INTERARTS MATRIX WORKS ON REGIONALIZING SOCIAL MEDIA

“Social media does not place you in a specific geography[…]it’s very hard to curate one’s own experience in one’s own city by scrolling through Instagram,” Sheila McMath, artistic director of Inter Arts Matrix, said.   

“[Social media] creates an illusion of social connection, but ultimately you don’t end up showing up in your own community because there’s no way to sift through all of the information,” she said.   

Inter Arts Matrix is a local arts organization producing and incubating interdisciplinary arts projects in the Waterloo Region. Regionalizing Social Media is an ongoing research project creating a strategy for the local arts community.   

The research team taking on this work includes McMath, artist/researcher Stephanie Florence, and a six-person advisory council made up of local cultural workers and scholars. This project is in collaboration with other arts organizations including MT Space, CAFKA, Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, the Willow River Centre, Green Light Arts, NUMUS Concerts and Neruda Arts.   

Florence articulated guiding questions for this local project.  

“What does it [art] mean for the community, and how can we make those connections and distinctions? What social media or communication forms are appropriate to actually build community?”  

Florence described how other places they have lived, such as Lethbridge and Edmonton, AB, fund and resource their arts infrastructure to be the centre of community through structural backing like municipal funding, resources and centralizing arts events.

Regionalizing Social Media addresses this dearth of infrastructure, as well as the overwhelming reliance on Meta-owned social media platforms.  

“Even if you are following all of your favourite artists, all of your favourite organizations in a specific area, you might not see those events happening,” Florence said.   

Florence points out that for artists, there are additional implications.   

“So, we give away ownership of our artistic work[…]when we post videos and photos,” Florence said.  

In response to these issues, Regionalizing Social Media commits to developing multi-pronged approaches to increase public access and awareness of local arts events.   

“I think we need to look towards social media applications that are owned by the public, that are billionaire-proof,” Florence said.   

“[The infrastructure] needs to be largely funded by the municipalities[…]but I don’t think that it should necessarily be controlled by them,” Florence said.

“This brings me hope,” Florence said. “As an Instagram-less artist myself, I have often felt disconnected from the local arts scene in which communication and promotion occurs predominantly on Instagram.” 

Lastly, McMath voiced that Regionalizing Social Media intends to strengthen relationships across the cultural sector.   

“I hope this project brings us closer to being genuine colleagues,” McMath said.   

“When you have true reciprocity and true community building, there’s a sense of cohesiveness and giving,” McMath said.   

One quote from Stephanie Florence has been removed in the online version of this article at their request.

#CAFKA #edmontonAlberta #Green #GreenLightArts #HaleySheppard #InterArtsMatrix #lethbridge #localProject #MTSpace #openEarsFestivalOfMusic #regionalizingSocialMedia #SheilaMcMath #socialMedia #stephanieFlorence

CAFKA.25: FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDERSTORY

The 2025 Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener + Area (CAFKA) biennial, titled Field Guide to the Understory, is running from June 7 to July 26.  

CAFKA.25 presents original artwork from nineteen artists, displayed in public spaces across the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge—with additional video and performance art featured at events throughout the exhibition run.  

The thematic explores the notion of public space, microhabitats, thriving under the shadow of business high-rises.   

“CAFKA.25 draws inspiration from the intricate ecosystems of the forest understory, where life flourishes in the fleeting glow of dappled light and where intricate microhabitats thrive in the shadow of giants,” the website states.  

“CAFKA.25 is about the underdog, what’s happening on the forest floor…The Field Guide is scrappy, it’s responsive, it’s a little notebook in your breast pocket…[It is] using what’s available to you and interfacing regularly with the unseen aspects of material reality,” Hall said.  

Unlike other exhibitions, CAFKA commissions brand new work from its artists. The process is collaborative, with CAFKA scoping out the conceptual and financial feasibility of projects throughout the process.  

While previous biennials have had pre-set thematics, CAFKA.25’s was drawn together organically from the resonances in participating artist’s work.   

CAFKA.25 artwork includes the rain remembers its life as sea, a sonic composition by naakita f.k performed by a local chorus and The Landscape is Dead, a series of billboards exploring urban decay and uncultivated land by Richelle Forsey and Anna Gaby-Trotz.  

One striking work—Monument (Sundial), a sculpture composed from compressed recycled materials by award-winning artist Adam Basanta—stands tall in Willow River Park.  

CAFKA’s ethos is about making art as publicly accessible to people as possible, Hall explained. For them, the capacity of public art to move and provoke reflection has a personal dimension.  

Hall, who comes from an engineering background, went into sculpture after a profound experience attending Halifax’s Nocturne festival.  

“I remember attending [Nocturne], and it changed me. It literally made me want to leave my science life and pursue art[…] So, the idea of CAFKA, taking work out of the gallery and putting it in places where people can encounter it by accident, is super exciting.”  

CAFKA began as a Kitchener city project called artworks in the late 1990s. While CAFKA has since expanded to involve Waterloo and Cambridge, Kitchener remains the focus.  

Walking tours of the downtown Kitchener artworks are taking place throughout the biennial, with plans for a walking tour designed to accommodate a broader range of mobility needs. Ultimately however, Hall’s preference is for people to explore the artwork with a totally open mind, without guides or context.  

“The most exciting thing is when people just encounter an artwork with little to no explanation and immerse themselves, figure out that it’s CAFKA, and then reach out, have a conversation with us,” they said.  

The CAFKA team is already working towards the 2027 biennial.  

For the 2025 biennial, there are numerous events planned for July, including talks with exhibiting artists, workshops, and a screening series of video artwork in the final week.  

The biennial concludes on July 26 with a planned closing forum in Galt. An essay-based publication on Field Guide, written by the biennial’s writers-in-residence, is planned for the fall.  

#annaGabyTrotz #art #artwork #CAFKA #ContemporaryArtForumKitchenerAndArea #ecosystems #fieldGuideToTheUnderstory #julieHall #NatSharpe #richelleForsey #theRainRemembersItsLifeAsSea

Today @Jkdellow and I participated in the CAFKA Alleycat -- a sort of scavenger hunt on bikes where you visit art installations around Kitchener Waterloo.

It was a lot of fun! Big thanks to the organizers.

Also, it was a little funny to see that one of the artists was Joel Becker.

"Hey, I wonder if he's the son of my first-year CS professor."

Spoiler: yes. His artistic style has evolved over the last 20 years.

#kitchener #uwaterloo #cafka

Astuce #PoleEmploi :

En 2020, on ne peut officiellement PAS transmettre un PDF à pôle-emploi autre qu'une attestation pôle-emploi 🤔 alors qu'il leur arrive d'en réclamer d'autres...

L'astuce qui vient de m’être expliquée par une chef de service pôle-emploi consiste à envoyer le PDF comme si c'était une attestation pôle-emploi et en parallèle d'envoyer un mail qui explique que ça a été fait comme ça.

#CAFka