Biography

Madelyn lives and works in Tiohtià:ke, or Montreal. She studied creative writing and visual arts at the University of Victoria before earning her BFA in Design at Concordia University, where she remains involved in research-creation activities. She is part of Value Collective, a network of people coming together to realize work that is valuable, but not profitable. Based at the repurposed convent la Cité-des-Hospitalières, Value Collective uses alter-economic thinking and practice to create non-financial value, be it social, cultural, ecological, spiritual, or anything else that contributes to the commons.

Madelyn is interested in finding fun new ways to engage people in transformative practices. Inspired by relational philosophies and aesthetics, her methods are transdisciplinary and highly collaborative. Across mediums, dreaming plays a central role: sometimes facilitated collectively through workshops; other times shared through fiction and speculative design so others may jump in and build on the ideas proposed. Madelyn’s work for Value Collective aspires to bridge fantasy with strategy, illuminating unseen possibilities through invitations and novel conditions that alter the rhythms of everyday life. She will be using her studio to host the Festival of Fools, a participatory performance dedicated to curiosity and playful experimentation.