Kurtis Lesick is an artist, writer, researcher and creative content specialist. Lesick’s, installations, media works, digital performances, and cross-media collaborations explore the space between the object-world, and our knowledge and perception of it. Lesick’s work draws heavily on his experience in archaeology, anthropology and philosophy, as well as his love and distain for technology.
Lesick teaches in Media Arts and directs the Creative Environment for Emerging Electronic Culture. He is an adjunct professor in the Digital Futures Initiative in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto and has been visiting faculty at the Banff Centre and the University of California at Irvine. In 2012, Lesick was awarded the inaugural Peoples Choice Award for the Most Inspiration Digital Leader at the Digital Alberta Awards.
Member of AUArts faculty since 2008.
Education
Master of Philosophy Research Degree in Archaeology, The University of Sheffield
BA Archaeology and BA Anthropology, University of Calgary
Selected Professional Activity
Selected Exhibitions:
Turangalila Live Cinema [Director, ACAD + Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra], Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2014
Inner Waters Flowing Faster, Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2012
(re)production: a reading for Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Digital Performance Commissioned by Dandelion Magazine for “Performance/MACHINE” edited by Kathleen Brown and Michael Nardone
Poetic Performance Lab: an interactive hour of poetic performances, textual theatre and sound action. John Dutton Theatre, Calgary Public Library, Calgary, AB, Canada
Popsex! Thematic Group Show curated by Annette Timms and Michael Thomas Taylor, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, Canada
Problems with History, Solo of 12 at the Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary, Canada
Selected digital media/interactive project:
The Agora (S.E.G.E.N.S.), (Director) Interactive screen and web-based news and community building intervention. Researcher: Angus Leech; Programmers: Paul Robert and Craig Fahner, 2013-present
Iran Do Espirito Santo: Drawings and Manifestos . Documentary Video, Codirectors: Noam Gonick and Kurtis Lesick, in collaboration with Martha Affleck, Kyle Anderson, Dani Anderson and Kirk Loveland . Producer: Corus Entertainment / W. Baerwaldt (Canada, 2013, 9 minutes), 2013
The Vulcan Explorer, (Director) Interactive edutainment experience at the Vulcan Trek Station, Vulcan, Alberta, Canada, 2011
Good Medicine – Producer/Director of an Experimental Documentary on Aboriginal Perspectives on health and wellness in Alberta. Funded by Health Canada, AACTI, ACAD, Keyano College, 2009
Problems with History (Elements 13, 14, 15) – 3 videobased installations exploring issues in historical representation installed at the Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary, Canada, 2008
Problems with History (Element 14) – Interviews, performances, and audio video installation conducted/installed at the Banff Centre, Banff, Canada, that explores the creation, exchange and destruction of history, 2007
In the Shadow of Progress (multiplatform digital documentary) – personal and subjective explorations of life in the industrial north using web, email, terrestrial phone and locative/time accessed mobile media. Developed for the National Film Board of Canada, 2007
Technosaurs/C.I.E. – branded multiplatform educational participatory narrative for ‘tweens’. Coproduced with RocketFuel Inc. and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Funders: Canada New Media Fund; Virtual Museum of Canada, 2005
Warhospital (web documentary) – intimate observations on life at the largest Red Cross war casualty facility in Lokichokio, Kenya. Project Developed for the National Film Board of Canada with the assistance of the Interactive Project Lab, 2003/04
Ghosts of Industry (ghostsofindustry.com) – experiential documentary of the industrial ghost town of Bitumount in northern Alberta. Collaborators: Jeff Dawson, Wayne Dunkley, Leonard Paul, 2001-2004
Selected Publications
Lesick, Kurtis. “Building Electronic Culture: computing at ACAD.” Journal of Computational Media Design:5 [Fall]. (2012). Ed. Marjan Eggermont and Laurel Johannesson. 1629. Web.
Lesick, Kurtis. “The Closing of the Text: A digital performance. Dandelion: performance machine. 37.2 Ed. Kathleen Brown and Michael Nardone. (2011). n.p. Web.
Lesick, Kurtis. “The First Graphic Design.” Entropic Art/Design/Communication/Culture. 2.3 (2001). N.p. [Print].
Lesick, Kurtis et al.hj “Archaeology: A Crucial Role in Ecosystem Management.” CRM. 20.4 (1997). n.p. Print.
Lesick, Kurtis. “Re-engendering Gender: some theoretical and methodological concerns on a burgeoning archaeological pursuit.” Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood in European Archaeology. Ed. J. Moore and E. Scott. Leicester: Leicester UP, 1997. n.p. Print.
Selected Awards
2012 AACTI AR&I Fund. Project: SEGENS | Social Engagement through GeographicallyEmbedded News Systems
2012 Digital Alberta Awards, People’s Choice Award, Most Inspirational Digital Leader
2012 AACTI Regional Innovation Network (RIN) Capacity Building Grant. Project: PAX | Programming for Aesthetic Experience
2010 FMSIC Grant, AACTI. Project: The Enterprise Challenge
2009 FMSR and FSRD Grants, AACTI. Project: Complex Input | Rational Output (CIRO) Cirolab.org
2007 First Place – “Pitchit”, Kidscreen Summit, New York. Project: Technosaurs/C.I.E.
2006 Telus Innovation Fund. Project: Technosaurs
2005 Canada New Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, Project: Technosaurs
2005 Virtual Museum of Canada Investment Program. Project: Technosaurs
2003 Interactive Project Lab, Prototyping Grant. Project: War Hospital
2001 Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund. Project: Ghosts of Industry
2001 Telus Television Fund. Project: Ghosts of Industry
2001 Alberta Historical Resources Foundation, Media Grant. Project: Ghosts of Industry