A great conversation is unfolding in the city of Ottawa. The municipal government, local bloggers, culture institutions like Galerie SAW Gallery, social innovation centers and even major media outlets have all endeavoured to help weather a perceived cultural adolescence in the city. What are we? and what can we become? are key questions in growth and development, and we are hoping to add our voice to the dynamic conversation.
We are not a creative city!
July 27th, 2012Art IN Basel
June 25th, 2012Every June in the city of Basel, nestled in a corner of Switzerland that kisses both France and Germany, an explosion of art occurs. From Volta, Art Basel, Liste and various local shows, there is an overwhelming number of artworks. I was naïve in thinking two days was enough time to see all I wanted. […]
Elektra Highlight #2
May 4th, 2012A full day of presentations, vernisages and performances certainly leaves one feeling overloaded, but not so much that I am not looking forward to another day full of information and art. I will choose just one highlight from yesterday and leave the others to digest more fully. Yan Breuleux presented La Tempête during the AV presentation […]
Elektra – Day 1
May 3rd, 2012This year the Elektra festival has expanded beyond its usual 6 day scale into a month long digital art bienniale with work everywhere around the core of the city and at all kinds of scales. We will post a number of reflections on the projects we experience here on the blog, and I wanted to start with quick mention of the first work I saw yesterday.
Arts Court Development: building towards building blocks
July 7th, 2011Artengine is a production center for electronic art. We are also the Electric Fields festival and a virtual hub for artists and cultural groups across disciplines. We are also a cultural information network distributing event information to thousands of people everyday. We are alot of different things, but most importantly we are where technology comes to play.
Donna Legault can see my heart beat
October 13th, 2010Donna Legault has been working away in the lab in preparation for her role in the Prototype show during Electric Fields and had a fantastic discovery. Her work uses a PureData pathc to pitch shift sounds in the in-audible range and pumps those frequencies into stripped down speakers. The very very low frequencies make the […]
Yama Dou : a new Ottawa blog that is probably hipper than us . . .
August 23rd, 2010One of the regions best monthly parties happens on Tuesdays over in Gatineau at the Petite Chicago. I rarely get out as my grown up body is slowly catching up with my more reckless mind, but I made a special trip last week for the Boy Scout Killers party as it was the launch of […]
An expanded Arts Court and a new Ottawa Art Gallery are all in a fun day at committee at City Hall
August 17th, 2010I made a special trip to City Hall today to represent Artengine at the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee. I got my 5 minutes, alongside a number of other fantastic people in the cultural sector, to speak to a proposal heading to council for the relocation of The Ottawa Art Gallery and the re-development of […]
Martin Messier and his work for dance company O Vertigo.
July 19th, 2010It is a bit of challenge to contain my interest in the work of Martin Messier into a single blog post. He has an amazing list of dynamic and exciting projects, and I’m sure you will hear more about him blog posts to come. For now I am going to focus on some recent work he did with O Vertigo, a dance company in Montréal, for their new show Onde de choc.
Mutek at 210 frames per second
June 12th, 2010My visit to this year’s edition of Mutek was not as Artengine’s AD, but as a band member of Ottawa group If Then Do. It was great to see the festival from that angle, and they do a great job at taking care of the details for artists. Kudos to the Mutek team! (…and as I […]