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January 13, 2009

The sun never sets

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 11:14 AM ET | Comments (0)

As an aspiring photographer, I understand the difficulties of taking long exposure shots with my digital slr. I'll spend a lifetime setting up the shot until it's just right, and then, inevitably, I'll knock the camera just before I'm finished, rendering the whole image blurry and effectively ruining the shot.

Maybe I've been using the wrong type of camera.

British photographer Justin Quinnell is catching the imagination of the photography world with his Solargraph, the product of a six month long exposure, created in Bristol, England. The photo captures the image of the sun rising and setting over the city's famous suspension bridge. Remarkably, the image was produced not with the latest and greatest in photographic technology, but rather a home made pin hole camera, fashioned out of an empty coke can. From December 19th until June 21st the can was strapped to a telephone pole, allowing it to track the sun's axis between winter and summer solstice.

From the UK's Telegraph:

Mr Quinnell, a world-renowned pin-hole camera artist, of Falmouth, Cornwall, said the photograph took on a personal resonance after his father passed away on April 13 - halfway through the exposure. He says the picture allows him to pinpoint the exact location of the sun in the sky at the moment his father passed away.

Mostly, I just think it's real pretty.

More entries on: Visual art

January 08, 2009

Rinky-dink ink tinkering isn't the answer

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:57 AM ET | Comments (0)

A Dutch design firm has released a new computer font, Ecofont, that they say uses less ink, and can therefore reduce the e-waste that results from depleted toner cartridges. It's a regular-looking font except that it's riddled with holes, and the firm, Spranq, claims this reduces toner use by up to 20 per cent.

Their hearts are in the right place, but this is clearly public-relations bunk. (And I realize I'm playing into it by linking to them.) There are plenty of environmental problems in the world, and technology waste is some of the most difficult to deal with. But the real effect of this font is statistically insignificant, and no one should be fooled into thinking it's a real solution to any of our pressing environmental problems.

This kind of "environmental" measure is increasingly common — easy to implement, emotionally gratifying, socially acceptable, and totally ineffectual. You would be better off turning on the ink-saving features now available in every modern printer; even better would be choosing not to print that two-line email in the first place.

This morning on Twitter I linked to a new advertisement from the World Wildlife Fund that makes a crucial point: consumers and end-users are being constantly scolded to change their behaviours and reduce their environmental footprint while government and industry continue to allow damaging beahviour to go unchecked. Individual efforts like installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs and downloading an "Ecofont" are fine, but they won't get us where we need to go unless the biggest and baddest polluters are brought to heel.

More entries on: Cultural industries | Environment | Planet Earth | Time Wasters | Visual art

January 06, 2009

In '08, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest lost a valued writer and visionary

Posted by Anna Bowen at 02:58 PM ET | Comments (0)

A reflective morning trip to work through uncannily warm sunlight for a would-be bleak January day was followed by the happy realization that one of my favourite journals, the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, out of Los Angelas CA (which was out of commission for so long that I nearly lost hope and gave up on them) had put out a book-length journal in November of 2008.

This was quickly dampened by the sad news that one of their contributing writers, Ben Schaafsma, only 26, passed away shortly after publication. One of his most recent articles can be viewed here. As one of the organizers of InCUBATE (Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and The Everyday), Schaafsma conceptualized alternative, collective funding and support for the arts modeled after examples from similar contemporary organizations in Latvia and Hungary. InCUBATE offers artist, writer, or researcher residencies (for folks who want to do "self-directed creative projects") for one to three months at $250/month in Chicago, which includes a bedroom and communal space as well as studio and gallery space.

In his article, Schaafsma asked, "Is it possible to create new contexts for public support by looking towards the periphery of neoliberal economics, operating in the folds of established institutions?" The group answered their own question by working on the fringe with a traveling arts exhibition called Other Options and with their InCUBATE project. Schaafsma's article looks into other examples of cooperative art spaces, taking its cues from another space called FOOD from 1970s NY. It's worth a read for the energy and vision behind it, for the inspiration that it offers. My deepest sympathies to Ben's family and friends.

More entries on: Visual art

November 12, 2008

A second chance to do Canada's portrait gallery right

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 03:34 PM ET | Comments (0)

The Tory government's decision to toss out the whole idea of building a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada — which currently resides in a warehouse in Gatineau and sends touring shows out across the country — is a terrible blow, but it also saves us from something else: the Public-Private Partnership (P3) that would have built it.

Heritage minister James Moore says the decision was driven by escalating costs and the uncertainty of the economy right now. That may be true, but former Liberal Heritage minister Sheila Copps thinks otherwise, and we're inclined to agree. A national portrait gallery should be a common good for all Canadians, owned by the public. It would be really great to build the portrait gallery in Calgary or Edmonton, in my opinion. But not if it's going to be at the cost of outsourcing large chunks of a federal institution to private interests, which is what this plan would have done. With this rotten plan out of the way, we can focus on building the right one.

[image courtesy Banksy]

More entries on: Visual art

May 15, 2008

From the magazine: Shopdrop and roll

Posted by mason at 01:04 PM ET | Comments (0)

By Kalli Anderson

On a Saturday night, in a supermarket in Montreal, Natalie Reis picks up an 89-cent can of peas and carrots. She pulls one of her original drawings--a grey-and-red sketch of birds in flight--out of her purse and wraps it around the can. She secures the drawing with a single piece of transparent tape, places the can back on the shelf, steps back, snaps a photo with her digital camera and walks away.

Reis is part of a growing network of artists using stores as impromptu venues for their work. Shopdropping, shoplifting’s iconoclastic cousin, can be as overtly political as placing T-shirts of Karl Marx in a Wal-Mart or as self-serving as slipping your band's CD into the rack at Starbucks. For Reis, it's about creating a visual surprise in an otherwise familiar commercial space. "In the supermarket we are often on cruise control," she says. "I want to disrupt the routine, give people an image that isn't selling anything--a mental break from the brands and the advertising."

Reis doesn't mind if shoppers want to take her art home with them. "But I don't want them to try to buy it," she says. "I hope they steal it off the shelves."

Click here for more from the current issue, the charity issue.

or

Click here for more from our Arts & Ideas section.

More entries on: Activism | From the magazine | Visual art

July 06, 2007

William Shatner, Art Muse

Posted by joyceb at 12:30 PM ET | Comments (3)

William Shatner portrait by Zina Saunders

Calgary's Uppercase Gallery is currently hosting a collection of artwork by Canadian and American artists depicting my favourite Canadian, William Shatner.

The show runs until August 31 and features some beauties by This Magazine visual alum Raymond Biesinger and Dushan Milic. Many of the illustrations are for sale (I've got my eye on Raymond's collage of the OST-era phaser).

View and buy the art online, or read the Captain's Blog (genius!) where artists respond to the questions "Why is Shatner culturally important?" and "If you could be any Shatner character, who would you be?"

More entries on: Visual art

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