Staff and Board
Staff
Alex Ramsay, Operations Coordinator
Alex Ramsay (he/him) is an award-winning journalist, editor, and video artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University and has previously worked in radio broadcasting, film programming, and arts administration.
Eli Nolet, Public Programming Coordinator
Eli Nolet (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and arts worker from the occupied territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas (otherwise known as hamilton, ontario). Having worked extensively in non-profit and artist-run galleries and centers, they are deeply committed to community-building and equitable access to resources within the arts.
Interns
Elizabeth Charkowy, Gallery & Archive Intern
Elizabeth Charkowy (she/her) is a fourth-year student at McMaster University majoring in Media Arts and Communication Studies. With a strong interest in digital media and public relations, she serves as the Event Manager for the Communication and Media Arts Society (CMAS) and as the Event Coordinator for the McMaster Film Production Club. She aims to pursue roles in digital marketing, public relations, and media production, where she can continue to apply her creativity, leadership, and event-planning skills.
Huda Basit, Video & Media Intern
Huda Basit is currently pursuing a double major in Criminology, Law and Society, and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. With a passion for studying filmmaking and acting that began at a young age, she explores the intersection of visual storytelling and societal issues through her academic works. She not only has a strong interest in writing academic papers on films but also enjoys hands-on work, particularly filming and editing short videos for school projects. She hopes to continue developing these skills after undergrad and make a meaningful impact in film and photography.
Jing Jia, Communications Intern
Jing Jia (she/her) is a fourth-year student at McMaster University majoring in Media Arts. She is passionate about digital media, graphic design, photography, and film production. Her coursework and freelance work experience have developed her creativity, communication, and media production skills. She aims to pursue a career in media production and the digital media industry where she can continue to strengthen and apply these skills.
Board of Directors
Jessica A. Rodríguez (Chair) is a multimedia artist, designer and researcher. She is currently studying a doctorate program in Communications, New Media, & Cultural Studies at McMaster. Her practice and research projects focus on audiovisual practices such as visual music, electronic literature, video experimentation, sound art, visualization/sonification, live coding, among others, collaborating with composers, writers, designers, and other visual artists. She is co-founder of andamio.in, a collaboration platform that uses digital and analogue technologies to explore with text, visuals, and audio. She is also part of RGGTRN, a collective that engages in algorithmic dance music and audiovisual improvisation informed by Latinx experiences. She has participated at Sound Though (2016/17 Glasgow, Edimburg), International Symposium of Electronic Art (2015 Vancouver, Canada / 2017 Manizales, Colombia), International Conference on Live Coding (2017 Morelia, México / 2018 Madrid, España / 2019 Limerick, Irlanda), Sound + Environment (2017 Hull, Inglaterra), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (2016/17/19), SEGNALI (2017 Italia), Seeing Sound (2016 Bath, Inglaterra), among others.
Stefan MacDonald-Labelle (Secretary) graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Health Sciences and then opted to take a left turn to work in the film industry. During this time, he has worked as an Assistant Camera, Camera Operator, and Location Manager until transitioning to the world of post-production. Since then, he has worked as an editor, colorist, and VFX Artist whose projects have been featured on networks such as OutTV, UKTV, CBC, Hollywood Suite, and the History Channel. Outside of this, Stefan also writes, directs, and produces independent genre films as well as a podcast, and enjoys digital sculpting and hard-surface modeling within 3D applications.
Alex Maclean (Treasurer) is a software developer and new media artist based in Hamilton, ON whose passion for art and technology guides his practice investigating themes of human ecology with a heavy focus on the auditory realm. His works and performances have been included at international conferences and festivals such as ICLC, NIME, and the Network Music Festival and he is also a recipient of the 2022 City of Hamilton Arts Awards Shirley Elford Emerging Artist Commission Prize. Locally, Alex is a member of McMaster’s Cybernetic Orchestra, a live-coding laptop ensemble.
Richelle Sibolboro is the Director of Marketing for Red Studio, a Toronto-based wellness architecture and design firm. With over 15 years of experience in brand, marketing and communications, Richelle has worked with recognizable brands such as Marriott, Tribute Portfolio, Le Meridien, Renaissance Hotels, Autograph Collection, Plan Canada, Bausch + Lomb, George Brown College, MS Society and Cadillac Fairview. Before moving into marketing Richelle was an editor for Azure, designboom and OpenCity projects, writing over 5000 articles about art, design and architecture. Covering international design weeks such as Chicago Architecture Biennial, Sao Palo Design Week, Design March in Iceland, and Salone di Mobile in Milan. Richelle has also exhibited at Venice Biennale 2014, EDIT 2017 and London Design Biennial 2021. She completed her MA at the Institute of Art, Design + Technology, Dublin, Ireland (2018) where her thesis was based on exploring a new framework for the Architecture Biennale of the Future. She also holds BID from Toronto Metropolitan University (2005).
Natalie Hunter is a visual artist from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She works between photography, installation, sculpture, and the moving image, and is mostly known for her multilayered and experiential photo-based installations on transparent film. With a fascination for both image making and working with materials by hand, she explores ephemeral and immaterial concepts like time, light, memory, space, temporality, perception, and the senses through material, image, and form. She is the recipient of many Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grants, and Ontario Arts Council Visual Artists Creation Project Grants. She has shown her work in public art galleries and artist-run-centres, including: Rodman Hall Arts Centre, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Smokestack Gallery, Hamilton Supercrawl, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Windsor, Centre 3 for artistic and social practice, Factory Media Centre, Hamilton Artists Inc., Latcham Art Centre, Museum London, Gallery TPW, Propeller Art Gallery, John B. Aird Gallery, and the University of Manitoba School of Arts Gallery, among others. Upcoming exhibitions include: The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford B.C. as part of Capture Photography Festival in 2023, and Hamilton Winterfest. Her work has been featured in Hamilton Arts and Letters, Femme Art Review, The Gathered Gallery, Other Peoples Pixels Blog, Canadian Journal of Culture Studies, and BlackFlash Magazine. She holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo where she is a sessional instructor, and received an Excellence in Online Teaching Award (2017). She lives and works in her home city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Adrienne Bazir is a bilingual video game developer, 2D animator, and cartoonist. She loves to dip her fingers in many pies – as long as a medium allows her to tell stories, she’s game. After doing her education in France and getting her BFA in Traditional Animation at Columbia College Chicago, she’s worked as a Senior 2D Animator in various studios since 2015, in both the United States and Canada.
Alongside her animation work, she runs insertdisc5, a multimedia studio focused on storytelling. She has written and drawn many comics and zines, mostly digital and sold online. She’s interested in collaborative work, and has participated in works such as Animate-A-Grump, Rhythm Reanimate, and Fat Mermaids: A Collaborative Charity Zine. As an award-winning game developer, she has showcased her games at the Tokyo Game Show, Game Devs of Color Expo, and Hand Eye Society’s Wordplay Festival. Her latest game In Stars and Time, produced by Armor Games Studio, has been featured in the video game press on websites such as IGN, NintendoLife, Gayming Magazine, and Denfamico Gamer. She will be an Animation Course Director at York University starting in Winter 2024.
Andrea Zeffiro is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts and Academic Director of the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship at McMaster University. From 2014-2020, she was co-curator (with Mél Hogan and MC McPhee) of No More Potlucks (NMP), the online experimental publication and community platform focused on queer arts, politics and culture. Her previous work on immersive mobile experiences, responsive installations, and virtual and augmented reality has appeared in academic journals, edited collections, and exhibited at the Banff New Media Institute and the California Nanosystems Institute and in public spaces in Montréal, Toronto, and New York. Some of Andrea’s current research incorporates sound data, sonification, and speculative design practices.
Adrien Crossman is a queer and non-binary white settler artist, educator, and curator currently residing on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples in Hamilton, Ontario. They hold an MFA in Visual Art from the University of Windsor (2018), and a BFA in Integrated Media with a Minor in Digital and Media Studies from OCAD University (2012). Crossman is interested in the affective qualities of queerness, investigating how queerness can be felt through specific aesthetics and sensibilities. In addition to having exhibited across Canada and internationally, Adrien co-founded and co-runs the online arts publication Off Centre. Crossman is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts at McMaster University.
Mel Racho (he/him) is a queer trans Fillipinx media artist-scholar interested in creating revolutionary systems. He holds a Master of Information in Information Systems, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and Digital Media, and is currently a PhD candidate in Toronto Metropolitan University and York Universities’ jointly administered Communication and Culture program researching data colonialism and how to disrupt its logics through careful, embodied creative interventions. He contributes to York U’s Digital Justice Lab, the University of Ottawa and Carleton Universities’ Transgender Media Portal and the Digital Democracies Institute’s Data Fluencies project.
Factory Media Centre is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. All members in good standing may apply to join the Board. Click HERE to learn more and apply.
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