Valérie Lamontagne unplugged heads 2.0 as of 12 Oct 2010 | Materiality, Posthumanist Performativity, and Wearables Vortrag in Englischer Sprache This presentation looks at how wearables redefine notions of performativity because of their admixtures of human/nonhuman agencies. It argues that contemporary wearables, in a continuum with technological/body performative entanglement dating from early 20th century art (Avant-Garde), materially alter practices of performativity because they propose new and intimately co-dependent agencies of the human/nonhuman. The theoretical arguments to substantiate this human/nonhuman reconfiguration of performativity via wearables are culled from recent Science Technology and Society (STS) and posthumanist approaches to materiality and performativity.
Valérie Lamontagne is a digital media artist-designer, theorist and curator researching techno-artistic frameworks that combine human/nonhuman agencies. Looking at the rich practice of performance art, social intervention and interactive installations ? she is invested in developing responsive objects (specifically wearables) and interactive media scenarios which interlope the public-at-large, the environment and matter as ?performer?. Valérie has been working in the field of interactive textiles and wearables for over five years where she has developed projects such as ?Peau d?Âne? ? a series of three weather-networked dresses based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale in which a princess asks for dresses made of the sun, moon and sky. She has also been involved in the research of intelligent textiles working as a consultant for Cirque du Soleil in their R&D department to create interactive costumes as well as mounting the exhibition ?Electromode? at the recent 2010 Vancouver Olympics, which showcased the work of Canadian wearables designers and artists. She is the Founder and Director of 3lectromode, a small design group invested in developing wearables, which combine D-I-Y technology with current fashion research. Through the 3lectromode platform, she has created wearable ?kits? ? a series of responsive dresses ? which are available commercially via the website. As a media artist-designer, her work has been showcased in festivals, galleries and museums across Canada, the United States, Central and South America and Europe. She holds an B.F.A. and M.F.A. in visual arts and is presently a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University investigating ?Performativity, Materiality and Laboratory Practices in Artistic Wearables? where she teaches in the Department of Design & Computation Arts. Valérie's homepage