Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners are high-tech medical instruments that use nuclear physics to aid in medical diagnosis and neuroscientific research. MRI scanners manipulate the tissues of subjects’ brains at the subatomic level to reveal anatomical structures or, as in the case of FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), they map activity taking place in selected regions of the brain.

The Haunted Scanner, however, is made of chipboard, wood scraps, and consumer electronics. It’s weather-beaten and forlorn, and yet, it still seems to function, in a way. It can’t quite scan your brain, but maybe it can offer glimpses into some kind of murky inner world. Who built this weird machine, and why? It’s like a vestige of a strange society who’s meaning has been lost. Perhaps it had a scientific function, a medical function, a spiritual function, or perhaps it was constructed just for fun. Other odd objects exist in the same strange parallel universe. Are they fetishistic relics of past technologies, venerated by the last remnants of a dying culture? Are they powerful talismans, whimsical toys, or simply nostalgic souvenirs of times gone by?

Technical support and creative consultation by Rob Cruickshank.

Many thanks to Abdullah Al-Gailani, Sarah Duncan, Mikayla Salomons, Dr. Michael Noseworthy and Jordi Alfaro for research support in the early stages of this project.

Ferdinando Bilanzola (1956-2001), Judi Burgess, Raffaele Caterini, Paul Cvetich, John Kinsella, Janice Kovar, Paul Ropel-Morski and Lisa Wöhrle are The Contemporaries.

All McMaster University art graduates, they formed the artist collective “The Contemporaries” in the late 1980s and exhibited extensively in the Hamilton region until the mid 90s. The Contemporaries: This Must Be The Place brings the artists back together in an exhibition that focuses on their current practices, while also taking a look back at the early days. The connections that drew The Contemporaries together – deep ties of friendship, art and their shared history with McMaster and Hamilton – have remained intact throughout the years.

refuge (SIREN) is an immersive web exhibition and digital dissemination project created as an extension of nichola feldman-kiss’ solo exhibition Scapegoat, presented at the McMaster Museum in the Winter of 2022. This exploratory site is an output of the artist’s prosocial practice-based research that explores colonial paradigms and the globalized order’s effects on human life and the environment. Scapegoat and another recent exhibition project called Siren III take on new meanings as varied elements inspired by their visceral hybrid-media installations are designed into this compelling interactive landscape.

Reflecting on themes from migratory culture and forced displacement to geopolitics and climate crisis, refuge (SIREN) is an excursion through oceanic passages, diasporic imaginaries and existential transitions. Submerged into the unsettling depths of descent and ascension, accompanying texts, audio works and images are remixed together in this virtual space which acts as a portal through tenacious journeys into new possible cartographies, honouring life’s urgent will to survive and thrive.

The journey ends as our heroes clash against Sauron’s hordes in the final confrontation that will spell hope or despair for all of Middle-Earth. A Hobbit’s resolve will be tested, as the One Ring continues to claw at what’s left of Frodo’s spirit to cast it into the fires of Mount Doom. An alliance’s purpose will shine through, as it bands together once more against the forces of Mordor. And a future king’s destiny will be revealed, as Aragorn summons the courage to become a great leader and reclaim his rightful place upon the throne of Gondor.