O'megaVille: excursions in planetary urbanism


O'megaVille explores a process of speculative inquiry around planetary urbanism and the affective dimensions of locative media. This involved a range of workshops, events, art presentations and research symposia, as part of my Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the SenseLab at Concordia University (2013-14). The project peers through the lens of locative media and mobile devices, to pose the question – how may we come to occupy planetary bodies that are trans-local, geo-logical and un-timely? Such matters infer an ecology of practices that is political and biological as much as social and technical.

“Four decades ago Henri Lefebvre anticipated the complete urbanisation of the planet, which no longer sounds so strange. Radical shifts seem to be appearing in the way we situate ourselves within and through the city, like a rupture of scale between self and body, the World and the Earth. The World reaches a point of exhaustion at the very limit of our thinking, even believing in its possibility, just as it rebounds on a feeling of what’s happening to the planet as an embodied entity.”

‘O'megaVille: excursions in planetary urbanism’, lecture performance at Critically Kinaesthetic: Performing bodies of political engagement, York University – Toronto, 2014

Workshops & Presentations:

  • Movement/locative media workshop, ‘Festival of Temporary Experiences’, Montreal, January 18

  • Dance Residency, Universidad de las Américas – Puebla, Mexico, February 25-27 (with Alanna Thain)*

  • Workshop Residency, Huerto Roma Verde – Mexico City, March 1-2 (with Alanna Thain, Mayra Morales)

  • Artist talk and workshop-research creation, ‘Movements of Thought’, Usine-C – Montreal, April 9

  • Lecture performance, Critically Kinaesthetic: Performing bodies of political engagement, York University – Toronto, April 16

  • ‘Pathway Propositions’, research creation workshop – Topological Media Lab/SenseLab collaboration, Concordia University – Montreal, April 15*

  • Performance actions, video installation, movement/mobile media workshops, ‘Weather Patterns, Smell of Red’, Glasshouse Gallery – New York, May/June (with Erin Manning, Nathaniel, Stern, Julianna Keller, SenseLab)*

  • Research creation workshop (co-facilitated with SenseLab members), Centre Phi – Montreal, July

  • ‘Leaky Cauldron’ (collaboration with SenseLab), Art dans le Jardin, Darling Foundry – Montreal, June

  • See also the related project, Ketl (2015)


* Video Gallery (click to open):

SmartMob Conga Line – Concordia University, Montreal, 2014 
(3 minutes). Mobile media SmartMob co-facilitated by Mike Hornblow, Alanna Thain and Peter Weibrecht; as part of Pathway Propositions, a collaboration between members of SenseLab and Topological Media Lab,


Making a Scene – Topological Media Lab, Concordia University, Montreal, 2014 (1 minute). Improvisation with found objects led by Mayra Morales, following a Deep Listening process by Doug Van Nort; with members of SenseLab and Topological Media Lab.







UDLAP  Studio Workshop – Cholula, Mexico, 2014 (2 minutes). A 3-day collaboration with Alanna Thain, Martin Lan, and dance students at Universidad de las Américas in Mexico, including mobile media SmartMobs and performance interventions on the street with site-specific research on Google Street View.






Smell of Red, Tire Action – Glasshouse Performance Space, New York, 2014 (1:30 minute loop). Single-channel version of a 3-channel video installation. Channel 1 (left), shown on iPhone – iPhone video with macro-lens, attached to car tire; tire/cinnamon print in reference to the Glasshouse exhibition, ‘Weather Patterns, Smell of Red’, with Erin Manning and Nathaniel Stern. Channel 2 (top right), shown on Nexus 4 – Nexus 3D sphere, video navigation screen capture; car tire action with local passersby. Channel 3 (bottom right) shown on Samsung tablet – street action with GoPro attached to car tire.




Leaky Cauldron – Darling Foundry, Art dans le Jardin, Montreal, 2014 (2 minutes). An evening of participatory street actions presented by SenseLab, with mobile media, sound/video and material propositions; including10 car tyres with wireless microphones and GoPro/WiFi tablet mirroring.