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KEYNOTE AND PLENARY SPEAKERS

Meet Experts in the Field.

Abhijeet Satani

Abhijeet Satani

Guest Speaker

Brain-Computer Interface Scientist,
Author, TEDx Speaker

Abhijeet Satani is an internationally recognised scientist and researcher known for his inventions in the field of Brain-Computer Interface and alternative nervous system. He has made contributions in the field of neuroscience, radiology, prosthetics, phantom limbs, and in general anatomy. Much of his work is focused on understanding the workings of the human brain, and brain development, deconstructing the impact on the brain due to external interactions, and bridging the gaps in human inefficiencies through technology. He holds various intellectual properties (Patents) and research papers under his name which some renowned scientists and researchers have cited. He has also authored two books - A Simple Approach to Neuroscience and How to Write a Research Paper: A Simple Approach. His recent works include NFTs composed of the outcomes from an experiment titled - 'Brain on Social Media'. Abhijeet is currently working on The Motherhood Project to understand the impact of childbirth on the maternal brain.

https://www.instagram.com/abhijeetsatani/

Professor Jonathan Pitches

Professor Jonathan Pitches

Keynote Speaker

Head of School of Performance and Cultural Industries
Professor of Theatre and Performance
School of Performance and Cultural Industries,
University of Leeds, UK

Title: “Exploring New Horizons in Performance and Cultural Industries”

Jonathan Pitches is Professor of Theatre and Performance and Head of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds in the UK. He is an influential scholar, author and editor of theatre training, digital pedagogy, and eco-criticism and the founding co-editor of the Routledge journal: Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. He has published several books including Vsevolod Meyerhold (2003/18), Science and the Stanislavsky Tradition of Acting (2006/9), Russians in Britain (2012) and Stanislavsky in the World (with Dr Stefan Aquilina 2017). He is sole editor of Great Stage Directors Vol 3: Komisarjevsky, Copeau, Guthrie (2018) and author of Performing Mountains (Palgrave 2020), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Most recently he co-edited (again with Aquilina) the Routledge Companion to Vsevolod Meyerhold (Routledge 2023) comprising 27 essays by scholars and practitioners from all over the world.

Associate Professor. Donna Hewitt

Keynote Speaker

The University of New England
Australia

Title: “Creative Futures in the Mirror of Artificial Intelligence”

Donna Hewitt is a composer, performer, instrument designer and academic. Her creative practice explores mediatized performance environments and new ways of interfacing the human body and voice with electronic media.

Donna is currently a collaborator on a 5-year project funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities research council (SSHRC) Reflective Iterative Scenario Enactments (RISE) is a Le PARC based 5-year (2020-2025) research-creation project designed to enact and investigate futuristic challenges through a series on mini operas. She is also collaborating with all female identifying Australian choir, The House that Dan built, on the development of an AI Opera with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts and a recent Bundanon residency. In Feb 2023 she undertook a residency at ARUP Sydney’s 16 channel immersive studio which was supported by CreateNSW and ARUP. She is currently the Head of Department of Creative Arts and Communication at the University of New England. Donna’s work has been featured in prominent festivals including VIVID Festival. (2018), The Bondi Feast Festival (2018), Halifx, Nova Scotia MINT (Music in New Technologies Festival) (2018). In 2019 she performed her #MeToo works in Tokyo and at the Convergence Festival of Music, Technology and Ideas, UK. These works explored the perspectives of women in response to the #Me Too movement.

Julie Decker, PhD

Plenary Speaker

Director/CEO of the Anchorage Museum,
Alaska

Title: “Community and Creative Collaboration in a Changing Arctic”

Julie Decker, PhD, is the Director/CEO of the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, a leading center for scholarship, engagement, and investigation of Alaska and the North. Her work has focused on the people and environment of Northern places and building projects, relationships and initiatives that are in service to local and global communities. Before becoming CEO, Decker served as the Museum’s chief curator. She has a doctorate in art history, a master’s degree in arts administration, and bachelor degrees in visual design and journalism. She has curated numerous exhibitions and authored and edited publications on contemporary art, architecture and the environment.

Ms. Danielle K. Garrison

Plenary Speaker

Artist/Scholar
Concordia University
Canada

Title: “Ethered & Tethered: Co-Sensing heartbeats via Aerial Arts, Biometrics, Digital Composition and Opera.”

Danielle entangles aerial arts, dance and technology within performance research to re-ignite embodied interaction in a post-touch era. While pursuing her MFA in Dance (somatics/aerial arts) from the University of Colorado-Boulder, Danielle was granted a Fulbright to France to create an interdisciplinary project spanning dance, circus, visual arts and film. Recent aerial residencies include Milieux (Montréal), Nils Obstrat (Paris), SBCAST (Santa Barbara Center for Arts, Science and Technology), La Grainerie (Toulouse), and the Circus Dialogues Project’s 4th encounter (Avallon). Danielle has performed and/or taught for Aerial Dance Chicago, Frequent Flyers Productions, Les Rencontres de Danse Aérienne, the Berlin Circus Festival, Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance Festival, Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival, Aerial Greece, and the San Francisco Aerial Dance Festival. In 2020, she co-created Aerial Reflexionando (virtual aerial arts colloque) with Ana Prada to support critical exchange on contemporary aerial arts in the Americas. Currently, Danielle is an interdisciplinary humanities PhD student in research-creation at Concordia University (Montréal) and the University of Montpellier 3 (France), as well as a 4-year Fulbright Specialist.

https://daniellegarrison.com/

Dr. Sheena Bernett,

Dr. Sheena Bernett,

Plenary Speaker

Concordia University
Canada

Title: “Relationality: the Emergent Co-composing of Multiplicity”

Dr. Sheena Bernett is a practitioner, educator, and researcher of neurodiverse performing and creative arts practices. Recently, she completed her research-creation PhD at Concordia University. Both her thesis and defence were ranked “outstanding” by all committee members (with no corrections) and her research has just been selected for the June 2023 Governor General Gold Medal Award. Sheena also holds an MA in Musical Theatre Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a BFA in Music Composition and Classical Voice from Concordia University. Her education also includes training from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York and The National Ballet School.

Ms. Kalpana Madavie

+94 77 274 1265
+94 11 799 2022
secretariat@fineartsconference.com

Ms. Chanika Gunathilake

+94 70 330 9862
chanika.g@tiikmedu.com

Ms. Thisuri Jayalath

+94 71 704 8406
+94 11 799 2022
thisuri.j@tiikmedu.com

Mr. Ashvin Preshva

+94 76 388 5018
+94 11 784 4554
ashvin.p@tiikmedu.com

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