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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Infrasense by Robert Saucier and the collective Kit is on at Interaccess (in conjunction with Subtle Technologies). Horse-shaped machines lumber along tracks. Blob-shaped machines with miscellaneous pieces of obsolete computer equipment stuck all over them lumber around hither and yon. There is some kind of technical interrelationship between the two types of machine involving sounds that are broadcast from the horses. These are "Trojan Horses" and "Bugs". The pun is somewhat compelling: to manifest in clunky, clumsy three dimensions an image of computer viruses that normally have no corporal reality. But it's not working very well. Hardly any of the machines were moving. There was a hand-held controller console with levers to push that appeared to produce zero results. There is supposedly a web component to the project where you can input directives to the "bugs" but the terminal in the gallery was A: confusing in the extreme and B: offline and disfunctional. I can't find a link to the web part of the project anywhere (not on the Interaccess site nor the Subtle Technologies site). To be fair, the installation is complicated, and I think this is the first time it's been installed. For robot-art afficianados there may be some interesting tech going on. I do, however, find this kind of object-oriented technology art pretty tedious. Is it R&D? if so, to what end and in whose service? If its all for the fun of puttering/tinkering invention, then please let go of the forced, tacked-on content and just give us some cool machines (that hopefully function) to interact with (or maybe we can just go watch Junkyard Wars on TV).
 digital mock up of Infrasense taken from Subtle Technologies |  installation shot of Eddo Stern's GodsEye View taken from Postmasters |
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I am looking forward to this video screening on Thursday night for several reasons:
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Where: Cinecyle, 129 Spadina Ave (down the alley)
Who: Trinity Square Video presents Lukas Blakk + Tracy Tidgwell, Heather Keung, Allyson Mitchell, Andrew J. Paterson, Yura Yurinskiy, and Karim Zouak. Conceived and initiated by Day Millman.
Of all the paintings in Matt Bahen's current show at A Space, this one (the PR flagship image, nabbed from the A Space website) is my least favourite because it's the only one with eye contact. This painting has an iconic presence, a valorous, masculine, Harlequin Romance mystique that the others do not share. The formula, however, is pretty much the same throughout; each canvas is divided into two panels,* with a thick-paint-renedered sniper on one, and a series of thermograms on the other. The snipers are wearing ghillies, a term that describes this kind of ribbony, raggedy, flora-esque camo. In most of the paintings the snipers look un-human, like threatening-yet-familiar animalistic blobs of malicious nature. The heavily mediated human forms represented by the thermograms (re-renedered here in pixilated paint chunks) provide a contrast that emphasises a chilling objectification of everyone involved in war. Says Bahen in his artists' statement:
"The target for the sniper is free of context."
...and...
"It is important to pay attention to ongoing world affairs as we are both victor and victim in the same breath"
*Remember 20 years ago when abutting figurative painted images from radically different sources was supposed to mean a negation of content? Hah...thank goodness that's over and done with. I prefer this ernest, perhaps heavy-handed, over-abundance of narrative resonance any day.
Update: my posts in the comments section below much better articulate my interest in the this work than this original post. Thinking out loud.
Just got in from a very fun (last minute plan) weekend in Montreal riding bikes at Un Tour La Nuit (8000 people), Le Tour De L'Ile (20,000-30,000 people), and our own self-directed jaunts around town (6-7 people). Lots of cycling combined with sitting in the park. Perfect in every respect. Montreal has no right turn on red which lowers the stress level considerably. It also has lots of accessible public space and a culture that accomodates 'hanging out' with gusto. The top image is the intersection where Maison des Cyclists is located, a bike community centre/store/cafe that functions as a hub for both activism and recreation (everyone that you can see in the picture is on a bike except the guy on the steps who's bike is parked in the huge, 1/2 block-long bike racks).
A friend of mine has been feeding me Lawrence Lessig media. I know this is old hat for most of you, but anyone wanting a refresher, reminder, or (as in my case) introduction to his lucid inspiration on free culture should take time for this graphically-enhanced lecture. Lessig's book is available here in PDF. Below is an excerpt from a section on blogs and democracy (pg. 42).
[For] most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place for “democratic deliberation” to occur. More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm against talking about politics. It’s fine to talk about politics with people you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse becomes more extreme. We say what our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say.
Enter the blog.The blog’s very architecture solves one part of this problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want to read.The most difficult time is synchronous time.Technologies that enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever needing to gather in a single public place.
But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of norms. There’s no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but there are many of all political stripes.And even blogs that are not political cover political issues when the occasion merits.
The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny.The name Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for blogs.Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an effect.
I used to be quite involved in a zine called Chicks United for Nonnoxious Transportation which a bunch of other girl cyclists in Toronto. I did most of the cover art, and wrote something for almost every issue. I was excited to discover that my piece "Cyclists Need Education" is online in the zine archives at messengers.com. It's wrongly attributed to Be Smiley who actually did draw the cartoon illustration that you see below. I am re-posting the piece here because, while it is undoubtedly the cruellest thing I ever wrote, it just might also be the best thing I ever wrote.
Cyclists Need Education
(written for C.U.N.T.zine, summer 1996)
To be perfectly frank, I don't like most cyclists. I'd rather hang out with respectable car drivers. Guys who know what they want and know how to get it - adult men, y'know what I mean? Guys like my Dad. What a great guy ol' Dad was - always taking us kids for rides in his Buick. Dad never liked cyclists either, said they belonged to the 'lunatic fringe'. Well, Dad, not all of us do! Some of us are respectable men like yourself, guys with a firm hand-shake who obey the law and proceed in an orderly, vehicular fashion.
Some cyclists want to change everything. They have silly ideas about making roads safer for cyclists by getting politicians and planners to take space away from cars. This proves that they belong on the lunatic fringe. They have to grow up and face the fact that cars and air pollution are here to stay. We aren't ever going to get respect from car drivers if cyclists keep acting anti-car. What driver would respect someone who said he was creating pollution? These issues are really very complex, a little difficult for emotional people (like women) to understand. The best thing for cyclists to do is get educated about how to behave in a vehicular fashion. That way they will win respect from car drivers.
All cyclists need to get educated about John Forrester. He wrote a book called Effective Cycling. John Forrester is a great, great guy. My Dad would've liked John Forrester. They'd have been friends. If my Dad knew John Forrester he'd have invited him over to dinner and they'd have played squash together. John Forrester knows that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. He knows that certain cyclists, like me, know how to behave and get respect. Other cyclists need to get educated and stop acting stupid and doing wrong things.
When I'm riding I try to set a good example for other cyclists. Sometimes I see foreign cyclists and they don't know the right way to ride. Often women cyclists don't know how to ride because they're too scared. This kind of cyclist just needs to get educated by someone like me who knows the proper way to do things. Then drivers will stop hating cyclists and treat us all with respect.
If I ruled the world I'd make all cyclists ride like me - that way no one would ever get hurt. I'm never going to get hurt. I ride in a predictable manner that commands respect. As cars whizz by me I know that each and every driver is tipping his cap my way, "Now there's a fine cyclist," they think to themselves, "why, that fellow must have spent as much money on his shorts, fanny pack, whistle, helmet, cycling shoes, jersey, air horn, and handlebar pack as I spent on my car! And look at the fine vehicular way he rides. Such a respectable cyclist, not like those other scofflaws I see with long hair, dirty clothes, groceries and big butts.
When a car passes too close to me I know its a sign of respect. The driver can tell that I'm a very experienced cyclist and I can handle it. One time I met a driver who was really great and treated me with lots of respect. He didn't see me, poor guy, and hit me from behind when I was making a left turn in a vehicular fashion. He was really embarrassed when he saw how expensive my bike was. He told me that I looked like a really serious cyclist, not like those other scofflaws he's seen riding through stop signs and wearing dirty, old clothes. He was a great guy. He had a firm handshake like my Dad's. It was a pleasure to meet him, eventhough I did sustain a head injury.
I have one more thing to say, stay off the sidewalks! I spent a lot of money on my bike and my gear so people would take me seriously and treat me with respect. All you cyclists acting stupid are making me look bad.