Dr. Tagny Duff, PhD

I’m an interdisciplinary media artist, researcher, and educator whose research-creation activities explore the interrelation between human bodies, microscopic scales of life and planetary ecology. After an extended medical leave, I’ve returned to the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University with renewed focus and new research directions shaped by personal healing and the COVID-19 pandemic.

My current Canada project, Tree of Mind, (2025 funded by CC) is an immersive augmented reality and biological art installation developed with user designer, Genevieve Metropolis. It draws on contemporary neuroscience studies related to clinical depression and stress, while engaging with critical psychedelic studies and efforts to decolonize dominant narratives surrounding the so-called “psychedelic renaissance” in Western medicine. Art-science collaborations with Mechawar lab at McGill (The Douglas Research Centre), Refuge and Murphy Royal Labs at UdM feature prominently in the development of the content and imagery. The project also integrates AI-generated 3D modeling, AR software, and biomedia imaging technologies to explore how these emerging tools are transforming the aesthetics, ethics, and methods of research-creation and scientific imaging practices. 

Over the past three decades, I’ve built an independent practice in artistic research, media production, and curatorial work. My research-creation projects have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, SSHRC, and FQRSC. In 2019, my research creation project "Wastelands" was nominated for an honorary mention at Prix Ars Electonica in the Artificial Life and Intelligence category and nominated for the STARTS award (European Union funded). I’ve also founded and directed a hybrid research space, Fluxmedia, one of Quebec’s first Level 2 biosafety wet labs for humanities-based researcher-creators. Originally housed in the biology building at Concordia’s Loyola campus in 2013, the lab was relocated to the SGW campus in 2015 and became the Speculative Life Biolab at the Milieux Institute.

As a teacher, I’m passionate about student-centered, praxis-based learning rooted in care, intersectionality, and decolonial approaches. I believe in constructive failure (something I know well!), empathy, and resilience as powerful tools for creative transformation. I’ve taught intermedia production, cultural and media theory courses as a sessional instructor and a full-time tenured faculty member at Concordia for many years. I look forward to continuing to grow with my students through innovating new forms of research-creation, collaboration, and curiosity.

Education

PhD, Humanities Doctoral Program, Concordia University

MFA, Open Media (With Distinction), Studio Arts, Concordia University

BFA, Intermedia, Studio Arts, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Courses

Fall 2025: Coms 367  Media and Cultural Context
Winter 2026: Coms 506 In the Field: methods in Communication Studies and Practice 
Winter 2026: Coms 642 Special Topics

research-creation, media art, technoscience, biological arts, performance, art-sci

Principal Investigator
Tree of Mind (2025) 
Collaborators: Genevieve Metropolis, Refuge, Mechawar labs (McGill) and Murphy Royal Labs (UdM).

This research creation project explores the relationship between clinical depression and astrocytes (Glial cells found in the brain), as well as 5me0DMT, a psychedelic drug sometimes used medicinally for clinical depression. Two dimensional microscopy images of astrocytes are incorrectly rendered into 3D objects via an 3D object AI generator, then recontextualized into a 3D animation of an otherworldly ecology scaled up to the human world via augmented reality. Funded by Canada Council for the Arts. 

Medical leave of absence 2019-2024

Principal Investigator
Shit! Speculations on the future of excrement and microbes as artistic and scientific media (2016-2017)
developed into Wastelands (2017-2019) 
This research-creation project explores the clash of cultural and scientific perspectives and practices around cleanliness from "clean" energy to cultural hygiene practices. It asks: how might we imagine mutually beneficial human-microbial relations from different points of view in a world literally made from "shit"?
What might a world of microbial-human waste exchange in a post-fossil fuel era look like?  Nominated for honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica and STARTs award, 2019.  
 
Principal Investigator
Viral BioreMEDIAtion (2011-2015)

This research-creation project explores and develops the concept of “bio-remediation” as the necessary interrelation between biological and digital media. Funded by Le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) (2011-2015)
http://www.frqsc.gouv.qc.ca/en/la-recherche/la-recherche-en-vedette/histoire?id=n466nulh1469470108409

Principal Investigator
Cryobook Archives ( 2009-ongoing)
This research-creation project features a series of handmade books made of human and pig ex-plant tissue, HaCat cells and a synthetic biological virus (Lentivirus). Tissue culture engineering techniques such as transfection and immunohistochemical staining procedures along with traditional book binding techniques are used to manifest these fleshy books. Funded By Canada Council. 
https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/visceral/cryobook-archives/

Principal Investigator

2018. "Towards a Dirty Future". 

2017 Fall 2017. Selected recipient for Bridge artist residency at Michigan State University. 
http://bridge.art.msu.edu

2016, June 14-17. Paper presentation: "Microbes and the Brave New World". Control. Society of Literature, Science and Arts (SLSA). Stockholm.  http://control2016.com/index.php/program/

2016, March 31. Official launch of Speculative Life Laboratories at Milieux Institute of Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia. http://www.fluxnetwork.net/affiliations/facilities/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/concordia-universitys-new-institute-examines-effects-of-digital-technology/article29572019/

2016, March 3-29. Researcher-in-residence. The Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology. Tbilisi, Georgia.

2016, March 16. Panel: Canadian DIY Biology Summit. Ottawa. Canada.

2016, February. Researcher-in-residence. Sylvain Moineau Laboratories. University of Laval.

2015, November. Panel: Mangling Methodologies in Biological Arts and Display Practices. Chair and organizer. FoFa Gallery at Concordia University.  http://www.concordia.ca/cuevents/finearts/fofa/2015/11/02/discussion-panel-mangling-methodologies-in-biological-art-and-display-practices.html

2015, October. Panel:  Art and Science in the Age of Biopolitics. Mutek_IMG.  http://www.mutek.org/en/img/2015/events/1117-panel

Supervision

Graduated:

2012-2015. WhiteFeather Hunter. “CraftingBiotextiles”. MFA. Major supervisor. MFA. Successfully defended. (SSHRC, FRQSCand CIAM scholarship holder. Recipient of the Étudiants-chercheursétoiles Award2016).


Tristan Matheson. "ContagiousMatters". MA.Communication Studies. Major supervisor. Successfully defended Spring 2016. (SSHRC and CIAM_Hexagramscholarship holder).

Lowell Gasoi. "Thank you forcoming here: hypermediacy as rhetorical device in the metatheatre of DanielMacIvor". MA (project) Communication Studies. Major supervisor. Graduated.(SSHRC, FRQSC, Entrance scholarship holder).

Antonia Hernandez. "Sexual relations through digital screens: from (cyber) space to (domestic)place". MA (project) Communication Studies Department. Concordia. MajorSupervisor.

Vanessa Rigaux. "PerformanceInterface: Autobiography and the Online Artist". MA (project)Communication Studies Department. Concordia. Major Supervisor.

2018-2019. "Wastelands". MATTER(S) matter(s), Curated by Jens Hauser and Steven Bridges. MSU Broad Art Museum. Michigan. USA.
https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibition/matters-matters-bridging-research-in-the-arts-and-sciences/

2015.  "Living Life Living Room". So3. Art, Biologie et (Al) Chimie. Curated by Jens Hauser. Espace Multimedia Gantner. Mulhouse, France.

2014 “Living Viral Tattoos”. Toxicity. Curated by Jennifer Willet and Melentie Pandilovski. Plug In Gallery. Winnipeg, Canada.

2013 “Living Viral Tattoos”. Curated by Oron Catts and SymbioticA. Semi-Permeable. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Australia.

2012. “Tissue Culture Point of View”. Solo exhibition at the I.P.Pavlov Memorial Apartment Museum of I.P.Pavlov Physiology Institute of Russian Academy of Science as part of the Pro Arte Festival. St. Petersburg, Russia. September 22 – October 14.

2012. “WetNet”. Group exhibition Emergencias 2012, curated by Marta de Menezes as part of the Art & Arquitecture Programme of Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture.Guimaraes, Portugal. June 16-September 2.

2011. “Cellular Memorabilia”. Solo installation exhibition featuring Living Viral Tattoos, Cryobook Archives and Tissue Culture Point of View. FoFA Gallery. Montreal, Canada. October.

2011. “Mobile human incubator for feeding microbes”, part of BioARTCAMP, Banff National Park, Curated by Jennifer Willet, Incubator Labs in cooperation with The Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada. July.

2011. “Cryobook Archives”, part of Visceral, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. January-February.

2009. “Living Viral Tattoos” exhibited and screened at the Moscow Biennale as part of “Evolution Haute Couture”, curated by Dmitry Bulatov. Sept-November.

2009. “Living Viral Tattoos”, (Installation) selected for the International Symposia of Electronic Art official exhibition program. Belfast Ireland. August.

2008. “Living Viral Tattoos”. Screened at the IX MediaForum as part of the Moscow International Film Festival as part of Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the post-biological era. Curated by Dmitry Bulatov and Olga Shishko (Moscow MediaARTLab).

2008. “Living Viral Tattoos”. Kaliningrad Art Gallery. Russia. Exhibited and screened as part of Evolution Haute Couture: Art and science in the post-biological era. Organised by the Kaliningrad Branch of the National Centre of Contemporary Arts. Curated by Dmitry Bulatov.