https://raisecain.net touching feeling Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:12 +0000 https://raisecain.net en https://raisecain.net/About Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:11 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/About : <img width="1536" height="2048" width_o="1536" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/192e23e0af5190214fedaf5d4ae5197057799a26f983b2626c323cc46c3b6512/photo-1.JPG" data-mid="235440550" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/192e23e0af5190214fedaf5d4ae5197057799a26f983b2626c323cc46c3b6512/photo-1.JPG" /> <img width="1536" height="2838" width_o="1536" height_o="2838" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a587d5e6ee58862533f06afbb1cbfc5a94dd29c9cd50c19c2bfa1e50f3a3cda1/magda_poland.JPG" data-mid="235440493" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a587d5e6ee58862533f06afbb1cbfc5a94dd29c9cd50c19c2bfa1e50f3a3cda1/magda_poland.JPG" /> email: molszanowski@dawsoncollege.qc.ca https://raisecain.net/Home Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:11 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/Home Magdalena Olszanowski <img width="1028" height="685" width_o="1028" height_o="685" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eff2baab7eced998290490192019bbe085cb73bde5456f4c8451fe5027335ae6/1_hnd.jpg" data-mid="160927793" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eff2baab7eced998290490192019bbe085cb73bde5456f4c8451fe5027335ae6/1_hnd.jpg" /> <img width="1028" height="685" width_o="1028" height_o="685" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28fc3cabd3080e34bd2744f2bff5fa37ef9ccf38adb8ec14a857b75b648a5251/1_hnd2.jpg" data-mid="160927759" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/28fc3cabd3080e34bd2744f2bff5fa37ef9ccf38adb8ec14a857b75b648a5251/1_hnd2.jpg" /> <img width="1077" height="685" width_o="1077" height_o="685" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f344be13f772762f6bd591de4b82dbf170990156f666253703ecb1cf872fc7d3/1_language.jpg" data-mid="160927798" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f344be13f772762f6bd591de4b82dbf170990156f666253703ecb1cf872fc7d3/1_language.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="865" width_o="1200" height_o="865" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3deb4a5e8df114292936ba57e8fa31f1295f095f8db83a2843ebe8d3a38f9c1c/belly-10.jpg" data-mid="160929610" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3deb4a5e8df114292936ba57e8fa31f1295f095f8db83a2843ebe8d3a38f9c1c/belly-10.jpg" /> mother art/is/t, Montreal. My current beat is on art, the environment, and the maternal. I’m also a scholar of electronic media and feminist internet history, and a writer of essays, criticism, and memoir. I obtained a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Concordia University, where I am currently part-time faculty. I also teach at Dawson College in Cinema and Communication. My dissertation: girl.is.a.four.letter.word: &nbsp;The Collective Practices of Amateur Self-Imag(in)ing and Personal Website Production 1996 to 2001. I also write a newsletter, near to the wild heart, on motherhood and its intersections with philosophy, the climate crisis, the body, and art. https://raisecain.net/02 Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:12 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/02 Coming Soon. <img width="1500" height="1000" width_o="1500" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a5b646fa389aae3cb05c137898f728dd44096026f76d722a1d95fcf04bb404c3/NB-event-1-of-1.jpg" data-mid="251031465" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a5b646fa389aae3cb05c137898f728dd44096026f76d722a1d95fcf04bb404c3/NB-event-1-of-1.jpg" /> “Ageing (Wo)Men and their World” Nuit Blanche a Montreal, Canada. March 17, 2017.Portraits. https://raisecain.net/Performance Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:12 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/Performance SELECT PERFORMANCES One Hand Moments (2016) Sensorial Collective (2021-2023) https://raisecain.net/One-Hand-Moments Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:58:15 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/One-Hand-Moments One Hand Moments: We Often Make Love with Wor(l)ds (2016) 8-hour Durational Performance with newborn, S. Chatzilias-Olszanowski (4 months old), Words &amp; [ ] — a Durational Conference of Art &amp; Thought, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, QC.I re-created my newborn’s room and our daily activities for 8 hours, asking people to touch me as I touch my infant. “Making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand … we always make love with worlds.” —Deleuze &amp; Guattari, Anti-Oedipus (1972) The initial move a baby makes that indicates they are alive is a breath followed by a cry. Crying is an attempt at wording what is yet un-worded; at what is being discovered. It demarcates the distance between m/other bodies. What does the distance from my tongue to my son’s form? To [ forget a mother tongue ] assumes a knowledge of it. How do we come to know it? Primary language at its basest is that of a newborn—their cries. No. Not simply verbal. Gestural. For example, tongue smacking is the first cue of hunger. Crying is the last. A need to survive via not/words. Knotted words. How is a wor[ ]d made? &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;&nbsp;[ performance ] explores various modes of linguistic un/making via the collective exhaustion of motherhood. How can the banality and frustration of the repetitive actions of mothering (ones that have led to my postpartum depression) become spaces for new potentialities to emerge when on display? when taken out of their domestic context? What is the boundary between our wor(l)ds and a newborn’s wor(l)ds? One possible answer is to be guided by a newborn’s orientation toward and discovery of a mother tongue. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Conference participants passing by my area are asked to sit/stand/lay for the entire duration of whatever is happening during my performance at the time. There will be basic instructions. We are only finished the moment when Solon is. In this way we are always of each other’s wor(l)ds. For example, when I change him, I hope for the participants to imagine being cleaned; letting go of everything, or cleaning some part of their body, slowly, methodically. The participants are asked to write any thoughts after the duration of said activity and give it to us. I will read them to Solon when he is awake. At the time of the performance he will be 3 ½ months old—at an age of distinguishing the importance of simple monosyllable words. A time when he is most prone to listening. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I will hold Solon during the entire duration of the piece, like this proposal, which is written with one hand. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The performance will be audio-recorded in four-hour intervals (approximate newborn cycle of sleep) and sped up at a rate to become white noise. Babies need white noise. White noise reflects the wor(l)d of the womb. Duration Eeach activity can take anywhere from five minutes to four hours. S— will ultimately guide the piece. It is an extended durational work because motherhood is a extended durational performance of making love with wor(l)ds. Equipment &nbsp;Portable crib, a 2’ x 3’ rug, changing pad, plugs for speaker and computer, noise machine, toys, diapers, change of clothes, room with dimmed lights at some points. https://raisecain.net/08 Sat, 03 Dec 2022 02:17:12 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/08 Coming Soon.Documentary. Experimental Fiction. Digital Interactive. https://raisecain.net/Writing-Public Fri, 02 Dec 2022 20:23:57 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/Writing-Public Writing I write memoir, reviews, and criticism. Memoir “Be Who You Are. May You be Blessed In All That You Are: Involving Children In Re-Framing Jewish Ritual” in Re-storying Jewish Relationships to Community, Self, and Place: Interrogations of Settler Colonialism Willow-Samara Allen and Charles Levkoe (Eds). Athabasca University Press. (forthcoming 2026) “Moving at their pace: Activism with Children” Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture &amp; Social Justice Journal (46, 3), 2025 “I spent years feeling like an outsider in Canada — until my children helped me see it as home” CBC First Person, 4 July 2025 “A Mother’s Tongue Across Linguistic Worlds” tint journal, Fall 2024 “With a sky full of wildfire smoke, how do I give my children the carefree summer they deserve?” CBC First Person, 4 August 2023 “Caring Between the Lines” CBC Featured Columnist, 10 April 2022 “Detention on St-Denis” n+1 Montreal Diaries 27 May 2012 Features and Reviews “How to give Land back to itself” esse arts+opinions 110, Winter 2024 “Antidotes for a Liveable Future” esse arts+opinions 109, Fall 2023 “The Mother as Anchor for Play” esse 107, Winter 2023 “Artists in Isolation: Nadège Grebmeier Forget’s ‘Some Kind of Game’” Momus.ca, 5 May 2020 “Feminist Call to Action” YIARA Magazine, Vol. 5 April 2017 Interviews “Performance and negotiating hidden disability: an interview with Danielle Peers and Lindsay Eales.” nomorepotlucks 26, 2014 Catalogue Texts “Marie-Michelle Dechamps : Instances”, Parisian Laundry. Sept 2018 &amp;tc Foreword, Dear Journal Vol. 1, anthology, 2015. <img width="3001" height="1876" width_o="3001" height_o="1876" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f182fb9c64844b1512c59c60b51cf69764cb4bdcc0f01441b7fabd486d0c4286/horizontal.svg" data-mid="160848017" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f182fb9c64844b1512c59c60b51cf69764cb4bdcc0f01441b7fabd486d0c4286/horizontal.svg" /> <img width="3001" height="1876" width_o="3001" height_o="1876" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f182fb9c64844b1512c59c60b51cf69764cb4bdcc0f01441b7fabd486d0c4286/horizontal.svg" data-mid="160848017" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f182fb9c64844b1512c59c60b51cf69764cb4bdcc0f01441b7fabd486d0c4286/horizontal.svg" /> 20–12–2022 https://raisecain.net/Clock Wed, 30 Nov 2022 20:43:44 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/Clock Tuesday Oct 5 2021 (function(){ function pad(number) { return number < 10 ? '0'+ number : number } function setTime() { var timeElement = document.getElementById('time'); if(timeElement) { var time = new Date(), hours = pad(time.getHours()), minutes = pad(time.getMinutes()), seconds = pad(time.getSeconds()); timeElement.innerText = hours + ':' + minutes + ':' + seconds; } } var dateElement = document.getElementById('date'), weekdays = ['Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'], months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'Aug', 'Sept', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']; // set the current date if(dateElement) { var time = new Date(), day = weekdays[time.getDay()], date = time.getDate(), month = months[time.getMonth()], year = time.getFullYear(); dateElement.innerText = day + ' ' + month + ' ' + date + ' ' + year; } // set the current time setTime(); // and update the current time every second setInterval(setTime, 1000); })(); https://raisecain.net/Teaching-Philosophy Tue, 26 Oct 2021 18:42:58 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/Teaching-Philosophy Teaching Philosophy. My teaching philosophy constitutes a non-hierarchical and challenging environment that allows for all students to participate in comfortably. In the classroom I am constantly striving for EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity) through universal design, non-violent communication, and attunement to the politics of citation. Fostering a conscientious and safe space is key, especially through being aware of various student learning behaviors and skill sets and adapting accordingly. I strive for this by being accessible (through frequent student contact and in my tone when speaking and marking) and always making sure that I attempt my best to assist students in getting their point across. This involves active listening by paraphrasing and asking questions to allow the students to approach the material in traditional and also unexpected ways. Teaching is also about learning from the students and thinking through concepts and ideas with them, rather than for them. In this way, I am also motivated to contact other professors to understand what they are teaching to complement other courses and create a holistic learning environment for the student. I create assignments in form and content in relation to a through-line of a theme—the essence of the course that frames its objectives. To evoke this essence, I incorporate reading and writing skills, and research methods every semester. I assess students based on the creative application and integration of the concepts within our socio-cultural context. I encourage group work because sharing thought with someone is a relevant practice for every career field. Collaboration in an online context is not always as straightforward than in a regular classroom, but is necessary to combat isolation and to live in a post-Covid world. Modes of experiential learning provide students with agency concerning their knowledge. I have done this with collaborative course blogs, analyzing the pedagogical and physical tools used in the classroom, or assignments that oblige students to re-articulate their knowledge outside of the classroom so that they can directly see the relationship of the course material with the everyday world around them. Choosing select guest speakers that are directly involved in themes of the class is also an effective method of inspiring students that their scholarly work can have a broader reach. My areas of research expertise are: visual culture, media aesthetics, photography, feminist media studies, cultural theory, queer theory, continental philosophy, semiotics, communication theory, electronic music, film theory, media arts, internet history, global mobile media, and age studies. My areas of production expertise are: image- and time-based media, mobile media, photography, video, zine and web design. I also have extensive background in feminist media making, and my dissertation was broadly focused on gender, modes of power and trauma, and historical web media production, foregrounding sensitivity in this area. My dissertation focused on internet history has clear implications for today as many people are isolated at home on their computers – what non-paradigmatic uses of visual and mobile technologies will emerge? How can we as educators make use of this time to reconsider pedagogy and knowledge production in a historical, aesthetic, and philosophical manner? Last Updated 2026 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Courses Taught. Media Arts &amp; Aesthetics&nbsp;Feminist Perspectives on CultureCommunication Analysis of Environment: Which bodies? Which spaces? Cinema, Bodies, and Environments Media &amp; Gender Advertising and Consumer CultureCinema and Culture Cinema and Media HistoryCinema Styles&nbsp;Explorations in Cinema and Communication Scripting for Media&nbsp;Writing Lab Film as Art Visual Culture and Communication Universe of the Arts Digital Media Filmmaking I &amp; IIDigital Photography Scriptwriting&nbsp;Graduating Seminar Last Updated 2023 https://raisecain.net/YIMBY Mon, 01 Nov 2021 18:25:15 +0000 touching feeling https://raisecain.net/YIMBY <img width="1024" height="896" width_o="1024" height_o="896" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a44f0a02b7a74ca765b2eb0560a97def3060b8eb16e77e3a07b3bd1139f798ca/75_3288507091_cd986a76a0_b.jpg" data-mid="123299249" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a44f0a02b7a74ca765b2eb0560a97def3060b8eb16e77e3a07b3bd1139f798ca/75_3288507091_cd986a76a0_b.jpg" /> I co-founded and produced the YIMBY festival for three years (2006-2008) until I started my MA. It continues. The focus of the YIMBY (Yes, In My Backyard)&nbsp;festival is to create a fair-like atmosphere where people working in or interested in citizen based community development can gather and exchange ideas, strategies and celebrate the achievements of their respective organizations. The one-day event invites groups to "turn the tables" on policy makers and invite them to see the work that we do outside of the antagonistic dynamics of official meetings. Christina Zeidler was inspired to start the festival as a result of her work with neighbourhood groups who were responding to wide spread unchecked development in the Queen West Triangle. She realized that many groups are unfairly labeled NIMBY, when so often they are the ones networking, sharing information and making sure that people don't get left behind in the city building process. Selected Press2009 Featured in Toronto Star, February 14, 2009. See Tess Kalinowski’s article “Nimby: apt term or slur?” Available online at http://www.thestar.com/article/5876502009 Featured in Dandy Horse Magazine, Spring 2009. See Tammy Thorne’s monthly column featuring prominent Toronto cyclists “Heels on Wheels: Magdalena Olszanowski.” Interviewed about YIMBY. Available online at http://dandyhorsemagazine.com/blog/2012/01/26/heels-on-wheels-magda-olszanowski/2008 Featured Segment on “Na Luzie (Laid Back)” on OMNI-TV, about Magdalena Olszanowski and YIMBY Festival, Summer 2008, Toronto.2007 “Housing advocates work to counter NIMBY stance.” Carolyn Heiman, Dec 13, 2007. Canada.com