Meeting Topic: "The Third Ear"
Moderator Name: Evan Desjardin
Speaker Name: Mitchell Akiyama - SSRHC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University's Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts & Technology and Assistant Professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto
Other business or activities at the meeting: Executive Chairman Frank Lockwood welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked all the sponsors. Blair Francey was thank for the refreshments, and Evan Desjardin was thanked for setting this meeting up. Currently planned future meetings was discussed and volunteers were asked to join the Executive Committee.
Meeting Location: Ryerson University - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Evan Desjardins introduced Mitchell Akiyama and gave a brief background.
Mr. Akiyama began his presentation discussing his background in more detail. He is a Toronto-based scholar, composer, and artist. His work includes writings about plants, animals, cities, and sound art; scores for film and dance; and objects and installations that trouble received ideas about history, perception, and sensory experience. He holds a PhD in communications from McGill University and an MFA from Concordia University.
Most of his creations are installations. He played short excerpts of his work throughout the presentation and explained the genesis, inspiration, and development history of each. He talked about some of the difficulties and abandoned concepts. This was especially made prominent with the discussion of his final piece in this presentation 108 Specters of Release.
A long Q&A/discussion period closed the presentation.
Frank Lockwood presented Mitchell with a certificate of appreciation and Toronto AES coffee mug.
