An Interview with David Bobier of VibraFusionLab

Authors

  • David Bobier VibraFusionLab in London, Ontario
  • Kim Sawchuk Concordia University
  • Samuel Thulin Independent Artist and Researcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v10i2.800

Abstract

VibraFusionLab founder and director, David Bobier talks about the genesis of his explorations of vibration and accessibility in art-making, his current collaborations, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on vibrotactile artwork and issues of access, and the future of VibraFusionLab. He was interviewed by special issue editors Kim Sawchuk and Samuel Thulin on 23 November 2020. Bobier was co-curator of, and participating artist in, the Vibrations exhibition in Montreal, which launched in parallel with the VIBE symposium.

Author Biographies

David Bobier, VibraFusionLab in London, Ontario

David Bobier is a hard of hearing and disabled identified media artist whose creative practice is researching and developing multi-sensory and vibrotactile technology as a creative medium. This work led to his establishment of VibraFusionLab in London, Ontario, a creative multi-media, multi-sensory centre that has gained a reputation as a leader in accessibility for the Deaf and Disability Arts movement in Canada and abroad. The Lab is now situated at the artist’s studio in Thorndale, Ontario just outside of London.

            As a prac­tic­ing artist his exhi­bi­tion career includes 18 solo and over 30 group exhi­bi­tion projects across Canada, in the United States and the UK. Bobier’s independent work as an artist and as Director of VibraFusionLab has received funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Grand NCE (National Centres of Excellence), Province of Quebec and British Council Canada.

            Bobier has served in advisory roles in developing Deaf and Disability Arts Equity programs for both Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council and was an invited participant, more recently, in the Canada Council for the Arts – The Arts in a Digital World Summit and a panel presenter at the Global Disability Summit in London, UK. Bobier has twice received Canada Council for the Arts funding to do ongoing research of the Deaf and Disability Arts movement in the United Kingdom.

Kim Sawchuk, Concordia University

Kim Sawchuk, Principal Investigator of the ACT team,  is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, and Concordia University Research Chair in Mobile Media Studies. Sawchuk has been writing on age, ageing and its cultural impact since 1996. She is most well-known for her research on “seniors and cell phones” conducted with Dr Barbara Crow of York University as well her research-creation work in Critical Disability Studies. Sawchuk is a co-founder of the Mobile Media Lab (York-Concordia) located in Concordia’s Department of Communication Studies. She has just completed a six-year term as the editor of the Canadian Journal of Communications (www.cjc-online.ca) and she is the co-editor of Wi: journal of mobile media (www.wi-not.ca). In addition to her academic research, in 1996 Sawchuk co-founded of StudioXX,  a feminist research and media arts centre in Montréal.

Samuel Thulin, Independent Artist and Researcher

Samuel Thulin is an artist, researcher, and educator interested in the specificities of spaces and places, and in the movements and resonances of bodies, data, and sounds. Through his artworks and publications he has explored: locative media and contested senses of place; confluences of cartography and auditory culture; self-tracking, chronic illness, and datafication; and creative and emergent research methodologies. He has exhibited his work, given workshops, and presented research at venues in Canada, the US, Mexico, Argentina, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Greece. Originally from Nortondale, New Brunswick and currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, he holds a PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University.  Visit his website at: https://samuelthulin.com/

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Published

2021-10-08

How to Cite

Bobier, D., Sawchuk, K., & Thulin, S. (2021). An Interview with David Bobier of VibraFusionLab. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 10(2), 237–254. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v10i2.800

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2021): VIBE: Challenging Ableism and Audism Through the Arts

Section

Practitioner's Notes

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