Martin Zeilinger

_curatorial work

I was co-director/co-curator of the Toronto-based Vector Festival from 2014-2020, and occasionally still contribute to the festival in minor roles. In 2019 and 2020, I was a member of the curatorial collective for NEoN Festival in Dundee, Scotland. Since roughly 2005, I have also been involved in a number of independent curatorial projects in Canada, Germany, Austria, and the UK.

My curatorial practice engages broadly with experimental media art, often focusing on digital art, software art, generative art, and experimental uses of video game technologies. Frequently, my curatorial projects carry critical/activist subtexts, for example with focus on algorithmic governance, surveillance issues, critical engineering, and many other issues related to computational culture.

I am particularly interested in appropriation-based uses of emerging technologies (including AI and blockchain technologies), in developing new exhibition formats for digital work, and in exploring intersections between creative and critical practice.


2021:

Curatorial Advisor, THE NEW REAL (Edinburgh / online)


2020:

Vector Festival: THE ONLINE EDITION. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying safety measures, the 2020 iteration of Vector Festival was re-designed on short notice to run fully online. Exhibitions, performances, curatorial collaborations, panels, and screenings; co-curated with Katie Micak. (July-August)

Featuring work from artists including: Hiba Ali // Jennifer Chan // Ronnie Clarke // Hilarey Cowan // Thirza Cuthand // Maya Ben David // Steph Davidson // Hannah Epstein // Jord Farrell // Dimitris Gkikas // Milumbe Haimbe // Fay Heady // Amay Kataria // Samuel Kiehoon Lee // Gina Luke // Ben McCarthy & Cale Weir // Amelia Merhar // Roberto Santaguida // Juli Saragosa // Jordan Sparks // Lee Tusman // Syrus Marcus Ware // Qirou Yang


2019:

NEoN Festival. Sous le web, la plage! (Online exhibition). Dundee, Scotland/UK.

FUTURE RELICS. Anna Eyler / Aksel Haagensen / Lisa Jackson / Raquel Meyers / Matthew Plummer-Fernandez / Scenocosme (Grégory Lasserre + Anaïs met den Ancxt) / Jeff Thompson.
Exhibition, Inter/Access Gallery, Toronto. Part of ‘Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice (7th Vector New Media Art Festival’) Co-curated with Katie Micak. (July-August)

THE GREAT DERANGEMENT. Iodine Dynamics / Brianna Lowe / Kris Pierce / Zeesy Powers.
Exhibition, Electric Perfume, Toronto. Part of ‘Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice (7th Vector New Media Art Festival’) Co-curated with Katie Micak. (July)

LOCAL HOST: POST-HUMAN MEDIA ARTS. John Ayliff / Matt DesLauriers / Droqen / Nick Montfort / Vera Sebert.
Online exhibition. Part of ‘Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice (7th Vector New Media Art Festival’) Co-curated with Katie Micak. (July)


2018:

RETHINKING AFFORDANCE: Bryan Cera / Foci+Loci / FRAUD / Sebastian Schmieg / Situated Systems / Jol Thompson / Martin Zeilinger
Co-curated with Ashley Scarlett, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart/GER, (May-June)

BORN DIGITAL: Adam Basanta / A.M. Darke / Joseph DeLappe / Judith Doyle / Ann Hirsch / Chris Kerich / Lu Yang
Vector Festival flagship exhibition, co-curated with Katie Micak. Inter/Access Media Art Center, Toronto/CAN (July-August).

LOCAL HOST 2018: SUB/HYPER/TEXT Sarah Friend / Soo Jin Rho / Timo Kahlen / Dina Kelbermann / Amanda Low
Vector Festival online exhibition, co-curated with Katie Micak.

ECSTASY // NORMAL 002 Tobias Williams
Vector Festival offsite installation, co-curated with Katie Micak.

INNER WORKINGS: Adam Basanta / Afaq Ahmed Karadia / Adam Tindale / Micha Cardenas
Vector Festival performances, co-curated with Katie Micak.

ART ON THE SCREENS: David Blandy / Clive Holden / Susanna Flock / Nadine Lessio
Vector Festival offsite screening, co-curated with Katie Micak.


2017:

DAY ZERO: VOIGHT-KAMPFF Peter Rahul / Marta Di Francesco / Tillmann Ohm / Udit Mahajan
Vector Festival pre-opening screening and social, co-curated with Skot Deeming.

PATTERN RECOGNITION Ben Bogart / Henry Driver / Jordan Shaw / Paolo Pedercini aka Molleindustria
Vector Festival flagship exhibition, co-curated with Skot Deeming. (2017 Vector Festival documentation)

SIGNAL / SPACE Tasman Richardson / Chris Burke and Tamara Yadao aka Foci+Loci / Gabe Knox / Daniel Zabawa
Vector Festival performances, co-curated with Skot Deeming.

LOCAL HOST Tanja Vujinovic / Hannah Epstein / Alex Myers / Sagan Yee / Jasmeet Sidhu
Vector Festival online exhibition, co-curated with Skot Deeming.

ELDERS Alex Myers
Vector Festival offsite installation, Loophole Gallery, co-curated with Skot Deeming.


2016:

THE ALGORITHMIC IMAGINATION Adam Donovan / Matteo Bittanti and Colleen Flaherty aka COLL.EO / Justine Lugli / Brent Watanabe
Vector Festival flagship exhibition, co-curated with Skot Deeming, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Toronto, July 7-August 13.

Vector 2016 performances, screenings, and offsite events: Castle If / Dan Browne / Elenore Chesnutt / Kathleen Daniel / Karl Fousek / Davis Heslep / Kristin Lucas / A. Bill Miller / Samantha Noseworthy / Benjamin Nuel / Midi Onodera / Tasman Richardson / Bear Wit­ness / Michael Trommer and Eric Filion aka Spectral Sound System / Ip Yuk-Yiu
Co-curated with Skot Deeming.

LONDON CALLING: NEW FILM AND VIDEO WORKS: Jaimie Jenkinson / Deniz Johns and Karolina Raczynski / Neil Henderson / Jennifer Nightingale / Simon Payne / John Smith / Xiaowen Zhu
Screening curated for the Regional Support Network screening series (organised by Clint Enns and Leslie Supnet), March 30, Cinecycle, Toronto/CAN

Data Materialization Studio Graduate Artist Residency: artist residency coordinated with Ashley Scarlett, Winter 2016, Toronto/CAN.


2015:

TO UTILITY AND BEYOND: Connor Campbell / Kieran Nolan / Juliana Riska, Dorian Reunkrilerk, Loriane Stary, and Kim Boldt / Kara Stone and Nadine Lessio / Kim Hoang, Ben Swinden, Zachary Soares, and Hamish Lambert / Jochen Zeirzer
Vector Festival Flagship exhibition, co-curated with Skot Deeming.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME: COMPUTER MUSIC{S}: frAncis / Devon Hansen / JeffTheWorld
Vector Festival performances, co-curated with Skot Deeming.


2014:

Vamos A La Playa, Game art installations, curated for Knave Kitchen, Toronto, June 20.

IMPEDANCE: GAMES + RESISTANCE: Jim Munroe aka Molleindustria / Alex Myers / Kent Sheely / Lucas Pope / Soha El-Sabaawi / Martin Le Chevallier / Gordan Savicic / RuneStorm / Andy Campbell / Mez Breeze / Oscar Raby
Vector Festival flagship exhibition, co-curated with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen.

NET.WORK 2.0: EMERGENCE AND EXPERIMENTATION: Chris Burke and Tamara Yadao aka FOCI+LOCI / Eric Powell / Brandon Edgar Allan / notendo / Eddo Stern / Jeff Thompson / Florent Deloison / James Kirkpatrick / Stephen Ascher / Connor Campbell, Corey Dean, and Jeremy Nir
Co-curated at VideoFag Gallery (Toronto) with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen.

VECTOR X PUNK ARCADE: Merrit Kopas / Ben Esposito aka Arcane Kids / Ilya Zarembsky / Benedikt Hummel and Marius Winter aka MajobBueno / Daniele Guevara / Jason Corace / Michael Wilde / Benedict Fritz / Simon Wiscombe Co-organised with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen in cooperation with guest curators Lee Tusman and Sarah Brin.

MACHINIGLITCH: Félicien Goguey & Benjamin Bartholet / Edouard Taufenbach / Florian Dieude / Chris Hawlett / Clint Enns / Entter and Goto80 / Mary Flanagan / Georgie Roxby Smith / Knut LSG Hybinette / Kent Sheely / Datatragedy / Victor Morales / Anita Fontaine / Jon Cates / Baden Pailthorpe
Co-organised with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen in cooperation with guest curator Isabelle Arvers.

CODE + CIRCUITS: AN ALGORAVE: Thesis Sahib / The Cybernetic Orchestra / Partytime! Hexcellent!
Co-curated with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen.

AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE: Telematic sound performance, Co-curated with Skot Deeming and Diana Poulsen.

Game Art Pop-up Exhibition, @ Long Winter, The Great Hall, Toronto, Jan 10. Co-curated with Skot Deeming and Christine Kim.


2013:

Satellite Event: Morton Feldman String Quartet No. 2, X Avant Music Festival VIII, “Experimentations in Silent Video Games,” @ OCAD U Graduate Gallery, Oct 12. Co-curated with Skot Deeming and Christine Kim.