Counter Mapping

The following project involves a collaboration with M. Simon Levin on the presentation component of his performance, photo, video, digital, performance concept. This was apart of a show called Counter Mapping that coincided with the Push(performing arts) festival in early 2011 in Vancouver. I was involved with Simon in the design of how the project would be presented in the space, and fabricated the exhibit component.

This piece was apart of the performance component to counter mapping. Unfortunately we weren't able to see the performance component but the curator invited myself and a friend to see and experience the final part. This was when the audience could walk amongst the map of vancouver that had been created through a performance that involved placing found objects (bricks, glasses, twigs, gumball machines etc.) and candle tea lights on the floor to create a map of vancouver. Lovely stuff in the "Black Box" theatre at the Roundhouse in Vancouver. Reminded me of the feel of approaching the city by air on a clear night - was really a beautiful peice of ancouver storytelling - I heard the performance was set to both archival and contemporary sounds of the city.

...another camo hat test - soon to be undertaken in colour.

The following is some text on my part of the project:

Party Hats

The party hats are an exploration into the concept of camouflage in a highly surveilled environment of celebration.

Camouflage has historically been used to conceal or disguise people, equipment and structures from adversity by blending into the surrounding environment. For it to be effective it must be designed in relation to the visual capabilities of the observer.

The 2010 Winter Olympics have seen unprecedented public investment into surveillance technology in Vancouver. Due to the corporate nature of this spectacle there was very little public debate into how it may change our city. The Games have been marketed to city residents as an event that will bring a financial return on their public investment. Despite this optimism, only time will tell if the Olympics will positively contribute to the livability of the city. Enormous investment in surveillance technology will no doubt initiate monitoring processes that will operate at varying levels and become apart of the Olympic legacy.

The party hats are intended to highlight the strategic role of camouflage and the surveilled environment. By subverting the power of the observing eye camouflage can affect the subject's sense of space and place. As a strategy to blend and reveal the party hats provide the opportunity to question if invisibility is freedom or loss of agency?

The hats are intended to highlight the proliferation of surveillance cameras that the Olympics has brought to our city and create a discussion around the technological and attitudinal legacies that a corporate event of this scale demands.

Here's another hat test for the codelab project. More to come on what this project is all about. tommorow.

Coming up:

Some process for my part of the Code.lab project.

The Code.lab project is an interdisciplinary collaborative art project that will coincide with the Code.live event this February in Vancouver. (Code.live is an international interactive art and music event)

Code.lab is a publicly-sited art project that asks visitors to consider who plays the observer and the observed in a film and photo saturated environment. It is being undertaken by artists, students and the public. Code.live will be activated on Granville island in the last two weeks of February.

The following is the beginning of prototyping for my camouflage hats. More on this project to come.

Introduction

Yellowalk is my first foray into blogging. I intend to create a space where my experience will intersect with socio-political dimensions of contemporary design practice.

moored...houseboats

Houseboats have intrigued me for a long time. In recent years this interest was rekindled following a 2005 stint redoing 2 bathrooms on the Pacific Yellowfin(incl-picture), an award winning wooden boat on the Canadian southwest coast of British Columbia.
brief note on Yellowfin project.

I was approached by my dear friend Leonard a couple years ago who has the same passion for projects I also find myself in the throws of - somewhere between a healthy fervor and as my colleague Pat says O.C.D., or obsessive compulsive design. Leonard is passionate about houseboats. I don’t think he’s ever lived in one but I know he dreams, and has the practical sense to make those dreams happen in small steps.

If one was to ask Len what he does he’d say general labour, mostly of the construction variety. But where he goes at the end of the working day, often with his sixpack, is into the research and interview and discuss and investigate and release domain of investigative journalism in a multitude of fields. They largely centre around bringing darkness into light, and most specifically the fight for justice in the lives and families of aboriginal persons. Those whose lives have been affected by the systemic racism occurring within many Canadian institutions, often the police forces and justice system.

Len has had a long interest in house boats. He is well respected and trusted amongst local first nations both personally and within their local institutions - and we’ve worked together in construction on numerous projects over many years.

So the idea is we’d design and build houseboats involving first nations communities around the province. Both of us are only looking for the creative fulfillment of undertaking a project like this, a decent wage and profit share and in a best case scenario, a home.

The following are some links to sights we like and a few general ideas on where this project could go both aesthetically and functionally.