XA Professor Kathy Smith is completing her VR project “Dimensions,” an immersive journey through the Australian bushland, in peace and in trauma.

In June, XA Adjunct Professor Sam Gurry presented a call-to-action screening at the 2023 Society for Animation Studies (SAS) conference held at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. The screening, “GAY AF: Pathos & Joy,” was an overview of contemporary Independent short animation focusing on Queer stories that are unapologetic, lusty, and bursting with joy. Filmmakers included David Delafuente, Cheng Hsu-Chung, Huntrezz, and more.

XA MFA 3 Shengwei Zhou has released the first and second episodes of his Perfect City Series: “Perfect City: The Mother” and “Perfect City: The Bravest Kid.” Both films have been selected at multiple festivals, including the 46th and 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival, 28th Encounters Film Festival, 20th London Short Film Festival, and the 26th and 27th Fantasia International Film Festival. They have qualified for Oscar, BAFTA, Canadian Screening Awards, and European Film Awards.

XA Professor Lisa Mann is a founding member of M.A.M.A. (Mother Artists Making Art) an interdisciplinary, mother artist group. M.A.M.A.’s latest installation, “Pop-Up Condom Shop,” was commissioned for CalArts 50th Anniversary celebration on April 28-29. It features a mobile shop dispensing glitched, generative AI “ERUPT RESPONSIBLY” custom condoms, video, banner, and website which address the inequities in female and male-focused contraception.

XA Adjunct Professor Sam Gurry’s film “Up Close” was screened in April at Pleasure Dome in Toronto. The show, entitled Reimagining Queer Liberation, featured 10 short works made between 2020-2022 by 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadian and international artists. The works “reflect different understandings and re-imagining of what queer liberation means today.”