How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese
So... (1) February is the optimal time of year for Canadians to craft happenings. Baking is an option, like the heart shaped rock solid bread I baked for a boyfriend once. It made a great door stop. Or try coupltography DIY. Dramatic and memorable.
Photo credit: Rodney Smith via mymodernmet.com
Two (2) For props, there's Canadian fledgling biz Panty by Post. Owners Lori Sholzberg and Natalie Grunberg will appear on Dragon's Den this
spring.
The site's men’s only room area on the site, gives tips on how to ‘size her up’ by digging into her drawers. That's an exact quote.
Or there's the Toronto's Erotic Arts & Crafts fair at the Drake Hotel. Eroticartsandcrafts.com
Two (2) At the Royal Ontario Museum currently, Playful Pursuits: Chinese Traditional Toys and Games. The only material used in the collection
Three (3) Also at the ROM: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa.
The exhibition is a lesson in material as vocabulary and African history seen through the lense of visual artist, El Anatusi.
Anatusi constructs massive wall hangings from materials he finds in Narobi, where he lives, which are mostly pieces of aluminium and liquor bottle caps. The artist notes that liquor was first introduced to Africa by European traders in the exchange for African goods.
Anatusi’s Open(ing) Market installation represents local & global African Markets, featuring hand made tin boxes, product brand logos & adinkra symbols, a West African writing system made up of ideograms.
This is the exhibition’s first stop on a 3 year North America tour, which closes at the ROM on February 27th. ROM.on.ca
Shown here: Playful Pursuits Photos courtesy: © Royal Ontario Museum, 2010. All rights reserved | El Anatsui, Three Continents, 2009 Aluminum and copper wire Photo courtesy: Jack Shainman Gallery
Three thought provoking approaches to crowdsourcing crossed my path this week. #GreatCaseStudies
One (1) Crowdsourcing Fun
If you haven't already heard of The Awesome Foundation’s Toronto launch - a truly awesome concept! “ The Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in a paper bag full of cash by a group of ten self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest. The Awesome Foundation
Two (2) Crowdsourcing Differentiation
Mashable Headline: How HSN’s New Crowdsourcing Project Could Shake Up Online Retail Of note: HSN’s recent gamble on consumer product entrepreneurs and experimentation with crowdsourcing.
Three (3) Crowdsourcing Expertise
The International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition "engaged the best and most innovative international, interdisciplinary design teams—comprised of landscape architects, architects, engineers, ecologists, and other experts..." to create wildlife crossing structures. arc-competition.com
From Lisa Rochon's G&M article: A safe passage across treacherous roadways. A great contrast to the human centred design focus of last week. Toronto's Janet Rosenberg & Associates entry shown here.
One (1). UK based Jason Bruges Studio creates public installation artworks Jason describes as “catalysts for conversation” throughout the development process -- ie a classroom of school children helping with a project's site audit -- and in response to the final product.
Three (3). Dan Rockhill, a professor of architecture at the University of Kansas and Executive Director of Studio 804, has a personality that fills the room and makes you feel like anything is possible.
Rockhill created a studio (self-funded) where his students could learn practical architecture and building. With Rockhill at the helm, the students of Studio 804, built an arts centre, in Greensburg -- the Kansas town decimated by a tornado in 2007. Shown here.Four (4) Shout outs to Matthias Hollwich founder of ARCHITIZER and Rachel Gotlieb -- curator extraordinaire -- and to Douglas Coupland, who is trying to be more optimistic in 2011. His take on the meaning of life? Be curious.
Five (5) In the evening: Rachel Wingfield's lecture presented by OCADU’s Faculty of Design and TD Financial. Does Rachel come from a family of Druid's?! PHD Druid's maybe - in geometry and software programming.
Wingfield is a partner at Loop PH a Design Research Studio, specializing in design and creation of textile architecture and living environments. Loop PH projects create 'urban interventions' mediating between digital & biological channels and facilitating participatory design and urban craft.
A unique approach to community, play, curiosity - and the future.
Shown above, Weather Patterns a commissioned project for York Art Gallery.
For me, the highlight of this week’s Toronto International Design Festival highlight is Friday’s Symposium -- Conversations in Design: Crowdsourcing Creativity and Community. Its the symposium's 2nd year.If you’re working in a thought leadership capacity where ideas matter and you're inspired by innovation and collaborative communication technologies -- don’t miss the day’s line-up of thought provoking speakers and design leaders.Conversations are sure to bring fresh insights about new and alternative design practices, materials, technologies and products. Check out the link above for more information, and look at the speaker list and schedule of events. Tickets are not expensive and the value is HIGH.
And well, because we're in deep winter here above the 49th parallel, consider The Snow Show.
"The Snow Show explores the issues related to Art and Architectural investigation by creating works from the ephemeral materials of snow and ice. An artist was partnered with an architect and invited to develop a work together—this conversation created a bridged between the art and architectural worlds."
First curated in 2006 by independant curator, Lance Fung. Don’t miss the curatorial statement. The site also shows the works melting. Yoko wass a participant as was Zaha Hadid and Kiki Smith.
One (1). Unearthed some old mags and discovered the ‘The Art of European Design’ June ’08 issue of print – and this article, on exhibition design and curatorial subject matter: X Marks the Spot: Sex on Display.
Paris' Bibliothèque Nationale had an unique assignment for Paris studio C-Album: “The staid national library needed a poster and catalogue for an exhibition of a pornographic collection being unveiled after centuries of secrecy.” The pink X may seem obvious, but the visual results are alluring through the use of public transit tunnels, when passengers could only fleetingly glimpse the installation as the train sped past.
Two (2). The second find is from this month’s Art in America (January 2011):
Rockman was recently commissioned by filmmaker Ang Lee to create a series of watercolors to help visualize the appearance and atmosphere of various scenes for Lee’s film adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel The Life of Pi (in theatres 2012).
The Smithsonian site, with a slide show of images and artists talk video. http://bit.ly/dzy94C
Three (3) And from Art Forum magazine's Summer 2009 issue: In Another Country | Yoko Ono in Conversation with Rirkrit Tiravanjia
The article describes Yoko's White Chess Set, 1966, in which all the pieces are white: As any game progresses, players will eventually find their sides impossible to tell apart. “Ideally,” Ono says, “this leads to a shared understanding of their mutual concerns and a new relationship based on empathy rather than opposition.”
You probably need to register (its free) at ArtForum.com to view the article, but Yoko is always worth it not to mention Art Forum itself.
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