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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Joyce Wieland - La raison avant la passion 1968 Quilted cotton
"Those who make a conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism."That quote is circulating a lot these days since we need some reminding.
- Pierre Trudeau (in reference to the war in Vietnam)
Joyce Wieland - Betsy Ross, look what they've done to the flag you made with such care
1966 vinyl, fabric mm, 56 x 34.3 cm
From U.S. War Resisters in Canada:
Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal by two U.S. Army deserters seeking asylum in Canada after fleeing the States to avoid deployment to Iraq. In December, Parliament's Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommended that our government not deport conscientious objectors (and their families) if they are refusing to fight in a war that is not sanctioned by the U.N.
According to the New York Times, the House of Commons is scheduled to debate that motion next month. (b/t/w why isn't this story according to the CBC or the Globe and Mail or The Star?)
"[the] Iraq war has been immensely unpopular in Canada, and the leaders of the Bloc Quebecois and the left-leaning New Democratic Party have both come out in support of the resolution. But Canadian M.P.’s tend to vote with far more party discipline than their American counterparts, and Stéphane Dion, the head of the Liberal Party, has not yet taken a public stance on the bill. Without his support, its fate is uncertain."
Mr. Dion can be emailed at Dion.S@parl.gc.ca to be reminded that if he is worried about offending the tender sentiments of the Bush Whitehouse, we might as well re-elect Harper. ('we' being an expression as it will be a cold day in hell before I would vote for Harper):
Joyce Wieland - Lens 1978-79 Quilted cotton, 86 x 110 cm
Elsewhere, in old draft dodger news, some estimate that as many as 125,000 U.S. draft dodgers and deserters from the Vietnam war came to Canada during the 60's and 70's. A statue in honour of American conscientious objectors and the Canadians who supported them was proposed to the town of Nelson B.C., but it was opposed by American Veteran's groups as well as some local residents. For the record, since this is an art and whatever we happen to find interesting blog, the maquette for the statue is really ugly, but let's just call it relational aesthetics for the moment and state that the quality of the work wasn't the problem. (reeeeeeeeaaaaaally ugly). The latest word is that the statue will be erected at the Doukhobor Village Museum in Castlegar, B.C., which is fitting since the Doukhobors, a religious Russian communal agrarian sect, were committed pacifists with the motto: "The welfare of the whole world is not worth the life of one child"
For vintage music technology nerds, it is an event which could be described as equivalent in impact to the Second Coming: last week it was announced that audio scientists using modern technology played back a sound recording made 148 years ago, 28 years before Edison's first phonograph recording.
In the year 1860 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was analyzing sound waves visually on a phonautograph. At that time it was inconceivable that these graphs would be ever be played back as sound recordings.
Audio historian David Giovannoni and Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory transcribed these graphs onto computer software, and were able to play back a haunting 10 second sample of a murky ghost-like voice singing the melody of an old French folk song, Au Claire de la Lune.
(posted by VB via SM)
Every Dog In The Pound by Meg Cranston and Three Bedroom Flat by Adrienne Spier
at Mercer Union, 37 Lisgar Street, Toronto. Until April 05, 2008
Though my first question about any art video is always "is it a short art video?", I could have watched Every Dog In The Pound forever. (but my dog went crazy with stress after about 15 minutes)
Speaking of votive paintings, Karen Miranda Augustine has an interesting interview with Rhonda Ratray on her Possession blog.
An earlier post with more images of her work.
Rubber Cardinal Mold - image courtesy of M.Jean in response to overwhelming popular demand
in the previous comment thread
Spring, now what?
Happy Easter Monday Everyone!
Eventually Easter ends, and it always ends badly.
Happy Holy Saturday Everyone!!
...waiting...
...waiting... ...waiting...
...waiting... 
...waiting... tick tick tick
I had to post this in response to a question of great doctrinal import, posed by M. Jean in the comments of yesterday's Good Friday post. Mr. Wilson has a different response which was all very nice when we had that cuddly Polish Pope, but there's a new Pontiff in town now,
who hates yoga and loves Prada.I doubt he'll be so tolerant.
(just a friendly warning)
Happy Good Friday Everyone!
anonymous Oil on copper
José de Páez, Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga 1770 Oil on copper
(attributed to) José de Páez - The Destruction of Mission San Saba 1763 Oil on copper
Karen Whaley at Torontoist posted a truly stunning video by Robert Bateman. Deep deep down, everybody loves Modern Art!
Don't have a lot to say at the moment as my head is buried in prepping for a class debate on public vs. private funding structures for museums. What do you like better, governments or corporations? (heh)
Anyhow, since I'm doing an art history degree, I thought a little visual study on perspective might be appropriate. Remember how we got taught way back in school about how art got better and better as people figured out how to paint things so they looked like they receeded on the picture plane? Those were the days!
issue #20 rides in on a unicorn 
that farts out sparkly rainbows, 
, finally ending my run of grey scale images
.Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't it rain
Filmed at Manchester England in 1964
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head
Rockonski announces the publication of RCMP, a book by Tonik Wojtyra, making it's debut this week in Halifax at the exhibition ERI:3 opening tonight and running March 13 - April 20, 2008 at Eye Level Gallery in Halifax, NS.
Tonik elucidates that "RCMP is result of research I've been doing about the RCMP specifically and part of a larger interest about national identity. The RCMP is a paradox: a police who does serious law enforcement but is simultaneously tricked out in colonial regalia, steeped in childish nostalgia, and so damn earnest. It's hard not to be enamored but it's hard to hold in the laughter too."
RCMP, by Tonik Wojtyra
Rockonski, Toronto, 2008. 32pp, b&w, 12.7 x 20.3cm (5 x 8").
Numbered edition of 100. $5
The book is available for sale at Art Metropole in Toronto, Printed Matter in NYC, Colette in Paris, and Boekie Woekie in Amsterdam...
A subject dear to my heart as we know that the RCMP's certain acts lead to the formation of CSIS who are hiring hiring more agents to keep track of laptops and briefcases
This just in...excellent online performance lecture by Joester. Set aside 12:30 min. from your busy day, and get your headspace into ALH84001,0.
snow.
Some kids get to go to cyber camp. Next week I am going to SciBar Camp (and taking my mimesis/mirror neuron mish-mash with me). I'm looking forward to it, but I must admit to a certain amount of skepticism about the current rampant enthusiasm for art-science collaborations. There are a few barriers. For one thing, contemporary art is just about as inpenetrable for the novice as science, but most scientists are not self-educating on the leading edges of art theory (and why would they?). There are also distracting superficial reasons for getting together. Scientists are often attracted to the idea that artists might beautify and disseminate their science (do outreach) for new audiences. For artists, science provides status and legitimacy (and bigger grants).
In contemporary art discourse, it is (rightly) very difficult to make claims to universal meaning. By attaching ourselves to science, artists get to piggy-back our work to content that seems on the surface like empirical truth. Of course, anyone who has done any half-way serious research knows that the knowledge produced by science is also negotiated, historical and subject to cultural influence and ideology. But it is very tempting for artists to sweep this understanding under the rug in order to get the sexy "hit" of external meaning. I know because I've done it myself. It's fun and liberating to take a break from the contexts and conventions of your own field, kind of like going on a vacation to another country (which is why I've adopted the role of "tourist" for my forays into physics). But I think it's probably a good idea to try and stay critical, even when you're on a holiday.
These pitfalls also present opportunities and open up new paths of inquiry. I dunno how much of this discussion belongs at SciBar Camp. I don't really want to participate in cranky old-lady mode, since I am completely inspired right now by my own cross-disciplinary research. I guess I'll just show up and see what happens next.
I have been looking for this image for a long time, it was scrubbed off the Canadian Government's on-line image archives, but magically reappeared on an Alberta separatist's web site.
(Anthony Easton, why do they want to separate? Should they stay or should they go?)
Next on the agenda are the imaginative and rythmically edifying jottings from an eminent lady of letters, Hannah Evans:
In Cuba a man named Fidel
Told America 'You go to hell'
His health is now ailing
His government failing
But his hat and cigar still look swell.
I might add that this gentle-lady with a pen is mighty pissed off that the political email list she subscribes to has a 'no limericks' rule. And so we stand in solidarity with her as I was pissed off by that very same list's 'no long emails about the dream I had last night' rule.
(they also make fun of Sally whenever she brings up the subject of mimesis. That's just so wrong of them.)
SACRED curated by Patrick Macaulay, at Harbourfront Centre opens this Friday, March 7, from 6 to 10 pm.
Both Jennifer McMackon and Lorna Mills (myself) are participating in this show as part of the 21st annual Images Festival.
They tried to make me go to grad school, but I said:
This is an excerpt from my piece in Kiss Machine's Activity Book Issue.
Here is a better explanation of mirror neurons:
Mirror neurons are a particular class of visuomotor neurons, originally discovered in area F5 of the monkey premotor cortex, that discharge both when the monkey does a particular action and when it observes another individual (monkey or human) doing a similar action.
Rizzolatti G, Craighero L, “The mirror-neuron system,” in Annual Review of Neuroscience, issue 27 (2004) p. 1
Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neurophysiologist, and Laila Craighero, a neuroscientist, say this:
A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others’ actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species, we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture. In this review we present data on a neurophysiological mechanism—the mirror-neuron mechanism—that appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and imitation. We describe first the functional properties of mirror neurons in monkeys. We review next the characteristics of the mirror-neuron system in humans. We stress, in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language.
Rizzolatti G, Craighero L, “The mirror-neuron system,” in Annual Review of Neuroscience, issue 27 (2004) p. 1
Michael Taussig, an anthropologist, says this:
The wonder of mimesis lies in the copy drawing on the character and power of the original, to the point whereby the representation may even assume that character and that power. I an older language, this is "sympathetic magic," and I believe it is as necessary to the very process of knowing as it is to the construction and subsequent naturalization of identities. But if it is a faculty, it is also a history, and just as histories enter into the functioning of the mimetic faculty, so the mimetic faculty enters into those histories. No understanding of mimesis is worthwhile if it lacks the mobility to traverse this two-way street, especially pertinent to which is Euro-AMerican colonialism, the felt relation of the civilizing process to savagery, to aping.Jimmie Durham, a Cherokee artist and activist, says this:
Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses (New York; London: Routledge, 1993) p.xiv
Europe, or the Western World, or Civilization, has been going around watching everyone for some time now. The good part of this is a kind of self-observation, so that we have complicated novels to read, and art that attempts self-exploration and intervention in the given narrative and, at the same time, a little distance. The bad part is that the Western World has not observed itself observing. It has not seen how active, how transforming, its watching has been for itself. The West (I can't keep writing the "Western World," though "the West" is even more ambiguous) has not imagined itself as defined by its colonial enterprises and engagements. Instead, it has continuously imagined barriers and borders between itself and constantly reenforced Others.
But listen to this: "The border has dissolved and expanded to cover the lands it once separated such that all the land is borderland, wherein the imagesphere of alterities, no less than the physiognomic aspects of visual worlds, disrupt the speaking body of the northern scribe into words hanging in grotesque automutilation over a post-modern landscape where Self and Other paw at the ghostly imaginings of each other's powers." It's Michael Taussig, in his book Mimesis and Alterity. When I first saw the title I thought it was awkward and academic, but that's because I didn't know the word "alterity." (I'm afraid I suffer from the American disease that causes anger at things, especially fancy words, one doesn't know.) After reading the book, though, I wrote to Taussig to tell him he had written things I'd always intended to think but had been unable to.
Jimmie Durham, "Mimesis and Alterity" (book review) in Artforum, (December 1993) full text online
Merlin Donald, a cognitive neuroscientist with a background in philosophy, says:
"A mimetic act is basically a motor performance that reflects the perceived event structure of the world, and its motoric aspect makes its content a public, that is, a potentially cultural, expression."
Merlin Donald, “Imitation and Mimesis,” in Perspectives on Imitation, From Neuroscience to Social Science, Vol 2, Hurley, Susan and Chater, Nick eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005) p. 281
"Mimesis is the reduplication of an event for communicative purposes. Mimesis requires that the audience can be taken into account. It also demands taking a third-person perspective on the actor's own behaviour."
Merlin Donald, ibid., p. 286
"Mimesis is an analogue or holistic style of thought that is more basic to our uniquely human way of thinking than language or logic. Indeed, on present evidence language and logic evolved much later, from a mimetic platform. Mimesis is a foundation skill that arrived early in evolution, and defined the human style. The components of mimetic cognition are present to some degree in primates, but are vastly more developed in humans. this makes mimetic culture a logical, but radical, extension of the primate mind. It remains an important force in human affairs, and produces such typically human cognitive patterns as ritual, skill, gesture, tribal identification, personal style, and public spectacle. It explains our irresistable tendency to imitate one another and conform to patterns of group behaviour, especially group emotional expression. It sets the tone of human social life, and it is the ultimate driving force behind art, which might be viewed as the ultimate refinement of the mimetic mode."
Merlin Donald, "Art and Congitive Evolution," in The Artful Mind, Mark Turner, ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) p.15