Congratulations are in order for two OCAD U faculty members for their contributions to research.
Simone Jones, associate professor in the Faculty of Art, is the 2020-21 recipient of the OCAD University Award for Distinguished Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.
This award recognizes faculty members for their outstanding portfolio of research, scholarship and creative activity, and the impact that activity has had on the broad spectrum of art and design research and practice internationally. The award also recognizes contributions toward undergraduate and graduate research and scholarly training.
Immony Mèn, assistant professor in the Faculty of Design is the 2020-21 recipient of the OCAD University Award for Excellence in Early Stage Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.
This award recognizes promising, recently-appointed faculty members for their outstanding promise to be distinguished researchers, scholars, artists and designers within a university context.
Simone Jones – OCAD University Award for Distinguished Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity
Simone Jones, who is also the chair of Senate, is an artist whose works are shaped by the intersection of the lens-based practices of film, video, photography and projection; with sculpture, programming, mechanics and electronics.
Her works reflect upon the complex relationship between lived experience and represented experience.
Since 2003, Jones has developed a series of robotically controlled projection machines that synchronize camera movement with video projection.
The projection machines re-enact the original movement of the camera within the exhibition space "making the experience of the recorded and live viewing inextricably one and the same.”
Her most recent work, Intercept–Call–Response (2019) is a four-screen, robotically controlled video installation that explores the origins of magnetic core computer memory and her father’s memory loss due to the progressive complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Jones was the Jill Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, with a joint appointment in the School of Art and Robotics from 2000 to 2003.
Since 2003, Jones has been an associate professor in OCAD U’s Faculty of Art where she teaches in the Integrated Media and Digital Futures programs and advises students in the Interdisciplinary Art Media and Design and Digital Futures graduate programs.
Immony Mèn – OCAD University Award for Excellence in Early Stage Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity
Assistant professor in the Faculty of Design, Immony Mèn is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, educator, and community-based researcher.
He is the co-director of the Public Visualization Lab (OCAD U/York/Ryerson) with Patricio Dávila and Dave Colangelo, where they work alongside communities to represent and communicate concerns around equity, social justice, the environment, and participation.
Mèn’s research projects involve interaction design, installation, experimental video, motion capture, and public projections, exploring themes such as the anthropocene, Asian/South-Asian diasporic experiences, critical practice, and participatory engagement.
His collaborative research practice brings together students, emerging artists and designers, community members, municipal government, cultural organizations, and industry partners.
Dedicated to student experience and training, Mèn is a highly regarded educator in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
He is also a valued contributor to OCAD U’s community and culture: his events “Postcolonial Hot Ones,” “Dumpling Discourse,” and "Traversal Residency: data, technology, and community" have brought faculty and students together for discussions centered around communal knowledge sharing, intergenerational healing methods, and mobilization plans for marginalized voices.
As an artist, Mèn has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been awarded municipal, provincial, and federal arts council grants to support his work.
His practice includes interactive installations, interdisciplinary performances, social artworks, and ties to his community-based research projects.
Mèn acknowledges that his success as an early career researcher was strongly supported by the guidance and mentorship of Patricio Dávila, Richard Fung, Will Aitken, Andrea Fatona, Robert Diaz, and Martha Ladly, as well as through research and creative support from April Xie, Jonathan Silveras, Lilian Leung, Luke Garwood, Quinn Shoreman, Preethi Jagadeesh, Maggie Chan, Priya Bandodkar, Jorge Esteves, Jaicyea Smith, and Sharon Cladwell.