looking at the professional development of museum educators. She has been past national chair of Interpretation Canada, is secretary of the Lower Mainland Museum Educators group and one of the four instigators of www.bcfieldtrips.ca and the Field Trip Fair for Teachers.

Maryse Paquin, Ph.D., Professor, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Maryse Paquin, Ph.D. in Education, is a professor at the Université du Québec, Trois-Rivières. She is a charter member of the Research Group on Education and the Museum of the Université du Québec in Montreal and chairs the Specialized Interest Group on Museum Education of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, an affiliate of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. She has conducted research on the use of museums and virtual museums by Francophone teachers in Canada for the past twenty years. As such, she has published a number of articles and presented several scientific and professional papers at a variety of conferences.

Sean Rodman, Strategic Partnerships Manager,
Royal British Columbia Museum

Sean Rodman is currently the Strategic Partnerships Manager at the Royal BC Museum. He has previously worked for museums and educational organizations across Canada and around the world. He holds a Masters of Public Administration, and an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. His passion is exploring the nexus of technology, organizations and communities.

Susan Rowley, Curator of Public Archaeology, and Assistant Professor University of British Columbia

Museum of Anthropology and Dept. of Archaeology Susan Rowley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a Curator at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She first travelled north in 1974 as a field assistant on an archaeological excavation in northern Baffin Island and was captivated by the people and the land. Sue has worked with Inuit elders on historical research and with Inuit youth on archaeology projects. She is currently working with First Nations communities in British Columbia. Along with Leona Sparrow (Musqueam Indian Band), Dave Schaepe (Sto:lo Nation/Tribal Council), and Andrea Sanborn (U’mista Cultural Society), Sue is a member of the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) Steering Group. This committee is tasked with overseeing and developing the RRN. Her personal research interests include public archaeology, material culture studies, representation, repatriation, intellectual property rights and access to information on cultural heritage.

Ron Wakkary, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University

Ron Wakkary is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. His primary research is in interaction design with a focus on tangible computing and responsive environments, and the study of “everyday design” in which we all contribute to the ongoing design of artifacts and surroundings. Previously he was faculty in Interactive Arts at the Technical University of British Columbia and the Digital Design Department at the Parsons School of Design, New School University.

Wakkary is currently a principal researcher and board member of the Fluid Engage project, an international network of research and cultural institutions investigating open source and interactive technologies in museums funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Past research collaborations include leading the Am-I-able Network for Responsive and Mobile Environments, a national research network in the design of wearable and ambient intelligence computing; co-leader of the Interactivity Theme in the Canadian Design Research Network, and CATGames research network on creativity tools for digital games. His research projects include a mobile-based social game for mobile communities in collaboration with Nokia Research, projects in adaptive audio and tangible user interface museum guides with the Canadian Nature Museum and the Surrey Museum, ambient intelligent environments for physical play, and a prototyping environment for tangible based games. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Heritage, Canarie Inc., Canada Council, Networks Centres of Excellence, and Canada Foundation for Innovation have funded his research.

Wakkary’s public and academic service has included the Canadian Culture Online Advisory Board to advise the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the College of Reviewers for the Canada Research Chair Program, Banff New Media Institute Research Advisory Board. He was elected to the Board of Governors for the Technical University of British Columbia and the Simon Fraser University Senate. He has helped co-chair and several conference program committees including ACM CHI, ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction Conference, ACM Multimedia, ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference, Archives & Museum Informatics: Museums and the Web Conference.