Ambiguity, Conflict, Paradox and Nuance

Treehouse Talks Lecture Series, Toronto Reference Library, April 12 2013

This talk explores universal human experiences of liminality. Dominant structures of culture and language can render these powerful experiences invisible at best.  At worst, they can trigger anxiety, depression, self-destructive or abusive behaviour.  Through play with dialectic, metacognition, and mindfulness, Oona will survey alternative approaches to navigating unstable realities.

Disaster Tourism

Trampoline Hall Lecture Series, curated by Margaux Williamson, Dec 12, 2016

A talk on the ethics of finding difficult things beautiful; the gifts and the costs of contemplative distance.

Nightwalking and Secret Staircases

Jane’s Walk Toronto, May 1st & 2nd 2016, May 6th & 7th 2017

A late-night introduction to the roving meditation of nightwalking.  A shared experience of darkness, silence, solitude and transgression. “Who walks alone in the streets at night? The sad, the mad, the bad. The lost, the lonely. The sleepless, the homeless. All the city’s internal exiles.” -Matthew Beaumont, Nightwalking

How to Spy on your Neighbours

One of the joys of a night walk is catching a glimpse of a neighbour’s home through a glowing window. Don’t you wonder about other people’s lives?
Co-conspirators are invited sneak through Toronto’s hidden laneways – neglected, liminal spaces between public and private – and contemplate the intimacies shared between neighbours. As we wander we will ask, what are our expectations of privacy and ownership and how did it get this way? What is neighbourliness? Who gets to belong to a neighbourhood?
Re-enchant the city by breaking free of named and numbered streets! Expect to participate in periods of contemplative walking and silent listening, no ball or hockey playing.