Canadian multidisciplinary artist Timothy Yanick Hunter will serve as MOCA’s first-ever Digital Futures Resident.
AUGUST 2023 – The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto is pleased to announce the new Digital Futures Residency, as part of a partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University, the National Film Board and the Vector Institute.
The Digital Futures Residency will provide an early career artist with the opportunity for artistic exploration in the realm of digital technologies. This residency supports emerging artists based in Canada in research, development and production that focuses on technology as a connective and even relational tool.
Multidisciplinary artist and curator Timothy Yanick Hunter will be engaged in this residency for a period of twelve months, from July 2023 to June 2024. During this time, the resident will receive a monthly fee intended to support their work and have access to mentorship from the MOCA Toronto team, as well as potential mentorship and collaboration from three partnering institutions.
While the Digital Futures Residency has no prescribed outcome, the resident is invited to develop new work that relates to themes including how digital approaches to art-making can provide new methods of living together and how artistic practice can help us to better understand the role of technology within arts institutions, culture and society, with the possibility of presenting this following the residency at the museum. Yanick will also be asked to deliver two public programmes or Youth Council activities during the year, activities which can take the form of, but are not limited to, workshops, performances and talks.
Support for this project has been generously provided by the Canada Council for the Arts through the Strategic Innovation Fund.
About Timothy Yanick Hunter
Timothy Yanick Hunter (b. 1990 Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist and curator who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Hunter’s practice employs strategies of bricolage to examine non-neutral relationships relating to Black and Afro-diasporic experiences as well as concurrent strategies of decolonization. His work often delves into speculative narratives and the intersections of physical space, digital space and the intangible. Hunter was included in the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art and longlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award. He lives and works in Toronto.
About MOCA Toronto
The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) presents rotating exhibitions that prioritize twenty-first-century artistic production, primarily through commissioning of new work. Artists, partnerships, experimentation, and reciprocal initiatives are at the centre of MOCA’s mission as a locally rooted and internationally connected organization. Focused on core values promoting equity, inclusion, access, courage and responsibility, MOCA fosters active participation and engagement to serve as a welcoming cultural hub in the hyper-diverse city of Toronto.
About The Partners
Toronto Metropolitan University, Studio for Creative AI (SCAI)
The Studio for Creative AI at Toronto Metropolitan University has been initiated by professors Debashis Sinha, Owen Lyons and Norah Lorway to explore tools for creative expression using AI through workshops, presentations and mentorship. The studio is open to collaborations with artists and researchers who use AI creatively, to together find ways of expressing our own and collective stories. The SCAI is part of a growing ecosystem of creative practitioners, engineers, programmers and interested faculty and students at TMU, which include the Responsible AI project and other initiatives.
National Film Board, Animation & Interactive Studio
The Animation & Interactive Studio at the National Film Board of Canada is dedicated to exploring the creative application of new technologies and how they can be used to engage audiences in the creation of story and art. The studio specializes in producing experimental mobile, internet and immersive experiences and is eager to work with storytellers and artists from all disciplines in all regions of the country, including filmmakers, writers, photographers, podcasters, interactive designers, computer programmers, etc. The studio publishes original productions across a variety of platforms each year, including works of virtual and augmented reality, mobile applications and games, social media videos, physical art installations, websites and other interactive experiences.
Vector Institute
The Vector Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), excelling in machine and deep learning. Launched in March 2017 with generous support from the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario and private industry, the Institute works in partnership with the University of Toronto and other universities. The Vector Institute also works with institutions, industry, start-ups, incubators and accelerators to advance AI research and drive its application, adoption and commercialization across Canada.