Several people stand in a dimly lit room with smoke and a large landscape image projected onto the floor.
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the medium is the environment: Artist Talk

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Saturday, May 17, 2025
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Saturday, May 17, 2025
2 pm
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Artist chat with Kevin Day

Join us at VIVO Media Arts on May 17 at 2 pm for an insightful artist talk with Kevin Day on the medium is the environment, his multimedia installation that explores the carbon footprint of the Internet and the material dependencies of digital systems. Through an immersive fog installation and video projections, this installation invites visitors to confront the environmental costs embedded in our digital lives, from labor and ecology to the extraction of resources. Drawing on his practice as an artist-researcher-educator, Day will discuss how his work critically engages with the hidden material realities of information technology and its impact on both human and natural environments.

the medium is the environment

Kevin Day's the medium is the environment is a multimedia installation that seeks expression for the carbon footprint of the Internet, though it concerns the physical dependencies of digital systems at large. Despite the ubiquity of digital systems in today's global society, their ever-accumulating cost across dimensions of labor, ecology, and geology remains elusive to definite calculation. As artist-researcher-educator, Day's integrated practice critically combines informed accounting with creative form, inviting the visitor to consider the implication of virtual infrastructures through both mind and body.

More info about the exhibition here.

Accessibility Notes:

  • Fog in Exhibition Area: A controlled fog is part of the exhibition installation that might affect individuals with respiratory conditions, allergies, or other health concerns.
  • Low Lighting: The studio space has low lighting, which may be challenging for those with low vision.‍

Please let us know if you need assistance during your visit.

Banner Credits:
By Oskar McCarson, the medium is the environment, Inter/Access, 2024.
In partnership with:
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Venue Accessibility

VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.

Wheelchair/Walker Access

A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.

Washrooms

There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.

To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.

About the 
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Artist
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Kevin Day’s practice and research, encompassing sound, video, graph, web, and interactive media installations, examine contemporary art’s critical capacity in response to the current socio-political issues of digital culture, negating the encoding, extraction, and exploitation by data colonialism and information capitalism. Informed by philosophy of technology, critical theory, media studies, and digital materialism, his research and practice question the ubiquitous logic of framing the world through information, indicative of an information-based way of knowing. The works resist the extraction and abstraction of algorithmic processes through an insistence on the presence of “noise” in the information-capital complex.

Day was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He received his MFA and PhD from the University of British Columbia and is currently based in Vancouver. He has exhibited at venues such as the Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver), InterAccess (Toronto), Centre CLARK (Montreal), Creative Media Centre (Hong Kong), University of Hamburg (Hamburg), Qubit (New York), and presented his research through the top international platforms for art and technology such as SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and Leonardo. His work had been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Currently, he teaches digital art in the UBC Bachelor of Media Studies program and the politics of algorithmic and information systems at the UBC School of Information.

Photo by: Ksenia Cheinman

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