Elevated Bike Lanes

From Elevated Bike Lanes

Toronto’s transit is dominated by the axis of its subway system, which largely follows two of the longest streets in the city: Yonge and Bloor-Danforth. This infrastructure has resulted in development that has progressed in a similarly linear fashion, creating a dense population of commuters who live along the subway lines. The elevated bike lane proposal is designed to address the vulnerability of the current system by offering a supplementary means of transportation that is accessible at any time. These lightweight covered lanes would allow cyclists to travel across the city unimpeded by traffic lights or precipitation. The design also makes use of solar paneling to power the street lighting, which is integrated into the supporting columns. In a still experimental phase, a titanium-coated fine mesh canopy would stretch over the entire street and extend over most of the sidewalks as well. This canopy would use a thermally-activated wicking system to prevent snow from accumulating on the street, eliminating the need for fossil fuel intensive snow removal machinery and eventually allow these thoroughfares to become restricted to emission-free vehicle usage. With improved transportation options and a better pedestrian experience, the Yonge Street and Bloor Street corridors could accommodate further growth and perhaps enhance linear dynamism as a defining characteristic of the city.

Vertical Park in Downtown Toronto

From Vertical Park

When news broke out that a high profile condo tower at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor in Toronto would not be constructed, suggestions began popping up for public space alternatives. Being one of the most valuable pieces of property in the city has made the idea of it becoming solely a public square somewhat unlikely. Architecture critic Christopher Hume suggested the possibility of a public private venture, which led me to envision a vertical park for the site that would be attached to a mixed use residential tower. The main feature of the design is a one mile, gently curving gradient that winds its way up to a height of 66 metres, affording panoramic vistas of the downtown. The structure would make use of its southern exposure for passive solar heating, allowing the green space to be enjoyed year round with minimal energy expenditure. I created the model using Google’s free SketchUp software, it can be downloaded from the 3D warehouse and viewed in Google Earth (to hide the former buildings at the site simply right click on them).

Maple Leaf Community Gardens

From Maple Leaf Gardens

A brief proposal for the transformation of Maple Leaf Gardens: This presently dormant Toronto landmark could be brought to life by adapting a couple of its key structural features, namely the concrete stands and vaulted roof. By refitting the existing metal framed roof with transparent insulated panelling, the interior would fill with light, opening up the possibilities for indoor plant life and public space. The removal of most of the seating from the stands leaves a terrace structure suitable for compact vegetable gardening, with water supplied via a gravity dispensed rainwater collection system. The produce grown within the building would provide a steady supply to a flagship restaurant located in the upper box seating areas. Being in the food business, the current owners could still consider a linear variation on the supermarket in the lobby areas of the building. The flat central surface could serve as a public park with modular landscaping that could be moved to make way for an ice rink during the winter. To conserve energy the building would make use of natural ventilation and passive solar heating in tandem with a geothermal system.

Annual New Toronto Works Show

The Annual New Toronto Works Show at Pleasure Dome featured a variety of new film and video works by Toronto artists. The music video, In Every Dream Home a Heartache by Kids On TV and Johannes Zits proved to be a particularly furtive collaboration. Performed with a disarming camp sincerity, their cover of the Roxy Music song remained true to the original while becoming something decidedly queer. Utilizing a condo advertising aesthetic inhabited by vapid silhouettes emblazoned with gay porn, the video painted a hilarious and pointed critique of consumerism and conformity. Andrew Zukerman and Winston Hacking put together a killer short called Tex Mex Wolfman. An intense two minutes of radioactively psychedelic hemorrhaging ad infinitum and nauseum but really fast, which we are obviously still recovering from. There were many other good ones too, like Aram Collier's The Others, a handsome tribute to the exotically indigenous Lou Diamond Phillips. Overall: wicked awesome.

Noise

The idea with this podcast was to create a rough sketch for adapting Jacques Attali’s book Noise to an audio recording. I read a few excerpts from the first chapter of Noise and layered that over a soundtrack of various open source recordings. While written over two decades ago, the book seems to be as relevant as ever, in his idea of the four stages of music, the final one of which (composition) uncannily predicts the mash-ups and self generating music that have emerged recently. There’s a great wealth of material here about ‘the political economy of music’ that would be fantastic to hear in full as an audio book with a well crafted soundtrack or as a sound art piece. I wonder if someone has already done it before?

Video Art in the Digital Age

The idea of a digital age co-op, which was briefly put forth in the concluding chapter of Wikinomics is something that media artists in particular ought to think about. In the later half of the twentieth century, co-ops played a key role in establishing media arts communities around the world. In the 1960's, places like the Filmmaker's Co-op in New York and the London Filmmaker's Co-op (now LUX) provided artists with affordable access to filmmaking equipment. In the 1970's, similar artist run initiatives emerged for video production such as the Experimental Television Center in New York and Trinity Square Video in Toronto. Video became an attractive medium for many visual artists because it provided greater flexibility for dissemination and the possibility to reach a larger audience. Since the 1970s, video art distribution centres have popped up across the world, amassing libraries of works, many of which only exist within the collection of a particular centre. For instance if we wanted to see the entire catalog of George Kuchar's work, our only option would be to go to the Video Art Databank in Chicago. In today's era of digital reproduction and file sharing, artists' videos remain some of the least accessible media. Herein lies somewhat of a contradiction, while the distribution centres originally served to help disseminate the artist's videos, today it seems as though they have become protectors of the works. But who or what are they protecting the works from? Would piracy pose a threat to these artists revenues? It seems that self preservation on the part of the institutions themselves could be another factor at play here. Some artists intend their videos to be ephemeral and are content to let them fade into obscurity, while other artists create work specifically for a future audience. Some artists would say the best way to experience their work is sitting down in your own home where you can pause and rewind at will. One can assume that artists who have submitted their videos to a distributing organization did so with the idea of preservation and dissemination in mind. Nowadays the most effective way to preserve and disseminate something is via file sharing. So are the video art distributors serving the artist's best interests? Or, are they helping to reinforce the idea (that many would say is antithetical to the medium of video) of art as an elite institution? Will they have to more actively engage in collaborative principles such as openness, peering, sharing to stay relevant? Today, an increasing number of artists are turning to the internet to produce or disseminate their work, realizing that they don't need gallery shows to become successful. Some galleries have recognized this trend and instead of fighting it, have decided to encourage it. Take Saatchi Online for example, the website of an established private gallery in London that allows any artist to post works on their website and sell them free of commission, it seems as though everyone benefits from this situation. It is possible that a digital age co-op for disseminating video art could develop out of a collaborative effort with existing media arts distributors, or one could also emerge through artists' own self organizing. Whatever the case, options for practicing media artists are plentiful online and particularly for those who are committed to not distinguishing their work as either lo or hi-brow art.

Benjamin Smoke

A brilliant slice of unseen Americana. Directors Jem Cohen and Petter Sillen's sensitive portrayal of their musician subject, Benjamin does justice to his unique persona.

WALL-E

Once upon a time we were going to animate a scenario about robots mining through former landfill sites for recyclable materials. But then we didn't because we thought people would be less inclined to recycle if they realized this could happen. Thankfully, Pixar solved our dilemma with this dystopian sci-fi parable.

The Benny Goodman Story

A flawless film, as smooth as the music itself. How dreamy is Steve Allen?