ABOUT > PEOPLE
Paula Gardner, PhD
Principal Investigator

Paula is an Associate Professor, OCAD, with expertise in New Media, ethnography, documentary production and mobile experience design. She co-led (with Geoffrey Shea) the Canadian Heritage-funded project, Portage, The Canadian Mobile Experience. The project pioneered work in unified authoring-design approaches, interaction design, and mobile networks (mobilelab.ca/portage). Paula has published numerous articles on mobile technologies, and in the area of psychiatric technologies and cultural practice. She is currently completing a full-length documentary on the American asylum process since 9/11/01.

Barbara Jenkins, PhD
Biomapping Co-Applicant

Barbara is an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, bringing scholarly expertise in sociological analysis of urban and art practices, specializing in architectural and spatial theory and culture. She has published relevant articles related to design theory and urban cultural practice and has directed an artist-run centre. Her unique strengths support our urban, art-research experiments.

John Zelek, PhD
Biomapping Co-Applicant

John is a Professor, University of Waterloo with a prolific history in biometric and haptic engineering research. Dr. Zellick brings engineering depth (in coding, haptics and user testing) and years of experience in facilitating successful inter-university grant projects. His research and industry experience (founding Tactile Sight, Inc.) producing wearable, tactile navigational aids brings expertise in sensor and wearable sensing technologies to the project.

Joseph Dumit, PhD
Biomapping Consultant

Joe is an Associate Professor & Director of the Science and Technology Studies Program, University of California, Davis. Joe will collaborate with Biomapping via videoconferencing and local workshops. Dumit is an international expert in biotechnology and culture, author of numerous collections, Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity (Princeton, 2003) and is currently completing a book on cybernetics and technology.

Leigh-Ann Pahapill, MFA
Biomapping Collaborator

Leigh-Ann uses video, photography and sculpture to interrogate notions of fixed representation through new media and sculptural installation that explore the phenomenology of knowing and attention and neuroaesthetic art. She was the mobile installation artist on the Portage mobile experience project, has published essays on art practice and self-knowledge, and has received numerous fellowships, awards, and grants in recognition of her practice, most recently from the Ontario Arts Council.

Rob King, MA
Biomapping Collaborator

Rob has an MA in Communication and Culture, Ryerson University and is the Applied Research and Production Manager, Canadian Film Centre, brings extensive authoring and software-hardware design experience, communication and design expertise, and experience as Design Engineer for the Portage mobile project.

Patricio Davila, MA
Biomapping Collaborator

Patricio has an MA in Communication and Culture, Ryerson University. He brings expertise in Interface and Interaction design, data visualization, relational aesthetics, and served as Interaction Designer for the Portage Project and Manager for OCAD-based Mobile Digital Commons Network projects (mobilelab.ca).

Hazel Meyer, MFA Candidate
Post-Graduate Research Assistant

Hazel Meyer is a visual artist and aspiring athlete. She has spent the last ten years in Montreal, earning a BFA from Concordia University and paying for that BFA through her subsequent employment as a fabric designer. With the timely appearance of a grant, Hazel left the textile industry to pursue an audio-athletic skipping project called Smooche de la Rooche, begin her appointment with the Hound's tooth, forsooth! fabricLAB, and exhibit her projects inter/nationally. She is presently living in Toronto and completing the YMCA's fitness certification program to further refine her routine of Gesamtkunstwerkian aerobics.

Ken Leung, B.Sc.
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Ken brings experience from OCAD's past two mobile projects, and skills in website design, open source coding, and interaction design.