CAD MIUM The SUPER gradUandMe Issue April 2010 FREE CADMIUM: VOLUME 1 NUMBER 4
Cover: James Gauvreau (www.jamesgauvreau.com) (reallylonglake.blogspot.com) Inside cover: Awølla Bloseneed (www.awollasballstothewall.blogspot.com) Back Inside cover: Bartosz Gawdzik
the
SUPER m issue e
CAD MIUM Editor Jordan Charles Bowden Designers Daniel Francavilla Cassandra Wesenhagen Adam Zinzan CONTRIBUTORS Writers Jimmy Brannen Shannon Lea Doyle Daniel Francavilla Dave Kleiser Brendan George Ko Merrill Liu Adam Zinzan Illustrators Natasha Gouveia Mark Ovsey Sabrina Scott Ryan Solski Daniela Jordan-Villaveces Eric Williams Photographer Camila Wong Featured Artists Justin Apperley Awølla Bloseneed Jimmy Brannen Lindsay Denise Nour El-Bawab Bartosz Gawdzik Irina Luca Hayden Thomas Elise Victoria Louise Windsor marlo yarlo Cover James Gauvreau www.ocadmium.com www.ocadmium.blogspot.com www.ocadsu.org publication@ocadsu.org
From the editor; (u)
(u)
Super god, see all that you are Love us, generate truth Cooperate with natures design - the volcano knows why. I want to go home, This semester wrapped up nicely though.
Captains Log Stardate twenty seven twenty seven point sex The kam-ehch cluster is closed for business, we’re headed to the neutral zone. Computer belay that and execute my original command. Computer, RESPOND! Then I get a piece of hate mail. “This brutal is capable of spontaneous and responsive erection.” Said the ambassador to the Vidiian scientist. Was he referring to me? I could use a good holonovel, or at least a trip to Councellor Troi’s. A vacation pleeease.
May flours n June bugs are upon us, there you will find the last issues of our pilot volume, and my time at the Ontario College of Art. The Student Union promises to continue Cadmium in September 2010, become involved today to steer tomorrow. This publication will always be driven by student work. Student work I applaud in this edition. I am inspired by those who can deliver on a deadline surrounded by other deadlines and I am endebted to several particulars published this issue. April is without compromise, the most challenging month. This is what makes us SUPER.
Wide eyed and bushy tailed at high school graduation!
This month from the SU Director of Operations and Finance Lindsay Denise operationsandfinance@ocadsu.org
Director of Campaigns and Advocacy Nicolas Hurtado campaignsandadvocacy@ocadsu.org
Director of Academic and University Affairs Amanda Almeida academicanduniversityaffairs@ocadsu.org
Director of Outreach and Events Aanachal Malhotra outreachandevents@ocadsu.org
FOODSHARE Our foodshare program will be put on hold for the summer months, but will start up again in September. If you have any questions about the program, contact our office manager Tre Whan at twhan@ocad.ca
We Have Fought For Our Right To Party: BEAUX ARTS BALL
DR. VANDANA SHIVA A few representatives from the SU had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Vandana Shiva, visiting speaker for OCAD’s President’s Lecture Series earlier this month. It was a tremendous experience. Dr. Shiva assured us with her benevolent spirit and therapeutic eye contact that there is still hope.
She spoke simply about a complex problem, to make connections, broaden your community, to look at the co-operative design of nature as a perfect benchmark. She touched on alliances, subsidies, and becoming political. Shiva also spoke briefly of a UN Movement she is forming for the “Rights of Mother Earth”. Later, the Doctors speech was watched by an audience of hundreds, and her message remained, if not even more clear. “The beautiful universe is meant for all. Enjoy it, but with a sense of it’s limits.”
Grad Party!!!! The Student Union is throwing all graduates a special going away party. Come and strut your stuff on the catwalk… this year’s theme is I’m Too Sexy For My Hat, for all the hot young things about to enter the working world.
Wednesday May 5th, Gladstone Hotel, 9pm – 2am *Students are permitted to bring a non-OCAD guest 19+ Bring valid ID and Student ID*
BULK FOOD CLUB The Bulk Food Club pilot will get up and running through the summer. Keep your eyes open for news and information about this new initiative.
Grab your dancing shoes and prepare for OCAD’s biggest party of the year! Join us at the Beaux Arts Ball to celebrate the end of another year at OCAD at our annual costume ball. This year’s theme is Candyland! Friday, April 23rd 9pm – 2am at the Gladstone Hotel. This event is 19+, be sure to bring valid government ID $5 per person and valid student ID* gets you into the party where djs, dancing, and food await. Suggested dress: Formal or Costume Pre-Party: Pump Up the Volume at XPACE Cultural Centre, 58 Ossington. Show up in costume and $2.00 drinks! *Students are permitted to bring a non-OCAD guest
OMBUDSPERSON AND LAWYER Just a reminder that our Ombudsperson and Lawyer will both be available for appointments over the summer. Contact our office manager Tre Whan at twhan@ocad.ca to make an appointment.
TTC The TTC needs input from students in their survey about how to run their upcoming program for discounted passes to post-secondary students. They are basing important decisions about how to implement this discount from feedback they receive in the survey. Be sure to have your say. The survey will be accessible online for a few more weeks. To obtain a password to the survey, email operationsandfinance@ocadsu.org
Opinions Welcome to the golden age of creativity, your timing is perfect. Adam Zinzan Art imitating Life? Life imitating Art? – how about Life will be Art. This is the emerging creative frontier in which new ways of living are being artfully designed. We are beginning to develop a selective disregard for tradition in favour of what makes sense. To abandon the dysfunction and monotony of established societal rolls and choosing instead to sculpt, paint, draft, weave and carve out lives of our own. An era of creative freedom has begun that will make the renaissance look like preschool. Conventional methods are often so stymied and backwards that attempting anything else is encouraged and almost guaranteed to yield an improvement. So now is a great time for fearless experimentation. Its exactly the kind of risk-play that will help light our way forward as well as provide you with a lifetime of tuition-free education. Ahhh, Fresssh! An important part of this ‘why-the-heck-not?’ attitude is to nurture the creative endeavours of others. When you encounter a fellow experimenter be kind. Give him or her the benefit of the doubt and give them room for their experiment to take place. The next time someone sings you a ditty when you were expecting an eight-and-a-half by eleven resumé, laser printed on white and set in nine point Helvetica for god’s sake give them a ring will you? There is perhaps only one caveat to this new found freedom and I’m sure you know the feeling… our tendency to become overwhelmed when faced with infinite possibilities. I have come to find that the antidote to this is simply to do anything; do what comes to you first, do what feels right and do it now. Don’t give yourself much time to think it over and don’t worry too much about what other people think (duhh).
Dave Kleiser Artists seem to deal with things that to them are paramount, but to everyone else (including other artists) seem small and withdrawn. We artists live in private/esoteric worlds, which to the “average” viewer is perceived as somthing very small within their own reality. An artist can build the most magnificent of worlds and exist as a king inside it, but at the end of the day, the artist must always have to bow down
to the world of everyone else, their judgements, their rules and regulations, and their expectations. It is a burden, and it is hard to bare. It is one of the many things that you must fight thru if you are to sucessfuly understand whatever it is you yearn to understand. As an artist you must know your place it is not a comfortable one.
Merrill Liu Well first off I want to start off by saying IN YOUR FACE URBAN MYTHOLOGY! I beat the Freshman 15, didn’t gain a single pound and I have a work out regime of a threetoed sloth! My amazing body aside, now that the year is winding to an end, I’m gonna review OCAD. The bathroom stalls have 50/50 reviews scribbled on them, so I guess that’s where I’ll start. Doth decrees the stall: OCAD is boring. Wow, a school? Boring? Say it ain’t so! Honestly, even in art school, if you expect to go to school to have some good lulz, you should have spent that tuition money on strippers and clubs. But, I do agree OCAD is stale in terms of student life. I mean our only sports group is Chinlone (actually they’re not on the website anymore, so what now?), and does OCADA count? Fraternities don’t exist on OCAD, but do you really need a Frat to be a Frat boy? To my understanding all you need is a keg of beer and a toga. I do think the school could be more active, but boredom is too easily fought off in downtown Toronto to be a big issue. So not only the school and clubs need to be more active, but anyone who’s bored should just party more. OCAD sucks. This ambiguous comment is gonna let me talk about academics. Let’s face it, we’re an art school. You’re not gonna write a 12 page essay on whales. Try explaining that to stereotypical Asian parents. I ought to be locked up for hours studying everyday like cousin Wang. Well
#21 Get In Your Kicks Before The Year Is Over Jimmy Brannen www.htbats.blogspot.com Now that the school is almost at it’s close, students are faced with a plethora of deadlines. For students who are living in residence, this is a very important time, as there are a number of things one must do to ensure that you’ve have a proper res experience. And time is running out! Particularly if you’re in first year and won’t be living in residence ever again, be sure to check of and complete HTBAT’s List Of Rules To Break While In Res ! Though the significance of each of these points varies, one should try to accomplish as many of these things as possible. Wouldn’t it suck to look back on your uni days and realize how much you missed out on?!
mom and dad, I actually learned shit this year, but more impotantly I did shit. No one cares what marks you got in school, just your portfolio and how big that smile on your face is. I can’t say I was enlightened this year, but I picked up a few useful tricks without having to sit through a dumb lecture on how to use the pen tool. I did that quite frequently in high school. So I have my 8 hours of sleep and partly decent things to put in my portfolio (hey I’m only a freshman), which is much more useful than staying up to write some dribble about the Baroque era. Not to say I didn’t write essays (and to my guilt I liked some of the topics), but the reason we got a lot of studio classes is because the lectures will never help us in the workplace. They just put them in there to make OCAD an university. You should learn your art history, but it’s more for your information than it is for your job, unless you’re a Curator. Then you guys are such a minority most of us don’t remember you exist. So what would I give OCAD? A ‘B’. For being really boring, but educational, good location and not as expensive as fucking York/Sheridan. Well maybe I should add a - to that B for the bell curve.
List Of Rules To Break While In Res - Steal everything you can from the common room (Eg laptops, furniture, records, food, xboxes) - Have sex in the shared shower - Smoke (whatever) in your room (But don’t forget to take out the smoke detector!) - Find a furry friend to keep you company and share your dorm (Rabbit, kitty, wombat, rats, etc) - Host a slumber party in the laundry room - Supplement your nearly depleted meal plan by selling drugs - Everyday make a new fort in your room out of everything you, or those around you, have - Move your stuff out early to beat the rush, but more importantly, so you can host a party/concert in your room - Start a mobile rave and go collecting residents - Hoard the cough syrup from your care packages (Robitussin) and go robotrippin’ down the halls one last time - Hook up with that person you’ve seen around all semester but never talked to (If things go bad, you won’t see them all summer!) - Poop in the shared shower
But of course, and I doubt it needs to be said, HTBATS never has, and never will endorse breaking the law. Be mindful of the consequences of your actions, but also bear in mind that what you don’t do may haunt you later on. Also, if you get caught, it’s not like they’re going to expel you the week before school ends!
A New Start Right now. No, not in the morning after a nice sleep to give you a fresh start. Right now, you want change, well change ain’t waiting, you gotta do it now. Sorry for being demanding, but look, you gotta get up. It all starts now, you want it, I want it, we all want it, but it ain’t starting until you’re ready. Are you ready? Ok, let’s do this. Change. Forget about what you want, what you think you need because those are the things that got you wanting change in the first place, right now, move forwards, even if you don’t know what direction you want to go in. It’s all about moving, and keeping it up, and every thing else will find its way. You will learn new languages on the road, you will meet new people, and they will last after your handshakes and salutations. They will ask you your name, we should give you a new name. This will make it more exciting, and it will be symbolic to this new change in your life, you are a new (man or woman), and most importantly, in your new life. Your handshake is firm and tells everyone new in your new life that you are sure and confident, now smile. They see it in your eyes now, and it’s attracting more (look). They’ll invite you to their homes, you’ll get to meet their kids, they’re nice folk, and you’ll tell them all types of stories over a warm dinner, and then the kids will go to sleep, and the adults will converse some more. They won’t be able to get enough of you, you’re fun and exciting, full of knowledge and adventure, and you’re doing a great job keeping all those stories going, even if they’re not true. You tell them how you are a writer, and that you’re currently writing a novel. They ask what it is about, and after two hours and eight glasses of wine they are hooked on your book. There will be visits to the cottage, and camping trips, you’ll bust out survival tactics, and bring your own box of knives, telling them each one is instrumental to surviving off the fat of the land. They’ll begin to look up to you, seeing you as someone who is daring and has life in the palm of their hands; you have conquered life and yet you still seek out struggle and excitement. You’re amazing! And you will look in their eyes, and see the life you have created, and how wonderful it is; you’re out in nature. And for a moment you will glimpse into the past and remember how things once were, how it is far different from now, and you can see how far you have traveled. You will grow tears, and your audience will grow a profound emotion that cannot be described in words as they gasp. This is of course just the beginning, and as you imagine on, I will leave it up to you to write the rest of this story. This is your life, you’re the author of it. (from Learning To Love Yourself (More) 2009-2010) Brendan George Ko http://www.brendangeorgeko.com http://www.photo-ma-graphy.blogspot.com
Justin Apperley
www.justinapperley.com
Elise Victoria Louise Windsor www.wecanphotograph.blogspot.com
Lindsay Denise www.lindsaydeniseillustration.squarespace.com
Hayden Thomas
Irina Luca
www.irinaluca.com
Irina Luca
www.irinaluca.com
OCAD 3.0
Daniel Francavilla Photographs by Daniel Francavilla
How can OCAD fit into Canada’s digital future? Our President is playing an important role in this revolution. If you’re on Twitter, Facebook or even just read blogs, you’re part of the second generation of the World Wide Web. The Web 2.0 is basically the movement away from static web pages to what we experience a lot of today – dynamic and shareable content and social networking. How does OCAD fit into the Web 2.0, and how can the next generation of the Internet be useful to artists, designers and in business? The future of the web is not only social networking; these new tools we use are also designed to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and most importantly, collaboration. Collaboration on design ideas, sharing works of art, opening up new platforms for creativity and even new mediums – this is where OCAD students can strive. I had the chance to attend Canada 3.0 Interactions, a conversation amongst some leaders in the design/web, business and education communities. It was held at a formal office building in the financial district of Toronto, at PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Director of Emerging Technologies of PricewaterhouseCoopers was the Keynote Speaker, followed by a Panel Discussion. OCAD President Sara Diamond was one of the three panelists. The discussion was designed to bring together Canada’s “leading thinkers on emerging trends and future opportunities” – which would make any OCAD student proud. But why is it important for OCAD’s President to participate in something like Canada 3.0? Dr. Diamond explained that it is an important strategy session about the ways that digital culture, technology and infrastructure can be used to create a better society for all Canadians. “These strategies have a direct bearing on OCAD’s future. My participation means that OCAD gets the benefit of shaping these strategies and knowing others views.”, Dr. Diamond explained in an interview after the event.
Does Canada 3.0 mean anything to OCAD students specifically, you may ask? “OCAD students should have the benefit of knowing what the future will bring to them as they continue their education and enter the research and professional world ahead.” As OCAD students, Dr. Diamond believes we should all “get the benefits from members of the OCAD community being part of the dialogue about Canada’s national digital strategy”, because it “profiles best practices in teaching and learning using digital tools, including in our fields of art, design and media.” OCAD students can attend Canada 3.0 as volunteers or participants. With all of this technology talk, many OCAD students may feel left-out because it may not be part of their program directly. I asked the President Diamond if she feels certain students can easily be left out, curriculum-wise, when it comes to learning about technology and the Web 2.0 tools, and she confidently replied that even “art students should be at the cutting edge of learning about technology and Web 2.0 tools”.
Dr. Diamond explained that “Artists are natural tool makers adopters and adapters. Our role is to make sure that students have the access that they deserve to use these tools creatively. These do not substitute for other kinds of tools that artists use, these supplement.” Canada 3.0 is very much about establishing a Canada’s national digital media action plan. What then, does OCAD’s president believe should be a key part in this plan? She notes that there is wide-ranging opinion on the topic, but points to the New Zealand strategy as an excellent model. “I think the New Zealand vision can translates well to a Canadian context. It links health and sustainability with digital capacity. Think Aboriginal instead of Maori. It needs to include cultural diversity and using digital for better access to diversity. As well as broadband to all homes we need mobile infrastructure.” I asked Dr. Diamond how both she and OCAD students can be part of the discussion to ensure Canada can not only compete, but also lead the world, in today’s new digital economy, and she explained that she is involved in various dialogues that are developing strategy as well as Canada 3.0. Dr. Diamond is working on a strategy dialogue for the Banff Television and NextMedia Festival in June that will look at the strategy from the perspective of cultural producers. She also encouraged students to send their ideas to her directly. Then, Dr. Diamond asked, “What about the possibility of OCAD having a forum on Canada’s Digital Strategy? Do you think students would be interested?” I would say yes.
Visit ocadmium.com/editorial/2010/04/canada30 for video of President Diamond, links, images and more. President Diamond will be attending the main event, Canada 3.0 Forum May 10 and 11, 2010 in Stratford, Ontario to play a key part in shaping Canada’s digital media strategy. Canada 3.0 is a chance to influence our national digital media action plan and ensure Canada can not only compete, but also lead the world in today’s new digital economy.
Nour El-Bawab
Galleries;
THINKTANK BLOG DOCUMENTATION LINKS PROJECTS
WHATAWASTE.CA
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS AT XPACE VOLUME Launch Party Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 7 PM XPACE is pumped to launch the premiere issue of VOLUME, our free annual anthology of exhibition essays and support material. In celebration of VOLUME’s launch, fifty limited edition copies, available for sale, will feature an original Team Macho project! Join us for “Pump up the VOLUME” for music, food and DANCING!! MAIN SPACE: ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES 5 April 30 – May 14, 2010 This show, the result of an ongoing partnership between XPACE and a family of alternative highschools, provides a supportive educational experience for youth to learn and contribute to the local cultural community and serves as a launching pad for young artists to share their unique creative voices with the broader public. XBASE: UP AND ATOM May 21 – June 12, 2010 A solo exhibitiom for XBASE Basement Gallery of a series of five screenprints. Each single edition screen-print features an individual image of an atom, donut, cloud, magnet and ghost. Superimposed on each illustration is a circular target. The prints were used as paper targets at a shooting range, where ten rounds were fired on each.
RETHINKING SPACE: Explorations in the invisible city A curatorial project by Deborah Wang Event: Saturday April 24, 2010, 2PM (RAIN OR SHINE) Reception: Saturday April 24, 2010, 5PM-7PM Using the concepts of the map and the tour as a form of curatorial practice that engages the city as both the gallery and the artwork, RETHINKING SPACE: Explorations in the invisible city situates itself in the sites of the everyday, and aims to translate spatial notation (the map) into a physical experience of the city (the tour). Expanding on the Situationist term dérive, these curated drifts ask the individual to explore the urban landscape using the map as a guide for their tour, and to activate spaces by walking them. The event is comprised of two selfguided tours: The Bad Feng Shui Project: A to Z and Spatial Geometries: Mirror Line, and Stop-Motion Migration, a one-day installation that maps movement through time and the city. Come to XPACE to pick your maps and at 2 pm return to the gallery for a reception from 5 to 7pm. Visit www.projectsforthecity.ca for more information
marlo yarlo Jimmy Brannen www.spacecommand.blogspot.com
Overheard at OCAD Created by Paul Chin Girl: Like sears. That’s short for seriously. Sears.
Guy: Yeah I saw those underwater things .. what are they called .. Spongefish? Star sponges? Guy 2: Starfish? Guy: YEAH THOSE THINGS!
Girl: People want the stigma to go away, yet we still have Black History month. Why do we have it when no Black people who were slaves are still alive today?
Guy 1: Mmmmm! Girl: You’re eating third-hand sweet potatoes fries. Guy 2: I want fourth hand!
Friend: Oh God, I heard some girl in the lounge talking about her blog. Me: Well both of us have blogs. Friend:...Yeah, but we don’t talk about it in public.
Instructor to Class: We’re all adults here. You’re all old enough to vote ... and have sex.
Prof: What is creativity? Class: (long silence) Prof: We are in design school, and nobody knows what creativity means?
Astrology
Astrology
Taurus
Characteristics: Self-reliant, imaginative, careful, stable, step by step thinker Element: Earth Lucky Day: Friday Lucky Number: Six Jewel: Jade Tendencies: Rigid and overly conservative, bossy, stubborn with untidy habits Key Word: Warm-hearted Ruling Planet: Venus Colours: Blue, Green, Yellow Famous Taureans: Marcus Aurelius, Salvador Dali, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx Taurus:
Scorpio:
It’s okay to take the last computer but only pretend to use it. We understand.
I was one vote away from being valedictorian, I still wrote a speech.
Gemini:
Sagittarius:
You know those people who add you on Facebook after only meeting you once? Yeah? Oh, okay then, never mind.
Save all the text messages you get from your crushes. In twenty years they will be sweet or weird or blackmail and no matter what they will make you feel good.
Cancer:
Capricorn:
If you have friends who don’t mind it when you sing on the street you don’t need anything over the counter.
Leo: This month is like running with a little baby bird in your hand. You are going to need some pressure, but not too much.
Virgo: Grow up to be the kind of person who runs with their kids. It will make up for never being the kind of person who runs with their parents.
Libra: If the best feeling is “the feeling” then it’s worth the hours of boring, cold water.
There are end lines, sidelines and goal lines. Lines are frustrating to print on the grass with white paint. They make an end zone where big strong people dance. Those are the facts.
Aquarius: Dental tools will come in handy more often than you expect. Especially the long pointy ones.
Pisces: Things to keep on you at all times: A pen, a thank you card, a rope, a ring, your hairs, germs, and an alias.
Aries: If your feet hurt, sit down for a while and eat a bagel.
www.ericdraws.wordpress.com