Organisers

The BALANCE-UNBALANCE 2011 conference is being supported by a number of Concordia University academic areas as well as world renowned organizations and institutions. Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra, chair of the conference, comes courtesy of Concordia’s Music Department; Dr. Paul Shrivastava and Andrew Ross contributions are possible thanks to Concordia’s David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, and the International Chair in Arts and Sustainable Enterprise ICN Business School, Nancy, France. Current sponsors for the 2011 conference includes: the Hexagram-Concordia Institute for Research/Creation In Media Arts and Technologies, Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts, the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise (DOCSE – JMSB), Concordia’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture (CISSC), Concordia President’s Office, Concordia’s Department of Music, the Electronic Arts Research Centre (CEIArtE) at the National University of Tres de Febrero, Argentina and the Ear to the Earth worldwide network for environmental sound art.

The Organising Committee includes a number of remarkable contributors, all Concordia University faculty-researchers and coming from a wide range of fields:

– Dr. Sebastien Caquard, Dept. of Geography, Planning and Environment

– Dr. Carmela Cucuzzella, Dept. of Design and Computation Arts

– Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra, Dept. of Music / Chair, Balance-Unbalance conference

– Dr. Georges Dimitrov, Dept. of Music

– Dr. Andra McCartney, Dept. of Communication Studies

– Paul Scriver, Dept. of Music and Dept. of Design and Computation Arts

– Dr. Paul Shrivastava, David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise – JMSB

– Dr. Peter Stoett, Dept. of Political Sciences

– Eldad Tsabary, Dept. of Music

BIOS

Sébastien Caquard is an assistant professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University. He completed his PhD in France at the Université J. Monnet de Saint-Etienne. His dissertation examined the integration of multimedia maps into public participation processes within the context of water management. Prior to moving to Concordia, he served as a research associate at the Dartmouth Flood Observatory at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire, USA), as a post-doctoral fellow at the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (Carleton University, Ottawa), and as an invited researcher in the Département de Géographie of the Université de Montréal. In his current research project Sébastien Caquard seeks to explore the technological, artistic and scientific frontiers of cybercartography, more specifically in the emerging field of cinematic cartography (www.atlascine.org). Sébastien Caquard teaches environmental impact assessment. He is also the co-chair of the working group on “Art and Cartography” of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) (http://artcarto.wordpress.com/) and the co-editor of a book recently published by Springer entitled “Mapping Environmental Issues in the City: Arts and Cartography Cross-Perspectives” (http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/geography/book/978-3-642-22440-9).

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Carmela Cucuzzella is a professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts of Concordia University. She received her PhD in Environmental Design in 2011 from Université de Montréal. She is a researcher at the Laboratory LEAP and leads the research focus on sustainable development. She is an expert in sustainable design (design for sustainability) as well as on assessment methodologies for analyzing the impacts of designed entities (Life Cycle Assessment – LCA, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – LEED) and has developed several comparative analyses on the repercussions of the introduction of environmental standards in the public space design competitions. Her research interests lie predominantly in integrating concerns and questions related to sustainability with the exploratory nature of design thinking by adopting ethical approaches to the environment (built as well as natural).

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Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra has been conducting activities in the merging fields of arts, sciences and new technologies as a composer and multimedia artist, researcher, educator, performer and curator focusing mainly on new media arts and electroacoustic music for more than 30 years. He is an Associate Professor at the Music Department of Concordia University (music.concordia.ca/people/faculty/full-time/ricardo-dal-farra.php), Founding Director of the Electronic Arts Experimenting and Research Centre (CEIArtE) at National University of Tres de Febrero, Argentina and Associated Researcher at the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort Univerisity, in the United Kingdom. Dal Farra has been national Coordinator of the Multimedia Communication program at the National Ministry of Education in Argentina during seven years; Research/Creation Coordinator of the (original) Hexagram interuniversity consortium in Canada; Senior Consultant for the Amauta – Andean Media Arts Centre in Cusco, Peru; Coordinator of the Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage (DOCAM) international research alliance in Canada; and national Education Manager at NCS Pearson, Argentina. He has also been consultant for organizations such as: The MIT Press in the US, the interuniversity project No2s in Chile; and consultant and researcher at The Daniel Langlois Foundation in Canada and UNESCO (Digi-Arts), France. Dr. Dal Farra’s work has been distinguished with prizes, grants and commissions by the International Computer Music Association, the International Arts Biennial of San Pablo, Brazil, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Rostrum of Composers from Argentina, the Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, France, and the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale from the University of Padua in Italy, among others. With over 20 international editions including recordings of his electroacoustic music, Dr. Dal Farra’s works have been performed/presented in over 40 countries.

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As a Montreal artist and composer, Georges Dimitrov writes music in many different styles, whether contemporary classical, pop, rock, electronic, or film music, being particularly interested in chamber music and the integration between traditional instruments and live electronics. Besides appearing in several short films and a documentary, his works have been directed by Christian Gort (Orchestre Symphonique de l’Isle), Lorraine Vaillancourt (of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne), presented at the Society for Arts and Technology and in the City of Montreal’s Maisons de la Culture, and won one of the 2009 University of Montreal’s composition awards. After six years of teaching at undergraduate level and a Ph.D. in composition at the University of Montreal, he is currently working as assistant professor at Concordia University. However, he broadens his field of composition to various projects outside the university, trying to create a bridge between contemporary music and influences from the underground rock circles. In addition to his composition and teaching activities, he is also an associate composer for LumenBox Films, a DJ, blogger and leads an electronic project named Fade to Grey.

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Dr.Andra McCartney: Since the mid 1990s, I have been developing an approach to the creation of electroacoustic soundwalk art which integrates audience responses into the creative development of walks and installations. Through my background in ethnomusicology, communication, and cultural studies, I think and write about electroacoustic, sound art and sound recording fields as cultures, considering what kinds of interpretive routines are acceptable within these disciplines, and how aesthetic and professional discourses are established. I transform soundwalk recordings into interactive installations, produced collaboratively in recent years with Don Sinclair, interactive artist and professor at York University in Toronto. I am especially interested in questions of gender in relation to sound technologies. I have written most extensively about Vancouver soundscape composer, Hildegard Westerkamp. The In and Out of the Sound Studio research project investigates the working practices of soundmakers from a range of different professions, focusing particularly on the work of prominent women soundmakers. My present project, Soundwalking Interactions, focuses on the experiences of audiences with different kinds of soundwalk activities.

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Andrew Ross is a full time employee at the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, where he helps coordinate multiple programs including the Sustainable Investment Professional Certification program. He also conducts research for several different projects, and manages the Centre’s administrative activities. Ross has a Master’s of Science (MSc) degree in Geography & Environmental Studies from Concordia University, where his research focus was on climate change.  Recently, he has shifted his focus to the field of sustainability, particularly in the business world. He believes that there is a serious urgency towards climate change and considers sustainability to be an opportunity for competitive advantage for businesses around the world.

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Paul Scriver is an improvising musician, composer and sound artist. Much of his work addresses the disconnect between our contemporary human existence and the natural world.
With assistance from the Canada Council for the arts, he is currently developing a large-scale audio installation that will bring human beings into the aural world of submarine life forms.
Paul teaches audio production, sound design and electronic music composition at Concordia and Champlain College.

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Dr. Paul Shrivastava, is the David O’Brien Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal. He also serves as Senior Advisor on sustainability at Bucknell University and the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong, India, and he serves on the Board of Trustees of DeSales University, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Shrivastava received his Ph. D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He was tenured Associate Professor of Management at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He has published 15 books and over 100 articles in professional and scholarly journals. He served on the editorial boards of leading management education journals including the Academy of Management Review, the Strategic Management Journal, Organization, Risk Management, and Business Strategy and the Environment. He won a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and studied Japanese management while based at Kyoto University. He founded the Organization and Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management. His work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Christian Science Monitor, and on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour. Dr. Shrivastava has 30 years experience in management education, entrepreneurship, and as a consultant to major multinational companies. In 1976 he was part of the management team that launched Hindustan Computers Ltd., one of India’s largest computer companies. In 1985 he founded the non-profit Industrial Crisis Institute, Inc. to mediate the industrial crisis between Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India, and published the Industrial Crisis Quarterly. In 1998 he founded, and was President and CEO of eSocrates, Inc., a knowledge management and online training/education software company. He has served as consultant to AT & T, Baker Hughes, FMC Corp, Johnson and Johnson, Ketchum Communications, Scott Paper, Wartsila, Oy, and MEC RASTOR, and Elea-Olivetti. He designs and presents strategic summits and training workshops for upper management focused on corporate and competitive strategy, sustainable management, and crisis management.

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Dr. Peter Stoett joined Concordia in 1998, after teaching at the Universities of Guelph, Waterloo, and British Columbia. His main research focus is on global ecopolitics and other environmental policy debates, human rights issues, and the frequent collisions and syntheses between the two.  He also teaches in international law, international relations theory, Canadian foreign policy, and human security. Early publications were on topics such as energy policy, genocide prevention, refugee law, whaling, biodiversity protection, and globalization. Since 1999 he has received two SSHRCC grants, one for a study of Canadian foreign policy and wildlife conservation,  including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; and the other (received in 2007) for a study of the global politics of invasive alien species identification and prevention. Recent publications include three co-edited texts, one with Chris Gore on the local-global nexus of Canadian environmental issues; another with Eric Laferrière on international ecopolitical theory; and another with Philippe LePrestre on the bilateral environmental politics between Canada and the United States. Dr. Stoett is co-author, with Allen Sens, with one of the most popular Canadian IR textbooks of the past decade, Global Politics: Origins, Currents, and Directions, which is entering its 4th edition. Recent articles and book chapters have been on climate change, international ethics, symbolic politics, complicity in crimes against humanity, and bioinvasion. He is currently working on a text to be titled Global Biosecurity: The International Politics of Denial, Fear and Injustice. In addition, aided by internal grants, he is currently examining the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and the International Criminal Court; and is conducting an interdisciplinary study of policy, values, and scientific work related to the St. Lawrence River. Professor Stoett has conducted research in Europe (including the Balkans and especially Bosnia), eastern, southern and western Africa, central America, and Asia. In March of 2003, he testified before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Parliament of Canada, Ottawa. He also teaches global environmental governance at the United Nations’ University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. Dr. Stoett is a member of the SDF-funded CEPES, as well as the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies (MIGS). He was department chair for two terms, and sits on many university-wide governance bodies.

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Eldad Tsabary is a composer, professor, and event organizer. His music is released on Confluencias, ERMMedia, Capstone, NAISA, Musicworks, ElektraMusic, Vibrö, VoxNovus, and JAZZIS, and published by Editions BIM. His works won prizes and mentions in WPA and Kraft Media prize, Miniaturas Electroacústicas, NAISA/CBC, Bourges, Madrid Abierto, ZKM, Harbourfront, and others. Performers of his music include the Bulgarian Philharmonic, Cygnus Ensemble, and Haim Avitsur. Eldad teaches live electroacoustics, aural perception, and music technology at Concordia and Musitechnic. He is the director of Canadian 60×60 and treasurer of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Recent artistic highlights include interreligious compositions and telematic performances.