The Sari-Sari Xchange (SSX) was a multi-year, community-building research and creation initiative co-led by McMaster and York University, in collaboration with Centre[3], Tangled Art + Disability, and the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
Through its interdisciplinary approach, SSX reimagined the ‘sari-sari store’ — a Filipino term for a neighbourhood convenience shop — as a metaphor for cultural exchange and community resilience. By integrating emergent media with socially engaged art, the project created inclusive spaces for dialogue, innovation, and representation within the evolving landscape of digital storytelling.
SSX centred on artists from the Asian diaspora to amplify underrepresented voices and challenge systemic barriers in Canada’s creative media industries, particularly within digital and extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, 360 cinema, game engine animation, and 3D scanning.
The project encompassed artist residencies, exhibitions, and public programming. It provided artists with access to XR tools and collaborative platforms to foster inclusive storytelling and enhance accessibility for both creators and audiences with disabilities, including:
– Tech Jams – gatherings focused on technology and innovation where individuals and teams came together to collaboratively work on tech-related projects and solve specific challenges, often involveing coding, programming, designing, and building software, hardware, or digital solutions.
– The Mobile Lab – a cutting-edge mobile classroom staffed by tech-savvy instructors who provided hands-on training, workshops, and demonstrations to educate and empower individuals in mastering new technologies. It included a range of devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and specialized equipment like 3D scanners, printers, and virtual reality headsets.
– The Asset Library – a digital repository of three-dimensional digital representations of historically and culturally significant items from Asian cultures around the world, including food items, heirlooms, objects of affection, pottery, sculptures and more, meticulously digitized using 3D scanning technology to allow users to explore and interact with highly detailed and accurate virtual replicas of these objects.
Learn more on the Sari-Sari Xchange website!
From September 6, 2024, to February 21, 2025, Centre[3] hosted a series of four exhibitions curated by Serena Zena – DataBodies, Objects of Care, remesh, and Impart. These exhibitions showcased works by SSX artists employing experimental digital media techniques to explore themes such as care, identity, intergenerational connection, and the interplay between physical and digital spaces.
1. DataBodies
2. Objects of Care
3. remesh
4. Impart
