Some Kind of Heaven - knitting
“Is this heaven / or its twin?” Mischa Dempsey asks on the opening track to Some Kind of Heaven, the debut full-length by Knitting, out on Mint Records. The unsettling question sets the tone for a dense record that expertly renders anxieties about growing pains and strained relationships. Through precise lyricism, brash guitar solos and whispered vocals, Knitting brings to life Dempsey’s experiences as a 20-something transitioning and working to understand themself in Montreal. At once massive and intimate, Some Kind of Heaven is a rock record that you can blast with your friends or listen to alone in your room, when you’re feeling alienated from everything you know — and wondering if anyone else is, too.
Some Kind of Heaven is out everyone September 6th via Mint Records.
Research-Creation Masters Thesis, Media Studies, Concordia University, 2024
Memes are an increasingly popular medium for self-expression in a digital context. On the social media site Instagram, queer and politically-left meme creators are subverting hegemonic power dynamics to present humorous and original memes, with sincere self-representation at their core: what I designate, alternative Instagram memes. Queer people often face discrimination and social exclusion in their local communities, exacerbated by the isolating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which leads many to seek out and forge digital communities of their own. In this research-creation project, I analyze the themes and discourse present in alternative Instagram memes posted by myself and by my peers to examine how this content and the community around it forms a digital intimate public. The expansion of #deardiarymemes, an interactive meme project based on anonymous confessions, exemplifies how memes function as digital storytelling tools and is central to this research. Through a curated series of memes by myself and by my peers as well as 41 new #deardiarymemes, this work builds on existing meme scholarship using feminist theorypractice to present a previously unstudied aspect of meme culture: a subversive, leftist meme community sprouting from the social media site Instagram.
FULL TEXT
FULL TEXT
Sunforger - Sunforger
Sunforger is a four-piece post-punk band based in Montreal, Quebec with a distinctive and unreplicatable musical style. Sunforger emphasizes rhythm, experiments with dissonance, and crafts satisfying melodies which are intended for repeat listening. Sunforger began as the personal recording project of Spencer Curtis before expanding into a fully-fledged, four-piece unit. Together, the band collaborates to elaborate upon Spencer’s creative concepts in the forms of riffs, melodies, and outlines, to create fully formed and intricately structured songs with a unique and intentional style. Sunforger’s sophomore album, released July 21, 2023 via Cooked Raw, is the first under this name and serves as a critical role as both an introduction and redefinition of Sunforger’s aesthetic development and four-piece arrangement for audiences old and new. Like an ancient star, Sunforger is ready to blow up.
Sunforger is available everywhere now via The Cooked Raw Label.
I started the Instagram page @rude_oil_pipeline in late April 2019, around two years after discovering alternative, feminist meme pages like @gothshakira and @goldnosering. Their ability to merge autotheoretical analyses with political discourse and personal details is really inspiring to me. While neither of these pages are very active right now, they both continue to inspire a new wave of memers. Characteristic amongst these meme creators is the central presence of the personal and the political implications of this fact. Memers share and hash out their stances on political, social, and cultural issues. People develop unique styles while also feeding into each other’s aesthetics, often collaborating through group chats. Memes can be cute and funny, but they can also be used to come out, critique capitalism, call for police abolition, or do all these things at once. Meming has become a processing tool through which I work out emerging elements of my identity, delve into my past, vent about daily grievances, and continually confront and renegotiate my conception of the world.
Read the full article here.
Read the full article here.
September - October 2021
In September and October 2021, the AIM-Lab hosted a three part online workshop on Audio Description (AD) led by Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid. Beginning from a place that centers the experiences of those who are blind and recognizes the art in audio description, the workshop invited participants to reflect critically both on visual information and to view it as more than mere access. The resulting series of works engage with AD in innovative and creative ways, exploring sound, text, movement, and their mixtures. From an audio-logo to a binder that comes to life to a sci-fi meditation to a lusty afternoon brewing mead to a video game adventure to artistic critiques of colonialism to glittering light that turn windowpanes into jellyfish, the collection of pieces in this online exhibit engages with the creative potentials of access.
How is it possible that a painting can sit so still, yet demonstrate so much noise and movement? Artists Nicholas Goberdhan and Piper Curtis weave together linguistic and sonic poetry to transport listeners into the oil-paint world of Mark Tansey’s Forward Retreat. Goberdhan’s cadence and tone set the pace while Curtis’ lush soundscape fully engulfs listeners within the story of the piece as it unfolds.