BioArt in Ottawa: An interview with Andrew Pelling

October 25th, 2011

Jaenine Parkinson talks to Andrew Pelling about two collaborative art works that bridge art and science, which he was involved in presenting at the Open Ottawa Libra conference held at Arts Court on Wednesday September 28, 2011. Andrew Pelling is Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physics and Biology at University […]

A Premonition of Artificial Hells

September 26th, 2011

“In a world where everyone can air their views to everyone, we are faced, I think, not with mass empowerment but with an endless stream of banal egos.” – Claire Bishop Claire Bishop is on a mission to re-scribe readings of participatory/collaborative/socially engaged/relational/dialogic art beyond moral interpretations. Her agenda hasn’t changed since her 2004 October […]

Moving among moving images: Philomène Longpré’s Xia

August 5th, 2011

Xia, a video installation by Montreal based artist Philomène Longpré, caught my eye recently at the Gallery 101 show Body Tracks | Traces de corps (10 June – 9 July) in Ottawa. It was given prominence, taking over the entire back half of the exhibition space with the rest of the, mainly video, works all reduced to monitor size. It certainly needed and warranted the space.

Elektra 12: The dubious liveness of laptop performance

June 11th, 2011

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” – Walter Benjamin Frank Bretschneider EXP (Raster-notion) Photo courtesy of Elektra The majority of Elektra 12 performances were characterised by pulsing, glitching, looping, […]

Elektra 12: Playing with your senses

May 18th, 2011

The Elektra 12 festival, presented in Montreal from 4 to 8 May 2011, followed a similar pattern to previous years. During the day was the “international marketplace”: a series of short presentations by artists and administrative types talking about their work. In the late afternoon were openings of exhibitions dotted around town. Then from 9pm […]

Objet Indirect Object

April 20th, 2011

My recommendation (so far) from the Objet Indirect Object series is Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon’s Free-Fall of Possibilities. If you want to see it for yourself you only have until 23 April to get to Axené07 / Daïmön. Whilst enthusiastically trying to describe this work to friends, I have discovered that Free-Fall of Possibilities is actually quite […]

Cliff Notes: Free School 2 / Ecole libre 2

March 30th, 2011

Galerie SAW Gallery’s Free School was touted as continuing education for professional artists with “a curriculum few learning institutions deliver…speaking to artists in practical terms on a wide-range of subjects.” These subjects included: Working with Larger Institutions: Jonathan Shaughnessy; Running a Successful Studio: Daniel Barrow; Community and Socially Engaged Art: Harrell Fletcher; Public Relations for Artists: Nadja Sayej; Qui a peur de l’art contemporain?: Marie-France Beaudoing; La creation d’oeuvres d’art public: Jean-Robert Drouillard.

Critical Blogging resting and waiting for the new year.

September 1st, 2010

This announcement is notice of the early end to the Critical Blogging Residency undertook in partnership between Artengine and Vague Terrain. Our resident blogger, Rhiannon Vogl, is leaving the residency in order to take on other professional challenges which we know she will excel at. We are excited to start the next edition of the residency in the new year so keep an eye out for the call for applications in February 2011.

Pitch a tent in Meaford this long weekend

July 27th, 2010

  This is the Meaford I know. Nestled quaintly on the Southern shore of Georgian Bay, Meaford for me means farming, it means my grandparents homestead, rolling hillsides, markets and lazy summer afternoons. It hadn’t (until recently) meant anything related to new media or electronic arts. That is, however, until I discovered Electric Eclectics ;  festival of […]

If you’re in Germany this summer…

July 27th, 2010

…Museum Folkwang, Essen, is presenting Hacking the City – Interventions in public and communicative spaces. 16 July to 26 September 2010 www.hackingthecity.org “Hacking the City” is an innovative project reacting to changing structures in the public, mobility and communication in the city. The project is mainly focussed on Essen, Cultural Capital Ruhr.2010. Participants are artists, nerds, […]