Premiering at
BIRD FICTION by Gary Barwin and Sarah Imrisek is an interactive video work that “gamifies” the consideration of urban Hamilton birds and makes it both beautiful and fun. Poems featuring Hamilton birds appear in iconic local scenes and, using hand gestures detected by a camera, audience members can transform the words into 3D birds, move them around the scene and hear their unique songs. Event includes new paintings by Simon Frank.
In a large city like Hamilton, people often feel distant from the natural world. “Bird Fiction” celebrates the biodiversity of urban nature by showing its resilience and how, even downtown, humans and the natural world can remain connected. The aesthetic is bright and lively. Audiences animate birds’ shapes, names and trigger their songs with their hands by pointing to the names of urban bird species contained in poems. All of this, set against vibrant footage from around Hamilton. The projection acts as a vivid playground where the urban, natural, human and the non-human can interact. “Bird Fiction” inspires audiences by showing the surprising diversity of birds that live in Toronto with humans. While acknowledging the very real effects of climate change, we can still become energized and find inspiration for positive change in the continuing adaptability of species. By connecting with the birds and by recognizing and learning their names, audiences can also learn more about the species that share their city.
ABOUT THE CREATORS OF BIRD FICTION
SARAH IMRISEK
Wave whisperer. Artist and coder in Tkaronto/Toronto Canada.
Previous career as a programmer making educational games. After coming to a halt grieving the loss of a loved one and processing complex trauma, Sarah Imrisek (she/her) found grounding and new inspiration through reconnecting with expressive art. Now she makes art in the streets and with the community, including interactive media art installations, live coding performances, workshops, murals, and canvases.
Her style is colourful, hallucinatory, and rooted in the natural environment, seeking inspiration from nature to find pathways to personal and collective reintegration after trauma.
Following in the footsteps of avant-garde art and liberation movements, her practice explores the potential for creative play to bring us together and assist us in imagining new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, our society, and our relationship with the land.
https://www.cymatiste-arts.com/
ABOUT THE CREATORS OF BIRD FICTION
GARY BARWIN is a writer, musician and multimedia artist and the author of 34 books including Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984 and, with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts, Muttertongue. His national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates which won the Leacock Medal and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize and was longlisted for Canada Reads. His last novel, Nothing the Same, Everything Hauntedwon the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was the Hamilton Reads choice for 2023-2024. His last poetry collection, The Most Charming Creatures also won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award. His most recent novel, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead will be published in 2026. He was received the Life Membership Award from the League of Canadian Poets and has twice been shortlisted for their Spoken Word Prize. His art and media works have been exhibited internationally. A PhD in music, he has been writer-in-residence and taught courses at many universities and colleges. Born in Northern Ireland to South African parents of Lithuanian Ashkenazi descent, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. garybarwin.comHe lives in Hamilton. garybarwin.com and has never been the Governor of Louisiana.