People doing strange things with electricity (Toronto Franchise)
Galen Scorer - Impossible Sky
Jessica Field and Shawna Reiter - An Allegory of Choice
Rob King - Locus
Galen Scorer's work sits on the boundaries of technological and artistic experimentation. He is interested in combined electronic disciplines from interactive video, network art, electronics, biosensors, photography and video art.
He has worked independently for five years on a broad range of commercial projects including web design, programming, interactive museum exhibits, and as an advisor and collaborator to several media artists.
He has taught in many capacities at Ryerson University and Ontario College of Art and Design. Currently he is an instructor of New Media at Ryerson University. Galen is also the Research & Technology Manager for the Canadian Film Centres Habitat New Media Lab where he is responsible for overseeing the research arm of Habitat and the technology infrastructure.
His interests in research and art practice focus on the development of tools and systems to expand the notion of physical space and human interaction. By situating the body in reference to our environment through networked and digital technologies, he investigates the blurring lines of virtual and physical landscapes and the ways in which our bodies inhabit those spaces. In order to construct these experiences and systems he looks towards the poetics of nature and human experience as ways in which to begin. In order to explore these ideas he helped form a research group at Ryerson University called Synth/ops, which investigates artistic uses of broadband networks.
http://www.galen.caAn indeterminate number of live web cameras point towards the sky. The collective presence of all these images are aggregated together into an additive composite. While it is possible to distinguish individual characteristics from each location the composite becomes a hybrid of all skys - the impossible sky. In collaboration with Tim Jackson, Habitat New Media Lab, Synthops Media Lab.
http://www.galen.ca/art/skyRob King is an artist, programmer, and designer based in Toronto. Working primarily in web and software art, his areas of exploration include social networking software, alternative interfaces, emergent systems, and the possibilities of wireless and ubiquitous technologies.
http://e-mu.org/Locus:ESI (http://locus.e-mu.org) is an artwork, and a social experiment. It is a instant messaging program that analyzes the messages you send and receive to automatically try and find likenesses between the different people that you talk to online. Users can then see what links Locus has found between people in a number of factual and abstract visualizations.
http://locus.e-mu.orgJessica Field's work primarily focuses on creating a parallel between the artificial intelligence of machines to that of human behaviour when dealing with changing environments. She explores these concepts using robotic technology, computers and microcontrollers. She has exhibited at Inter/access in a show called Feedback and at the 401 Gallery in a group show called Body and Sense. Both galleries are located in Toronto. Her work has also been part of the McLuhan International Festival of the Future. Jessica has done performance work using a robot entitled, Stumbling Robot. It is a five foot machine that roams unattended in public spaces, such as the Pickering Town Centre and Pickering Artfest. Jessica Field's work in electronics has led to her teaching children in the basic principles of robotics at the Children's Technology Workshop, as well as adult beginner courses in electronics at Inter/Access. Jessica majored in new media at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto and has recently received an honourable mention in Vida Life 7.0 Art and Artificial Life International Competition.
Shawna Reiter is a puppet Artist who's practice focuses on the imitation of life, using movement and the participation of the viewer to create the illusion of a living entity. She has preformed at the Ontario College of Art and Design, the O'Leary School of Drama and shown at The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Shawna majored in Sculpture Installation at the Ontario College of Art and Design (Toronto) where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (2004) Since Graduating she has had the opportunity to collaborate with other artists in her field to create puppet productions for both film and live performance.
Jessica Field @ Langlois FoundationAn Allegory of Choice will use puppetry as an illustration of the influences of choice and how this affects the expression of identity. A puppet is an object that is brought to life through movement by the puppeteer, and is dependent on the audience's empathy to allow the puppet to embody its character. The characters in the installation all share the desire to fulfill this definition. When a puppet moves in front of the audience, the puppet is what it is intended to be. When the puppet is not moving, it exists as merely the potential of what it could be. Motion is the manner through which a puppet expresses its character, and only while the puppet is moving can it affirm its identity. In order to move, the character must rely on something outside of itself, the puppeteer. The character must choose how it is going to express itself through movement. Therefore, the viewer's perception of the puppet creates its identity and its choice may affect how much attention it receives based on its reception by the audience.
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