serendipityoucity

Maria’s work is playfully political! I have been waiting to see what she does next and it looks like it will be divine!

Maria Lezon Fernandez-Hontoria

Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009

Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Location: Karsh-Masson Gallery 136 St. Patrick Street Ottawa, Ontario

Throughout the history of art the female form has served as a focus for most of the great classical figurative paintings. Traditionally, this model has been seen as an object that the viewer may manipulate to suit their desires. The Lounging Soap Opera seeks to reinvent this archetype by exploring new contemporary interpretations of the female form that provoke and challenge as well as exhibit the qualities that I admire in women such as strength and intelligence. Furthermore, it’s my intention that the women in my paintings refuse to remain submissive and demonstrate that they are determined to take authorship of their lives. Set in the melodramatic world of soap opera, The Lounging Soap Opera is a collection of painting where each frame will serve as a chapter in an unfolding drama that focuses on different aspects of Western morality. At the core of this work, like in all good stories, there will be the heroine, lounging in poses reminiscent of classical nudes, reminding us that there are many reasons why a woman would lounge other than the obvious…. However, despite her poses, she will remain very much the central character in her story. It’s my hope that through this visual soap opera where humour and beauty are combined that the viewer gain a fresh appreciation for the power of the female form. As a feminist and an artist I am committed to defying society’s narrow view of womanhood in my artwork. For the past ten years, the work in my collections have been concerned with reinventing images of recognisable feminine iconography often appropriated directly from historical paintings or popular culture in order to test society’s boundaries. The Lounging Soap Opera continues asking once more that the viewer enter the domain of women, but this time through the glamorous and often ridiculous world of the television soap opera. In this new series the viewer is asked to participate by becoming the soap opera’s audience as well as addressing the familiar question what is true femininity, the fantastic images of scantily dressed women portrayed in media or the women we see daily in our community? Perhaps a mix of both, perhaps this perhaps that…..

I was discussing the use of remote sensing images for a variety of purposes with my academic advisor who recalled a book about magicians who staged a variety of illusions to fool air photographers during WWII. We also discussed the time stamps on remotely sensed images and how some were nefariously used during the first Iraq war to show how the Iraqis were encroaching on Kuwait - photos going to the border but not the photos showing a turn around and move away from the border that were taken shortly after.

Things are not always as they seem and you cannot believe everything that you see!

I am really excited to see Lisa’s new work this weekend at The New Art Festival! (official page).

Tracey P. Lauriault, Sebastien Caquard, Christine Homuth, and Fraser Taylor (Carleton), 2009,  Pilot Cybercartographic Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness in Canada.  May 27 W36 Urban Geography II – Social Session Canadian Association of Geographers portion of the SSHCR Congress.

The Pilot Cybercartographic Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness renders in maps and interactive graphs well defined and accepted Canadian homelessness risk indicators. When these indicators are visualized in an engaging manner readers can more readily distinguish trends, patterns and issues that cannot be conveyed in static data tables. More importantly, they can influence public policy. The Atlas is a partnership project between the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) at Carleton University and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Quality of Life Reporting System (QoLRS) in collaboration with the City of Toronto, the Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) and the City of Calgary. Atlas modules include the visualization of indicators across time at three scales: Canada, 23 municipalities and 3 featured cities/metropolitan areas. The City of Toronto provides data to show their aging social housing stock; poverty and the disproportionate spending on rent are explored in City of Calgary neighbourhoods while la CMM tells the story of social housing and housing affordability for lower-income renting populations. The presentation will discuss how the atlas was developed, data access restrictions and costs, the importance of innovative partnerships and collaborations with cities.

Lauriault, Tracey P. and Gitte Lindgaard, 2009, Scented Cybercartography: Exploring Possibilities. May 30 s44 Urban Geography VIII – Cultural Session Canadian Association of Geographers portion of the SSHCR Congress.

Olfactory cartography is part of the emerging discipline of cybercartography (Taylor 2003), a transdisciplinary endeavour that investigates, among other things, the integration of multimedia, multi-sensory, and multimodal data into digital atlases and maps. The physiology and psychology of the olfactory system, its special characteristics, its influence on performance and memory, and some of the issues that make the study of olfaction difficult are addressed. Characterizing, classifying, and labeling scents is problematic, and it is recommended that methods from other communities of practice be adopted and adapted by cartographers. Literature from a wide range of disciplines, including olfactory geography, is reviewed, and a number of innovative ideas are provided. In addition, olfactory applications in different areas such as marketing, art installations, film, and virtual environments are described, as are a range of currently available olfactory diffusion devices. These, however, have not been explored in a cartographic context, nor have they undergone usability testing. We conclude that it is too early to provide cartographic guidelines and methods but that scented applications, odour diffusion technologies, and olfactory data collection methods provide knowledge that can be applied toward developing a scented cartography.

The Globe has an article bemoaning the lack of universal and uniting theme songs in reference to a concert in honour of Peter Seger’s 90th birthday. True enough, but then again, the nature of music preferences and diffusion technologies means there is less a monopoly on style and language and concurrently a decrease in diversity on the airwaves because of corporate ads.  Also, interesting to note the kids on the stage with Peter were the biggies and anglo. 

There is a ton of great protest music that appears under many guises, languages and genres!  As I was reading and posting a comment (that has not yet been posted!) I listened to Jean Leloup, Manu Chao, les Cowboys Fringrants, Ani Difranco, M.I.A., Michael Franti and Chumbawamba. I then went and looked up an earlier post featuring the Peace not War compilations. Such good stuff! Then I discovered Peace not War TV and the New Pollutants: Blast the World 2 Space Dance Against the War video.  Awesome!

I would say, the themes, tunes, rhythms, languages they are a chagin’ but not the spirit!  We just need to reclaim the spaces for them to get heard!

Emil sent me this video this morning! Wonderful!

Playing for Change is a reminder to me that along with politics, activism, research, writing, & work, that love, beauty & inspiration are essential ingredients of unity. I often forget those.

Edward Said and David Barenboim’s intellectual and musical collaborations were also about that. They created an Arab Israeli orchestra, music school and foundation to support the arts in the region. This continues to bring young people from all sides of the conflict together to play, discuss and perform. It is expected that this orchestra will be on par with the Philharmonic in a few years. NPR has assembled a number of their conversations into Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society. In this they discuss their intellectual and musical collaboration. Interestingly, NPR has made the transcript of this conversation available for free as part of its contribution toward positive change. The film about the East-West Divan Orchestra, Knowledge is the beginning was shown by Madame Said in Ottawa last year and it was truly wonderful to see this orchestra in the making and the challenges they have faced overcoming prejudices, and playing in the occupied territories. Both Said and Barenboim are clear, that music will not change the world or stop the conflict, but while people are playing and listening for a couple of hours, they are not hating. And that is a fine start!

The 1990 One World one Voice collaboration was the first international assemblage of musicians following one song line! It is based on the same principal as Playing for change.

It was created as a “chain tape” started by Kevin Godley. The multitrack tape was sent to various studios around the world where local artists added their contributions to it. Sections of the video were also filmed in the performers’ home countries and edited together.

I came across it when living in Japan in the early 90s. 250 musicians globally joined in on the performance. There are 12 clips in all and they are all worth watching & listening to, I included clip 8 because my favorite Ryuichi Sakamoto is in it playing the piano and its strings along with Peter Gabriel, Stewart Copeland, Geoffrey Oryema, Suzanne Vega, Lou Reed.

ohm!

Neo-Victorian steampunk, with a twist of Poe and a dash of Bauhaus.
and now I am getting nostalgic on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

I have 4 friends, 40 fingers in this 260 show!  This celebrates excellence in clay works.

It really rained!  But i got myself outa bed, went for breaky with JuJu, then went to hear Steven Pinker talk about his book the Stuff of Thought as part of the Writers Festival.  Wonderful, he is really funny and even referred to Calvin and Hobbes in his talk!  Then with my head full of ideas, walking in the rain, wearing orange socks, purple pants and a red turtle neck, thinking about data and its role in culture, as culture, as heritage, and as artifact as I walked up to Enriched Bread Artists 2008 open Studios.  I met my pal Ken in his studio, doing his thang, eating sausage, olives and good cheeze! Then I went on the studio tour.  I just love that place.  I have much to say, particularly about Cindy Stelmackowich’s work,which

explores the inter-relationship between art and medical science. Incorporating new and old medical diagrams, laboratory equipment and medical reference books, medicine’s bodies of knowledge have become the direct material and conceptual sources for her own incisive explorations. Often taking the form of experimental sculptural assemblages or wall installations, this work often combines the language of sculpture with the language of science in order to beckon us to reconsider the discourses of medical science and its orders of objective knowledge. (1)

but i am just too tired right now and really need to think about her ideas before I do!  We had a great conversation and she has really inspired me to look at Foucault.

I posted a bunch of EBA studio photos here.