SMARTWEAR REVOLUTION ESYMPOSIUM 2026
Smartwear Revolution is a large, co-developed research project led by researchers at the University of Alberta and a team of international researchers, funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund - Transformation Stream (NFRF-T) in 2024. The project involves the codesign of smartwear fibres to create intelligent garments that provide assistance for basic trunk support, arm and leg support and movement for activities of daily living, and basic injury prevention for People with Lived Experience (PLEX) of neuromuscular weakness, adults of an older age, caregivers and healthcare workers.
Through the creative research collaborations between technology, textiles, social justice, artists, designers, and PLEX (People with Lived Experience), new smartwear technologies and fibres will be codesigned and shared to the community in a series of symposia, exhibitions, and publications. The creative possibilities of the smartwear will be shared in two public art and technology festivals in 2028 and 2031, featuring visual art, performance and dance, live dress and fashion design collections, and creative research design presentations that showcase the evolution of the Smartwear Revolution research project to the community at large.
Ahead of launching an open call for arts works and artists in residence for the first festival, we are researching the work of disability arts organizations, and reviewing best practices for accessibility in the arts. We are now sharing this research and seeking community feedback through a series of eSymposia on Artists & Accessibility on 10th June, Ecologies of Care on 15th June, and Cripping Collaboration on 17th June 2026. Each session will include presentations by the research team and guest speakers, followed by facilitated break out discussions.
SMARTWEAR REVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM SESSION 1: ARTISTS & ACCESSIBILITY, 10 June 4-6 PM MT
How can we create and distribute open calls, artist supports, and opportunities that centre accessibility as a baseline, and not an afterthought?
Presentations by Carly Neis, Brooke Leifso and Aynaz Raoufian, followed by exchanging thoughts and thinking together about what accessibility means to artists.
Register here: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/nmkcXKPxS6-8YD6T9VFpWg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the eSymposium.
SMARTWEAR REVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM SESSION 2: ECOLOGIES OF CARE, 15 June 4-6 PM MT
How can the artistic endeavors of the Smartwear Project contribute to supporting and strengthening existing networks that curate / present / give space & resources to disability arts practices?
Presentations by Nexi Alarcon, Jenn Kowalchuk, Sean Lee and Ginger Carlson, followed by exchanging thoughts and thinking together about how to support and expand an ecosystem of disability arts networks.
Register here: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/T1WsTvHpSCGl-R0FH7vPnA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the eSymposium.
SMARTWEAR REVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM SESSION 3: CRIPPING COLLABORATION, 17 June 12-2 PM MT
How can we invite, embody, and sustain modes of collaboration that truly support extraordinary ways of thinking and making?
Presentations by Carla Rice, Claudia Alick and Louise Hickman, followed by exchanging thoughts and thinking together about how to support and expand an ecosystem of disability arts networks.
Register here: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/y8zE9mQ9RdeOVg1QRk3s3A
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the eSymposium.
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Carly Neis (she/they) a disabled actor, playwright, and arts advocate with Cerebral Palsy based in Edmonton, is a graduate of MacEwan University's Arts and Cultural Management program and has completed the Azimuth Theatre Mentorship and Apprenticeship Program. Carly is passionate about musicals, creating new works, and ensuring accessibility for all in the world of storytelling.
Brooke Leifso (she/they) is a Disabled/Crip performance producer, Expressive Art Practitioner and academic. She consults theatre productions and festivals (Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, SkirtsAFire) on accessibility measures to make performances for all and art as the public good. In 2024, she was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany), and Arts Quarter Budapest (Budapest, Hungary). As an academic, Brooke is the Research Chair in Workplace Inclusion and Accessibility at NorQuest College (Edmonton, Alberta) and has publications in the Neurodivergent and Autistic youth inclusion in the workplace and employment training programs, and has co-written the Disability Screen Office, Best Practices Guides in making accessible film festivals and film productions.
Aynaz Raoufian (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose work centers on cancer patients, caregiving, grief, and memory; shaped by her lived experience as a caregiver to her sister during cancer treatment. Through the integration of multiple disciplines and art methods, she explores alternative modes of expression and ways of confronting personal experience, unsettling assumptions about how illness and grief ought to be faced. Raoufian holds a BFA in Sculpture and a Master of Art Research from the University of Tehran and is currently pursuing an MFA in Intermedia at the University of Alberta, where she works as a graduate research assistant on the Smartwear Revolution project, conducting a literature review of Disability Arts best practices.
Nexi Alarcon (she/her) is the Director of Arts and Communications, and Jenn Kowalchuk (she/her) is Communications and Engagement lead at the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (JHC) working to advance dignity, freedom, justice, and security through collaborative relationships and transformative education on peace and human rights. Both Nexi and Jenn have worked on multiple arts-based, disability justice projects.
Sean Lee (he/they) is the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability, which operates Canada’s first gallery dedicated to exhibiting Deaf, Mad, and disability arts and advancing accessible curatorial practices. His work focuses on championing disability arts as a vital contemporary movement and embedding accessibility as a creative and organizational practice across the cultural sector.
For over a decade, Sean has contributed to national and international conversations on disability arts, access aesthetics, and disability-led curatorial practice through exhibitions, public programming, teaching, and mentorship. At Tangled, he leads exhibition development, strategic partnerships, and institutional initiatives that position disability arts as a site of cultural innovation and civic engagement. Sean has taught and presented with organizations including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, NODE Curatorial Studies Online, Humber College, and the Goethe-Institut, and has contributed writing to publications including Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation and Living Disability. He regularly advises artists, curators, and institutions on accessibility and disability-led cultural practice.
He currently serves on the Board of the Toronto Arts Council and CARFAC Ontario, and is Chair of the Toronto Arts Council’s Visual and Media Arts Committee. He has also contributed to peer assessment panels for the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and the Ford Foundation, and served on advisory committees supporting cultural policy initiatives for the City of Toronto and the Ontario Arts Council.
Ginger Carlson (she/they) is a writer, curator, and PhD student in the History of Art, Design and Visual Culture whose research explores curatorial practice through a disability justice lens. Her scholarship is situated at the intersections of crip aesthetics, critical disability and curatorial studies, and institutional critique. Ginger holds a master’s degree in Art Gallery & Museum Studies from the University of Manchester and an honours bachelor’s degree in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta. Through her role as a researcher with the Smartwear Revolution, she is currently curating an exhibition at the McMullen Gallery and contributing to a literature review that will inform a call for submissions for artistic projects and residencies.
Carla Rice (she/her) is Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair Feminist Studies and Social Practice and Founding and Academic Director of the Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Rice specializes in feminist, difference, and disability theory and in research creation methodologies with a focus on changing systems and fostering social well-being and justice. At the University of Guelph, she founded the Re•Vision Centre as a cutting-edge research creation centre and state-of-the-art traveling media-lab that explores how communities can use arts- and story-informed research methods to advance social inclusion, wellbeing, and justice. Rice has published 5 books (3 more forthcoming), more than 130 refereed papers, and over 40 refereed book chapters; produced an archive of 1400 films; and delivered hundreds of workshops, consultations and keynotes nationally and internationally. Achieving the rank of full professor, she has received awards for advocacy, research, mentorship, and teaching including from the British Psychological Society (2019) for Research Innovation, the Ontario Heritage Trust for Excellence in Conservation (2020), Canadian Psychological Association for Outstanding Feminist Mentorship (2015) and a University of Guelph Teaching Award for excellence in pedagogy (2016), and she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2017. She currently directs 10 research programs and co-investigate nine initiatives, representing close to $10 million, 180+ researchers, 40 Canadian and seven international universities.
Claudia Alick (she/they) is a national leader, performer, producer, designer, writer, designer and inclusion expert. She is founding producer of the transmedia social justice company CALLING UP whose projects include Accessible Virtual Pride, Producing in Pandemic, The Every 28 Hours Plays, We Charge Genocide TV, Justice Producers Collabertive, F the Gala, Gaming4Justice on Twitch. They work collaboratively on programs like CripCreate, Co-artistic direction of The BUILD Convening with FoolsFURY, Digital Design of The Festival of Masks with LA Commons, partnering with Trek Table as producer and on camera talent, building and facilitating the Mosaic Network (an alternative to facebook for BIPOC theaters and funders), producing Ghostlight Project, and Mouthwater Festival. Her practice is doing digital placemaking creating gathertown spaces for theater-making, protests, and organizing.
Claudia has directed plays like Electra with Access Classics, All My Pretty Fictions in Chicago, and Istwa a Two Long Read with CUJ. She is a curator and access doula with The CripTech Incubator whose projects include CripTech GrayArea Metaverse, Haptics Lab, and Artificial intelligence Lab. With CUJ she has produced many artificial intelligence experiments with visual art, animations, audio and text specifically for use with disabled communities. She is in an experimental AI Dance project Zero Remake Return in May 2025. She is a user experience design lead on apps like Followers Forever and Early Words.
Claudia acts as a consultant to funders and companies around the country. She served as co-president of the board of NET for 7 years and is still active board member. She’s an advisor to SF Disability Culture Center, the NEFA National Theater project for 7 years and co-produced Unsettling Dramaturgy (crip and indigenous international digital colloquium), and is an advisor to Howlround Digital Theater Commons. She has performed with NY Neofuturists, and on many podcasts and livestreams. Public speaking highlights include On Pleasure Activism with Disability Visibility Project + Integrated Community Services, AI for the People Black in 2042, and The Smithsonian Afrofuturism Series: Claiming Space, A Symposium on Black Futures. Her online racial justice practice is reaching thousands weekly. She is producing performances of justice on stage, online, and in real life.
Louise Hickman is a Wellcome Early Career Fellow, leading the project "Algorithmic Kitchen: Recipes for Disability‑Led Health Technology Design" at the University of Cambridge. She is also a research associate with the Minderoo Centre of Technology and Democracy. Her research draws on critical disability studies, feminist labour studies, and science and technology studies to examine the historical and sociotechnical conditions of access work—particularly how access is produced and mediated through human labour, assistive systems, and economic structures. Previously, she was a Senior Research Officer at the London School of Economics and contributed to the Ada Lovelace Institute’s JUST‑AI Network on Data and AI Ethics. She holds a PhD in Communication from the University of California, San Diego.