, a first-year practice-based PhD student in visual arts at 快播视频鈥檚 (AMPD) was selected from more than 200 applicants across Canada. A national jury of artists and curators chose Marsh, with the final selection made by Glenfiddich Artists in Residence program curator Andy Fairgrieve.

Marsh will spend three months living and working at the historic Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, where she will develop a permanent public sculpture as the residency program marks its 25th anniversary. She expects the experience will directly inform her PhD outcomes at York, including the research documentation that supports her dissertation and future exhibits.

Marsh's proposed project draws on her research into the ritual of coin-wishing and its historic roots in Celtic water worship.

Her work will centre on the Robbie Dhu spring, the water source that has supplied the Glenfiddich distillery since 1887.

For Marsh, the residency is timely and deeply personal. Though she is half Scottish, these histories and rituals were never passed down to her. She sees her time in the Highlands as an act of learning through presence 鈥� listening to local knowledge, walking the land and gathering stories that will shape her final work.

"I hope that while I am in the Highlands, I can learn as much as I can from locals about regional histories around holy wells, coins and the kinds of small acts of sacrifice I am interested in, which have been practiced in the Celtic world since prehistory," says Marsh. "A lot of my residency will just involve soaking up the atmosphere, landscape, histories and stories.鈥�

At York, Marsh points to AMPD鈥檚 hands-on facilities as a key reason she chose the program, with specific interest in the metal shop and foundry.

"Having access to these resources was a big draw in my wanting to study at York," she says. "I'm aiming to do several bronze pours and possibly a copper pour over the next year."

That technical development connects to the sculptural work she plans to produce in the years ahead, with elements from the pours expected to carry into upcoming exhibitions.

Marsh has previously completed residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, AiR Bergen and Rupert in Vilnius, among others. She describes residencies as essential to her practice, not only for the time and space they offer, but for the productive challenges of adapting to new conditions.

"Although a residency tends to require a lot of adaptation 鈥� for instance, making work without my very lived-in studio 鈥� these challenges force a flexibility that can allow new insights and require new experiments," she says. "I am hoping for this kind of generative struggle in Scotland."

Marsh鈥檚 work has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Partners in Art, the Chalmers Arts Fellowship, the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. She received her BFA from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2007 and her MFA from the University of Guelph in 2013.

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In 2023, Holly Ward, a visual arts professor in the was contacted by the City of Markham鈥檚 public art program to develop a project for the Rouge Valley Trail in the Unionville neighbourhood.

Enlisting her frequent collaborator Kevin Schmidt, an adjunct professor at Sheridan College, the two visited the trail to gather inspiration. During these visits, the artists were struck by experiential, unplanned, everyday moments, such as hearing a musician practicing just out of sight. They had found their inspiration.

Ward and Schmidt, whose shared work emphasizes collaboration, community engagement and experimental artistic practice, have long questioned where art can happen outside conventional cultural centres. "Creating in this way is the essence of our work 鈥� and it feels so rewarding," says Ward.

For Lost and Found, they forwent a traditional public show or staged performance, instead creating an interactive art exhibit inviting residents to participate by walking, playing, listening and discovering art in motion.

"For this project, we wanted to activate the public imagination in regards to rethinking categories around artistic forms, and to experience art in public space in a very intuitive way," says Ward. "The message of this project really was 'art can be anywhere you find it.'"

Lost and Found did so through a series of subtle, unscheduled moments along the Rouge Valley Trail. Local amateur musicians were hired to practice 鈥� not perform 鈥� their instruments in public, without signage or explanation. Passersby could stumble upon fragments of music, uncertain whether it was intentional or incidental, encouraging attentiveness rather than consumption.

Other experiential elements included a lending library of brightly coloured slogan T-shirts bearing open-ended or contradictory messages. Trail users and local groups were encouraged to wear the shirts while walking together, prompting reflection on self-expression and public communication. The artists also incorporated two mobile sound carts with unconventional instruments designed for experimentation rather than expertise, as a means to draw people into spontaneous moments of conversation, collaboration and play.

The initiative helped to anchor intuitive art in the community and fulfilled a key goal for Ward: emphasizing sustainability in multiple ways. By taking place in a natural public space without exploiting it, the exhibit fostered social sustainability through chance encounters between strangers, musicians and place.

Ward says the project surpassed her and Schmidt's expectations. "This was a highly experimental approach to public art, and we were not sure how it might land with an audience. We received a lot of positive feedback from local community members and participants, which was amazing."

When Lost and Found concluded its outdoor phase in the Fall of 2023, it continued its evolution beyond the trail. A second phase was launched at the Varley Art Gallery in Unionville, where it was re-presented through objects, posters, benches borrowed from the trail, audio recordings and a newspaper of participants鈥� reflections. The components of the exhibit were recontextualized within the gallery, deliberately exposing how meaning changes when informal public actions are reframed as art.

Following the project鈥檚 conclusion, Lost and Found drew the attention of the Creative City Network of Canada (CCNC), which recently recognized its innovation with the Impact Award for Sustainability in Public Art.

CCNC, a national non-profit organization that supports arts and culture work in Canadian cities and towns, recognizes public art projects led by municipalities that demonstrate a strong, long-term approach to sustainability, such as caring for the environment, supporting community involvement and creating lasting cultural value. The jury commended Lost and Found as "an example of how we can celebrate everyday presence and civic participation over spectacle" and praised how it advanced the discourse of contemporary art in public space while contributing to Markham鈥檚 growing art ecology.

"Winning this award as a recognition of this project was very meaningful to both of us," says Ward. "It felt like a 鈥榖est-case scenario鈥� outcome for this project to also have this recognition from the art world, which meant we hit our mark in terms of the legibility of concepts and aesthetic strategies within our specific field of research, as well as local community activation."

Lost and Found was recognized in another medium as well. The project was documented in the publication Lost and Found: A Public Art Project by Schmidt and Ward, co-published by Markham Public Art and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. The book traces the project鈥檚 full trajectory from initial inspirations to public outputs spanning the outdoor trail, the gallery and the publication, offering another way for audiences to engage with the work. The publication was recognized with an Ontario Galleries Award for Best Catalogue Design.

In addition to these recognitions, Ward says there have been other benefits. "New opportunities are already coming out of it. It also provides us with the confidence to keep pushing the envelope in terms of what public art can be, and to continue to expand our thinking around who it is for, and what functions it might serve," she says.

That remains forefront in her mind and goals as she looks ahead. "We make art to be seen and experienced by others. We are very keen to reach people and find new ways to enrich peoples lives through our own artistic expression and vision," she says.

Those interested in learning more about Lost and Found can do so through the , the or the .

With files from Holly Ward

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For more than a decade, has been developing AI-driven machine partners, or machine agents, that improvise alongside performers. Much of that work has been done through the , which he founded in 2015, to explore new modes of creative expression through technology.

There, rather than imagining a future where AI replaces human creativity, Van Nort says he is intent on challenging artists to think, feel and listen differently. 

鈥淚 always foreground that AI should be for creativity support, not creativity replacement,鈥� says Van Nort, who teaches in the Department of Computational Arts, (AMPD) at York.

In an era filled with alarm bells about automation and displacement, Van Nort鈥檚 vision is notably human-centred. 鈥淚 remain steadfast in my interest because I鈥檝e seen how these systems can inspire new directions for trained musicians and for people with no musical background at all. The goal is more creative engagement, not less.鈥� 

Van Nort鈥檚 research in this area began when he was a grad students with a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to play a digital instrument?  

As his doctoral work unfolded, the question evolved into: what if the computer isn鈥檛 just an instrument, what if it is a partner? 

Improvisation, especially the open, exploratory form Van Nort practices, is already a complex social negotiation, he says. Players listen, respond, assert themselves and negotiate one another鈥檚 musical identities. Introducing a machine agent into this space doesn鈥檛 merely add a new sound. Rather, it reshapes the ecosystem, he says. 

Audience reaction to this type of music can be strong. 鈥淛ust calling something AI or an agent sets people鈥檚 expectations. They start listening for its identity: What does it contribute? What are its edges? How does it change the group dynamic?鈥�  

He explains that it鈥檚 these shifting relationships that fascinate him most. 

Although AI music research dates back decades, the last 10 years have brought what Van Nort calls 鈥渞adical advancements.鈥�  

Yet, in contrast to large-scale models trained on vast, untraceable internet data, his approach is intentionally intimate. One of his projects involves training machine agents on years of recordings from his own ensembles, specifically his professional group, . 

This curated dataset ensures ethical transparency. He knows every musician whose sound is being learned and fosters what he describes as 鈥渁 deep relational quality鈥� between the agents and the performers. 

He is also experimenting using a camera to track the gestures he uses to guide live improvisers. The same visual cues instruct the machine agents, creating a shared field of communication.  

鈥淭he humans see me. The machine sees me. They鈥檙e reacting to the same thing.鈥� 

Additionally, he choreographs interactions between humans and machines: humans respond to AI gestures and vice versa, generating an ever-shifting conversational fabric. 

These explorations don鈥檛 stay confined to his research in The DisPerSion Lab. It also actively shapes Van Nort鈥檚 teaching at York. 

He leads the  (different from the project mentioned above) 鈥� a large ensemble of students that blends laptops, digital instruments, electronic processing and acoustic players. The group typically involves 25 to 35 students. Some are trained musicians, while others come from digital media or have never formally studied music at all. 

This diversity is intentional. 鈥淒emocratizing music-making is near and dear to my heart,鈥� Van Nort says.  

Attentive listening, not years of training, is the entry point. Students learn how to contribute meaningfully in a collaborative environment where sound, gesture and technology intertwine. 

Within this ensemble, Van Nort occasionally introduces machine agents to see how the group reacts, and how the AI learns to behave in a larger creative ensemble.  

He also incorporates 鈥渟oundpainting,鈥� a gestural vocabulary for composing live music. With a sweep of his hands, Van Nort can reshape an unfolding piece, cue performers or shift musical textures. When the AI agents respond to the same gestures, the boundary between composition, improvisation and programming dissolves. 

鈥淭he ensemble becomes a living organism,鈥� he says. 鈥淢achines are part of that ecosystem.鈥� 

While Van Nort is often the public face of this work, he emphasizes that his research is聽collaborative. Graduate students聽working in the lab聽鈥撀爏uch as聽current聽PhD student聽Rory Hoy听补苍诲听蹿辞谤尘别谤听尘补蝉迟别谤鈥檚听蝉迟耻诲别苍迟听Kieran Maraj聽鈥撀爃ave聽made important contributions to the systems he now uses in research聽and teaching, including code development and interface design.聽

For Van Nort, AI isn鈥檛 about efficiency or optimization. It鈥檚 about creating the conditions for deeper expression. 

鈥淗ow can you enrich your own creative voice through your own data, your own way of working?鈥� he asks. It鈥檚 a question that applies not just to musicians, but to writers, artists and anyone experimenting with new tools of expression. 

With files from Karen Martin-Robbins

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An international research team, including faculty and alumni from York University's (AMPD), has found in a new study that the arts may be a critical tool to confront climate-related health challenges. 

鈥淲hat keeps surprising me, even though it shouldn鈥檛, is just how profoundly impactful creative practice is when it comes to climate-related health challenges,鈥� says Professor Ian Garrett. 鈥淎rt helps people understand, process and communicate experiences that data alone can鈥檛.鈥�

 was initiated by the Jamaal Arts and Health lab at New 快播视频 and the World Health Organization. Along with York faculty, it included researchers from Dalhousie, Yale, Zurich, Switzerland and London, among others.  

The study highlights the potential of integrating arts, public health and environmental concerns to promote planetary health and sustainable, equitable climate action.

While the arts are frequently invoked as valuable for education, communication and well-being, their specific role in climate-health interventions has remained surprisingly understudied, says Garrett.

鈥淎 key finding is that we need to stop treating the arts as a separate 鈥榝eel-good鈥� sector. Creative and cultural practices are proving essential to how communities understand climate impacts, build resilience and support public policy,鈥� says Garrett.

To better understand the arts' role in supporting communities facing climate-driven health threats, researchers conducted an online survey of those working at the intersection of arts, health and climate change. Participants represented countries across the world 鈥� including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil and Australia with backgrounds in the arts, environmental science, public health and community activism. 

Respondents were asked open-ended questions about what is already in place, where gaps persist and what further opportunities could be mobilized. The responses reveal a powerful consensus: the arts are not optional or peripheral in confronting climate change. They are essential.

AMPD has a commitment to pursuing interdisciplinary research that bridges artistic practice, social impact and global health, says Garrett.

鈥淲e realize that you can鈥檛 separate climate, health and culture anymore. To make meaningful policy, you need an intersectional foundation that brings hard science, social science and creative practice together,鈥� he says.

This research adds to a growing movement asserting that climate change is not solely a scientific or policy challenge; it is also a cultural one. Addressing it requires empathy, meaning-making and human-centered engagement 鈥� the kinds of transformative processes the arts uniquely cultivate, says Garrett.

鈥淚n disasters or rapid climate shifts, people don鈥檛 only need infrastructure 鈥� they need ways to feel connected, to make sense of what鈥檚 happening. Artistic and cultural practices often become the spaces where that understanding actually occurs.鈥�

The research team is in the process of developing a policy brief on the study and aim to share with government agencies, arts councils and policy-makers.

鈥淪upport for the arts isn鈥檛 just nice to have: it pays real dividends. Cultural activity can accomplish things that other approaches can鈥檛, especially when communities are facing fear, displacement or profound environmental change,鈥� says Garrett. 

With files from Karen Martin-Robbins

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Members of 快播视频鈥檚 frequently appear on the annual list, reflecting the creative impact of York graduates and their status among Canada鈥檚 top filmmaking talent.

This year, four former and current AMPD students were recognized for their feature-length or short films.

Sophy Romvari (MFA 鈥�20), Blue Heron

Since completing her MFA at York, writer-director Romvari has gained international recognition for her short films. Blue Heron, her first feature-length movie, explores the internal dynamics of a family of six on Vancouver Island through the perspective of its youngest member.

After premiering in Fall 2025, Blue Heron won the Swatch First Feature Award at the 78th Locarno Film Festival and was named Best Canadian Discovery at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Matt Johnson (BFA 鈥�06, MFA 鈥�16), Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie

Johnson has become one of Canada鈥檚 most prominent filmmakers, most recently earning international acclaim and multiple Canadian Screen Awards for the film BlackBerry. His latest feature-length directorial effort, Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, adapts the cult television and web series he co-created with longtime collaborator and fellow AMPD alum Matthew Miller (BFA 鈥�03, MFA 鈥�16).

Before being named to the Canada's Top Ten, the film was the recipient of the TIFF 鈥�25 People鈥檚 Choice Midnight Madness Award.

Martin Edralin (current MFA student), La Mayordom铆a

Edralin is an award-winning Canadian director whose previous short films include Hole, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short, and Emma, which was named to TIFF鈥檚 Canada鈥檚 Top Ten list in 2016.

His latest short film, La Mayordom铆a, premiered at the 2025 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Short Films. The film documents a Mexican ritual where families are chosen to care for baby Jesus figures 鈥� some dating back to the 16th century.

Lesley Loksi Chan (BFA 鈥�08, MFA 鈥�18), Lloyd Wong, Unfinished

Born as an archival initiative while Chan was a graduate student at York, the short film Lloyd Wong, Unfinished tells the story of a Chinese-Canadian artist who documented his life living with HIV in early 1990s Toronto but died before completing the project.

When the lost footage was found around 2020, Chan brought the unfinished work to life through her short film, which has received several additional recognitions, including the prestigious聽Teddy Award for Best Short Film聽and the聽Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.

For more information about Canada's Top Ten, visit the .

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The Teaching Fellows Program provides faculty with resources to explore challenges, develop creative strategies for professional growth and advance excellence in teaching. 

Launched by the Office of the Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning, the program promotes faculty-led initiatives in priority areas, celebrates outstanding teaching and enhances the classroom experience for both instructors and students. 

Through the fellowship, participants will: 

• lead University-wide and Faculty-based teaching development projects; 
• engage in a community of practice to address emerging issues in post-secondary education; and 
• collaborate with colleagues and the Teaching Commons to enrich teaching and learning across the University. 

The initiative reflects York鈥檚 commitment to advancing inclusive, evidence-based and future-ready teaching practices. 

鈥淭he Teaching Fellows Program harnesses the expertise of faculty members to enable peer-to-peer and discipline-specific teaching development and to facilitate a focused engagement with pedagogical issues impacting post-secondary teaching and learning,鈥� says Chlo毛 Brushwood Rose, vice-provost teaching and learning. 

Priority for the first cohort of fellows was given to teaching stream applicants, whose contributions to pedagogy are often under-recognized, says Brushwood Rose. The program aims to elevate these voices and share their innovations more broadly. 

鈥淭he fellowships will offer colleagues time and funding to amplify and share ideas and expertise that we know they are already implementing in their own classrooms,鈥� she says. 

The 2026-27 cohort spans diverse disciplines and career stages, each bringing a unique vision for enhancing student learning. 

Meet the inaugural teaching fellows

Lesley Zannella, assistant professor in psychology, Faculty of Health, focuses on inclusive pedagogy, experiential learning and equity. She has led initiatives such as an innovative capstone course integrating community-based learning and applying psychological theory to real-world issues. Her scholarship reflects a sustained commitment to evidence-based, inclusive teaching. 

Her fellowship will expand the In-Class Peer Partner (ICPP) model, embedding trained upper-year students in undergraduate classes for real-time support. The approach reduces help-seeking barriers and fosters belonging, particularly for first-generation students and those requiring accommodations. Zannella will create peer training modules and faculty resources to implement the model across courses and modalities. 

Lisa Davidson, associate professor in anthropology,聽Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,聽studies migration,聽racialization聽and multiculturalism with a focus on experiential learning. Her initiatives include a partnership with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, where students engage in ethnographic storytelling using archival photos and oral histories. She has received聽Academic聽Innovation Fund and Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada support for this work.聽

Davidson鈥檚 fellowship will enhance AI literacy in the social sciences, focusing on first-year students and work-integrated learning. Davidson will develop experiential AI modules with cultural heritage partners, addressing ethical and cultural implications. She will also host workshops and events for faculty and teaching assistants on integrating AI into teaching. 

Ian Garrett, professor in theatre, dance and performance, , bridges design, technology and sustainability through collaborative pedagogy. He has led initiatives integrating creative research with inclusive, tech-enabled learning, including a cross-hemispheric classroom linking York with Australian universities. 

During his fellowship, Garrett will develop 鈥渘etworked learning ecologies鈥� to create adaptive, inclusive classrooms. He will establish a pedagogical lab for hybrid, AI-literate learning, collaborate internationally and produce resources, including an open-access toolkit with video case studies along with a series of pilot workshops and teaching labs for colleagues. 

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Anne Hudson, a professor in the , posed a challenge for her students in the Joan Goldfarb Visual Arts 快播视频 Centre Curatorial placement (ARTH 4110).

Over the last three years, she has led a research project funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant focused on finding fresh ways to present Inuit, S谩mi and Alaska native art, archives and cultural knowledge.

As part of this grant, Hudson asked her students to explore York鈥檚 Inuit sculpture collection 鈥� much of it, tucked away in the Visible Vault & 快播视频 Centre in Accolade East 鈥� and find creative ways to bring these works into public view.

鈥淚 wanted students to experience first-hand what it means to share and activate these important collections,鈥� she says. 鈥淏y working directly with York鈥檚 Inuit sculptures, they could explore ways to curate these works for broader access and help Inuit art be seen and understood in new ways.鈥�

The class divided into two groups, each approaching the challenge differently: one would curate a physical exhibit in the Joan Goldfarb Visual Arts 快播视频 Centre, while the other would create an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience.

Virtual exhibition platforms allow museums and galleries to share artwork in immersive digital spaces, making collections accessible to audiences anywhere. For Hudson's project, students selected Art Gate VR, an online platform that lets artists, institutions and curators upload 3D scans or digital renderings of artworks and create virtual galleries viewable through a browser or VR headset.

The VR group enlisted Objex Unlimited, a Toronto-based 3D scanning and digital imaging company, to create 3D object files by scanning more than 20 sculptures. The files were then uploaded into the students鈥� virtual gallery on Art Gate VR for curation. Next, they collaborated with Art Gate VR experts to design a themed exhibition that walks visitors through six virtual rooms, each showcasing York sculptures 鈥� most made of black stone and depicting people or animals 鈥� representing different aspects of Inuit life, including home, hunting and storytelling.

The final room features a 3D scan of Ahqahizu, a granite sculpture of an Inuk soccer player poised in a high-kick position. In the digital VR space, Ahqahizu is shown gazing at the Northern Lights. The sculpture, which is located outside the York Lions Stadium, also gives the VR exhibition its name: Return to Ahqahizu.

Alongside the sculptures, the virtual rooms feature 2D works from outside York鈥檚 collection by well-known Inuit artists, including prints and drawings by Annie Pootoogook, Quvianatuliak Parr, William Noah, Ningiukulu Teevee and Nujalia Quvianaqtuliaq. Hudson and her students carefully selected pieces that complemented the sculptures, adding them to the thematic virtual rooms.

鈥淭he results not only showcase exceptional Inuit art in a way that visitors around the world can engage with, but also highlight how VR can bring these works to life in exciting, new ways,鈥� says Hudson.

As the VR group worked on their project, students responsible for the physical exhibition faced a unique challenge. The Joan Goldfarb Visual Arts 快播视频 Centre could not display many of the original sculptures due to their delicate nature or because some were already housed elsewhere on campus, such as the Centre for Indigenous Student Services.

Their solution? Photography. The group produced high-quality prints of the sculptures, allowing them to be displayed safely.

Adding to the exhibit, the group paired prints with contemporary pieces by students in York鈥檚 Visual Arts program. Student-artists were encouraged to submit artwork aligning thematically, with a focus on connection, culture, spirituality and identity. The pairing of photographs and student art created a bridge between the historical sculptures and new artistic interpretations.

鈥淏ringing the Inuit sculptures within a contemporary context fosters a greater appreciation and understanding for Inuit art and its relationship to broader northern Indigenous artistic traditions, as well as establishing cross-cultural contact,鈥� says Claire Timmins, a visual arts and concurrent education student who participated as a curator of the exhibit.

The physical exhibit, Echoes of the Land, is on view in the Joan and Martin Goldfarb 快播视频 Centre until March 5 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. A VR headset is also available in the gallery, allowing visitors to explore the VR exhibit, Return to Ahqahizu.

鈥淪eeing students bring these sculptures to life, both physically and virtually, is incredibly rewarding,鈥� says Hudson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to watch them make Inuit art and culture more accessible to everyone 鈥� which is exactly what my SSHRC project set out to do: share knowledge, inspire curiosity and connect people to these rich artistic traditions.鈥�

With files from Brian Ginther

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His recent body of work, developed during the pandemic and shaped by months of isolation and virtual learning, turns a reflective lens on mental health using felt and screen-printed textiles to express grief, confusion and the search for connection.

Vocat鈥檚 work draws on years of experience as both an artist and as a print technician in the Department of Visual Art in 快播视频's .

鈥淚 started this work when classes were still online,鈥� Vocat says, reflecting on the move to virtual learning during the pandemic. 鈥淪ome of the images were just trying to make sense of what was going on, to capture elements of grief, loss and confusion.鈥�

He recently sparked discussions about mental health through an exhibit at the Special Projects Gallery at York鈥檚 Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts, which features art from York community members.

The exhibition 鈥淩egular Sadness鈥� gathered screen鈥憄rinted textiles and sewn felt pieces that read like visual diary entries, each exploring questions and emotions that surfaced during months of isolation, virtual learning and shifting community.

It reflected on disruptions in campus life and the awareness about well鈥慴eing that followed.

Whether working with felt, textiles or paper, Vocat favours a layered approach, describing the process as 鈥渇lexible enough for all sorts of imagery and styles. Breaking things into shapes and layers helps me test what an image can carry.鈥�

That process is not only technical; for Vocat, who earned a BFA in Regina and MFA at York in 2001, it lies at the heart of what the exhibit set out to do 鈥� create work that holds difficult questions and encourages open dialogue. 

鈥淢uch of art is about starting a dialogue, or exploring ideas,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f someone sees part of their own experience here, that鈥檚 enough to start a conversation.鈥�

This collaborative spirit also shapes Vocat鈥檚 role in York鈥檚 studios, where technical skill and creative exploration are closely linked. 

鈥淓xhibiting keeps my technical skills alive,鈥� he explains, 鈥渂ut it also lets students see that process isn鈥檛 just instruction. It鈥檚 about searching, trying methods, making mistakes and moving through them.鈥�

As both artist and print technician, he has seen how students use art to share their experiences with mental health 鈥� not as therapy, but as honesty and expression. The emphasis is on connection and communication rather than on art as a solution.

鈥淪truggling with mental health can leave people feeling isolated, even when it鈥檚 common on campus,鈥� he says. 鈥淎rt is a way to be honest. If someone sees that and connects, maybe it鈥檚 catharsis, maybe it鈥檚 just sharing something real.鈥�

In 鈥淩egular Sadness,鈥� Vocat offered a space for honest expression, making mental health and personal experience visible through art.

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These community-operated convenience shops, often managed by women and deeply embedded in local culture, are the focus of the Sari-Sari Xchange (SSX) initiative, a partnership with McMaster University, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Mitacs Accelerate research internship program. 

The Sari-Sari Xchange: Building Asian Diasporic Community Through Emergent Media project received $446,847 through SSHRC's Race, Gender and Diversity Initiative: 2021-22 Competition and is led by McMaster University's Carmela Laganse and co-directed by York Research Chair and Associate Professor Taien Ng-Chan at York鈥檚 .

This SSHRC initiative works to promote fairness and justice by supporting research that looks at how different parts of a person鈥檚 identity 鈥� like race, gender, class and sexuality 鈥� combine to shape their experiences. That approach, called intersectionality, helps researchers understand how systems of power can create both unfair treatment and advantages.

The SSX project aims to build collaboration between academia and the community to explore how new media and technology can help promote inclusion through digital spaces where artists and researchers from Asian communites can share their work.

The SSX team, including York PhD candidates Sana Akram and Haoran Chang, will bring its research and creative practice to the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival on Nov. 13 and 14 as part of the festival鈥檚 RA:X programming, dedicated to innovative screen-based projects.

Presenting Render Me in Your Worlds, a multi-day symposium, the team will share how XR technologies can amplify diverse storytelling and relational creative practices rooted in the lived experiences of the Asian diaspora. 

鈥淓xtended-reality is an umbrella term that can refer to any technological mediation of reality, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), locative media and video projection mapping,鈥� explains Ng-Chan. 鈥淭his field has seen tremendous growth in the past few years due to an increased availability of immersive consumer technologies. But, as in many other creative fields, there is a lack of diverse storytelling and representation of marginalized cultures.鈥� 

The SSX team will facilitate outreach and knowledge sharing on XR鈥檚 contribution to research through emergent media. 

The symposium features four events at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival that explore storytelling through XR. On Nov. 13, Chang will moderate a panel on preserving cultural heritage through XR and will co-lead a tai chi motion capture workshop blending embodied philosophy with immersive tech. On Nov. 14, Akram will moderate a panel on XR world-building and performativity. The events conclude with the celebratory launch of the Sari-Sari Xchange Assetory, a virtual asset library prototype created in collaboration with Asian communities.聽

Details are available on the . 

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This fall, students enrolled in 快播视频鈥檚 Bachelor of Design program will have an opportunity to realize their creative ideas with the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Wendy Wong, a professor in the Department of Design, offers students an AI learning experience in the first-year course Understanding Form and Context. The course introduces semiotic terms and communication theories that explain images and meanings in graphic design.

The course鈥檚 key project tasks students with using Adobe Photoshop to develop an integrated pixel-based promotional campaign for York鈥檚 (AMPD). In Winter 2025, Wong will introduce a new component of the project that encourages students to use GenAI platforms such as Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT or Google Gemini to visualize concepts across multiple touchpoints.

鈥淪tudents still need to know how to use the standard tools to create professional, sharp designs,鈥� says Wong, an internationally renowned expert in Chinese graphic design history who has taught at York since 2002. 鈥淏ut these AI tools provide a faster way for them to bring their creative vision to life. It鈥檚 my responsibility to make sure students are aware of emerging AI tools that can support their design practice.鈥�

Wong is among the growing number of educators responding to the rising prominence of AI in higher education. In December of 2024, the Conference Board of Canada released the results of research it had conducted with the Future Skills Centre on how AI will change post-secondary teaching and learning. Interviews with 42 individuals fostering AI integration at their post-secondary institutions found that GenAI can help students with higher-order learning, including making connections between distant concepts, challenging their existing ways of thinking and generating novel ideas or content.

Meanwhile, a recent KPMG survey revealed that GenAI is reshaping how students learn. The survey of 3,804 Canadians ages 18 and up found 73 per cent use GenAI tools for academics, including research, generating ideas, editing and reviewing assignments, writing reports and creating presentations. The same survey found 77 per cent want their educational institution to teach them how to use AI.

The Office of the Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning at York supports faculty members adapting to the emergence of GenAI by providing resources on how to adapt teaching and assessment strategies and offering self-paced AI learning modules, including two Certificates in Artificial Intelligence pedagogies.

鈥淎I has caused a rupture between the past and the future of education. It fundamentally changes how and what we teach, how we interact with our students and how they learn. I think it鈥檚 transformative,鈥� says Andrew Maxwell, a professor at the , where he leads the Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology program.

Maxwell鈥檚 contributions to AI-enhanced learning includes the award-winning UnHack initiative, an AI-guided structured experiential design sprint for first-year undergraduate engineering students and students in other disciplines.

Students work in teams over three days to address environmental issues, such as reducing food waste, lowering carbon emissions or enhancing access to education.

This year鈥檚 event took place Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, and for the first time, students were encouraged to use generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) trained on Maxwell鈥檚 extensive research and experience. These AI tools guided students in thinking critically when identifying their problem, as well as the problem鈥檚 root causes and its impacts on different members of society.

Using the GPTs, students accessed immediate feedback early in the process, which Maxwell says is an efficient way to support 800 students working on a time-sensitive project. Faculty were also available to provide guidance on more complex aspects of the students鈥� process.

Maxwell says incorporating AI tools helped students formulate meaningful problem statements and comprehensive practical solutions, which they pitched to judges at the event鈥檚 conclusion.

Another initiative led by Maxwell helps to enrich AI-enabled student learning through a 12-week experiential online course called Innovation & Creativity. First-year students address complex workplace problems or identify new business opportunities in the course, which traditionally concluded with a reflective journal. Now, students interact with a GPT that asks them increasingly relevant and deeper questions about what they learned and what they would do differently next time.

The way Maxwell sees it, the potential for AI to enhance undergraduate education is vast, and university educators have a duty to provide this benefit to students while familiarizing them with these capabilities.

鈥淗ere we have technology to help students make better decisions, learn at their own speed and personalize their experience,鈥� Maxwell says. 鈥淎ny job these students are going into they are going to use AI tools in some way, so we need to explore them in our classrooms.鈥�

With files from Sharon Aschaiek

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