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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261002T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261002T160000
DTSTAMP:20260925T161158Z
CREATED:20260925T161158Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T161158Z
UID:10001325-1790953200-1790956800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:[Guest Talk] Falsework: Building Artist-Led Worlds in Game Engines feat. Matthew Doyle
DESCRIPTION:Falsework studio is an artist-led production company in Los Angeles that treats the game engine as an artistic medium. Founded by Matthew J.X. Doyle and Yuehao Jiang\, the studio works with artists to develop original worlds and IP across games\, installation\, performance\, and film\, and operates as both a production partner and an incubator for artist-driven projects in a moment when AI tools are rapidly reshaping creative labour. \nThis talk introduces the studio’s history\, structure\, and philosophy through two current works. Spider Lily began as an artist worldbuilding project rooted in Chinese mythologies of the afterlife and grew into a commercial indie game\, a live performance with original score\, and sculpture. Declaration of Dependence\, an interactive installation for the Malta Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale\, uses mocap\, photogrammetry\, and a custom Unreal animation system to have a MetaHuman address visitors with an ever-changing declaration on sovereignty and nation\, with no controller\, tutorial\, or UI. \nAlong the way: how a visual artist’s concept becomes a real-time system\, working with performers and technical artists from capture to MetaHuman\, optimizing for months of exhibition uptime rather than a play session\, and what we’ve learned from making art with\, and against\, the tools of the games industry. \n  \nABOUT THE SPEAKER: \nMatthew leads development\, production\, and partnerships at falsework\, pairing game design with narrative craft. Projects he has produced have been presented at Sundance New Frontiers\, Hyundai Art Lab\, C-Lab Taiwan\, Ars Electronica\, and the Venice Biennale. \n  \n \n\n  \n  October  2\, 2026 \n 3-4 PM \nTAG Lab EV 11.435
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/guest-talk-falsework-building-artist-led-worlds-in-game-engines-feat-matthew-doyle/
LOCATION:TAG Lab (EV 11.435)
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261002T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261002T160000
DTSTAMP:20260915T143212Z
CREATED:20260915T141608Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T143212Z
UID:10001315-1790949600-1790956800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Singing with invisible Worlds: Fermenting Sake on Microbial Time
DESCRIPTION:Join us on October 2 for the first talk of the Speculative Life Speaker Series 2026/27 featuring alumna Maya Hey. She will talk about her new book and her journey from her doctoral studies at Concordia to publishing a book! There will also be time and space to ask Maya any questions you may have about her work.\n  \nABOUT THE TALK:\n  \nWithin us and around us\, microbes are everywhere\, constantly reshaping what it means to be human as we interact with them — least of which through foods made and consumed. Singing with Invisible Worlds theorizes human–microbe relationships through a rare ethnographic account of the fermentation process at the 350-year-old Terada Honke\, one of only two natural sake breweries in Japan. Painting a vivid picture of how sake brewers collaborate with bacteria\, molds\, and yeasts\, Dr. Maya Hey reveals that ambient microbes are not controlled but courted\, cultivated\, and deliberately choreographed. In documenting these remarkable practices\, the book offers an intimate\, situated understanding of how we can come to know and live with microbial life\, with implications for feminist theory\, science and technology studies\, and multispecies ethnography. Unsettling simplistic notions of “good” or “bad” microbes\, it presents a compelling vision for planetary coexistence—one that starts not with grand solutions but with small\, rhythmic acts of microscopic attunement.\n \n  \nABOUT THE SPEAKER:\n  \nMaya Eva Hey is a Concordia alumna and current postdoctoral researcher at the Environmental Humanities Laboratory based in Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology and a core member of the Centre for the Social Study of Microbes in Helsinki. She holds degrees in nutrition\, food studies\, and communication studies.\n \n  \n  October  2\, 2026 \n 2-4 PM \nSpeculative Life Room EV 10.635 \n🎟️ Book your spot here
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/singing-with-invisible-worlds-fermenting-sake-on-microbial-time/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Talk
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261001T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261001T203000
DTSTAMP:20260915T165110Z
CREATED:20260915T164754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T165110Z
UID:10001318-1790875800-1790886600@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:TAG Critical Watch Series - Street Fighter
DESCRIPTION:Join TAG for the first Screening of the term! \nThe critical watch series is an opportunity to discuss all aspects of video game adaptation. Once a month we screen a video game film\, and follow each watch with a discussion on the context\, form\, and content of each film. \nSeating for each event is very limited\, so if you wish to attend\, please RSVP by sending an email directly to tag.coordinator@concordia.ca or by messaging Marc on the TAG Discord. \n  \nABOUT THE MOVIE: \nStreet Fighter (1994) is an American martial‑arts action film directed by Steven E. de Souza and based on Capcom’s popular Street Fighter II video‑game franchise. The film stars Jean‑Claude Van Damme as Colonel William F. Guile\, who leads an international force against the tyrannical warlord General M. Bison\, portrayed memorably by Raul Julia in his final theatrical role. Blending large‑scale action\, military spectacle\, and comic‑book excess\, the film takes a loose\, stylized approach to the source material. Though criticized upon release\, it achieved commercial success and became a cult favorite through home‑video exposure. \n  \n  October 1\, 2026 \n 5:30-8:30 PM \nScreening Room EV 10.525
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/tag-critical-watch-series-street-fighter/
LOCATION:Screening Room EV 10.525
CATEGORIES:Screening
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260930T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260930T170000
DTSTAMP:20260922T174554Z
CREATED:20260922T174554Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T174554Z
UID:10001324-1790780400-1790787600@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Concordia Ethnolab Open House
DESCRIPTION:The Concordia Ethnography Lab is hosting an Open House on September 30. Join us to learn more about the Lab: we’ll share a little about its history and role within Milieux\, and showcase a couple of past projects. You’ll also get to hear about (and connect with) our active working groups and research projects\, learn how to get involved\, and pitch your own ideas! \nIf you have an idea for a project or working group for the Ethnography Lab\, then come along and share it! If it resonates with the community\, we will find ways to support you. \n  \nABOUT THE CONCORDIA ETHNOGRAPHY LAB: \nThe Concordia Ethnography Lab promotes experimentation in collaborative qualitative research. The Lab gathers ethnographic expertise from across Concordia to foster creative thinking about methodology\, to enhance the possibility of research collaboration\, and to act as a resource for researchers inside and outside the university who wish to use ethnography to ask questions about the world around them. \nhttps://www.ethnographylabconcordia.ca/ \n  \n  \n  \n  September 30\, 2026 \n 3-5 PM \nSpeculative Life EV 10.635
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/concordia-ethnolab-open-house/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Info Session
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T180000
DTSTAMP:20260918T155020Z
CREATED:20260915T152219Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260918T155020Z
UID:10001316-1790701200-1790704800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Darkness as Method: Research-Creation\, Pedagogy\, and Institutional Exchange between Valparaíso and Montreal
DESCRIPTION:Join LePARC for an informal exchange with visiting scholar from School of Theatre at Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile) Tamara Figueroa. She will introduce current research-creation\, pedagogical\, and institutional initiatives developed at Universidad de Valparaíso\, Chile\, in dialogue with LePARC and Concordia University. The conversation will address the School of Theatre\, the Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas\, and the Núcleo Interdisciplinario de Creación\, Innovación y Desarrollo Territorial\, while considering Valparaíso and Montréal as antipodal port cities connected by movement\, distance\, memory\, opposite hemispheres\, and different oceans. From her role as an academic ambassador of this university context\, Tamara will then share her own artistic research on darkness\, shadows\, dreams\, and light as methodological materials. Through the idea of “darkness as method\,” the exchange proposes a dialogue on live arts\, university-based artistic research\, and institutional bridges between Valparaíso and Montréal. \n  \nABOUT THE SPEAKER: \nTamara Figueroa AS is a Bachelor of Arts\, performance designer\, lighting designer\, and academic at the School of Theatre\, Faculty of Architecture\, Universidad de Valparaíso\, Chile\, where she has taught since 2015. \nHer professional trajectory brings together artistic creation\, research\, university teaching\, and cultural project management\, with a particular focus on the intersections between scenic design\, technology\, production\, and innovation applied to the live arts. \nThroughout her career\, she has developed theatre\, artistic\, and audiovisual projects with the support of public\, private\, and international institutions. In 2007\, together with the collective Sociedad Inmaterial\, she received the UNESCO Prize for the Performing Arts for the project Reversible\, presented in Prague\, Czech Republic. \nShe currently serves as Creative Director of Dique5\, a studio through which she develops lighting design\, scenic creation\, and technical-artistic research projects. She is also a board member of ADTRES\, the Chilean Association of Scenic Designers\, Technicians\, and Stage Practitioners. \nHer artistic background is complemented by studies in Visual Arts and Contemporary Architecture at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. She is currently completing the final year of an International MBA\, deepening her work in strategic management\, cultural innovation\, creative industries\, theatre\, and technologies. \n  \n📅  September  29\, 2026 \n⏱️ 5-6 PM \n📍Performance Lab EV 10.785
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/darkness-as-method-research-creation-pedagogy-and-institutional-exchange-between-valparaiso-and-montreal/
LOCATION:Performance Lab EV 10.785
CATEGORIES:Talk
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T170000
DTSTAMP:20260908T160230Z
CREATED:20260908T155807Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T160230Z
UID:10001313-1790697600-1790701200@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Book Launch: Their System\, Our Game
DESCRIPTION:Join TAG on September 29th at 4pm to celebrate the launch of  Their System\, Our Game\, followed by a short presentation and Q+A about the book with the authors. \n\nABOUT THE BOOK: \nPart history and cultural study\, part design document\, Their System\, Our Game looks at the history of Pathfinder and how it encourages aspiring makers to break into the game design space. Through interviews with player-creators and third party makers\, the authors use a range of perspectives to define homebrew for TTRPGs. Taking a closer look at homebrew design\, they create two homebrew campaigns (available as free downloads) collaboratively with two different groups of players. Player accounts of gameplay and designer reflections of how their homebrew actually played out at the game table outline some of the challenges and perks of designing on the fly\, creating customized settings\, and bending or breaking rules. \n  \nABOUT THE AUTHORS: \n\n\nScott DeJong studies and makes games about information systems. Finalizing his PhD in Communication at Concordia University in Montreal\, Scott’s work studies the tactics and strategies behind media manipulation (i.e. misinformation) and builds tools to teach\, research\, and build policy insights around it. His research has received numerous awards\, including a Fulbright\, and his design work got international recognition being played with embassies\, militaries\, governments\, and schools around the globe. \nScott has built games looking at themes of social media systems\, information pipelines\, ethical AI use\, and media spin\, and has conducted research on class precarity in games\, extremism in videogames\, and polarization in Canada. \n  \nMarc Lajeunesse is a research associate\, course instructor\, and the coordinator of TAG\, the Technoculture\, Art and Games Research Centre. His recent work examines toxicity in online game spaces\, with an emphasis on player-led strategies for in-game toxicity mitigation. Additionally\, Marc has produced research on monetization and cosmetic goods on Steam and in Dota 2\, disinformation in video games\, and is a co-author of the forthcoming book Streaming by the Rest of Us: Microstreaming on Twitch. Marc also produces a range of creative work\, including analog games\, music\, and podcasts\, some of which are available at connectingtogame.ca. \n  \n\n  \n  September  29\, 2026 \n 4-5 PM \nTAG Lab EV 11.435
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/book-launch-their-system-our-game/
LOCATION:TAG Lab (EV 11.435)
CATEGORIES:Book Launch
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T170000
DTSTAMP:20260922T153856Z
CREATED:20260922T153856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T153856Z
UID:10001323-1790690400-1790701200@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Orange Shirt Day Workshop
DESCRIPTION:The orange shirt is a symbol of the experiences of Indigenous children\, families\, and communities affected by the residential school system\, and a reminder that Every Child Matters. Ahead of Orange Shirt Day (September 30)\, the FOFA Gallery\, in collaboration with the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC) and the Textiles & Materialities Research Cluster invite the Concordia community to come together to learn\, reflect\, and create. \nLed by artist Abby Maxwell\, this workshop will introduce naturally dyeing using cosmos plants. Participants will engage in a discussion about the history and significance of Orange Shirt Day and the Day for Truth and Reconciliation \nThe event is by donation and open to the Concordia community. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. \nAll dyeing materials and shirts will be provided (limited sizes and quantities available).\nAll proceeds from this event will go to the Indian Residential School Survivor Society (IRSSS). \n  \n  September 29\, 2026 \n 2-5 PM \nEV Courtyard \n 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/orange-shirt-day-workshop/
LOCATION:EV Courtyard
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T124500
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260929T141500
DTSTAMP:20260915T155317Z
CREATED:20260915T154931Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T155317Z
UID:10001317-1790685900-1790691300@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:LePARC Lunch
DESCRIPTION:Join LePARC for the launch of their brand-new event series\, LePARC Lunches! Designed to bring the community together over food once a month throughout the semester\, this gathering is a wonderful chance to connect\, share ideas\, and catch up. \nFeel free to bring your own lunch (BYOL). You won’t want to miss this very first edition as the directors will be sharing some exciting news and major announcements about upcoming opportunities and activities at LePARC! \n  \n📅  September  29\, 2026 \n⏱️ 12:45-2:15 PM \n📍Performance Lab EV 10.785
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/leparc-lunch/
LOCATION:Performance Lab EV 10.785
CATEGORIES:Meeting
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260924T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260924T133000
DTSTAMP:20260908T172107Z
CREATED:20260908T172107Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T172107Z
UID:10001314-1790251200-1790256600@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Machine Agencies kick-off event
DESCRIPTION:Join Machine Agencies for a kick-off event for the new year with the Milieux Institute’s AI Research Group! \nOn September 24th\, come on down to the Speculative Life Cluster Room and learn about Machine Agencies\, an exciting research community at the Milieux Institute investigating artificial intelligence technologies\, cultures\, and creations. \nDuring the event\, you’ll learn about upcoming projects and get to connect with the community. Whether you’re a returning member or simply curious\, save the date and join us! \n  \nABOUT MACHINE AGENCIES: \nMachine Agencies is an experiment between human and machine intelligences. We are a collection of researchers investigating artificial intelligence technologies\, the culture of AI development\, and AI’s social\, political\, and environmental consequences. We encourage cooperation and play\, resisting the antagonism of more instrumental approaches of AI. Our members are working on fascinating projects that bridge the gaps between engineering\, artistic creation\, academic debate\, policy development\, and public discourse. \nhttps://machineagencies.milieux.ca/ \n  \n  \n  September 24\, 2026 \n 12-1:30 PM \nSpeculative Life Cluster Room EV 10.625
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/machine-agencies-kick-off-event/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Info Session
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260918T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260918T160000
DTSTAMP:20260902T162836Z
CREATED:20260902T162836Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260902T162836Z
UID:10001312-1789740000-1789747200@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:The control of Sexual Representation - Bringing Histories of Resistance into the Future
DESCRIPTION:Join us on September 18 for a roundtable discussion featuring curator Jon Davies\, artist Adrian Deveau\, art historian Dr. Genevieve Flavelle and PhD candidate Drew Hooper. \nWhat can the legacies of the censorship of queer and sexually explicit representation in Canadian visual and media art\, and artists’ organizing against it\, teach us today – and tomorrow? \nWhat lessons can we bring from art and film/media history to the current Culture Wars unfolding within new technological realities? \nWhere once queer artists fought against provincial film review boards\, Canada Customs\, and overly broad federal legislation driven by moral panics\, now they contend with vague online governance rules\, deplatforming based on algorithms\, and new legislation promising to address the harms of AI-driven content. Meanwhile\, “old” forms of censorship and media-driven controversies persist. It is vital to understand this history as ongoing even if censorship looks different now – what content is targeted and how\, what platforms we use to make and share art\, what we collectively fear and want to suppress – than it did in the 1980s\, 1990s\, or 2000s. What tools can we bring from the past to offer nuance to contemporary debates around sexual representation and to contest overzealous state and tech-corporate control? This roundtable shares insights from artists\, curators\, and scholars who gathered together for a study day to discuss these topics. \nAn initiative of the SSHRC-funded research project Queer Operatives: Writing\, Making\, and Transmitting Queer Canadian Art Histories with the support of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art and the Media and Materiality cluster\, the DIGS Lab\, the Media History Research Centre\, and the Milieux Institute at Concordia University\, as well as the Curatorial Research Cluster at the University of British Columbia. \n  \nAbout the speakers: \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nJon Davies is a curator\, writer\, and art historian from Montréal. He received his PhD in Art History in 2023 from Stanford University\, where he wrote the dissertation “The Fountain: Art\, Sex\, and Queer Pedagogy in San Francisco\, 1945–1995.” He edited the anthology Colin Campbell: More Voice Over (Concordia University Press\, 2021) and co-curated the 2023 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar\, “Queer World-Mending\,” with artist Steve Reinke. More recently\, he was General Idea Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada (2024–25) and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in History at Carleton University (2025–27). \nAdrian Deveau is a scholar and artist based in Montréal\, and holds a PhD in Art History from Concordia University. Adrian has worked with arts-based organizations\, including Thinking Through the Museum: Museum Queeries\, the Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver)\, Vancouver Biennale\, and Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. Their work has appeared in Museum Queeries: Two-Spirit\, Indigiqueer\, and LGBTTQ* Interventions into Museums\, Archives\, and Curating (Jagiellonian University Press\, 2026)\, Ampersand: An American Studies Journal\, and Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas. Adrian currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Third Floor Journal and postdoctoral co-ordinator at the Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. \nDr. Genevieve Flavelle is an art historian and independent curator whose work focuses on contemporary Canadian art\, queer and feminist art histories\, and 2SLGBTQ+ art. Her curatorial practice is grounded in queer\, feminist\, and decolonial approaches. She has organized exhibitions and public programs across Canada and is currently Curator-in-Residence at Western University. \nAndil Gosine is Professor of Environmental Arts and Justice at York University in Toronto\, and author of Nature’s Wild: Love\, Sex and Law in the Caribbean. A Getty Scholar (2026) and Clark Beinecke Fellow (2024)\, Dr. Gosine’s artistic and research practices have been concerned with how anxieties about difference shape and produce power. In 2025\, Nature’s Wild with Andil Gosine (RETURNS) was presented at Paul Petro Contemporary Art after the abrupt and politically charged cancellation of his solo exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) in Washington\, DC. To celebrate the forthcoming Portuguese translation of his book\, an exhibition inspired by it will take place in Brazil in 2027. His next book is Félix & I: an intimate engagement with French colonial portraiture \nDrew Hooper is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Queen’s University. His research examines the censorship of queer art in Canada from the 1970s to the 1990s\, focusing on the logics that underpinned acts of censorship and the ways arts communities resisted\, challenged\, or otherwise responded to censorship. More broadly\, his research explores the intersections of art\, politics\, and queer visibility\, with particular attention to how institutional and cultural forces shape access\, representation\, and discourse. In addition to his research\, he has taught undergraduate courses in global modern art history\, guest-lectured in various courses\, and presented at conferences\, including Museum Without Walls and the Universities Art Association of Canada conference. \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n📅  September  18\, 2026 \n⏱️ 2-4 PM \n📍Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/the-control-of-sexual-representation-bringing-histories-of-resistance-into-the-future/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Roundtable
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260912T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260912T230000
DTSTAMP:20260825T160030Z
CREATED:20260305T204626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260825T160030Z
UID:10001276-1789214400-1789254000@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:LUDODROME
DESCRIPTION:A Playground for Experimental Games and their Makers\nOn September 12\, the Agora du Coeur des sciences at UQAM will host a day dedicated entirely to discovering experimental games created in Quebec. \nFor its second edition\, LUDODROME continues to foster a bustling\, active\, and inclusive community of experimental video game makers.  The event showcases 59 interactive works that redefine what experimental video games can do\, who can create them\, and what they mean. These works expand the possibilities of the medium and open up new perspectives for creation\, storytelling\, and play. They demonstrate experiences that go beyond the conventions of commercial game production. \nTo this end\, LUDODROME welcomes creators\, researchers\, students\, and the general public around a shared passion: exploring the potential of games as artistic\, cultural\, and research-driven forms of expression. \n \n59 Experimental Games to Discover for Free \nThis year\, we have brought together 59 experimental games created in Montréal and across Quebec. Whether you are a video game enthusiast\, an artist\, a researcher\, or simply curious\, come play\, connect\, get inspired\, and meet the community\, free of charge. Beyond labels\, the selection highlights games that are rarely encountered in conventional exhibition and presentation contexts. \n  \n\n\n\nAmr Abdalla\nRebecca Acone\nCarl Therrien & AI\nJesse Aidyn\nJoDee Allen\nCharles Arsenault-Dionne\nNadia Abdul Aziz\nLouis Barbier\nPippin Barr\nMalik Bayard\nCaroline Bem\nSarah Bergeron\nMouse & the Billionaire\nRoby Blanchard\nAlissia Bocarro\nMiles Boisvert\nLazlo Bonin\nInès Bouakkaoui\nKatherine Brisesbois\nRobin Cabaret\nAidan Catriel\nNoure Chafry\nLaureline Chiapello\nIsabella Chiavaroli\nLeah Churchill\n\n\n\n\ncicadiday\nAnn-Louise Davidson\nJustin Dedelis-Deslandes\nScott Dejong\nDom2D\nSimon Dor\nZineb Essoulimani\nMorning Star Fayard\nZoe Fighters\nMarie LeBlanc Flanagan\nMarie-Andrée Forest\nfoundry10\nKatrina Frain\nStephen Friedrich\nMutatayi Fuamba\nAlexandre Godfroy\nJules Gosselin-Beaudet\nHera Gratton\nPhilippe Grenon\nGrosJoueurs\nErik Theo Hamilton\nTaylor Harrington\nMaya Harry\nOwen Hellum\n\n\n\n\nWolfgang Huther\nLorem Ipster\nVictor Ivanov\nJihad Jbaida\nEve Juneau\nJuneFlower\nKamyar Karimi\nRolf Lakämper\nLavia\nGabriel Ledoux\nShawn Lee\nMilton Lim\nCadin Londono\nFrédérick Maheux\nRaphaëll Maïwen\nSydnee McLeod\nTheo Menard\nZaid Minhas\nRev Nahabedian\nVadim Nickel\nSarah Nolan\nObvia\ntime.to.occur\nAmélie Ouellet\nSamuel Poirier-Poulin\nViviana Ema Radu\n\n\n\n\nSarah Raine\nNedward Rehanek\nNadia Rochdi\nJoëlle Rouleau\nNadia Seraiocco\nBart Simon\nNathan Sioui\nAlia Skillman\nHenry Smith\nLeighton Smith\nNoah Star\nLaura-Iseut Lafrance St-Martin\nAalok Sud\nAdriel Susanta\nAria Tessler\nElise Trinh\nGabrielle Trépanier-Jobin\nKeven Vaillencourt\nHugo Veillé\nMaxine Sophia Wolff\nOlenka Yuen\nDorsa Zare\nJessica Zhu\n\n\n\n  \nFrom independent artistic projects and emerging studios to university-based research-creation initiatives\, the works on display reflect the richness and diversity of the local game-making scene. Each project embraces experimentation\, exploring new game mechanics\, innovative forms of storytelling\, distinctive aesthetics\, and original interactive experiences. \n  \nCelebrate Montreal’s Experimental Games Community With Us \nBecause games are part of our everyday lives\, they are\, above all\, a means of building connections and sharing experiences. That is why it is important to reimagine how we play\, how we come together\, and how we design inclusive play experiences for diverse audiences. \nMore than a showcase\, LUDODROME is a space for connection\, dialogue\, and discovery. By bringing together a wide range of people from across the field\, the event helps strengthen a dynamic creative community while highlighting Montréal’s game scene\, renowned for its boldness\, innovation\, and spirit of experimentation. \n  \n  September  12\, 2026 \n⏱️ 12 -11 PM \nAgora Coeur des sciences | 175\, avenue du Président-Kennedy \n  \n \n  \nThis event is supported by the Hexagram Network\, the Behaviour Interactive Research Chair in Game Design (Concordia)\, the Chaire de recherche en économie créative et mieux-être FRQSC (Axe créativité numérique\, NAD-UQAC) and Milieux Institute (Concordia). \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/ludodrome/
LOCATION:UQAM | Agora du coeur des sciences\, 175\, Av. du Président-Kennedy\, Montréal\, Quebec\, H2X3P2\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Demo
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260910T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260910T190000
DTSTAMP:20260825T151005Z
CREATED:20260824T200418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260825T151005Z
UID:10001310-1789059600-1789066800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Book Launch with Hilary Bergen & Emily Doucet
DESCRIPTION:Join Hilary Bergen and Emily Doucet in co-launching their first monographs\, Dance Anima: Techniques of Vitality (Oxford University Press\, 2026) and Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts (Duke University Press\, 2026).  \nWhile the books take on different subjects\, they both examine how the history of emergent media is also a history of what (and who) gets recorded by said media. Doucet writes about the narrativization of photographic “firsts” to interrogate the myth of the single author or inventor\, and Bergen examines historical filmic\, animated and digital “capture” of dancing bodies to show how dance’s kinetic power is always collective and impossible to own. \nBoth authors are interested in the allure and impossibility of media origin stories\, as well as the power of celebrity in constructing such tales. Bergen\, for example\, writes of the legal battles of Loie Fuller\, the turn of the century dancer obsessed with being seen as the owner of the “Serpentine Dance” — a dance bound up with new technologies of electricity and coloured lighting for stage\, which fascinated pioneers of early moving pictures\, and later proliferated in the many films featuring Fuller imitators on YouTube. Doucet\, for instance\, chronicles patent disputes between commercial studio photographers in the 1880s\, revealing both a transnational story of technological diffusion and the collective creation of an archive of invention.  \nAfter reading from their respective books\, the authors will converse about shared themes in their work\, including distributed agency\, the mediation of invention\, and the stories we tell about new technologies. A reception will follow and books will be for sale.   \n  \n5-6 PM: Book Launch with Hilary Bergen And Emily Doucet \n6-7 PM: Reception  \n  \nABOUT DANCE ANIMA:\nThe practice of dance holds a paradox at its core: we view dance as a uniquely human thing\, and yet\, training in technique and choreography produces the dancer as a mechanized body whose porousness of boundaries mark the more-than-human condition of our present. Furthermore\, because dancing bodies have been instrumental in the development of photography\, film\, and motion capture tools\, dance facilitates an exploration of two interrelated realms: emergent technology and the ontology of the human. \n  \nThrough a series of interdisciplinary case studies from cinema\, animation\, robotics\, and image-based social media\, and using a methodology critically attuned to issues of race and embodiment\, Hilary Bergen examines dance’s driving energy\, naming it “dance anima.” Bergen argues that this kinetic power—produced collectively by dancers\, choreographers\, techniques\, technologies\, and the imagination of the audience—is a valuable (and extractable) resource for engineering life and infusing things with sentience and soul. In so doing\, Dance Anima proposes a new history and theory of dance\, one that moves beyond the human\, arguing for dance as both an apparatus of vitality and an uncontainable energetic force. \nUse coupon code AUFLY30 to save 30% when you order from global.oup.com \n  \nABOUT INVENTING NADAR:\nFélix Nadar took the first aerial photograph in 1858\, so the story goes. The evidence\, Emily Doucet notes\, is mixed. In Inventing Nadar\, Doucet analyzes the historical and material production of the nineteenth-century Parisian photographer’s famous and numerous photographic firsts. Focusing on these oft-labeled groundbreaking elements of his career\, she deconstructs Nadar’s legacy as a prime protagonist in the history of photography by interrogating the media techniques used to construct his invention narratives. Doucet highlights this highly mediated process as one that canonized novel applications of photography as discrete techniques with single authors and inventors. Looking to this process of mediation through the institutions and individuals that shaped Nadar’s archives\, Doucet unpacks assumptions of Nadar as a master of early photography and shows how the medium is enmeshed in larger histories of media\, science\, and technology. The result is both a new account of Nadar’s place in photographic history and a critical study of how stories of innovation take shape. \nUse coupon code E26NADAR to save 30% when you order from dukeupress.edu. \n  \n  \nABOUT THE AUTHORS: \nHilary Bergen is currently on faculty in the English department at Dawson College. Her research\, which is influenced by her professional dance training\, is on the historical intersection between dance and emergent media. She recently held an FRQSC postdoctoral fellowship at the New School in New York City\, and she is the organizer of the international Dance and/as Technology conference\, held most recently at UQAM in Montréal in 2024. She is a 2022 graduate of Concordia’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program.  \nEmily Doucet is a writer\, editor and researcher interested in photography and the cultural life of technology — past\, present\, and future.  For over 15 years\, she has been reading\, writing\, teaching\, and speaking on these topics at academic institutions including the University of Toronto and McGill University\, as well as at museums\, galleries\, and schools across Canada\, the US\, Europe\, and the UK. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Toronto. \n  \n📅  September  10\, 2026 \n⏱️ 5-7 PM \n📍Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/13883/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Book Launch
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://milieux.concordia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-August-25-2026-at-09.58.32-2.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260903T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260903T140000
DTSTAMP:20260901T184904Z
CREATED:20260901T184904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260901T184904Z
UID:10001311-1788444000-1788444000@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Architecture as a Tool for Power
DESCRIPTION:Join Machine Agencies for a conversation featuring Dr. Jacek Złoczowski and Dr. Małgorzata Łuczyna from the Institute of Art and Design at the University of the National Education Commission\, Krakow. \nThey will present unLoc\, an international research project redefining the dissonant heritage of post-socialist architecture of power in former Eastern Bloc countries\, and discuss how relations of power are manifested in urban and architectural design. \nThey will share reflections on the project’s interdisciplinary research process\, including the use of art\, design\, image generation\, and LLM models in research methodology\, combined with fieldwork and social context. \n  \nAbout unLoc: \nThe project examines how power relations are reflected in the Socialist-period architecture of the former Eastern Bloc countries. Using new technologies\, we aim to reshape perceptions of this dissonant architectural heritage. \nDrawing from historical and social inspirations\, AI\, art\, design and computer programming\, we develop alternative visions of urban space. The project situates itself within the broader context of architectural history and urban planning\, and examines how social control and conflict manifest in public spaces. \nOur objective is to spark dialogue between urban spaces and their residents\, providing tools to better understand resident needs and fostering sustainable urban planning practices. \nhttp://unloc.art/en/ \n  \nAbout Machine Agencies: \nMachine Agencies is an experiment between human and machine intelligences. Our research group encourages cooperation and play\, resisting the antagonism of more instrumental approaches of AI. We engage with posthumanism\, experience design\, and public policy to find new formats\, methods\, and commons to sustain just\, fair\, and better worlds. \nhttps://machineagencies.milieux.ca \n  \n  \n📅  September  3\, 2026 \n⏱️ 2 PM \n📍Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/architecture-as-a-tool-for-power/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Conversation
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260627T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260627T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T195445Z
CREATED:20260605T151800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260611T195445Z
UID:10001307-1782579600-1782590400@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:FAccT at Milieux : An evening of AI events and programming
DESCRIPTION:This year\, the 9th annual ACM FAccT conference will be held in Montréal from June 25-28 at Le Centre Sheraton. \n\n\nOn Saturday 27\, Milieux Institute and Abundant Intelligences will host an off-site evening of AI events and programming. \n\n\n \n\n\n5-6 PM: Workshop\n\n\nFrom Formal Benchmarks to Street-Smart AI Certifications: Community-Grounded Approaches \n\n\nWho evaluates AI\, and how? Our workshop gathers interdisciplinary practitioners outside the traditional evaluation community to define and expand benchmarking and evaluation practices of AI from industry-defined performance measures to more participatory and interdisciplinary approaches that evaluate AI as systems\, in ways that are grounded\, multi-criteria\, dynamic\, holistic\, accessible\, and practical. \n\n  \n\n6-8 PM: Fenwick McKelvey’s Book Launch and Meet & Greet with Milieux and Abundant Intelligences\n \n\nJoin us from 6pm to 8pm to meet Abundant Intelligences and the Milieux Institute and celebrate the launch of Fenwick McKelvey’s book SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers. \n\n  \n\n\n\n  \n  \n  \nABOUT THE BOOK: \n\n\n \n\nHow computer models became fundamental to political practice—from winning elections to global affairs—and how we imagine political futures as a computing problem. \n\n\nFor more than six decades\, the public has been promised that computers will revolutionize politics\, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics\, Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how programmers\, consultants\, academics\, political scientists\, and peace activists all worked—sometimes in tandem\, sometimes not—to build simulations to win campaigns\, predict coups\, forecast the future\, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet. \n\n\nDrawing on novel archival and historical research\, McKelvey recounts the history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections\, voters\, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international affairs\, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics\, while presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes. \n\n  \n\nABOUT ACM FAccT: \n\n\nACM FAccT is an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to bringing together a diverse community of scholars from computer science\, law\, social sciences\, and humanities to investigate and tackle issues in this emerging area. Research challenges are not limited to technological solutions regarding potential bias\, but include the question of whether decisions should be outsourced to data- and code-driven computing systems. We particularly seek to evaluate technical solutions with respect to existing problems\, reflecting upon their benefits and risks; to address pivotal questions about economic incentive structures\, perverse implications\, distribution of power\, and redistribution of welfare; and to ground research on fairness\, accountability\, and transparency in existing legal requirements. \n\n  \n📅 June 27\n⏱️ 5 -8 PM\n📍 Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705\n\n\n  \n\n                
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/facct-at-milieux-an-evening-of-ai-events-and-programming/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Reception
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260625T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260625T180000
DTSTAMP:20260623T201345Z
CREATED:20260623T201345Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T201345Z
UID:10001309-1782405000-1782410400@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Open Lab at the Speculative Life Biolab
DESCRIPTION:Stop by the Biolab on Thursday afternoon and discover the work of Elsa Donovan! \nDuring her 3-month residency at the Biolab\, Elsa\, a researcher from The Learning Planet Institute in Paris\, has been developing techniques for 3D printing with algae and alginate hydrogels\, exploring their potential for bio-photovoltaics. \n \n 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/open-lab-at-the-speculative-life-biolab/
LOCATION:Milieux ‘Speculative Life’ BioLab (EV 10.835)
CATEGORIES:Open Studio
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260618T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260618T123000
DTSTAMP:20260611T150625Z
CREATED:20260608T232924Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260611T150625Z
UID:10001308-1781785800-1781785800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:IFRC Research Bites: Meg Summers
DESCRIPTION:Join IFRC for its next Research Bites featuring Margaret (Meg) Summers! \n\nMeg will share her research on how digital storytelling in video games can be used as an educational tool to bring awareness to environmental issues. In her work\, she explores the relationship of Mi’kmaq values of sustainability and modern Maritime fishing practices through interactive game mechanics.\n  \nABOUT MEG SUMMERS:\nMeg Summers is a Mi’kmaq artist raised in Ottawa\, Ontario who specializes in game design and programming. She strives to make education more accessible through gamification and immersive storytelling in digital media. Her work pushes players to embrace their mistakes as a way to learn and grow.\n  \n📅 June 18\n⏱️ 12:30 PM\n📍 IFRC HQ EV 10.705
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/ifrc-research-bite/
LOCATION:IFRC HQ EV 10.705
CATEGORIES:Presentation
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260527T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260527T120000
DTSTAMP:20260506T143700Z
CREATED:20260505T155321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T143700Z
UID:10001302-1779876000-1779883200@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Interview Like a Journalist
DESCRIPTION:Interviews are one of the most valuable and versatile skills you can develop—whether you’re conducting interviews for your thesis\, you’re producing a documentary project\, you want to start a podcast\, or you’re looking to become a better conversationalist. \nDrawing on journalism techniques\, this practical workshop led by Milieux Storyteller Nadia Trudel will teach participants how to write questions\, build trust\, connect with subjects\, and ensure every interview is successful. Together\, the group will also explore best practices and ethical considerations in conducting and using interviews. While touching on a range of contexts\, the workshop approaches interviewing as an art form. \nRegardless of discipline or project\, participants will leave with concrete tools to refine their own interview style. \n  \n  \n May 27\n 10 AM -12 PM\n Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705\n🎟️ Places are limited\, please reserve your spot by emailing Nadia at nadia.trudel@concordia.ca\n\n\n  \nABOUT NADIA TRUDEL: \nNadia Trudel is is a Montreal/Tiohtià:ke based writer and editor. She’s written about culture\, music\, art\, fashion\, books\, and LGBTQ2S+ issues for outlets including CBC\, Dazed\, MTV News\, Polyester Magazine\, Xtra\, Maisonneuve Magazine\, the Milieux Institute\, Clash\, KOCCA Canada\, Cult MTL\, and the Montreal Review of Books. Her short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in Headlights Anthology\, Soliloquies Anthology\, and Pixie Literary. Previously she was an editor at Phidal Publishing\, Yiara Magazine\, Lignes de Fuite\, and Scatterbrain Magazine. She holds a BA in Journalism and Creative Writing from Concordia University and is currently pursuing an MA in Media Studies at UQAM.
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/interview-like-a-journalist/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260521T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260521T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T203123Z
CREATED:20260428T203123Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T203123Z
UID:10001300-1779368400-1779382800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Prompt Poetry Against Propriety - Anti-Aesthetic Intelligence (aAI)
DESCRIPTION:A workshop exploring the lexicon of forbidden imagery with Adam Zaretsky. \n  \nThis workshop\, led by Adam Zaretsky\, will engage participants in both individual and collaborative experiments in prompt poetry\, followed by critical exchanges around AI‑generated imagery\, video\, and other media. It will examine the combined effects of data glut and human curation when confronted with an overwhelming stream of algorithmic production. \nThese exercises will be followed by discussions on the impacts of AI in relation to authorship\, kitsch\, algorithmic bias\, platform dependency\, antisocial applications\, search‑driven surveillance society\, and censorship. The group will also debate the role of shock aesthetics more broadly\, as well as AI anti‑aesthetics understood as a form of intelligence—situated somewhere between cultural terror and spectacular technology. \nThe workshop will explore connections between the collective unconscious and engineering‑driven biases\, examining how emotional affects intersect with the mathematics of free association and broader psychoanalytic enigmas. It will also address questions of explicit media\, extreme bodily imagery\, and mediated cultures of violence linked to the military‑industrial entertainment complex. \nThe session will conclude with a reflection on Loop Slop AI and the modelling of long‑term feedback effects. \n  \n⚠️ Disclaimer\nThis is a trigger promise\, not a trigger warning. We seek people desiring to go into the forbidden in the art beyond censorship and propriety. Disgust is a goal here. Disgust is an energy. \n  \nABOUT ADAM ZARETSKY: \nAdam Zaretsky\, Ph.D.\, is a former researcher at MIT’s Department of Biology and an experimental bioartist with over a decade of teaching experience. His art practice critically explores the legal\, ethical\, social\, and libidinal implications of biotechnological materials and methods\, with a particular focus on transgenic humans. Known for his engaging\, hands-on bioart labs\, Zaretsky creates dynamic spaces for bioart production. \nHe has led the VivoArts experimental bioart class at institutions including San Francisco State University (SFSU)\, SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia (UWA)\, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)\, The Arts and Genomic Centre (TAGC) at Leiden University\, and the Waag Society. He is the Head of Research at Nadlinc (since 2016) and a Research Consultant at BEAK (since 2022) in New York. Since 2024\, he has been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts at the Ionian University\, where he also serves as the Creative Director of TTTlabs and TTTfellows in the “Rewilding Cultures” project (2022–2026)\, part of the Feral Lab Network\, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. \n  \n  \n  \n                   
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/prompt-poetry-against-propriety-anti-aesthetic-intelligence-aai/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T170000
DTSTAMP:20260506T212337Z
CREATED:20260428T201654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T212337Z
UID:10001299-1779289200-1779296400@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:GAIAi: Artificial Infantilism and the Prompt Poetry of Unblocking all Keywords
DESCRIPTION:Focusing on the concept of General Audience Iterations Artificial Infantilism (GAIAi)\, Ian Haig and Adam Zaretsky will examine how contemporary AI systems are shaped by content moderation\, platform governance\, and cultural expectations around safety and accessibility. \nCensorship and AI\, obsolete models\, using AI the wrong way\, ugly AI and the interior body as an antidote to the idealised perfection of exterior bodies on Instagram. AI as haunted images culled from the collective unconscious\, images that don’t belong and are not of this world. AI slop as abject contamination\, algorithmic parasites\, transhumanism gone bad and AI as noise and error in the system of the AI overlords of Palantir and the emerging AI control grid for the Useless eater class. AI as an occult technology invoking  the residue of culture\, the leftovers and the dead. \nFeaturing Ian Haig and Adam Zaretsky\, the discussion will explore how these forces influence both the production and reception of AI-generated media. The speakers will address how algorithmic filtering\, blocked keywords\, and platform policies shape aesthetic outcomes and public discourse. At the same time\, they are considering the unexpected visual forms emerging from AI systems—ranging from polished synthetic imagery to distorted or unsettling outputs that challenge established aesthetic norms. \n  \nABOUT THE SPEAKERS: \nIan Haig is a multidisciplinary artist working across video\, sculpture\, drawing\, installation\, technology‑based media\, and mutant AI. His practice challenges the idea that low or base cultural forms lack value\, and has long focused on visceral\, body‑centred themes. Over the past thirty years\, his work has examined the intersections of contemporary media\, technology\, and the human body\, addressing attraction and repulsion\, fanaticism\, transhumanism\, and the degenerative effects of pervasive technologies. Haig has exhibited internationally at major institutions\, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York)\, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris)\, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne)\, ACMI\, GOMA Brisbane\, and Artec Biennale (Nagoya). His video work has screened at over 200 festivals worldwide. He is also an experienced curator\, notably of Unco and Very Unco\, at the Torrance Art Museum\, Los Angeles. \n  \n  \nAdam Zaretsky\, Ph.D.\, is an experimental bioartist and former researcher in MIT’s Department of Biology. His work critically examines the legal\, ethical\, social\, and libidinal dimensions of biotechnology\, with a particular focus on transgenic humans. Known for his hands‑on bioart laboratories\, Zaretsky creates participatory spaces for experimental bioart production and discourse. He has taught internationally at institutions including San Francisco State University\, SymbioticA (University of Western Australia)\, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute\, Leiden University\, and the Waag Society. Since 2016\, he has served as Head of Research at Nadlinc\, and since 2022 as a Research Consultant at BEAK in New York. Since 2024\, he is a Visiting Professor at Ionian University\, Creative Director of TTTlabs and TTTfellows\, and part of the EU‑funded Rewilding Cultures project.
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/gaiai-artificial-infantilism-and-the-prompt-poetry-of-unblocking-all-keywords/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T140000
DTSTAMP:20260505T201147Z
CREATED:20260505T201147Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260505T201147Z
UID:10001305-1779278400-1779285600@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Milieux Annual General Meeting and Pizza Lunch
DESCRIPTION:Join us for our Annual General Meeting on May 20th! \nCome enjoy some pizza while we showcase the proofs of the latest Milieux Annual Report (2024-2025). \n  \n May 20\, 2026\n12-2 PM\nMilieux Resource Room EV 11.705
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/milieux-annual-general-meeting-and-pizza-lunch-3/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Reception
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260520T120000
DTSTAMP:20260506T143722Z
CREATED:20260504T200938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T143722Z
UID:10001301-1779271200-1779278400@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:How to Present Yourself and Your Artistic Practice
DESCRIPTION:Join Nadia Trudel for a 2-hour workshop on finding the words for your creative practice. \nCreating art is innate\, but how do you talk about it with committees\, curators\, or even your grandmother? Knowing how to effectively describe your artistic practice is an essential skillset for a professional artist. \nBy drawing on narrative tropes and archetypes\, this workshop will guide participants through the process of writing two key texts for promoting and sharing their work: the artist statement and the artist bio. Through an overview of examples\, group discussion\, and hands-on writing exercises and peer workshopping\, participants will draft accurate and dynamic artist bios and statements that capture their voices. \nPlease bring a variety of physical or digital examples of your work. \n  \n May 20\n 10 AM -12 PM\n Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705\n🎟️ Places are limited\, please reserve your spot by emailing Nadia at nadia.trudel@concordia.ca\n\n\n\n\nABOUT NADIA TRUDEL:\n\nNadia Trudel is is a Montreal/Tiohtià:ke based writer and editor. She’s written about culture\, music\, art\, fashion\, books\, and LGBTQ2S+ issues for outlets including CBC\, Dazed\, MTV News\, Polyester Magazine\, Xtra\, Maisonneuve Magazine\, the Milieux Institute\, Clash\, KOCCA Canada\, Cult MTL\, and the Montreal Review of Books. Her short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in Headlights Anthology\, Soliloquies Anthology\, and Pixie Literary. Previously she was an editor at Phidal Publishing\, Yiara Magazine\, Lignes de Fuite\, and Scatterbrain Magazine. She holds a BA in Journalism and Creative Writing from Concordia University and is currently pursuing an MA in Media Studies at UQAM.
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/how-to-present-yourself-and-your-artistic-practice/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260515
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260517
DTSTAMP:20260505T181504Z
CREATED:20260505T181504Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260505T181504Z
UID:10001303-1778803200-1778975999@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Embodied Interventions
DESCRIPTION:Embodied Interventions\, LePARC’s signature event\, is coming back for its 7th edition on May 15 & 16!  \nCurated by Hannah Schallert and Casper Fosman-Sutton this year’s program\, titled (Re)animating Performance\, will focus on the overlapping spaces between labour and performance. The work of animation\, and the animation of work: to animate a space\, to be animated\, animare\, to give movement or life.   \nIn a cultural moment of increased automation and global upheaval\, labour becomes disconnected and disembodied. Experiences of precarity and the realities of global capital touch many more of our lives; shaping the way we perform selfhood\, making\, and relationality.  \n​Work bleeds into life\, love and leisure. Animation speaks to both the moving body as the sign of freedom\, spirit\, and liveliness\, and to the movement of labour needed to put into motion\, to make things happen\, to endow matter with life. To (re)animate in this context might be to return to a politic of embodiment\, to value both labour and labourer.  \n​Through social media and the digital\, our relationships to performance are also changed; we take the invisible for granted and fetishize the performative. The machinations of labour are the undercurrent that animates our lives. The work of the performer becomes the work of the contemporary subject – the production of subjectivity\, sociality and emotion.​ \n​On May 15 and May 16\, public presentations of these processes will be shown around the downtown Concordia University campus. These presentations are free\, and open to the public. 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/embodied-interventions/
LOCATION:Performance Lab EV 10.785
CATEGORIES:Performance
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260513
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260515
DTSTAMP:20260505T185009Z
CREATED:20260505T185009Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260505T185009Z
UID:10001304-1778630400-1778803199@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Abundant Imaginaries: Virtual Student Symposium on Indigenous AI Futures
DESCRIPTION:The future of artificial intelligence remains unclear. But one thing is certain: the technology is bound to fail if it’s not shaped by an abundance of knowledges and imaginaries. \nThe Abundant Intelligences research program – which advances methods of developing culturally-grounded AI systems to support Indigenous ways of knowing – aims to contribute to such abundance through its Student Symposium on Indigenous AI Futures! \nJoin us for Abundant Imaginaries\, a student symposium on Indigenous AI Futures\, to learn how artificial intelligence is being imagined – and built – anew through Indigenous Protocols and Knowledge Systems. \nWith six thematic panels spread across two days\, students from around the world will share their research-creation projects and future imaginaries of AI rooted in Indigenous Knowledges\, protocols\, epistemologies\, and arts. \n  \n  \nSCHEDULE:\n  \nDAY 1 – Wednesday May 13\, 2026 \n2 PM: Welcome & Opening Remarks. \n2:15 PM: Panel 1: Countering ongoing colonialism and biases in Western technologies and institutions. \n3:30 PM: Break \n3:45 PM: Panel 2: Language Models & Indigenous Knowledges: Rethinking mainstream approaches. \n5 PM: Panel 3: Emerging AI Futures from Aotearoa. \n  \nDAY 2- Thursday May 14\, 2026\n2 PM: Panel 4: Towards epistemic justice in research and creation methodologies. \n3:15 PM: Break \n3:30 PM: Panel 5 Decolonizing the AI Stack: Approaches to Indigenous data and Infrastructural Sovereignty. \n4:45PM: Panel 6: Indigenous Design Futures. \n  \nPresentation Abstract can be found here.\n  \n May 13 & 14\, 2026\n 2 -6:30 PM\n Online\n🌐 Zoom Link: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/89025544771\n\n 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/abundant-imaginaries-virtual-student-symposium-on-indigenous-ai-futures/
LOCATION:Online
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260508T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260508T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T195650Z
CREATED:20260428T195650Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T195650Z
UID:10001298-1778256000-1778266800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Closing Remarks
DESCRIPTION:Together with the Speculative Life Research Cluster\, the Hexagram Chantier Ecotechnologies warmly invites you to join us for the closing remarks of the knowledge mobilization series Environmental Materials and/as Methods. \nThis series has brought together diverse research platforms—the Concordia University Ethnography Lab\, Machine Agencies\, the Critical Anthropocene Research Group\, and the Speculative Life Biolab—to explore shared questions around material practices\, environmental inquiry\, and interdisciplinary collaboration. As the series comes to a close\, we invite you to take part in a moment of reflection\, exchange\, and celebration of the vibrant research cultures that make up our community. \nThe closing remarks will also highlight the work of the Chantier Ecotechnologies\, a group of seven interdisciplinary artists\, writers\, and researchers currently engaged in a collaboration with the Chaire de recherche municipale pour les villes durables of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) and SYMBIOSE — Laboratoire intersectoriel en art\, technologie et environnement (UQTR). \nTheir research focuses on ecotechnological approaches that mobilize academic\, industrial\, and municipal communities around pressing environmental challenges facing the Beaudet Reservoir in Victoriaville\, including sediment accumulation and valorization\, and the long-term impacts on access to drinking water. \nPlease join us to learn more about their research outcomes and to conclude this series together. \n  \n                   
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/environmental-materials-and-as-methods-closing-remarks/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Conversation
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260508T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260508T160000
DTSTAMP:20260428T190420Z
CREATED:20260417T100706Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T190420Z
UID:10001296-1778230800-1778256000@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Student Workshop
DESCRIPTION:How to mediate the banal?\nInspired by Heather Davis’s forthcoming piece\, Banal Violence: Breathing Plastic Air\, this two-day workshop invites participants to investigate materiality as both object and method of study. Together\, we will critically engage with the question of material banality through hands-on investigation and collective creation. \nInspired by Rob Nixon’s seminal concept of slow violence\, Davis switches ‘slow’ for ‘banal’\, to focus the attention not only on the temporality of environmental violence\, as incremental and accretive\, but also on its affective and bodily registers. Toxicity scholars have shown that slow violence is both a direct experience and something needing mediation to be understood. We argue that this hard-to-perceive slow violence is even more difficult to communicate when it is also banal. \nAs part of our commitment to exploring creative strategies for mediating banality\, we invite students\, scholars\, and practitioners to investigate everyday material encounters across Montreal in a workshop. \nParticipants will collaboratively act as gatherers\, employing biomaterial capture methods to identify cues of banal violence across the city. Back at Spec Life\, groups will interpret their collected data using a range of methodologies familiar to different groups in the cluster\, including multimodal ethnography\, CLEAR Lab’s DIY microplastic forensics protocol\, and microscopy/material analysis. Following this\, participants will synthesize their insights through a series of speculative map-making exercises\, attempting to situate their discoveries in relation to time and space. The workshop will culminate in the co-production of speculative analog and digital maps\, making visible some of the manifold forms of banal violence present in the city of Montreal. \n  \n🎟️ Space is limited and requires registration: \n \n  \n  Start-up: May 7 11 AM – 12 PM \n  Workshop: May 8 9 AM – 4 PM \nSpeculative Life EV 10.625
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/environmental-materials-and-as-methods-2/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T180000
DTSTAMP:20260428T195256Z
CREATED:20260428T194416Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T195256Z
UID:10001297-1778157000-1778176800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Environmental Materials and/as Methods Keynotes and Roundtable
DESCRIPTION:Program:\nChantier Ecotechnologies and Speculative Life Cluster are pleased to welcome interdisciplinary researcher Heather Davis (United States) and independent curator Juliette Bibasse (Belgium). \n\n\n  \n12:30 – 2 PM | Heather Davis Keynote: Producing Plastic Air\nHeather Davis talk will explore how one plastic cup factory produces plastic air\, and the consequences for how we think about waste\, plastic\, air quality\, and bodily knowledge. Highlighting workers’ experiences in plastic production and decentring narratives of individual consumer choice\, her work draw attention to petrocapitalism’s structural violence\, where harmful environmental conditions have been normalized and integrated into what it means to build a life in the image of the American Dream. She will explore this through the concept of “private air\,” showing how air quality is monitored differently in workplaces than in the general environment. \n\n\n  \n3 – 4 PM | Juliette Bibasse Keynote: Creating at Large – Prototyping off the grid & slowing down\nJuliette Bibasse & Joanie Lemercier crossed the Atlantic in March 2026 aboard a sail cargo vessel\, slowly travelling for two weeks from France to New York without flying — a deliberate choice made in response to the environmental cost of air travel. A series of works has been made on board\, in direct response to the physical experience of wind\, waves\, storms and swell\, ever-changing light\, shadows and reflections\, transcribing moments of the ocean into thousands of ink drops and pixels. \nAt sea\, you cannot trust data\, even on a high-tech vessel full of sensors. You must observe reality. This journey was a wonderful context to question our growing tendency to use technology to sense the world rather than experience it directly: all the computing power in the world will never be sufficient to model a single drop of water. \nIn this presentation\, Juliette Bibasse will share some of their recent works\, the motivations behind this journey and the embodied experience they got from it. Through their studio works and the Concordia University Solar Lab\, their goal is to share a critical understanding of technology and to propose desirable alternatives. They believe the future should not rely on robots and datasets\, as these fragile systems feel more like disposable gadgets than a serious roadmap for the future. \n\n\n  \n4:30 – 6 PM | Roundtable Unsettling Sediments: Site-responsive\, collaborative inquiry\, and public engagement\nThis round table explores the material and methodological dimensions of a collective bio-based book-making process at the Speculative Life Biolab. Since fall 2025\, the group has engaged in an art–science collaboration in Victoriaville\, where sediment accumulation in the Réservoir Beaudet is increasingly threatening access to drinking water. The limited-edition artist’s book is being produced using locally collected sediments\, algae\, and plant matter\, and functions both as a research outcome and a site-responsive medium. The discussion will examine how its fabrication and writing operate as a sensory\, collaborative method of inquiry\, as well as an ecotechnological form of engagement and public knowledge production. \n  \n  \n                   
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/environmental-materials-and-as-methods-keynotes-and-roundtable/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Keynote,Roundtable
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T130000
DTSTAMP:20260417T093624Z
CREATED:20260417T093417Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260417T093624Z
UID:10001294-1778151600-1778158800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:LePARC Tech Workshop
DESCRIPTION:We will be looking at the light board\, the audio mixer\, and how to use these with some of the software that is accessible on the iMac computer in your work in the Performance Lab. The first section of the workshop introduces participants to the gear and equipment\, and the second half\, we’ll experiment and play around together!\n\nPlease feel free to bring any audio and/or video contents that you would like to experiment with.\nThe same workshop format will be given on both two dates (April 22 &May 7)\n\nNo need for a sign up\, just show up!\n\n\n📅 May 7\n⏱️ 11 AM -1 PM\n📍 Performance lab EV 10.785
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/12785/
LOCATION:Performance Lab EV 10.785
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260507T120000
DTSTAMP:20260428T190545Z
CREATED:20260417T100545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T190545Z
UID:10001295-1778151600-1778155200@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Student Workshop
DESCRIPTION:How to mediate the banal?\nInspired by Heather Davis’s forthcoming piece\, Banal Violence: Breathing Plastic Air\, this two-day workshop invites participants to investigate materiality as both object and method of study. Together\, we will critically engage with the question of material banality through hands-on investigation and collective creation. \nInspired by Rob Nixon’s seminal concept of slow violence\, Davis switches ‘slow’ for ‘banal’\, to focus the attention not only on the temporality of environmental violence\, as incremental and accretive\, but also on its affective and bodily registers. Toxicity scholars have shown that slow violence is both a direct experience and something needing mediation to be understood. We argue that this hard-to-perceive slow violence is even more difficult to communicate when it is also banal. \nAs part of our commitment to exploring creative strategies for mediating banality\, we invite students\, scholars\, and practitioners to investigate everyday material encounters across Montreal in a workshop. \nParticipants will collaboratively act as gatherers\, employing biomaterial capture methods to identify cues of banal violence across the city. Back at Spec Life\, groups will interpret their collected data using a range of methodologies familiar to different groups in the cluster\, including multimodal ethnography\, CLEAR Lab’s DIY microplastic forensics protocol\, and microscopy/material analysis. Following this\, participants will synthesize their insights through a series of speculative map-making exercises\, attempting to situate their discoveries in relation to time and space. The workshop will culminate in the co-production of speculative analog and digital maps\, making visible some of the manifold forms of banal violence present in the city of Montreal. \n  \n🎟️ Space is limited and requires registration: \n \n  \n  Start-up: May 7 11 AM – 12 PM \n  Workshop: May 8 9 AM – 4 PM \nSpeculative Life EV 10.625
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/environmental-materials-and-as-methods/
LOCATION:Speculative Life Research Cluster  EV 10.625
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260506T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260506T193000
DTSTAMP:20260409T162434Z
CREATED:20260409T162434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260409T162434Z
UID:10001291-1778088600-1778095800@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:Interdisciplinary Encounters Launch Evening
DESCRIPTION:On Wednesday\, May 6\, 2026\, the Hexagram Network will launch the 4th edition of the Interdisciplinary Encounters. \n  \nThis will be the opportunity to discover the program\, which will unfold from April 13 to June 12\, 2026\, in a particularly vibrant manner: in total\, it comprises more than 20 activities. \nOrganized under the theme Commonalities\, this edition will highlight cutting-edge research‑creation practices emerging from Québec’s university communities. Grounded in material\, embodied\, and situated methodologies\, research‑creation fosters a rich dialogue between the arts\, cultures\, and technologies. It invites us to rethink the commons as a dynamic space of relationships\, responsibilities\, and collective imaginaries in the face of contemporary crises. \nThe launch evening will open with remarks from Hexagram’s co‑directors\, offering an opportunity to discover the full program of workshops\, talks\, exhibitions\, performances\, and roundtable discussions that will energize our spring. \nJoin us in a warm\, welcoming atmosphere conducive to exchange\, while enjoying a bite to eat and a drink shared with our research community. \n  \n🎟️ Spots are limited\, book a spot here. \n  \n \n  \n 
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/interdisciplinary-encounters-launch-evening/
LOCATION:Milieux Institute Atrium (11th Floor)
CATEGORIES:Launch
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260506T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260506T171500
DTSTAMP:20260505T160929Z
CREATED:20260417T075443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260505T160929Z
UID:10001292-1778084100-1778087700@milieux.concordia.ca
SUMMARY:What goes on in the kitchen of creative AI?: A conversation
DESCRIPTION:How does one cook an AI? \nWhat happens in the kitchen when one is preparing ingredients for different kinds of agencies? \nWhat does it mean to move beyond instrumentalism; and what does an interaction look like when its design comes from a place of joy\, curiosity\, and experimentation? \nWe invite the Montreal community of creatives and thinkers who are interested in questions of machine agency\, design process\, and interactivity to join in on this event where they can share the details and experiences of working with machines—in their wonky\, restless\, and still delicious encounters. \nThis event is presented as part of Hexagram Network’s 2026 Interdisciplinary Encounters. \n  \nSchedule:\n2 PM (CANCELLED): The first part takes inspiration from MFK Fisher’s The Art of Eating to explore how cooking with machines engenders life worlds with heterogeneous agencies and sociability. \n  \n4:15 PM: The second part will be a Keynote presentation by Montreal-based artist Erin Gee. \nDrawing on Claude Lévi-Strauss’ notion of the “raw” and the “cooked\,” and its feminist reinterpretation in sound studies by Jonathan Sterne and Tara Rodgers\, Gee examines AI through a sonic lens to argue that when real-world phenomena are recorded as sound or data\, they are never captured in a “raw” state. Grounded in her work on the documentation of musical biofeedback systems\, the talk explores how processes of capture\, selection\, and transformation shape what can be heard and what can be known through technology. She contrasts musical AI systems\, which tend to obscure or abstract these operations\, with classic biofeedback practices that foregrounded them—revealing how different technologies organize\, conceal\, or expose their own forms of “cooking.” \n  \nAfter the Event: \nPlease join us at 5:30 p.m. for the official launch event of the Interdisciplinary Encounters.
URL:https://milieux.concordia.ca/event/what-goes-on-in-the-kitchen-of-creative-ai-a-conversation/
LOCATION:Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705
CATEGORIES:Conversation
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END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR