‘By the Light of the Wild Within’
By Julia White
September 17 to November 30, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
’By the Light of the Wild Within’ is a new sound and sculpture installation by Julia White.
"Since moving to the country near where my ancestors once lived, I have been going into the woods here, to sit in stillness by the creek and just be. A sanctuary of sorts, this once old-growth cedar forest is a place of calm and great creative insight for me and my work is infused with its magical essence. ’By the Light of the Wild Within’ features an audio element to help convey this; a long-playing loop of field recordings made here on the land, emanates from the space, taking us on a sonic journey around the wheel of the year. The installation is immersive and is in itself, an invitation to listen deeply- with both our ears and our hearts. Mystery sounds from other places and ‘wild cards’ are also woven in, offering an element of surprise. Some of the recordings are raw, minimally edited and true to a place and moment, while others are composed and are more dreamscape soundscapes, where organically layered compositions blend gathered non-verbal voices and boundaries are dissolved. In this way, communicating without words, the living mind of nature beckons us to tune to the more-than-human-soundfield and enter its wild mystery." - Julia White
By Julia White
September 17 to November 30, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
’By the Light of the Wild Within’ is a new sound and sculpture installation by Julia White.
"Since moving to the country near where my ancestors once lived, I have been going into the woods here, to sit in stillness by the creek and just be. A sanctuary of sorts, this once old-growth cedar forest is a place of calm and great creative insight for me and my work is infused with its magical essence. ’By the Light of the Wild Within’ features an audio element to help convey this; a long-playing loop of field recordings made here on the land, emanates from the space, taking us on a sonic journey around the wheel of the year. The installation is immersive and is in itself, an invitation to listen deeply- with both our ears and our hearts. Mystery sounds from other places and ‘wild cards’ are also woven in, offering an element of surprise. Some of the recordings are raw, minimally edited and true to a place and moment, while others are composed and are more dreamscape soundscapes, where organically layered compositions blend gathered non-verbal voices and boundaries are dissolved. In this way, communicating without words, the living mind of nature beckons us to tune to the more-than-human-soundfield and enter its wild mystery." - Julia White
Poetry Film Installation
with works featuring Mary McDonal & Sarah Tremlett
December 3 to 28, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre & Café, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
Admission by Donation
Two Poetry Films created in collaboration with Sundridge multi-disciplinary storyteller Mary McDonald reveal the personal stories embedded in significant events of history.
with works featuring Mary McDonal & Sarah Tremlett
December 3 to 28, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre & Café, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
Admission by Donation
Two Poetry Films created in collaboration with Sundridge multi-disciplinary storyteller Mary McDonald reveal the personal stories embedded in significant events of history.
Program:
I. 3550N, 2820E Cerulean Island by Mary McDonald & Sarah Tremlett
"JOHN – 3550N, 2820E (Cerulean Island)" is a poetry film about loss, displacement, commemoration and the futility of war.
The poetry film features an original soundtrack and visual design created by Sundridge multi-disciplinary Mary McDonald in response to the text of the poem. Poet and Filmmaker Sarah Tremlett says that the poem "is about the futility of war, and each stanza could be described as a different scene on a trajectory where time is running out. Here, dual forces are in play: light and darkness, security and destabilization – and these are echoed in the poetic devices employed and the fact that the protagonist was half German. Water and holding one’s breath have particularly charged meanings, both of innocence and also loss of life."
Mary McDonald responded to the poem with both a sound and visual design centred on an exploration of the precision of war, with its insistence on record keeping, of precise time and location, of kill marks and recording the number of deaths, of straight lines and cross-hairs. This controlled precision is contrasted with the vague outlines of memory, of time and space separating father and son. The presence of water central to the documented events throughout the poem, present in sound and film allegorically represents this flow of memory, one that is beyond the control of humans, time and precision. The work explores the power of water and how water can submerse and immerse, but can also buoy one up. Water can resurrect, it can wash away all.
"JOHN – 3550N, 2820E (Cerulean Island)" is a poetry film about loss, displacement, commemoration and the futility of war.
The poetry film features an original soundtrack and visual design created by Sundridge multi-disciplinary Mary McDonald in response to the text of the poem. Poet and Filmmaker Sarah Tremlett says that the poem "is about the futility of war, and each stanza could be described as a different scene on a trajectory where time is running out. Here, dual forces are in play: light and darkness, security and destabilization – and these are echoed in the poetic devices employed and the fact that the protagonist was half German. Water and holding one’s breath have particularly charged meanings, both of innocence and also loss of life."
Mary McDonald responded to the poem with both a sound and visual design centred on an exploration of the precision of war, with its insistence on record keeping, of precise time and location, of kill marks and recording the number of deaths, of straight lines and cross-hairs. This controlled precision is contrasted with the vague outlines of memory, of time and space separating father and son. The presence of water central to the documented events throughout the poem, present in sound and film allegorically represents this flow of memory, one that is beyond the control of humans, time and precision. The work explores the power of water and how water can submerse and immerse, but can also buoy one up. Water can resurrect, it can wash away all.
II. On the Margin of History by Mary McDonald with Natasha Boskic and Mohamad Kebbewar
"On the Margin of History" is a Poetry film and an Augmented Reality installation created by Mary McDonald in collaboration with Poets Natasha Boskic and Mohamad Kebbewar. Boskic and Kebbewar were excited to tell their story through this collaboration since their countries, Serbia and Syria, experienced similar fates. When weaving their verses together, their lines overlapped, their words chased each other. Their voices echoed with the same emptiness, recognizing a human soul can be peeled, layer by layer, revealed through art.
Fragmented layers of sound and image within the poetry film reproduce a sense of displacement and erasure, exposing the reverberating loss of destruction of people and place, family, heritage, traditions, cultures. In the AR version the still images become short video clips. These fragments all explore the surreal experience of displacement.
"On the Margin of History" is witness to destruction of ancient history and sharp demographic change in Aleppo, city of six million people that lost ninety percent of its residents over six years, then filled with new people. It is witness also to the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia, culminating in the NATO bombing of Serbia where silence was the only response to events that left people shocked, disbelieving. On the Margin of History is a trans-disciplinary project considering tensions between personal voice and possibilities within sound and visual to suggest and reinforce false narratives and/or create understandings through metaphor, playing with all levels of perception. Text is digitally exploded, creating reverberating echoes of lost words, lost truths.
"On the Margin of History" is a Poetry film and an Augmented Reality installation created by Mary McDonald in collaboration with Poets Natasha Boskic and Mohamad Kebbewar. Boskic and Kebbewar were excited to tell their story through this collaboration since their countries, Serbia and Syria, experienced similar fates. When weaving their verses together, their lines overlapped, their words chased each other. Their voices echoed with the same emptiness, recognizing a human soul can be peeled, layer by layer, revealed through art.
Fragmented layers of sound and image within the poetry film reproduce a sense of displacement and erasure, exposing the reverberating loss of destruction of people and place, family, heritage, traditions, cultures. In the AR version the still images become short video clips. These fragments all explore the surreal experience of displacement.
"On the Margin of History" is witness to destruction of ancient history and sharp demographic change in Aleppo, city of six million people that lost ninety percent of its residents over six years, then filled with new people. It is witness also to the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia, culminating in the NATO bombing of Serbia where silence was the only response to events that left people shocked, disbelieving. On the Margin of History is a trans-disciplinary project considering tensions between personal voice and possibilities within sound and visual to suggest and reinforce false narratives and/or create understandings through metaphor, playing with all levels of perception. Text is digitally exploded, creating reverberating echoes of lost words, lost truths.
Voice of the Water by Eric Powell
Interactive Installation
By Eric Powell
Permanent Installation open Thursday to Monday, 10 am to 4 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Voice of the Water is an interactive rotary telephone-based listening station. Using sounds collected from inside the lakes and rivers around South River, Voice of the Water encourages listeners to connect with the local waterways as they explore the boundaries and overlaps between planes of existence. The Artist's goal is to create a venue for contemplation, catharsis, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment.
Interactive Installation
By Eric Powell
Permanent Installation open Thursday to Monday, 10 am to 4 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Voice of the Water is an interactive rotary telephone-based listening station. Using sounds collected from inside the lakes and rivers around South River, Voice of the Water encourages listeners to connect with the local waterways as they explore the boundaries and overlaps between planes of existence. The Artist's goal is to create a venue for contemplation, catharsis, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment.
The Sensation of Distribution
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
Open 24/7 year round
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
Open 24/7 year round
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
The Sensation of Distribution is a reprise of Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters’s 2019 work, The Distribution of Sensation, which they created while artists in residence at The Bentway, a large, urban public space situated under an elevated highway in downtown Toronto. The Distribution of Sensation was a sound sculpture composed of PVC pipes installed around The Bentway that invited visitors to listen through the natural resonance of the cylinders, creating a series of musical experiences across the site. Mimic the plumbing infrastructure of the site, the installation was meant to create aesthetic slippages that might potentially lead to confusion as to what exactly functioned or counted as art.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
The Decomposing Piano
Open 24/7 in All Seasons
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE, Join us August 9 and September 13 from 1 to 3 pm for an open Jam on the piano. All ages and abilities welcome.
Open 24/7 in All Seasons
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE, Join us August 9 and September 13 from 1 to 3 pm for an open Jam on the piano. All ages and abilities welcome.
The Decomposing Piano is a semi-permanent outdoor installation that explores the effects of the Northern Ontario climate on an upright piano at its location at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River, Ontario, Canada. This is inspired by musical explorations in Australia of performing on - and of collecting - 'ruined' pianos - pianos left outside in the natural environment for an extended period of time (see https://bolleter.wixsite.com/warpsmusic for further insights).
The Decomposing Piano at NAISA was installed in December 2022 at a point where the upright piano was still playable despite some tuning deficiencies. As time goes on it is expected to become more and more difficult to play. However, in the gradual "decomposition" or "weathering" of the piano over time, new sounds should emerge - some of which might require increasing amounts of aid from recording and amplification to be experienced. Through its entire decomposition process, the public is invited to play the piano at NAISA and experience its transformation until it is deemed unsafe to play. The NAISATube YouTube Channel features a 24/7 webcam of the Decomposing Piano. Visit the Decomposing Piano webpage for more background and an archive of improvisations and demonstrations.
The Decomposing Piano at NAISA was installed in December 2022 at a point where the upright piano was still playable despite some tuning deficiencies. As time goes on it is expected to become more and more difficult to play. However, in the gradual "decomposition" or "weathering" of the piano over time, new sounds should emerge - some of which might require increasing amounts of aid from recording and amplification to be experienced. Through its entire decomposition process, the public is invited to play the piano at NAISA and experience its transformation until it is deemed unsafe to play. The NAISATube YouTube Channel features a 24/7 webcam of the Decomposing Piano. Visit the Decomposing Piano webpage for more background and an archive of improvisations and demonstrations.