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The annual Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA), produced by , returns to Kingston for its sixth iteration this month. FOLDA is the only festival of its kind in Canada exploring and presenting live performances integrated with digital technologies.

FOLDA will take place both in-person and online, June 7 to 10 at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.

Artists from across Canada travel to Kingston to perform in FOLDA. This year, the festival centers around the idea of synesthesia, a unique experience in which stimulation of one sensory pathway causes an automatic and involuntary response in another. Synesthetes hear colours, taste shapes, and feel sounds, which means their senses can get mixed up and create unique perceptions that are not typically experienced by others.

“Together, through their performances, the artists presented at FOLDA this year are asking the audience to consider how our senses inform who we think we are, and how we relate to those around us,” says Michael Wheeler (Dan School of Drama and Music), co-curator of FOLDA.

The festival, which takes place over four days, will celebrate creativity and innovation while demonstrating what is possible, provoking critical analysis, and sharing approaches that encourage experimentation. This year’s event involves captivating performances, thought-provoking workshops.

This year, FOLDA is also featuring several American Sign Language (ASL) shows, livestreams and workshops. Tickets start from just $10, with complimentary passes available for the deaf community.

Other events include:

• Creative Access in Community by Erin Ball, Maxime Beauregard, and collaborators
  • June 8 at 8 pm
  • June 10 at 6:30 pm
• Home by Beau Dixon and Linda Garneau
  • June 9 at 8 pm
• Scored in Silence by Chisato Minamimura
  • June 7 at 8 pm
• Asses.Masses by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim
  • June 8 at 4 pm 
• Through My Lens by Amy Amantea and James Long
  • June 7 at 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm
  • June 8 at 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, and 7 pm
  • June 9 at 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, and 7 pm
  • June 10 at 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, and 7 pm

“We hope audiences will encounter and reconsider their preconceptions of ability, security, and community, and emerge from the festival with a renewed sense of what is possible in live performance,” Wheeler says.