Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. Presenting works across a dynamic range of exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and workshops, Vector acts as a critical bridge between emergent digital platforms and new media art practice.
Vector Festival 2024: too fragile to hold, curated by Miriam Arbus, explores the combined experiences of migrating species, weather patterns, geopolitical scrambling, and algorithmic data processing, reminding us that all is cosmic, symbiotic, interconnected, intersected, and intertwined. As we grasp at urgent inequities and the world’s paradoxical trajectory amidst rigid systems, a precautious, hopeful path is driven by new technology at a relentless pace where digital products promise solutions.
Through a hybrid online and in-person program of exhibitions, performances, gatherings, and workshops, this 10-day festival invites artists and audiences to come together as we ask: will we follow the birds when the weather changes?
VECTOR FESTIVAL 2024 MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE!
too fragile to hold | FLAGSHIP EXHIBITION
Curated by Miriam Arbus
+ JULY 11 – AUGUST 10, 2024
++ InterAccess Gallery
Image courtesy of Wes Viz
OPENING RECEPTION
Celebrate the opening of Vector Festival 2024 with the opening reception of the flagship exhibition.
+ JULY 11, 2024 | 7 – 9 PM
++ InterAccess Gallery
ARTIST GATHERING AND CONVERSATION
Come share space with artists from the flagship exhibition, learn more about their practices, and see the exhibition with artist insights.
+ JULY 12, 2024 | 4 – 6 PM
++ InterAccess Gallery
I ♥ U | MULTI-SITE EXHIBITION
Featuring artworks by Kenzie Housego
Curated by Evangeline Y Brooks
+ JULY 11 – AUGUST 10, 2024
++ InterAccess, Charles Street Video (76 Geary Ave), LIFT (1137 Dupont St)
Image courtesy of Kenzie Housego
RESONANT FUTURES | EXHIBITION
Curated by Helen Lee
+ JULY 12 – JULY 19, 2024
++ Sensorium at York University (86 Fine Arts Rd, North York)
Image courtesy of Sana Akram
A PHOSPHENE RIFTS | MULTI-SITE AR EXHIBITION
Curated by Hearth
+ JULY 11 – AUGUST 10, 2024
++ Dundas St W
Image courtesy of Lauren Warrington
DEU(S EX) MACHINA | GAME JAM SHOWCASE
Curated by Bracy Appeikumoh
Facilitated by droqen
+ JULY 18, 2024
++ InterAccess Gallery
Image courtesy of OpenArt AI with a prompt of cyberpunk, chrome bodies, restricting any depiction of faces or gendered elements
HTML IN THE PARK | HTML FREE-WRITE
Co-presented with volvox.observer and html.green
+ JULY 13, 2024 | 2 – 5 PM
++ Dovercourt Park (155 Fernbank Ave)
Registration available
HOLD ON | FESTIVAL PARTY
Curated by Miriam Arbus & InterAccess
+ JULY 13, 2024 | 10 PM – 3 AM
++ Standard Time (165 Geary Ave)
TICKETS Available
Image courtesy of festival designers, Emi Takahashi and Michelle Kuan
A PHOSPHENE RIFTS | AR WALKING TOURS
Curated by Hearth
+ JULY 14, 16, & 19, 2024
++ Dundas St W
Registration available
Image courtesy of Lauren Warrington
MANY WAYS | SCREENING
Curated by MIRIAM ARBUS
+ JULY 20, 2024 | 8 – 9:30 PM
++ Charles Street Video (76 Geary Ave)
Tickets available (PWYC, $10)
More details coming soon
NOXTE: VOL V, LUMINAL CONNECTIONS | SATELLITE EVENT
Curated by NOXTE
Presented by Nullsight, Derooted Immersive, & IC Contemporary
+ JULY 12 – JULY 13, 2024
++ BodyShop Studios (302 Geary Ave)
DEU(S EX) MACHINA | GAME JAM KEYNOTE ARTIST TALK
Curated by Bracy Appeikumoh
Facilitated by droqen
+ JUNE 13, 2024
++ InterAccess + Online | Blood Brothers
Image courtesy of OpenArt AI with a prompt of cyberpunk, chrome bodies, restricting any depiction of faces or gendered elements
(Event hosted prior to festival)
START WHERE YOU ARE: USING WORLDBUILDING TACTICS IN SERIOUS GAMES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION | WORKSHOP
Led by Hilary Martin
+ JULY 13, 2024, 1 – 4PM
++ InterAccess
Engage in a worldbuilding exercise in this “game to build a game” on the complex real-world problem of climate crisis in Toronto, working with situational and publicly available data through active group facilitation.
Registration available
DIGITAL EXISTENCE ONLY! | WORKSHOP
Led by Marcella Driver-Moliner
+ JULY 20, 2024, 12 – 4PM
++ InterAccess
Get introduced to Blender, an open-source 3D graphics software, through the creation of abstract scenes that can only exist in a virtual world. Participants will learn software workflow, object creation, texturing, lighting, and rendering.
Registration available
Image courtesy of Marcella Driver-Moliner
Sponsors, Funders, and Partners
Vector would like to thank all of our sponsors and partners for their support of the 2024 Festival.
Special Thanks
Graphic design and visual identity by Emi Takahashi and Michelle Kuan.
About the festival
Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. Presenting works across a dynamic range of exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and workshops, Vector acts as a critical bridge between emergent digital platforms and new media art practice. The festival was founded in 2013 as the “Vector Game Art & New Media Festival” by an independent group of artists and curators: Skot Deeming, Clint Enns, Christine Kim, and Katie Micak, who were later joined by Diana Poulsen and Martin Zeilinger.