Events

The Penticton Art Gallery is thrilled to be able to host Mia Harris over the month of February as our Artist in Residence as she continues to develop the Vocal Improvisation and Motion-activated Electroacoustic Sound Interaction (VIMES Interaction) Project, a research project which will be part of the Alexandra Goodall and Danielle Savage’s upcoming exhibition Migration Parade which will open at the gallery on Saturday March 26th, 2022 to kick off the inaugural weekend of the ten day Ignite the Arts Festival.

Over the month long residency Mia will learn to set up and use the Kinect-Controlled Artistic Sensing System (KiCASS) software and hardware infrared tracking systems in order to trigger and process sounds as part of the VIMES Interaction technology. This will be further enhanced by the development of a theatrical android,/cyborg persona along with learning the choreography created for this project by Vancouver dance artist and choreographer, Emmalena Fredriksson.

As part of this process the public is invited to Join Mia each morning as she develops a morning practice to further develop and enhance her somatic sensitivity through mindfulness practices so that I may deepen my access to creative impulses. In sharing her creative process gallery visitors will have the rare opportunity to view and participate in her daily process and experience how the artist will turn concepts into reality crating a truly unique work of art using the tools of voice, movement, listening, theatre and mindfulness to realize an exciting new form of creative exploration and expression.

Mia Harris invites the public to join in and become a collaborative participant as she undertakes her daily practice to ground herself before she works on developing her movement piece.

Free daily workshops Monday – Saturday

February 1 – 26th – 10 am – 5:00 pm

Daily Morning Practice

• 10:00 – wash floors
• 10:30 – sitting meditation
• 11:30 – rolling

Daily Afternoon Research

• 1:00 – vocal warm-up/play
• 1:30 – practice choreographed movement from Emmalena
• 2:00 – research aspect of nature/technology with sound, movement, text, writing, painting, drawing & listening
• 3:00 – Work with KiCASS system
  – practice programming sound
  -pairing gesture and sound
  -pairing improv voice with gesture triggered processed sound

Mia Harris ~ Biography

Mia Harris is a singer, theatre artist and performance artist. She was born in an apple orchard in Cawston, BC, where she fell in love with nature and the imagination. After studying classical voice and opera at UBC in Vancouver and U of T in Toronto, Mia returned to Penticton where she now lives and works.

As a classical singer Mia enjoyed working with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Bumbershoot Theatre, Opera Kelowna, Musaic Vocal Ensemble, Vivace Chorale, Aura Chamber Choir, Soundstage Productions, Penticton Community Concerts and the West Coast Symphony in Vancouver. She has had operatic engagements with

Toronto Operetta Theatre, Opera in Concert (Toronto), Saskatoon Opera, Burnaby Lyric Opera among others.

In 2013 Mia began to explore her voice outside of the classical context and wrote, directed, produced and performed a solo performance art piece entitled “Biography of a Voice” which featured vocal improvisation, theatre and movement. She enjoys learning new works and sang in White Wines, a radio play based on a work by Gertrude Stein for the Radio Free Stein project in

Vancouver. She also appeared in the opera excerpts at the Vancouver New Music 40th Anniversary

Retrospective. She has been a part of concerts at the Dream Cafe and sang in a Leonard Cohen Tribute concert with internationally known poet, Shane Koyzan.

Her next performance project is “Vocal Improvisation and Motion-activated Electronic Sound

Interaction” (VIMES Interaction). The aim of this project is to research our relationship with technology and question our definition of nature using voice, gesture controlled sound, interactive costuming, sculpture, installation, theatre, movement, speech synthesis and to write the first draft of a performance piece.

Mia is also a Transformative Voice Coach and helps individuals who are on a path of self discovery to strengthen their voice and step more fully into their authentic expression.