“Hybrid Design: Collaboration in Practice is the topic of the first discussion and investigates the value of working in cross-disciplinary formats. The panelists will explain how collaborative efforts in their professional practices have informed their current work, their forecasts for the development of these processes, and the risks and issues in collaboration. The ideas expressed by the panelists will begin to explore if and how adaptive modifications are required in a Canadian context to facilitate collaboration in practice.”
“The Perimeter Series was developed by AZero, the joint efforts of ALSO Collective and Mason Studio. The studios share philosophies of design, but originate from two distinct practices. ALSO occupies a space in digital media and graphic design, while Mason inhabits the domain of physical interior space. The Perimeter Series was developed as an opportunity to share in the conversation between the studios to explore a shift in the boundaries of design. Come take part in our discussions!”
This event is free, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Science meets art and inspires activism for the environment at the ROM!
“In 2001 the artist David Buckland founded Cape Farewell to instigate a cultural response to climate change. Cape Farewell is now an international not-for-profit programme based in the Science Museum’s Dana Centre in London and with a North American foundation based at the MaRS centre in Toronto.”
Now Cape Farewell has partnered with the ROM: Contemporary Culture to produce the exhibit Carbon14: Climate is Culture and ask ” how does landscape change a culture and how does culture change a landscape?” Utilizing photography, film, multi-media and performance this question is explored with the audience.
Because of the mandate of promoting dialogue, the programming for Carbon14 has included public talks, discussions and conferences around the issues of climate change, sustainability and our cultural responses to them.
“Both ancient and modern, Tanya Tagaq’s performances with long-time collaborator Michael Red fuse her highly personalized throat singing style with Red’s electronic sound art. When the two perform, Tagaq’s powerful, fervent vocals enmesh with layered rhythms and melodies built from Red’s collection of natural Arctic sonic elements (wind, ice, birds, etc.). The collaboration yields a fascinating, highly improvised mix of digital effects, dance and dub-inspired beats and bass, and shape shifting soundscapes.”Read more on Tanya…
This Sunday Staging Sustainability, a conference whose aim is to “focus on ways in which performance can positively affect our planet”, begins and runs until Wednesday, February 5.
“Using media from the land — soapstone, bone and ivory — Ishulutaq’s carving explores global warming and its impacts on glaciers, ice, wildlife, and weather, while encouraging the cultures of the North and South to join hands in taking care of the environment and each other.” Read more…
Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change by Zacharias Kunuk + Ian Mauro
“Qapirangajuq is the world’s first Inuktitut language film on climate change and includes the traditional knowledge and experience of Inuit elders and hunters from across Nunavut. Travelling on the land, the viewer sees firsthand the Arctic and its people, and how they are interconnected and affected by a warming world.” Read more…
“Deep Time, a new multi-screen work by Melanie Gilligan and Tom Ackers, blends fiction, animation, and documentary to investigate the complex relationships between systemic phenomena created by humans (such as global warming, ocean chemistry change, and capitalism) and ocean ecosystems, the often-forgotten foundation of life on this planet.”Read more…
Beekeeping for All by Myfanwy MacLeod + Janna Levitt
“In every bee colony, thousands of individuals work in a highly intelligent, co-dependent and hierarchical manner to build hives, and in the act of doing so, provide a fundamental service to all of nature and, almost incidentally, to human survival. Without pollination, there is no agriculture. Without bees transmitting genetic information triggering the creation of new life, new food, new beauty, and growth, we as humans cannot nourish successive generations or ourselves.”Read more…
“A collaborative presentation by Mel Chin, with the people of the Western Sahara, Ahmed Boukhari, Dr. Richard Corkish, Markus A. R. Kayser, Mohamed Sleiman Labat, Jonathan Teo, with thanks to Robin Kahn, Kirby Gookin, and Representative Mohamed Yeslem Beissat.”Read more…
The first fair in the Middle East that focuses on furniture design and design objects Design Days Dubai aims “to strengthen greater appreciation and understanding for design as a form of applied arts.”
What I love is that the aesthetic collected is BOLD! The work you see at Design Days Dubai shows no fear when it comes to exploring form and materials. But somehow it still manages to be accessible maybe because it is so over-the-top fantastical that it is the recognizable stuff of our dreams – playful, imaginative, and in many cases, like nothing we have ever seen before in the flesh within our reach.
The Proust Geometrica Chair on display the PF Emirates Interiors. Image from Design Days Dubai.
Visitors at Design Days Dubai. Photo by Siddharth Siva. Image from Design Days Dubai.
Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan tours a special preview day at the Inaugural Design Days Dubai at Franziska Kessler. Image from Design Days Dubai.
The Sharjah Biennial – art work that pushes the envelope with some serious play and dark humour.
And in another desert location down the road, the Sharjah Biennial gathers together incredible established and emerging artists who produce projects that skip over, around and through the artistic expressions of new media, street art and installation like kids at a game of hopscotch. Case in point – this stunning-crazy-brilliant piece by French-Tunisian “calligraffiti” artist El Seed.
For obvious reasons, the work that pools around this intimate Biennial is often about analysis of the politics of body, space, and nation but because the execution is so beautifully rendered the intense work powerfully draws you in through your eyes to open your heart and mind to important issues.
Like Toronto, Dubai is rapidly expanding while exploring what this means for this city that has become an international destination and like Toronto it will be exciting to watch how Dubai grows as a destination for design.
Installation view of Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture at The Power Plant, Toronto. 15 December 2012 – 5 May 2013. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
EXHIBITION – Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture
Exhibit runs until May 5, 2013.
Installation view of Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture at The Power Plant, Toronto. 15 December 2012 – 5 May 2013. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Balloon Sculpture by artist Willy Chyr. Image courtesy the artist.
On a chilled night in a 2011 I walked quickly down Ossington Ave to meet up with friends to tour around Toronto for Nuit Blanche. Just beyond an open doorway my eye caught a glimpse of a mass of balloons twisting up and sprouting out in controlled chaos. Interesting. Weirdly beautiful. I was intrigued and stopped for a second but then quickly moved on to grab my friends downtown. I figured I would come back later.
Well later never came. My big regret of Nuit Blanche 2011 was not investigating this strange sculpture further. Usually I am the kind of person to take the time to pause so I reprimanded myself for being in too much of a hurry to stop and “smell” the roses art. I knew that I had to find out the what, who, and how behind this project. The brief mental snapshot I took that night was stuck in my mind’s eye and it wasn’t leaving.
Flash forward a couple of weeks later. I was at my monthly networking group Design with Dialogue. One can always expect to meet inspiring minds at DwD and that night I was about to meet someone quite special. When the evening wrapped people did the usual swap of contact deets and I walked away with a business card that had a unique image on the front. A few days later I looked up the website on the card and I realized I had found my “who” behind the brilliant balloons.
“Oh my gosh! You’re the Balloon Man!” I wrote to Willy Chyr then gushed on about how insanely-crazy-gorgeous-joyful his work was.
Balloon Sculpture by artist Willy Chyr. Image courtesy the artist.
Since then I have been following the rapid growth of Willy’s career. Expanding almost as fast as he can fill the balloons with air he has been busy making his mark on contemporary art. What I also love about his work is that its uniqueness arises from the fact that Willy truly is one of those people whose brain fires off inspiration in equal parts from both right and left hemispheres. Willy’s degree in Physics and Economics informs his art.
While earning his degree at the University of Chicago Willy “joined Le Vorris & Vox Circus and performed as a juggler, unicyclist, and magician. It was during his time in the circus that Willy learned how to twist balloons.” (cited from www.willychyr.com)
Willy’s educational and career twists and turns are as interesting as his balloon installations. I am delighted he had the courage to take the road less traveled. In the 21st Century minds that can move with ease between disciplines to fuse the generative source that is the seed of creative genius are going to change the world. For better! We will benefit in many ways from their illuminations and discoveries.
Image by Leah Snyder for 
Balloon Sculpture by artist 
