Stefana Fratila & Diana Lynn VanderMeulen

AV + Live

"I want to leave this Earth behind“ is a multisensory project by Stefana Fratila and Diana Lynn VanderMeulen which centers on outer space exploration, speculative-fictive realities, and Crip futurity. Engaging audiences in an immersive exercise of imagining interplanetary and sci-fantastical atmospheres– conditions which are inherently unlivable, unbreathable, converting all human body-minds into disabled-bodied-ness.

About the Artists:

Working in collaboration since 2022, Diana and Stefana work together to engage audiences in an immersive exercise imagining interplanetary and sci-fantastical atmospheres– conditions which are inherently unlivable, unbreathable, converting all human body-minds into disabled-bodied-ness. Their multifaceted collaboration challenges the limits of their individual practices as they merge three overarching works: Sononaut (VSTs) & "I want to leave this Earth behind" (2LP) by Fratila, and "A Boundless and Radiant Aura" (Extended Reality) by VanderMeulen. Notably, through an artist creation residency with Society for Arts and Technology, Montreal, the duo developed a 40 minute immersive audio-visual experience entitled I want to leave this Earth behind, specifically formatted to the Satosphère’s multichannel sound system and 360-degree projectors. Premiering at Satosphère 3 MUTEK x SAT in August 2023, this full-dome experience was shown internationally at MICRO MUTEK.AE in Dubai, UAE, in May 2024.

photo by Kate Killet

Stefana Fratila is a Romanian-born artist, composer and sound designer based in Toronto, Canada. She is also a DJ and co-founder of Crip Rave, an event platform showcasing and prioritizing Crip, Disabled, Deaf, Mad, and Sick body-minds within safer and more accessible rave spaces. She created Sononaut, 8 open-source VST plug-ins that emulate the atmospheric conditions of the planets in our solar system in collaboration with NASA scientists and Jen Kutler. She has exhibited and performed her work internationally, including at MoMA and e-flux (New York, USA), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), MUTEK (Montréal) / MUTEK.AE (Dubai, UAE), and the International Symposium on Electronic Art (Paris, France). She has also completed residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Wave Farm Transmission Arts, Société des arts technologiques (Montreal, CA), and CMMAS Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (Morelia, Mexico). She was a winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Sound Editing (2022) and the Director’s Guild of Canada Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing (2023). Her film scores have screened at Le Centre Pompidou, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, and The Viennale.

Diana Lynn VanderMeulen is a multidisciplinary artist living in Toronto, Canada. Her practice is fluid between analogue and digital mediums with a focus on extended reality and cyclical material use as she develops expansive, multisensory environments. During a 2023 artist creation residency at Société des arts technologiques (Montreal, CA) Diana adapted her ongoing project A Boundless and Radiant Aura into an immersive A/V performance entitled I want to leave this Earth behind alongside sonic collaborator Stefana Fratila. Iterations of A Boundless and Radiant Aura have also been presented in multimodal exhibitions with the Art Gallery of Burlington, Debaser at SAW Gallery (Ottawa, CA), Nuit Blanche (Toronto, CA), Toutoune Gallery (Toronto, CA), Video Pool (Winnipeg, CA) and to virtual audiences via her independently published Magic Window application. Alongside representation with Sky Fine Foods, VanderMeulen has been involved in many public and DIY ventures. Notably, she has shown at Canadian Embassy (Tokyo, Japan), CADAF Digital Art Fair (Paris, France), Constellations Festival (Metz, France), Lincoln Centre (New York, USA), MUTEK (Montréal) / MUTEK.AE (Dubai), SHiFT Midtown (New York, USA) Société des arts technologiques (Montreal, CA) and Video Pool (Winnipeg, CA).

SCHEDULE

AV Gallery

Atrium
NOV 13 | WEDNESDAY
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

NOV 14 | THURSDAY
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

i+eo
Audiovisual Installation

Stefana Fratila & Diana Lynn VanderMeulen
XR Installation
“I want to leave this earth behind”

NOV 16 | SATURDAY

XR + Live

Atrium

Stefana Fratila LIVE & Diana Lynn VanderMeulen XR
“I want to leave this earth behind”

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM

Session I

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Session II

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