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Making Talk

How do we talk about making in the 21st century?

This discussion brings together artist, scholar and Director of Creating Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations at the Canada Council for the Arts, Steven Loft; craft historian Sandra Alfoldy; architect Tom Bessai; and fashion designer, Valerie Lamontagne, to consider the way we talk about making.

Which terms do you we use to describe what is done now? Some reach back to claim connection to European traditions of craft while others search for new broadly inclusive language. What is important in staking a claim on terms and definitions? How do we facilitate constructive and inclusive conversations about making?

 

Read more from Steven Loft and others in the book he edited with Kerry Swanson

Coded Territories: Tracing Indigenous Pathways in New Media Art

 

Tom Bessai’s work can partially be found at:

Denegri Bessai Studio

 

Here is the late Valérie Lamontagne’s PhD Dissertation.

Performative Wearables: Bodies, Fashion and Technology

In grateful memory of our dear friends and colleagues Dr. Sandra Alfoldy (1969–2019) and Dr. Valérie Lamontagne (1968-2019).

This discussion was part of Unhanded: Making Under the Influence of Digitalism

 

September 17th, 2016

 

The Unhanded Symposium brought together a range of perspectives from different disciplines to discuss, debate and interrogate what it means to make objects in the 21st century. Through a series of four panel discussions we explored ideas around language, materials, mistakes, challenges and opportunities when working at the intersection of digital and physical technologies.

Organizing Creative Labour

In this conversation Tim Maughan chats with us about digital infrastructure, the role of organized labour in the creative landscape, and the DEL project Artwork_Local404. Join us, as we discuss technology and capitalism, the benefits of organizing, and what form collective action might take. Maughan also talks about how we need to rethink many of the platforms of tools of the digital world as public infrastructure: this may change how we understand what the government could do with them.

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Art and Capital

Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey helped shape the structure of the Digital Economies Lab and here we discuss their vision for artistic prosperity in the 21st century. We chat about artists’ complicated relationship to capital and how we are in an exciting moment of transformation. Join us, as we delve into questions of value, the pace of production, and our perception of reality, augmented or not.

READ MORE

Making Talk

This discussion brings together artist, scholar and Director of Creating Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations at the Canada Council for the Arts, Steven Loft; craft historian Sandra Alfoldy; architect Tom Bessai; and fashion designer, Valerie Lamontagne, to consider the way we talk about making.

READ MORE

UNHANDED