Amanda Dawn Christie
- Assistant Professor, Studio Arts
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Biography
Biography
Amanda Dawn Christie is an interdisciplinary artist working in film, video, performance, electronics, photography, transmission art, and electroacoustic sound design. She has exhibited and performed in art galleries across Canada, and her films have screened internationally from Cannes to Korea to San Fransisco and beyond. She was the 2014 Atlantic finalist for the National Media Art prize, and had a 10 year retrospective exhibition of her work curated by Mireille Bourgeois, at the Galerie d’art Louise et Reuben Cohen, and was also included in the Marion McCain Biennale of Atlantic Contemporary Art, curated by Corinna Ghaznavi. Since 1997, she has been actively involved with artist run centres, in both volunteer and staff positions: serving on various boards, working as both a technician and later as a director, teaching workshops, publishing articles, and serving on juries across Canada. She completed her MFA at the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver, before moving to Amsterdam. Upon her return to Canada she worked at the Faucet Media Arts Centre & Struts Gallery in Sackville, NB, while teaching part time at Mount Allison University. She later worked as the director of the Galerie Sans Nom and the RE:FLUX festival of music, while teaching part time at l'Université de Moncton. She left her position directing the GSN in 2014 to dedicate her time to an interactive performance project called Requiem for Radio, which premiered in spring of 2017 with the support of a new media creation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
She is currently working on a new media transmission art project called Ghosts in the Air Glow with the support of a Canada Council grant, which involves mixing audio and images in the D layer of the earth's ionosphere using the Ionospheric Research Instrument, an array of 180 radio antennas, at the HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) facility in Alaska.
Concepts and themes explored in her work focus primarily on the relationship between the human body and analogue technology in a digital age. She spent the last several years working on various projects related to shortwave radio and the RCI (Radio Canada International) shortwave transmission site. One major body of work related to the RCI towers is called Spectres of Shortwave, and it includes a 2 hour experimental documentary film as well as various accompanying gallery installations. The other major body of work about the RCI shortwave site is called Requiem for Radio, and it includes a one hour interdiscplinary performance with various accompanying installations and performances in five parts. Both Spectres of Shortwave and Requiem for Radio were created with the support of Arts NB and the Canada Council for the Arts. Ghosts in the Air Glow is currently in progress and involves creating audio and image works relating to military and civilian scientific research, surveillance, climate, territory, and communications embedded into radio frequencies transmitted straight into and through the ionosphere to the liminal boundaries of outer space.
Requiem for Radio : Full Quiet Flutter (2017)
photo credit: Annie France Noël
Requiem for Radio: New Dead Zones (2016)
photo credit: Amanda Dawn Christie
Last Days of Snow: Night Lights Like Fire Flies (2011)
Teaching activities
Current Courses - Concordia University (2019-2020)
IMCA 210 - Introduction to Video Production
IMCA 310 - Intermediate Video Production
IMCA 400 - Advanced Practices in Video, Performance, and Electronic Arts
IMCA 610 - MFA studio - Intermedia I
IMCA 612 - MFA studio - Intermedia III
Past Courses - Concordia University (2017-2019)
IMCA 610 - Intermedia I
IMCA 612 - Intermedia III
Past Courses
ARVI 2102 - Le numérique (Université de Moncton, 2016/17)
ARVI 2404 - Photo: Opérateur de lumière (Université de Moncton, 2016/17)
ARVI 3103 - Temporalité (Université de Moncton, 2015/16, 2016/17)
ARVI 4104 - Virtualité (Université de Moncton, 2016/17)
CANA 3441 - Film in Canada (Mount Allison University, 2009/10, 2010/11)
FINA 1921 - Photography (Mount Allison University, 2009/10)
Guest Workshop Instructor, Speaker, Lecturer (Selected)
Willem DeKooning Institute of Art (Rotterdam, NL), Syracuse University: Transmedia (Syracuse, NY), Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY), University of Lethbridge (Alberta), Mount Allison University (Sackville, NB), NSCAD (Halifax, NS), University of Ottawa (Ontario), AFCOOP (Halifax, NS), FICFA (Moncton, NB), IMAC (Charlottetown, PE), CSIF (Calgary, AB), Antimatter (Victoria, BC), Latitude 53 (Edmonton, AB), NAISA (Toronto, ON)
Research activities
Ghosts in the Air Glow
Ghosts in the Air Glow is an ionospheric transmission art project using the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument to play with the liminal boundaries of outer space. Pairing air glow experiments in the ionosphere—false auroras creating soft, glowing spots in the sky—with SSTV images, audio and image signals are received and decoded via SDR (Software Defined Radio) equipment by amateur radio operators around the world, and streamed live online for audiences who do not have the equipment or expertise for reception. Themes explored in the work including military research, surveillance, coded communications, climate, territory, conspiracy theories, spiritualist movements of the nineteenth century, medical imaging of the human body, poetry written in Morse code, and autobiographical stories. Ghosts in the Air Glow is supported by an Explore and Create grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.Requiem for Radio
Requiem for Radio: Full Quiet Flutter is an interactive performance for human bodies, electrons, and radio waves. Architecture, technology, history, and the human body come together in this near-supernatural conjuring of the spirits of the Radio Canada International (RCI) shortwave towers. This work is a requiem for the Radio Canada International shortwave site that was located near the border of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and transmitted shortwave radio around the world from 1944 to 2014.
The performance is structured around an interactive installation that involves 13 towers with copper capacitance sensors positioned around the space to create a scale model of the recently demolished RCI site. Each tower is dedicated to one of the radio towers that stood there, and when touched it triggers a contact microphone recording made of that tower before the demolition. Among other elements, the performance also involves a theremin sending control voltage to trigger ghostly images of the towers and the sounds that they once made, thus allowing performers to play the ghosts of the radio towers with radio waves. The performance also includes performances on saxophone and cello with cow bone played through a 1938 Marconi tube radio, as well as a 5 channel electroacoustic work composed to be transmitted from 5 separate shortwave transmission sites around the world. The 5 channel simulcast is recombined using 5 shortwave radios in the performance space, in order to recombine the composition. Structured with 13 movements for the 13 radio towers, the performance follows the format of a traditional requiem, which normally has only 12 movements, however a 13th movement is added here in movement 0 as a nod to the use of binary data in much of the computer coding.
This work was created with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts, NB. The performance premiered in May 2017, and the work is currently being furthered refined and submitted for exhibition.
Ghosts in the Air Glow: MRI scan of Amanda Dawn Christie's brain
IRM.Moncton.MRI
Requiem for Radio: Full Quiet Flutter
photo credit: Annie France Noël
Requiem for Radio: Full Quiet Flutter
photo credit: Annie France Noël
Publications
Selected Publications (written by Amanda Dawn Christie)
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"La danse machinale" curatorial essay to accompany video screening, Galerie Sans Nom / Espace Audio Vidéo, Moncton, NB, 2014.
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"La parole sourde: Entrevue avec Herménégilde Chiasson", curatorial essay to accompany exhibition, Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton, NB 2013
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"Psychocartographies: of minds and maps" critical catalogue essay in jè-st catalogue of intervention & performance, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, 2013.
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"Soif de parole" curatorial essay to accompany exhibition, Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton, NB, 2012.
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"Return to Spectacle: A Cinemanifesto" in the Capilano Review: Issue 3.13 Manifest Now! 2011.
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"The Platform is the Performer" in Elective Identities. Canadian Film Institute, 2010.
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"Turning Tides & Saltwater Bodies: Moving Pictures of East Coast Women" - curatorial essay to accompany screening, printed in handmade zine. Winnipeg Cinematheque, 2010.
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"Disruptions of Privacy: Frame X as the Next Rupture in a Regional Timeline" Critical essay in DVD liner notes, Frame X DVD compilation, AFCOOP, Halifax, NS, 2008.
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"Anticipation of the Mechanical Memory" in DAMP, Anvil Press, 2008.
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"Engaging the Ephemera: Embodied Approaches to HandProcessed and Optically Printed Films" curatorial essay to accompany screening, printed in handmade zine, AFCOOP, Halifax, NS, 2006
Selected Bibliography (Writing about Amanda Dawn Christie)
- Berthiaume, Jean-Michel. 3 podcast episodes : « Marshland Radio Plumbing Project », « Spectres of Shortwave », and « Requiem for Radio » ALN/NT2 Laboratoire de recherche sur les œuvres hypermédiatiques. UQAM, 2019.
- Birdwise, Scott, “A Plane of Intimate Experience” in Land Lost: Amanda Dawn Christie. Catalogue published by Université de Moncton: Galerie Louise et Reuben Cohen, 2014.
- Bourgeois, Mireille, “A View from NoWhen” in Land Lost: Amanda Dawn Christie. Catalogue published by Université de Moncton: Galerie Louise et Reuben Cohen, 2014.
- Brown, Dan, “Projections as Performance: Recent Directions in Canadian Expanded Cinema” in Process Cinema: Handmade Film in the Digital Age. Edited by Janine Marchessault and Scott Mackenzie. McGill-Queens University Press. Slated for publication in fall, 2019.
- Burke, Andrew, Hinterland Remixed: Media, Memory, and the Canadian 1970s. McGill-Queens University Press. (there is section in this book about my film Spectres of Shortwave) – slated for publication in fall 2019.
- Cass, Stephen. “The Radio Elegist”. IEEE Spectrum. October 2018. Journal of the International Electrical and Electronic Engineers association. New York, NY. October, 2019.
- Chodorov, Pip, “An Experimental Filmmakers in the Art World” in Land Lost: Amanda Dawn Christie. Catalogue published by Université de Moncton: Galerie Louise et Reuben Cohen, 2014.
- Delgado, Jerome. “Une machine appelée cinéma: Le Centre Clark démarre son automne sur des images tires de la culture de l’automobile” Le Devoir, Print. Montréal, September 17, 2012
- Earle. P. Hello, Parka v.2. Fredericton: Parka Project, 2016.
- Ghaznavi, Corinna . Writing Topography: Marion McCain Biennale of Atlantic Contemporary Art. Exhibition Catalogue. Fredericton: Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2015.
- Graf, Terry and Karen Ruet.Phantom Presence. exhibition catalogue. Fredericton: Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2015.
- Layton, Aidon. “Playing with Light”. Answer Print, Print. Spring 2010
- McLaughlin, Bryne. “Christie, Caissy Crash Art Into Film At Centre Clark”. Canadian Art Online. http://www.canadianart.ca/see-it/2012/10/03/christy-caissy/ Canadian Art. Web. Oct. 3, 2012.
- Pfefferle, Justin, “Going Off Route” in Paved Meant Anthology Vol. 1. Saksaton, SK: Paved Arts, 2015.
- Reardon, Kiva, “Visions of Sound” (centre spread on Requiem for Radio). In MusicWorks Magazine. Toronto, On. spring 2017.
- Rushton, Matt. “Sound, Vision, and Mechanical Memories”. Rostrum Magazine, Print. November, 2009.
- Schuman, Joan. “Fidelity, Scratch, Static, Decay”. Earlid. Online exhibition and publication of audio art. 2019.
- Stubbs, Phoebe, Arrate Hildago, Phoebe Alder and Leanne Hayman. Colour in the Making: From Old Wisdom to New Brilliance. London, UK: Black Dog Publishing, 2013.
- Varga, Darrell. Shooting from the East: Filmmaking on the Canadian Atlantic. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2015.
- Wendt, Pan and Aaron Weldon. Somewheres / Quelques parts exhibition catalogue. Charlottetown: Confederation Centre Art Gallery, 2014.
Participation activities
Artist Residencies
Artistic performances
Performances (selected / recent)
2018 Requiem for Radio: Pulse Decay, Circle of HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), New York, NY
Requiem for Radio: Pulse Decay, WNDX Festival (Winnipeg, NB)
2017 Requiem for Radio: Full Quiet Flutter, Centre culturel Aberdeen & RE:FLUX festival
Transmissions, TransX Symposium onTransmission Arts, Toronto, ON
2016 Requiem for Radio: Pulse Decay, NAISA(New Adventures in Sound Art) Toronto, ON
Where Ocean Meets Air, FICFA VAM,Moncton, NB
2014 Requiem for Radio: Pulse Decay, Paved Arts, Saskatoon,SK
Requiem for Radio: Pulse Decay, ObeyConv, HFX, NS
2013 Transmissions,Salon Métafemmes: La Centrale & Studio XX, Montréal, QC
2012 Love Song for Lost Endings, 8fest, Trash Palace, Toronto, ON
2011 LastDays of Snow: The Begending of the Universe, VIVA! Art Action, Bain St.Michel, Montréal, QC
LastDays of Snow: Nightlights Like Fireflies, Art in the Open,Charlottetown, PEI
Transmissions & Acquisitions (w. E.Hearte) Antimatter UndergroundFilm Festival, Victoria, BC
Transmissions & Acquisitions (w.E.Hearte) San Fransisco Cinematheque, California, USA
IRiSs Lab #10: Empirical Evidence DanceParty, Halifax Canada
2010 Transmissions, Winnipeg Cinematheque, (MB), $100Film Festival (Calgary, AB)
Exhibitions, Transmissions, and Screenings
Visual Art Exhibitions (selected / recent)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Requiem for Radio: New Dead Zones,Centre culturel Aberdeen / RE:FLUX festival Moncton, NB
2015 OffRoute 2 Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2014 LandLost Galerie d’artLouise-et-Reuben-Cohen, curated by Mireille Bourgeois. Moncton, NB
2014 OffRoute 2 PAVED Arts. Saskatoon,SK
2012 OffRoute 2 Centre Clark, Montréal, QC
2011 LastDays of Snow / Last Days of Cinema FICFA, curated by Angèle Cormier. Moncton, NB.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Transmission Arts (selected radio broadcasts)
Screenings (selected / recent)
SOLO SCREENINGS AND RETROSPECTIVES2019 Spectres of Shortwave / Ombres des ondes courtes (feature length landscape film)