never left – exhibition

November 17 – November 28 2025
Sound Studies Gallery, 3-47 Arts Building
10:00 – 5:00 Monday – Friday

Over the past twenty years, the advertisement industry’s rampant monetization of personal
information and coercive methods of data collection have become a dangerous norm. These dangers are further exacerbated when Virtual Reality is involved, thanks to the sheer number of sensors made increasingly necessary by the demands of the technology and the market control which Meta – one of the worst culprits of surveillance advertising – holds over the medium. Yet the importance of safe and comfortable self-disclosure remains a fundamental human need. As a digital humanist, game designer, and composer, how then can I safely explore self-disclosure in VR? In other words; how can we artistically reappropriate the act of technologically-mediated self-disclosure? Created in response to these questions, “never left” is a reflective work of research-creation comprising of a 10-15 minute audio-first VR experience, aiming to re-sanctify technologically-mediated acts of self-disclosure via mutual reciprocity, critical distance, and navigable music.

Catherine is an Edmonton-based composer and multimedia artist holding graduate degrees in Composition and Digital Humanities. With research interests spanning VR, glitch, self-disclosure, solitary experience, game design, and queer life in the Post-Internet Age, Catherine’s work draws from an eclectic variety of inspirations. Her music has been commissioned for New Music Edmonton’s “Now Hear This” festival, and performed by the Land’s End Ensemble, Winds of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Association of Canadian Women Composers. In her spare time, Catherine frequently designs and/or creates audio for games, and has won 1st place in multiple game jams across Alberta.

https://catbevan.itch.io/