SPRING 2008

A Publication for the Alumni, Students, Faculty SKETCH and Staff of Ontario College of Art & Design new whorled skies Cover & Inside Cover SKETCH Illustration by Gracia Lam, 2008 The Ontario College of Art & Design is Canada’s Produced by the OCAD Marketing “university of the imagination,” engaging in & Communications Department education and research and contributing to the Designed by Hambly & Woolley Inc. fields of art and design, local and global cultural initiatives, and knowledge and invention across Date of issue June 2008 a wide range of disciplines. The views expressed by contributors Sketch magazine is published twice a year by the are not necessarily those of the Ontario College of Art & Design for alumni, friends, Ontario College of Art & Design. faculty, staff and students. Charitable Registration #10779-7250 RR0001 Canada Post Publications President Sara Diamond Agreement # 40019392 Chair, Board of Governors J. Anthony Caldwell Printed on recycled paper Acting Vice-President, Academic Kathryn Shailer Vice-President, Finance & Administration Return undeliverable copies to: Peter Caldwell Ontario College of Art & Design Vice-President, Research & Graduate Studies 100 McCaul Street Michael Owen Toronto, Ontario Associate Deans, Faculty of Art Canada M5T 1W1 Simone Jones, Vladimir Spicanovic Telephone 416.977.6000 Associate Dean, Faculty of Design Steve Quinlan Facsimile 416.977.6006 Associate Deans, Faculty of Liberal Studies www.ocad.ca Paula Gardner, Eric Nay Executive Director, Development & Alumni Relations; President, OCAD Foundation Jessica Kamphorst Chair, OCAD Foundation Gregory Milavsky President, Alumni Association Sally Cumming

Contents SPRING 2008 A Publication for the Alumni, Students, Faculty and Staff of Ontario College of Art & Design

FEATURES

Designers Needed for Brain Implants: Health Care and Inclusive Design by Leanna McLennan Page 6 Columns Creativity, Contribution and Foresight: Sustainability at the Ontario College of From Our President Art & Design Page 2 by Larissa Kostoff Page 10 On Campus Page 3

Alumni Notes Page 16

Emerging Alumni Profile Page 20 information and communication technology (ICT); design and architectural strategies, methods and technologies; urban farming solutions; interior From our president design and appliance solutions; materials innovation; and economic models and relevant social media. All of these will help to reduce individual, enterprise and government carbon footprints, while creating jobs and Sara diamond Photo by Tom sandler improving the built and living environments. Celebrating the diversity of our students, faculty and alumni, as well as the communities they serve, reminds us that OCAD confronted the need Sometimes, moving forward means embracing who we already are — for inclusion decades before it was fashionable. Today, OCAD continues and then taking that to the next level. This issue of Sketch speaks to such to build diverse populations and practices. Our recent Design Competition’s a moment for OCAD. The decision on the part of our Board of Governors to theme was “Access for All,” initiated and, in part, led by OCAD student Mike ask the Government of Ontario to change our name to “OCAD University” Monize, who is currently interning at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and represents our combined respect for tradition — our tradition — wedded to whose design interests highlight mobility and accessibility. The competition’s a recognition of what we are today and where we’re headed tomorrow. theme underscores OCAD’s growing capacities in the wider, collaborative Take, for example, our rise to leadership stature in digital media, art and arena of design and health care, and furthers OCAD’s expertise in accessible design through the Digital Futures Initiative (DFI), which has increasingly strong design. In these pages, you’ll read about the partners who supported this virtual and material foundations. Since the 1970s, OCAD has been home competition, as well as its winners. to many leaders in electronic arts. Faculty members such as Lisa Steele, This issue’s Emerging Alumni Profile features Chilean-born painter, curator Norman White and, more recently, Doug Back, Judith Doyle, Paula Gardner, and educator Tamara Toledo, who is currently the curatorial resident at Martha Ladly, David McIntosh, Nancy Paterson, Paulette Phillips, Job Rutgers, A Space Gallery in Toronto as part of its culturally diverse curatorial program. Geoffrey Shea, Greg Van Alstyne and countless others have been contributing This fall, with OCAD as a partner, Toledo and A Space bring Cuban critic their wisdom over four decades. In the following pages, you’ll read about the and curator Gerardo Mosquera to Canada. Mosquera will be speaking here Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation’s recent decision to invest $9 at OCAD, at York University and at the University of Guelph. million towards a digital media research laboratory at OCAD, which Respecting and celebrating diversity and accessibility, realizing will strengthen the DFI to no end. This grant is a nod to our past, our present sustainability, and contributing to technology experimentation and innovation and our future. — all of these themes and values are fundamental to OCAD. Together, they The Faculty of Design, with its “Design for Humanity” mandate, has long help us realize that there is a double role for institutions like our university. As been encompassing the “eco” system. Our university’s capacity to formalize art and design leaders, we must, on the one hand, put ourselves out there, in and launch the Sustainable Futures Initiative, with renowned partners like front of the pack. At the same time, we must be keepers of the flame, even Zerofootprint and Habitat for Humanity, reflects the decades-long commitment when that flame has flickered out of flavour-of-the-month status. of faculty members — Doreen Balabanoff, Jeremy Bowes, Archie Graham, It’s an exciting combination and a critical moment in time — the themes Bruce Hinds, Martin Liefhebber, Eric Nay, Coleen Reed, Sheila Waite Chuah, and values that we’ve been championing as an institution have become the among others — to the life-and-death issues of our planet. OCAD is concerns of the larger culture in which we live and work. For these reasons, currently building a consortium with other universities and colleges (such it’s a moment during which OCAD can, with its partners and supporters, as the University of Guelph, Ryerson University, York University, the University truly lead. of Waterloo and George Brown College), as well as businesses and not- for-profits. This consortium will work to develop green, clean and relevant —Sara Diamond An institution evolves OCAD OCAD has been a part of the University university sector for many years. Interestingly, it has never been a On April14, 2008, following months part of the college sector, despite of intensive research and consulta- its name. tion with members of our community, OCAD received the authority to the OCAD Board of Governors voted confer Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in favour of recommending that our and Bachelor of Design (BDes) university’s name be changed from degrees in 2002. This resulted in a “Ontario College of Art & Design” to renewed curriculum, a new profes- “OCAD University.” With this vote, sional structure for faculty, a new the Board took a huge step forward system of governance, a research in allowing OCAD to reposition itself mandate and, as of September 2008, within the post-secondary sector. the introduction of graduate programs A name change is never easy. beginning with the Master of Fine Arts NSCAD University (formerly the Nova in Criticism & Curatorial Practice; the Scotia College of Art and Design) did Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media it in September 2003 to reflect its new and Design; and the Executive Master status as a university. The same can of Design in Advertising (EMDes). be said of the Emily Carr University of In 2006, following a rigorous Art and Design in Vancouver, which application and review process, changed its name in April 2008. OCAD was admitted as a member In our case, a name change is of the Association of Universities supported by the strategic expan- and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), sion of OCAD’s academic offerings which is the national and international — from the introduction of minors voice of Canada’s universities. at the undergraduate level to the OCAD’s change in status led to upcoming launch of three new mas- discussions about a name change, in ter’s programs. If approved, the name part to clear up the confusion experi- change would also add momentum enced by many, including prospective to our drive to enhance our position students, parents, other universities as Canada’s leading university of art (especially the graduate schools to and design. which OCAD alumni frequently apply), It is envisioned that the community governments and other granting ON Campus PG3 engagement that led to this pivotal bodies, and donors. decision will continue through its In many ways, changing our name implementation, as well as through to “OCAD University” as the Board the creation and rollout of a new recommends is the natural next step graphic identity representing OCAD’s in the evolution of our institution: updated name. The Board’s recom- mendation has been forwarded • 1876–1886: to Queen’s Park for the provincial Ontario School of Art government’s consideration. In the meantime, our name remains “Ontario • 1886–1890: Welcome to the Art & Design Society of the College of Art & Design.” Toronto Art School Ontario College of Art & Design. The Society is a group of people who have come together • 1890–1912: to help OCAD play a leading role in the new Central Ontario School of Art age that is upon us — the Age of Imagination. We’re looking for collaborators, partners, and Industrial Design builders and co-dreamers. Or, as we like to call them, “&s”. • 1912–1996: The Art & Design Society features a unique Ontario College of Art (OCA) calendar of exclusive events. Entrepreneurs and innovators in culture, business, creativity • 1996–present and technology will engage with leading and Ontario College of Art & Design emerging minds in art & design. (OCAD)

• future: OCAD University

For more information about this exciting chapter in OCAD’s history, please contact Leon Mar, Director, Marketing & Communications, at [email protected]. Investing in the digital future

top, left Top Dr. Michael Owen observes a John Shipman panoramic screen during a tour Almost No Risk, 2005 ON CampuS of the research facilities at the ZKM Center for art and media in Bottom Karlsruhe, Germany. Peter Todd Photo by Judith Doyle Motors used in integrated media artwork, 2005

OCAD is developing digital design to enhance student education and In “Changing Places” — an investing in Ontario libraries “to help and media research and innova- research. Additional faculty with a international partnership between them bridge the digital divide.” tion with $9 million in funding from wide range of expertise in digital Toronto and Karlsruhe, its sister city The role of libraries in the digital the Ontario Ministry of Research fields will be hired. in Germany — OCAD is working with age is changing, notes Jill Patrick, and Innovation (MRI). It’s an invest- Specific research projects, intern- the ZKM Center for Art and Media Director, Library Services, “from ment that aligns well with the Digital ship opportunities and technology to explore the use of mobile media storehouses to filters and producers Futures Initiative (DFI), the university’s upgrades will also have independ- in cultural tourism. Phase one of of information.” Accordingly, the innovative cross-disciplinary program. ent sources of funding, as OCAD this ongoing initiative, funded by the university envisions a student- The initiative will include establishing embarks on partnership projects with Ontario ministries of Culture and of centred, information-rich library a research and innovation laboratory other educational institutions and Research and Innovation, involved with physical and virtual collections. for interactive design, art and private sector companies, including planning interactive cultural experi- With support from the DFI, OCAD digital media. Apple, IBM, Xerox and Astral Media. ences in Toronto and Karlsruhe that will expand its digital collection and “The new lab will allow our faculty A cross-Atlantic alliance between promote creative new media and offer digital resources that are eas- and students to work together with OCAD and Goldsmiths, University future collaborative ventures that fit ily accessible to students. It will also industries involving information and of London, will foster student-faculty into the DFI framework. develop possibilities for video con- communication technology, green collaborations on a broad range Partnerships with TVO and the ferencing and podcasting to provide technologies, the service sector, of academic and research initiatives, Canadian Film Centre will explore and students with convenient access health care, and culture and entertain- promoting joint curatorial practice create the use of digital archives. This to lectures — a significant benefit ment,” says OCAD President Sara and research, as well as partner- collaboration, which is a direct result to ESL students who may want to Diamond. ships involving design and digital of the DFI, will give OCAD faculty and listen to lectures more than once. The funding from MRI is a further media. This affiliation will also include students the opportunity to work with In this era of the emerging global vote of confidence by the province in exchange opportunities for students, industry professionals to develop new “imagination economy,” the Digital OCAD’s Digital Futures Initiative (DFI), faculty and staff and the co-hosting digital content. Futures Initiative plays a major role in a set of cross-disciplinary programs of a conference on practice-based DFI funding has also made it producing OCAD graduates who will and research and innovation activ- research in the arts, utilizing data possible to hire a consulting team be able to imagine, design, produce, ities of which the new lab is a part. from the U.K., the European Union, from financial-service firm Deloitte to direct or initiate businesses across Supported by an annual investment North America, Brazil and Australia. audit and advise OCAD on how to a broad range of sectors. As creators of $2 million from the Ontario Ministry As well, OCAD and Goldsmiths will develop its information technology and innovators directly engaged with of Training, Colleges and Universities, research and co-publish in the areas and library services. This highlights real-world challenges, they, in turn, the DFI will see OCAD expand its of new media, strategic creativity one of the main priorities in the prov- will be key players in the economy infrastructure, curriculum and library in design and documentary media. incial government’s 2008 budget — and cultural well-being of Ontario. Mapping Diversity at the Professional Gallery

top, left top, right above Mark Adams Mark Adams Rosalind Nashashibi 20.2.1982. Farringdon Crescent, 5.3.1982. Farwood Drive, Henderson, Bachelor Machines, Part 2, 2007 Glenn Innes, Auckland, New Zealand. West AuCkland. Uli. Tufuga ta tatau: 16 mm film, two-screen projection. PG5 Soga’imiti: Faiga Mamea, with Su’a Pasina Sefo, 1982. Courtesy of Harris Lieberman, his wife Shirley. Tufuga ta tatau: Su’a RA colour print New York Sulu’ape Petelo, 1982/2003. RA colour print

On April 5, 2007, international art- square-foot gallery located just off of Adams points to this controversy “It offers a commentary on indus- ist Rirkrit Tiravanija, who graduated the Great Hall at 100 McCaul Street. by including photographs of non- trial capitalism in the 21st century. from OCAD in 1984, bricked-over Rather than specializing in any Samoans with traditional tattoos. For It has the patina of romance, but the the entrance of OCAD’s Professional one medium — painting, sculpture instance, one photograph features ship is actually a rusting piece of Gallery, mysteriously concealing what or design — the gallery focuses on Michel Thieme, a tattooed Dutch- floating garbage,” says Reeve. lay inside for months. When visitors national and international work in Caribbean art dealer, in his gallery. At “Design for the Other 90%,” which finally got inside during Nuit Blanche diverse mediums and themes. The a glance, it reads as a simple act of is set to open October 4 as part of on September 29, 2007, they discov- current exhibition, “Tatau: Samoan appropriation. But the story is more Nuit Blanche, was originally exhibited ered a small bar where Rirkrit’s studio Tattooing and Global Culture: complex. The art dealer, who became at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design assistants served tequila. At another Photographs by Mark Adams,” interested in Oceanic cultures through Museum in New York. The Design exhibition, Karim Rashid’s designed subverts expectations about docu- his interest in tattooing, was given a Exchange will host a parallel exhib- objects were surrounded by walls mentary photography. Adams renders tattoo, learned the process for mak- ition focused on providing shelter for covered with his custom-designed a level of detail in staged colour ing traditional tattoos, and was given under-resourced populations. treatments. photographs that suggest they a Samoan family name in a trad- The show presents successful and Now, the walls are filled with New might be a better document than itional ceremony. Yet he does not give unsuccessful examples of sustainable Zealand artist Mark Adams’ photo- the black-and-white photographs, Samoan tattoos because he wants to design. For example, when a mobile graphs of men being held down on which appear to be spontaneous. respect the traditional belief that they hearing-loss program found that living-room floors, as Samoan tattoos “The photographs destabilize each should only be given by Samoans. hearing aids distributed in Botswana are applied using an extremely painful other’s claims to documentary reality,” On April 29, 2008, at OCAD, Thieme were not being used after six months process that involves infusing the explains Reeve. gave a lecture, which will soon be because the batteries were too costly ink into the skin through a spike that Featured tattooist Sulu’ape Paulo II posted on the OCAD website, about to replace, a solar panel stand was is tapped into the skin with a hammer played a strong role in reviving tattoo- his interest in this tradition. designed with a rechargeable battery. (tatau means “to tap” in Samoan). ing in migrant Samoan communities The gallery’s next show, “Rosalind “All of these shows fulfill the Since opening in April 2007, in New Zealand. In a controversial Nashashibi: Bachelor Machines,” will mandate of the gallery by bringing the OCAD Professional Gallery has move, he started giving traditional open in June and feature two imagis- in renowned artists and designers quickly developed a reputation tattoos to people outside the Samoan tic films. “Bachelor Machine, Part 1,” whose work people might not other- for showcasing thought-provoking community. Many Samoans believe which was shown at the 52nd Venice wise see,” notes Reeve. “We want contemporary art and design. traditional tattoos should be given Biennale in 2007, is composed of to give people something to discuss.” “We‘re mapping out the diversity only to Samoan people; however, fragments filmed on an ocean freight- that exists in contemporary art,” says Sulu’ape Paulo II did not adhere to er: shot in the mess hall, on the deck, Charles Reeve, curator of the 1,200- that belief. and views through portholes. Toronto rehab’s $36-million research initiative — iDAPT (Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation and Technology) — will be one of the world’s most advanced rehabilitation research and development facilities, a place where new therapies and assistive technologies will be developed for people recovering from, and living with, disabling injury or illness. top ready for use, IDAPT’s state-of-the-art motion simulator will be able to recreate environmental conditions, such as ice- and snow-covered surfaces. middle Conducting research in the Challenging Environment Assessment Lab (CEAL), a Researcher monitors results in the control room, while computers display images from inside the simulator. bottom Inside the motion simulator, a subjects studying mobility Research walk on an icy surface, while red markers allow researchers to measure body movement with digital imaging. ‘If people aren’t included, they contribute less. This ultimately lowers the quality of life for everyone.’

Designers Needed for Brain Implants: Health Care and above OCAD student Mike Monize speaks Inclusive at the design PG7 competition awards ceremony. Design by Leanna McLennan Photo by Lino Ragno

“I couldn’t go into a lot of places specialized teaching hospital of the universally accessible. in my wheelchair because there University of Toronto. “Design for humanity, which is [would be] a foot-high step,” says “The relationship between design the philosophical base of our design Mike Monize, a third-year industrial and health care is an under-explored programs, focuses on ethical, design student at OCAD. “So I area that could be the key to devel- inclusive and sustainable design,” decided to go into design at OCAD oping the prosperity of the Ontario says Doreen Balabanoff, Assistant to improve the quality of life for economy,” notes Graham Hufton, a Dean of the Faculty of Design. myself and other wheelchair users. Faculty of Design instructor at OCAD “This involves thinking and creating “If people aren’t included, they and the senior industrial designer at thoughtfully by looking at design contribute less. This ultimately lowers Toronto Rehab. issues from multiple perspectives.” the quality of life for everyone.” In Ontario, health-care research Instead of adding ramps onto To address accessibility issues, is a thriving field. The U of T and its buildings as an afterthought, for Monize recommends what he calls affiliated hospitals are second only example, universal design aims to “socio-ergonomics” as the method­ to Harvard University in terms of the create things that everyone can use. ology for OCAD’s annual design number of medicine-related scientific In this view, good design is inclusive competition, defining it as “an publications they’ve produced. They design. OCAD’s strategic plan and ethos grounded in designing, with also spend more than $500 million curriculum development will ensure an understanding of difference and in medical research each year. that students graduate with a specific equality; an acknowledgement of OCAD too is creating opportunities skill set that allows them to create our interconnection with one another in this arena, including internships good design. and our surroundings; and a sense and research possibilities at The principles of universal design of responsibility to produce effects institutions such as Toronto Rehab are integrated into first-year Design that foster life.” and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Practices courses. They’re also the This year’s competition — Design Care. It’s a move that underscores focus of the advanced-level course, for Humanity: Access for All — the increasingly significant role of Universal Design: Principles and challenged students to explore designers in health-care research. Practices, taught by Howard Gerry, connections between design and Indeed, the theme of this year’s an associate professor in the Faculty health care. OCAD worked in competition reflects an even broader of Design. According to the course partnership with the March of Dimes move at OCAD towards universal, syllabus, “designers are challenged and the Toronto Rehabilitation inclusive design, rather than design to recognize the diversity of possible Institute (Toronto Rehab), a that requires adaptation to make it end users and their various needs, Designers Needed for Brain Implants: Health Care and Inclusive Design

Above Top Above model of a Early Testing of Francis LeBouthillier 24-week-old baby Amniocentesis with his Training Models for Amniocentesis Prototype by Francis Photo by Marina Romanova simulator Model LeBouthillier by Francis LeBouthillier Photo, Courtesy Photo, Courtesy of the artist of the artist whether related to age, size, physical The winning team — Lesley Look “It was the best thing of the entire The standard practice in mobility or visual/mental abilities.” Hong, Emily Oppenheim, Finlay year,” says Look Hong. “We were able universities is for researchers to “Disability is part of diversity and Paterson, and Steve Reaume — to implement the design process. This invent something and then send it to needs to be integrated into OCAD designed a wayfinding system called allowed us to see the gaps in our a technology transfer agency, which culture and curriculum,” notes Cathy Pathways. As part of their design knowledge and strengthen our skills.” markets it to a corporation. Toronto Berry, Learning Strategist at OCAD’s process, they walked around the Toronto Rehab, a partner in the Rehab takes a different approach: it Centre for Students with Disabilities. school, thinking of how someone in 2008 design competition and a world works directly with industry partners “The design competition brought a wheelchair would be able to get leader in assistive and rehabilitation to get products to market. This allows disability into the conversation. It around, and making mental maps of technology, is an example of the people to pool their talents and work was a wonderful starting point.” things to change. They addressed kind of institution OCAD is partnering together as an integrated team. Defining disability is complex. cognitive disabilities by making with to create more opportunities in “The path to developing and com- Many disabled people want to have their instructions for navigating the the field of health and wellness. One mercializing a product is expensive, their disabilities recognized as an campus easily accessible to people OCAD student is currently interning at and we try to make the interface as integral part of themselves. Thus, with different learning styles. Toronto Rehab, which makes indus- affordable as possible,” says Fernie. some suggest a shift in language — “We tried to make a space that trial designers a key part of research “One of the key components of this from “people with disabilities” to works for everybody, to make design teams, along with academics, nurses, is to include industrial designers “disabled people.” that has the concept of access physiotherapists, doctors, business because they have a way of thinking According to Berry, at OCAD integrated into it,” says Reaume. people and engineers. about functionality. The researchers some of the predominant disabilities The key design component of “This is quite unusual in university come up with great concepts. are cognitive and are therefore related Pathways, which aimed to produce academic research,” notes Geoff Industrial designers have a lot to to learning. Designing for people of a sense of campus unification and Fernie, Vice President of Research at contribute to make a product usable, all abilities is a way of bringing both proposed to make travelling on Toronto Rehab and a professor in the affordable and attractive — that is, visible and invisible disabilities into campus easier for everyone, was the Department of Surgery at the U of T. non-stigmatizing.” the conversation without setting enhancement of sensory perception: Fernie has reinvigorated his interest disabled people apart. sight, touch and sound. The team in OCAD and its students due to the This year’s design competition recommended textured floors, so university’s renewed emphasis on fostered an awareness of disability that vision-impaired people could fundamental design skills, such as issues and allowed participants to feel shifts beneath their feet. They hand skills. engage with them in a tactile way. also designed information kiosks with visual and voice prompts, and used colour coding for OCAD departments. above top, right First place in the OCAD design competition Second-place went to Team 5 (Jong Jung Lee, Ki Ho Lee, Sean Lee, went to Team 9 for “Pathways,” a fully Christine Lieu and Minsu Kim) for the concept “exitglow,” accessible wayfinding concept for OCAD which addressed emergency evacuation procedures. PG9 above, right Team 1 (Greg Crossley, Elaine Macaranas, Robin McFaul and Joshua Moraes) received an honourable mention for the concept “SEES: Standardized Emergency Evacuation Strategy.”

“Until you can translate an idea The institute’s new research lab, “Having the technical skills required As shown by the innovative work into something that’s tangible — the largest in scope and size in the for mould making and bronze casting of OCAD students and faculty something you touch, feel, swallow, world, will allow for more detailed has been integral to developing medi- members, the interactions among write on, wear or implant — no one testing of such devices. For example, cal simulations,” says Lebouthillier, artists, designers and health can assess its value and no one will researchers will be able to reproduce “I use bronze-casting techniques to professionals will play a vital role in invest in it,” Fernie notes. “OCAD sleet conditions and test how people create the silicone fetuses.” the future of health-care research and students work better in our context walk in those conditions. While he is now working with a real-world applications. because they understand that we “At Toronto Rehab, I’ve seen what team to secure funding that will need solid progress to turn ideas into I learned at OCAD come to life,” says allow him to use rapid prototyping -- marketable products. Beard. “It’s been a real eye-opener. technology, he’ll still be finishing Leanna McLennan is a Maritime-born writer “That doesn’t mean we want to You see what people go through and the simulators in the studio. and academic. Her work has been published in The Antigonish Review, Broken Pencil, inhibit creativity in any way — far what they need. I don’t think you can “Without the presence of the hand Fiddlehead, Taddle Creek and Third Floor from it. It just needs to be real. We’ve design something efficiently unless in the making process, something is Lounge: An Anthology from the Banff Centre got people with real problems that you really understand the needs of missing,” he says. for the Arts Writing Studio, 2004. need to be solved quickly.” the people who will be using it.” His work is particularly useful Now more than ever, industrial Practising artists are also using because he can manipulate silicone design students have the capacity their technical skills to work in to create layers that are comparable, to help. Says Julian Goss, Chair of tandem with medical professionals. in terms of density, to human tissue. Industrial Design at OCAD, “We’ve Who would have thought bronze- This allows medical professionals to been working in ID on rebalancing casting techniques could help note differences in density when they ‘soft’ design skills, such as research create medical simulators? But practice giving needles for amniocen- methodologies, strategic approach this is precisely what’s being done tesis, a procedure that requires them and concept development, with an by Francis Lebouthillier, Chair of to rely on the feel of the tissue. ability to articulate and output these Sculpture/Installation at OCAD. In the process, Lebouthillier has into measurable experience and pro- Lebouthillier, who started his career even learned how to deliver a baby. totyping. This balance is emblematic in figurative sculpture and later (Uncannier still, one of his earliest of our great strengths as an art and added performance and video to figurative sculptures was of a baby design university.” his repertoire, now produces delivering itself.) Leslie Beard, the OCAD design silicone models of fetuses and student currently interning at Toronto pregnant women’s bellies for medical Rehab, is designing mobility devices. professionals to use as learning aids. This infrared image of cherry trees was taken in Toronto’s High Park. Is it pretty? In principle, yes, it is. The infrared technology used to produce the image also generates night vision. It lets us see things we wouldn’t otherwise, and in the case of this photograph the “sight” we’re afforded feels prescient. There is the possibility of magic in these trees. There is beauty. There is also a sense of threat.

It’s a little like this story. Sustainability at the Ontario College of Art & Design by Larissa Kostoff

opposite Frank Lemire The blossoms at High Park, 2006 PG11

It’s an unusual protagonist, the don’t discard it when we’re done. It it develops what President Sara First, we educate. It is who and cherry tree, even in a story about keeps on giving and changing. Diamond has called “green, clean and what we are, and this in itself is sustainability at OCAD. The tree Biodiversity as a system depends relevant” collaborative strategies and nourishing. We also get our house also figures prominently in the now- on relationships, but diversity isn’t solutions. Some of these are outlined in order, which is, of course, a famous Cradle to Cradle: Remaking just biodiversity; it’s diversity of in the sidebar on page 12; the others necessity; we must do the actual the Way We Make Things, by green culture, of place, of ideas. In the comprise the body of this story. housekeeping. design guru and architect William closed-loop, one-size-fits-all model So, we look at our facility, our McDonough and chemist Michael of manufacturing put forth by What it means to thrive operations. And we look at curricu- Braungart. This 2002 book proposes McDonough and Braungart, diversity, According to Faculty of Design lum. In looking at curriculum, we look a radical alternative to the “reduce, including biodiversity, is a hostile professor Martin Liefhebber, an at who we want to graduate, what reuse, recycle” or “be less bad” force. What if we were to change that? award-winning architect and noted these graduates will have to say — approach — one that’s inherently visionary in the field of sustainable what, in the future, they’ll want and creative. What if, the authors ask, we con•sil•i•ence: the joining together design, “sustainability” is the wrong be able to communicate. We also design products and systems that of knowledge and information word. “Sustainability means keeping look at ways we can contribute to celebrate abundance — abundance across disciplines to create a unified things as they already are,” he insists. that future now. We look at research, of creativity, of culture, of productiv- framework of understanding “Put that into a relationship context what questions to raise or issue as ity? What if there’s no ecological and it’s not so attractive. This is a call to action to our colleagues in footprint to lament? This past February, students really about thriving.” other disciplines, even in other fields. The cherry tree is beautifully at Columbia University launched If Liefhebber’s right, if the idea And we look at answering them. emblematic of the New Ecology of Consilience: The Journal of is not to sustain but to thrive, Learning, a core concept of OCAD’s Sustainable Development, inspired to create — using the model of the Curriculum Strategic Plan. The cherry tree is by humanist biologist Edward O. cherry tree — and promote abun- This spring, the Academic Council creative. It produces copious Wilson’s 1998 book, Consilience: dance, we have a tall order to fill. at OCAD approved a minor offering amounts of blossoms and fruit with- The Unity of Knowledge. According How do we get there? in sustainability. The core courses out depleting the environment. In to Wilson, “a balanced perspective One of the first things we do is of this offering will build on existing seeking regenerative abundance for cannot be acquired by studying disci- look at ourselves. How do we thrive? curriculum to provide students with itself, it nourishes everything around plines in pieces, but through the pur- What precisely is the nature of our a broad background in sustainable it, thereby promoting diversity, a suit of the consilience among them.” abundance? This is, after all, the way theory and practice, and many areas critical element of the natural world. In many ways, OCAD’s Sustainable we nourish; it’s what we have to and disciplines will be integrated into The cherry tree isn’t single-purpose. Futures Initiative will engage the give, our most valuable contribution. these courses. The minor will revolve It doesn’t bloom and then die, and we university in precisely this pursuit, as How do we know and cultivate it? around a locus of studio options not Creativity, Contribution and Foresight: Sustainability at the Ontario College of Art & Design

OCAD, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), is committed to advancing responsible environmental practices and promoting sustainability through research and programs. OCAD’s Sustainability Task Force — chaired jointly by Alastair Macleod, Director of IT Services, and Lews Nicholson, Faculty of Design professor — is spearheading the development of innova- tive solutions to reduce waste, improve recycling and lower carbon emissions. The university is also a community partner of Zerofootprint Toronto (www.toronto.zerofootprint.net), and in March it announced that it will use Zerofootprint Toronto’s environmental footprint calculator to mobilize students, faculty and staff around sustainability and climate-change issues. In April, OCAD announced that it had “Bullfrog-powered” the Student Centre. A lead- ing Canadian provider of green electricity, Bullfrog Power™ will reduce OCAD’s one-year emissions footprint by approximately 24.2 tonnes of

above top CO2 (the primary gas that causes climate change), Ice Texts, 2004-2005. An outcome of Cape Farewell, a project Under biomimetic 71.6 kg of SO (a major contributor to smog) created by David Buckland to bring artists, scientists and scrutiny, the 2 educators together to collectively address and raise awareness abalone shell is and 30.9 kg of NO (another major contributor to about climate change. Buckland visited OCAD in February 2008 to twice as strong as smog). The university is also involved in the present a talk titled “Good Planets are Hard to Find: a Cultural the most high-tech Response to Climate Change.” ceramics. Photo by following environmental initiatives: >>> Sarah Mulholland.

unlike current studio-based models. key is the question of centralizing greater agility is exactly what many of Design professor Bruce Hinds, Some of the courses will be project- the work, of “physicalizing” it in the our faculty, even those from diverse “sustainability should be embedded based, involving students and profes- form of a dedicated office. disciplines, are advocating. OCAD’s in everything; it should actually be sionals, and taking creative thinking Then there is the issue of how New Ecology of Learning encourages invisible.” Hinds, an architect, co- into real-world practice. Potentially, we teach this material. How do we agility because it’s not linear — it’s chairs the Think Tank program from OCAD will partner with organiza- capitalize on our existing expertise? nodal. Students and faculty work in whose ranks emerged “depletism” tions such as Habitat for Humanity to How do we establish learning different areas but come together (an invented word targeting anti- design sustainable prefabricated units outcomes and identify the particular creatively as nodes. environmentalists). Eric Nay, also or facilitate the adoption of a cradle- skill set we’d like to impart? Ian Clarke is a professor in the an architect and cross-appointed in to-cradle approach to materials and How do we teach, by example, Faculty of Liberal Studies and a the faculties of Liberal Studies and construction. a sustainable design course to researcher at the Hospital for Sick Design, is even more emphatic: “I’d The studio offerings will be comple- Faculty of Art students unfamiliar Children in Toronto. Clarke, who be perfectly happy to say I don’t care mented by a liberal studies component with design process? finished a PhD (’93) before embark- about sustainability at all. I just want with a foundational and contextualizing Finally, how do we make this ing on a printmaking degree (’04) at a contemporary curriculum and role. Supplementary studio-seminar bigger than a minor? OCAD, characterizes the “dichotomist sustainability is one of its defaults.” options will provide the materials, “The interesting thing about OCAD idea of science and art” as a major But how do we assess our strategies and knowledge systems is that we’re relatively small, and challenge. Says Clarke: “Sustainability progress? How do we quantify our essential to real-world practice. if we want to, we can be very agile,” requires an integrated, multi-disciplin- contribution vis-à-vis that contem­ This minor embodies the notion of observes Jeremy Bowes, Chair ary approach…an understanding of porary curriculum? Perhaps, as Nay consilience. It also emblematizes the of Environmental Design at OCAD. everything involved — the human recommends, we put sustainability cherry tree model — theoretically, its Along with Industrial Design professor factors, the biological factors, the into first, second, third and fourth purposes are rich and varied; ideally, Sheila Waite Chuah, Bowes is a key ecological factors, design process. years, “so that it becomes that it nourishes everything around it. player in identifying sustainability- These need to be absorbed at a mandatory default, so that even if it Growing related curriculum does related curricular aims. ground level and integrated into a isn’t the issue, even in those cases, pose challenges. There are the In sports, agility is characterized design if you expect it to be every thesis still reflects it.” supposed nuts-and-bolts issues — in terms of response, usually to an sustainable. ” arguably also the bulkhead — that opposing player. In our case, there’s If consilience is not just an Communication revolve around logistics. Money, no opposition, not among players, but objective but the only way to under- “Scientists know in an unbeliev- for one — how do we go about there are divergent points of focus. standing (where sustainability is able amount of detail how the world funding something that requires This is, of course, our diversity and concerned), then curriculum must be works,” notes Clarke, “but [they] are change of such magnitude? Also as such it should be celebrated. Yet, integrative. According to Faculty of terrible at getting that knowledge • a switch from toxic solvents In both her research and curatorial to vegetable- and coconut- practice, Liberal Studies professor oil-based solvents in all Lynne Milgram has worked with non- Lynne Milgram has also OCAD studios; governmental organizations, fair trade spent a decade working with • a campus-wide power-out associations and craft producers and The Artistans’ Multipurpose hour in support of Earth designers in Manila and northern and Cooperative (AMC) in inner- Hour 2008; central Philippines. The initiative fea- city Manila. The AMC’s • the two-day Green tured here (top, right) demonstrates production of bags, footwear Exchange, which facilitates artisans’ revival of piña-fibre textiles and furnishing accessories the recycling of outdated and garments, which enables them to made from recycled plastic and reusable technology; use indigenous renewable resources. juice containers responds to • a campus recycling Piña cloth, woven from the fibres contemporary consumers’ program, which involves of the leaves of the pineapple plant, growing demand for collecting broken furniture fell out of favour in the late 1800s environmentally friendly, and scrap studio materials, with the advent of “modern” western ethically produced goods. such as metal and plastics; imports. It wasn’t until 1988 that The AMC operates as a • the trial use of biodegrad- Philippine producers and designers, multi-purpose, profit-sharing able garbage bags, using local resources and skills, cooperative. Through recyclable hand towels and revived piña production into a symbol innovative production, green cleaning products; of national pride. artisans negotiate complex, • a “no bottled water” policy culturally mediated design for student orientation processes to successfully activities; transform recycled waste • a bicycle-friendly campus materials into middle- and program; and high-end fashion goods. • upgrades to heating/ cooling systems to improve energy efficiency.

above, BOTTOM top above, middle Estisol Demonstration (April 22, 2008), hosted by OCAD AN artisan weaves Two artisans’ multi-purpose co­operative Printmaking with Mark Bovey, Assistant Professor of Art, piña cloth in a (AMC) bags showcase recycled plastic NSCAD University. Estisol is a wide-application solvent workshop in Kalibo, juice containers that are used in bag PG13 substitute and cleaning agent, which can replace mineral Aklan, Philippines. construction. photo by B. Lynne Milgram, spirits, lithotine, lacquer thinner, naphtha and other Manila, Philippines, 2006. medium-specific cleaners. Estisol is non-toxic, breaks down in the human body and is biodegradable. across to the public in a way that is and cultural Zeitgeist to one of what OCAD can offer as an computer (from the human brain). useful. This is the translation that’s sustainability and conservation?” “incubator for generalist thinking.” Biomimcry is not new. The required and this is where art and Perhaps, to be crass, you make National Aeronautics and Space design come in. Scientists can spell the cherry tree prettier. This may be Research Administration (NASA) has been out in very specific facts and figures where we brand sustainable thinking “If you’re too much of a scientist,” looking at it for some time, as have everything they know, but until it as a means to an end, the best says Liefhebber, “all you do is look U.S. military forces; nowadays it’s becomes emotional in some way, it’s possible end. Says Clarke: “An artist through a microscope.” OCAD, attached to issues of sustainable not real to other people.” or an advertising student might forget Liefhebber notes, is ideally situated design. Recently, OCAD was inter- Almost by default, then, we begin that it’s not the engineers or the to contribute real research to the field nationally recognized as a centre of to contribute — and contribute scientists changing the way we think. because of its unique position as a expertise, one of three “institutional uniquely — by communicating. Our It’s the people altering our cultural generalist school. affiliates,” by the Biomimicry Institute, students are artists and designers milieu — these are the motivators.” Biomimetics is a case in point, a a brother-and-sister umbrella institu- after all; it’s what they do. This summer, one of the leading field to which OCAD researchers are tion in the field (the other entity is the This year marked the coming international trend firms in manufac- poised to contribute as generalists. for-profit Biomimcry Guild). OCAD together of OCAD and a host of other turing (www.trendwatching.com) intro- Bruce Hinds, who, along with Faculty received high praise from the Institute educational institutions and organiza- duced “eco-iconic” as part of its “8 in of Design instructor Karl Hastrich, for “leadership and unflagging dedi- tions — including the University of 2008.” Apparently, whereas previous teaches biomimetics at OCAD, calls it cation” to university-level education Guelph, York University, Zerofootprint, eco-friendly versions of the real thing the “mediational” discipline — a place at what it called a “fertile intersection” the City of Toronto and Habitat for were initially “eco-ugly” and then where disciplines come together of fields. Humanity — in a series of ongoing “eco-chic,” now these goods and ser- Biomimicry is the quest for inno- Effectively teaching this material “sustainability salons.” On January vices sport bold, iconic markers and vation inspired by nature. Typically, is clearly a study in consilience, but 12, during the afternoon breakout design. According to the report, at biomimics are scientists/inventors so too is the way research evolves. sessions meant to galvanize partici- the heart of the trend is a status shift: who study nature’s achievements “We’re revolutionizing the way we pants, certain questions arose that If eco-credentials impress, then by and then adapt them for human use. research,” says Hinds. “A material merit our consideration as artists and all means, we’ll flaunt them. Design solutions “mimic” myriad scientist at the University of Toronto designers. In a culture of consilience, com- sources, including the anatomy, told me the other day that most of Who are the cultural curators of municators are also mediators and physiology and behaviour of living the grants he’s securing have an environmental information? If the facilitators; we have a fluency that systems. Examples of bio-inspired industry component. The work has idealized values of the popular culture specialists lack. This is another locus design include Velcro (from the to be applied. OCAD can potentially embrace and emulate “bling” con- of our contribution and potential. burr), the wind turbine (from the affiliate itself with research of this sumption, how do you shift the media It’s what we can offer as generalists, fin of a humpback whale) and the kind; we have the capacity to look Creativity, Contribution and Foresight: Sustainability at the Ontario College of Art & Design

Martin Liefhebber, Faculty of Design professor and principal at Breathe Architects, is interested in the way “high-touch” materials and textiles can function as an antidote to the modernist use of machinery and gadgetry in the pursuit of comfort. Lefhebber argues that the maintenance (or “sup- plying”) of human comfort within buildings needs also to be informed by human culture — the types of clothing worn, the foods eaten, the hours kept. From the late 18th century onwards (assuming limitless stores of fossil fuels), comfort creation has been supplied by engineers with a focus on human physiology only. Liefhebber believes this shortcut to fossil fuels has devalued the ingenuity of the human experience, and of culture. Building science, he argues, can’t afford to ignore domes- tic rituals. Rather it can include tapestries, thick curtains on the walls and nighttime windows — among other things — to create both beauty and thermal comfort.

top above Presently, we warm or cool buildings with heating and venti­ Mass under Glass is a material solution to comfort creation, an alternative to the lation systems, causing 40 percent of the world’s total GHG traditional modernist energy solution. Instead of a plugged-in furnace or air (greenhouse gases). Man-made and designed “skins’” can address conditioning, the walls of the house supply warmth in winter and coolness in summer global warming and rediscover the value of clothing beyond through the use of rammed earth (yellow), which stores infrared energy (the warmth style. This chart depicts clothing insulation values. A value of direct sunlight) for when it’s needed (at night). To address shortages of potable water, of 3CLO is needed to thrive in cold weather. Source: ASHRAE gutters and water storage capacity (blue) manage rainwater for domestic use. Locally (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning supplied food for salads (green) grows behind windows. Source: Breathe Architects Engineers)

at new material applications and at point is, by building in diversity and explains, “but our background has there is certainly work to be done design solutions.” variability rather than controlling it, by been in working with the tactile. This here: there is research. Still, what Indeed, the biomaterials field rep- going the way of the cherry tree and puts us in the perfect position to do Liefhebber enjoys are the basics. The resents a major application of biomi- becoming part of sustainable systems real bench testing, real alpha-beta research questions he poses — the metics because it involves mimicking rather than separate from them, we modelling. It puts us in the same “potentials” — involve things like or synthesizing natural materials end up with healthier, more sustain- room with engineers.” rainwater and body temperature, why and then applying them to practical able environments, those that reflect Which is exciting. But does it help we always need to “plug things into design. Biomaterials are massively the ambient conditions in nature. move along the identity crisis many walls.” Says Liefhebber, “During the advantageous in that they’re normally industrial designers now face — ice storm in Quebec in 1998, savvy biodegradable and free of the hazard- Faculty of Design professor Sheila according to Karl Hastrich — because people realized that their furnace was ous chemicals often used in man- Waite Chuah, who has been teach- of sustainability? It’s probably too the automobile — what can we do made materials and construction. ing sustainable design for 15 years, soon to tell. with that?” Biomimics also look to architecture identifies OCAD’s “blend” of theory Hastrich describes the audit that What we can do shapes our con- — to buildings, which are responsible and practice as a significant research third-year industrial design students tribution — collaboratively won (that’s for 40 percent of energy consump- strength. Liefhebber, another “elder” conducted recently for telecommu- consilience) and nourishing (there’s tion worldwide. Says Hinds: “We’ve when it comes to expertise in the nications company Telus: “Together your cherry tree). It’s surely a start, a engineered ourselves into hermeti- field, believes that OCAD is well we realized that there aren’t a ton way to think about thriving. cally sealed buildings. We’ve made situated to do research, “simply by of things you can do to make a cell buildings to modulate environments, building on labs we already have.” phone green. Sustainability in this separating ourselves from nature and By insisting we use our natural case is not going to affect design. But ‘controlling’ it.” capital, Liefhebber acknowledges it is going to influence materials and It’s possible to see that this us. Perhaps he even grants us the manufacturing. Industry is hungry for is about more than the health of agency we need to get out there and that knowledge and so are we.” the planet when Hinds discusses to contribute. “It’s about high-touch,” Liefhebber also has plenty to say — among other examples — the he says, “not high-tech.” There are about materials and the cradle-to- researchers he knows in Japan look- some in the community who would cradle approach to materials that ing to “day” light their buildings disagree, but it doesn’t necessarily OCAD is uniquely capable of devel- (with light levels that reflect the way matter. Liefhebber is saying what oping. Liefhebber is an architect, an ambient light travels and shadows Chuah is saying — he’s talking about environmental designer. It’s one of during the course of a day) and make practice. “Most researchers work the fields most commonly associ- buildings with breezes in them. The with highly theoretical modelling,” he ated with sustainable design, and means time to get busy. Putting as much For Kelvin Redvers, free time passion into his First Nations Student Association as he does his filmmaking, and his world.e Maybe you share that spirit, making you a great candidate for the Millennium Excellenc Award. It’s a scholarship worth up to $10,000 plus unique learning opportunities for studentss. who are not only academic achievers, but also leaders and innovators in their communitie So if you’re making a difference as well as making the grade, tell us.

CMS08033-Kelvin_Eng_8.5x11-4c.in5 5 2/26/08 2:23:40 PM Boyle, who was once a musician herself, has also created performative screen projections that animate the work of musical artists such as Feist and Peaches. As well, she is remarkably literate and has been called both a technical virtuoso and a polymath. If there is a risk with this pairing – the possibility, perhaps, that one might get lost – it’s of no 15 Minutes with consequence to Boyle. Not only Shary Boyle does she acknowledge the risk, she Multidisciplinary artist Shary Boyle thrives on it. has gained recognition for her Describing Boyle’s newest work drawings, paintings and sculpture. in Border Crossings magazine “Lace Figures,” the porcelain last year, Meeka Walsh wrote that figurines she produced for a 2006 “technique and highly accomplished solo exhibition at Toronto’s Power painting, hybridity, mythological Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, were sensibility in place and deed, acquired recently for the permanent androgyny and suggestions of collections of the National Gallery of transgression are all present.” Walsh Canada, the Musée des beaux-arts also speaks almost reverently of de Montréal, the Paisley Museum & the “hovering state of immanence” Art Gallery in Scotland and the Art at play in Boyle’s art. It’s the kind Gallery of Ontario. of comment Boyle is tempted to

TOP left TOP right Shary Boyle Otherworld Uprising Shary Boyle Book Cover Image The Beast, 2007. Alumni Notes (Conundrum Press: 2008) Oil on panel, 40 x 35 cm BOTTOM 3-D scanned image of a female in the age range of 18-30 years old, January 2007. Photo by Ki Wong

Designers Develop As he spoke to people about the Database of Head Shapes significance of head shapes, Ball Why did an award-winning helmet found more and more examples designed by Roger Ball’s Toronto of product “misfits,” ranging from firm, Paradox, sell well in the United Western-designed hygienic face States and Europe but not in Japan? masks to American baseball caps According to a group of Asian purchased by Chinese teenagers to snowboarders, it was because the complete a hip-hop aesthetic. Says helmet, which was not designed Ball: “I was even interviewed by a for heads shaped like theirs, gave fashion journalist who admitted she them a headache. was thinking about getting plastic “It was a shock to learn the surgery, so the Gucci sunglasses she differences in Asian head shapes,” so adored would fit her.” says Ball. “It’s a Western chauvinism This awareness of the problem that we assume everyone is the inspired him to look for anthropometric same as we are.” information (the study of measure- ments of the human body) that would allow designers to better serve the needs of diverse markets. Unable to find useful data, he set about research- ing it himself. Ball and his team have now measured the heads of more than 2,000 Chinese in order to make better- fitting products — such as helmets and sunglasses — for Asians. Ball, who graduated from OCAD’s industrial design program in 1983, has been designing helmets since he was a student, when he worked overturn and unsettle; in this case reframing the “immanence” of her art as her own — her undoubtedly Boyle’s collaborative and cross- pervasive “suspended state disciplinary tendencies have also of unease.” become very much “in vogue,” which Boyle has called the transgressive is something she celebrates: impulse, the pulling out of something “People are curious about the that’s buried, a personal imperative, relationship between collaborators cognitively specific than they would and has admitted to an affinity with and the sharing of authorship be [had I set out to create] cool Outsider Art (i.e., “raw” or “rough” towards something that’s larger background art for bands. art created outside the boundaries of than the individual. I used to sing “My visual imagination also evolved official culture). When asked about in a band and I’ve been performing through absorbing the evocative identifying with a particular scene or live projections with musicians for imagery of writing. I’ll often be movement, she responds: 10 years; music has always been struck by an image after reading “I don’t, mostly because I’m a bit a major influence [for me]. The a particularly meaningful quote or of a loner socially and because I tend visual arts community, like the rest paragraph. I love interpreting and to make work from a very personal of the world, is fascinated by the personalizing the expression of place. I may be inspired by music or supposed glamour, the fantasy of another artist in a different genre. It’s something I see on the street, but the rock and roll. Some of the success like creating a sign for an idea. If it characters that populate my pictures of my performative work can be works, it brings the idea to a fuller, come directly from my most personal traced to that. But the main reason more layered meaning. It grows it.” and idiosyncratic inner world. When I I think people seem so moved by This past April, Conundrum Press was first showing figurative, narrative, my projections is the combination of released Otherworld Uprising, which psychosexual childhood and dream- images and sound, which creates a featured full-colour reproductions of worldly pictures, I was very much super-powerful emotional response “Lace Figures.” The book includes alone and even out of vogue in [what that’s strongly related to something critical essays by Josée Drouin- was a] highly conceptual and new primal or childlike inside of us. My Brisebois, Curator of Contemporary media-driven art community. But projections are very concerned with Art at the National Gallery of Canada, in past years, I’ve seen this kind of interpreting the lyrics and structure and new fiction from famed Canadian imagery spring up everywhere.” of a song, and so are much more literary personality Sheila Heti.

BELOW above Roger Ball with the first Shary Boyle Size China head forms, July 2007. Scotch Bonnet, 2007. Photo by Ki Wong Ink and gouache PG17 on paper, 76 x 56 cm BOTTOM Scanning a male subject in the age range of 50-70 years old, in Lanzhou Province, china, June 2006. Photo by Ki Wong as a senior designer at Cooper China and recruiting 2,000 subjects Canada Ltd., a manufacturer of were significant. As well, Ball had to sporting and leather goods. Now create a study that would stand up to the founding director of Size China scientific scrutiny. To achieve this, he (www.sizechina.com) and a PhD hired two expert scientists to teach candidate at the Delft University of his team how to properly scan peo- Technology in the Netherlands, Ball ple. Ball notes that this work extends is currently collaborating with experts beyond Asia and is ongoing due to from Hong Kong, the U.S. and the shifting populations. European Union to create the first The Hong Kong government has digital database of Chinese head invested HK$5.3 million into the and face shapes. project as part of its DesignSmart While this information is useful for Initiative, which is meant to increase designers, Ball also acknowledges and promote the use of design in its potential misuse. “Mistakes hap- Hong Kong. In addition, three industry pen when people start drawing sponsors and six partner universities conclusions about personality and have invested in the project, which behaviour,” notes Ball. “I draw no has a budget of US$1 million. conclusions about people from the When Andrew Wood, representa- shape of their heads. I believe in one tive director for New Era Cap Asia race, the human race. Within that are Pacific, one of the project’s industry subpopulations that have differences partners, saw an article in The South in physical dimensions.” China Morning Post on Size China’s According to Ball, the scanning website, he contacted Ball. process was complicated and “We‘ve been producing the authen- pressure-packed. The logistics of tic fitted cap since 1920,” says Wood. shipping a scanner to six provinces in “We knew Asian heads were different from the standard Royal Air Force head forms we were using. Size China has proven we need to look at new head forms for Asia to go forward.” “In this age of ubiquitous cyborgs, virtual personas and environmental transformation, artists are returning to metaphors of the ‘animal’ and the ‘natural’ to investigate the particular pugen’s Future of Wild character in this post-millennial Geoffrey Pugen has made masterful moment,” explains Pugen. “Theorists use of a set of wildly diverse skills. A like Hathaway have interrogated graduate of the University of British the ways that we project our desires Columbia’s theatre arts program and onto animals — as noble ideals, as of OCAD’s integrated media program sentimental fantasies, as repositories (’04), Pugen has combined what of evil, as the sublime or the abyss. he calls an “athletic” sensibility with These images are my attempt to a knack for theatrical satire, along contribute to that complex terrain.” the way manipulating various media In April 2008, Pugen launched to achieve his particular futuristic Fictional Dance Party — a “warped aesthetic. His videos, music and TV dance blog on club culture,” visual art have been exhibited in which sets out to explore how social Canada, Germany, Australia, Poland, experiences are becoming more and the United States. digital — at Moves, a festival of Pugen, a recent recipient of the experimental short films and new Ontario Arts Foundation’s K.M. media held annually in Manchester, Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary United Kingdom. He has also just Art, refers to much of his work completed a new feature-length art (including the images depicted here) film based on Utopics, his enigmatic as a serious satirical investigation, a video project. For more information kind of portal through which we can on Geoffrey Pugen and his art, visit consider our relationship to animals www.rollscourt.com. and the natural world.

TOP above far left Geoffrey Pugen Geoffrey Pugen Sandy McQueen Beach Scene, 2007. Shmera and Reito, 2005. View from Apartment Window, 2007. PG18 Alumni Notes lambda print, Lambda print, 46˝ x 34.5˝ 22˝ x 28˝ below, left Fantasy in Florence: Leaving Home and Loving It. Book cover image (MccArthur & Company, Toronto: 2007)

Fantasy in Florence for a joint creation based on Rod’s Bates Launched at Sandy and Rod McQueen journals while in Florence, and 401 Richmond In 2005, Sandy McQueen, a mature Sandy’s sketchbook. Gareth Bates didn’t dally after student in OCAD’s drawing and OCAD represented a third graduating last year from OCAD’s painting program, “dragged” her career for Sandy, who’d started drawing and painting program. journalist husband, Rod McQueen, her professional life as a teacher. He was the 2007 recipient of the away from Toronto for nine She’d go on to put her husband, 401 Richmond Career-Launcher spectacular months in Florence. who later became the editor of Prize, which is generously funded by Neither knew then that the time Maclean’s magazine, through school. donor Jane Zeidler and offers a they’d spend gazing from their She’d had babies, been a stay-at- single OCAD graduate the invaluable apartment window at the city’s home mom and reinvented herself opportunity to spend an entire year in famed Duomo and Medici chapels — with a successful career in real a dedicated studio. The spectacularly time Sandy describes as “impossible estate. Through it all, Sandy kept tenanted building at 401 Richmond to articulate it was so over the a sketchbook. Street West in Toronto is home to top” — would produce a book, As a journalist, Rod was the galleries like A Space and Wynick/ spouse who determined where home Tuck and, says Max Allen of CBC was. “I always moved because of Radio One’s Ideas program, is “a city him,” admits Sandy, who spent many within a city.” In 2007–2008 it played years overseas with her husband. host to Bates, who was selected by “For him, I laid down the tools of my OCAD faculty, administration and two profession.” Then the opportunity external jurors. arose for Sandy — and, by default, Rod, who’d just finished writing a book about Edgar Bronfman Jr. and whose work was suitably portable — to join fellow students participating in OCAD’s Florence Off-Campus Studies program. “We went,” says Sandy, “and we produced a book about our travels. This time, it was because of me.”

Kroeker, who works as an inde- pendent designer in his hometown of Winnipeg, graduated from OCAD’s industrial design program in 2000. The portfolio he’s amassed since then is incredibly diverse, ranging from transit buses and medical products to furniture, textiles and leather uphol- In May 2008, Kroeker also partici- stery. Much of his work has won rec- pated in the New York Design Week’s ognition by way of favourable press International Contemporary Furniture and a host of awards, including a silver Fair in an off-site group exhibition at the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair by Azure, titled “Wry & Ginger” Kroeker Takes New York, in Chicago. Kroeker was also named and hosted by home-furnishings Calgary, Edmonton… one of Canada’s 10 most innovative retailer Design Within Reach in its Matthew Kroeker has seen his designers by Azure magazine and Meatpacking District gallery. Next, furniture and home-accessory curator Rachel Gotlieb. This honour Kroeker will stop in Calgary and designs featured in the Chicago came with an attendant exhibit at the Edmonton, where a selection of his Tribune, The New York Times and 2008 Interior Design Show in Toronto, work will be featured in MADE in the Wallpaper magazine. He’s also considered Canada’s premier event West, a group exhibition highlighting been the recipient of numerous for designers of home furnishings, several artists and designers from international awards. fixtures and accessories. Western Canada.

below above below, right above, right Gareth Bate Matthew Kroeker Tristan Zimmerman Matthew Kroeker “Lament” Marsh Triptych, Splinter (for Jame phonofone II Saw lamp (for HutJ), 2007. Grenadier Pond, Toronto, 2008. Hamley Wells), 2006. ipod speaker, 2008. Photo by Thomas Fricke PG19 Acrylic on Mahogany Photo by Tim Polnau ceramic, 11˝ x 9.5˝ x 20˝

“Going from OCAD to 401 Bates says that “Lament,” the Hi-Fidelity No Option for at an international biomedical device Richmond was inspiring,” says Bates. series that emerged during his Designer of Sculptural company following graduation in “The studio helped me establish a residency, is “a song of sorrow, an Audio Console 2004 from OCAD’s industrial design daily practice and I’ve taken my existential contemplation of our place According to design magazine Dwell, program. Now, three years later, painting and performance in a new within nature and our effect on the Tristan Zimmerman’s Phonofone II Science and Sons is the channel and ambitious direction. What I want world.” An exhibition of Bates’ work iPod speaker is “our gramophone for Zimmerman to produce a is to reinvigorate Canadian landscape runs from May 24 until June 21, 2008, for the future.” Through passive Phonofone-inspired interactive public painting in the face of 21st-century at Gallery 260 at 401 Richmond amplification, this environmentally art installation — a commissioned climate change and environmental Street West in Toronto. For more low-impact ceramic speaker piece for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, destruction.” information on Bates and his art, transforms any personal music player Toronto’s annual all-night celebration visit www.garethbates.com. into a sculptural audio console. of contemporary art. What’s particularly impressive is that it creates rich, resonant sound by exploiting traditional horn acoustics but without the use of external power or batteries. In 2005, Zimmerman founded Science and Sons (www.science andsons.com), which produced of the Phonofones I and II, purportedly as “a side venture to sate my own creative musings.” Science and Sons was part of the pursuit of recovery for Zimmerman, who contracted what he calls “cubicle fever” after becoming a senior product designer ‘What haunts are not the dead, but the gaps left within us by the secrets of others.’ — Nicolas Abraham, “Notes on the Phantom”

EMERGING ALUMNI PROFILE: Tamara Toledo

Psychic baggage — we all inherit it. To commemorate is to observe, Toledo insisted that there be a longer Council for the Arts. Their application It’s said to be especially pronounced to mark, to call to remembrance. exhibition period for visual artists. She was approved. Then Toledo got in the children of war, the inheritors Marvelling at how previous also wanted to work with established pregnant. of violent histories, and it might well commemorative ceremonies were galleries only, so that participating Since the beginning of her have taken hold of Chilean-born artist “sober” and “nostalgic,” Toledo (who artists would really benefit from their 2007–2008 residency at A Space Tamara Toledo. For years, Toledo was just 20 days old when her family involvement — a consequence of (which was deferred to accommodate used her work “to communicate and left Chile) and her partner wondered her own personal experience. After her maternity leave), Toledo has alleviate a past marked by loss and about the other sons and daughters graduating from OCAD’s drawing and developed the Latin American Speaker mourning.” of political refugees from Chile. Who painting program in 1998 and before Series. Her work on this venture has Then, in 2003, Toledo sat down to were they? A great many of them, they returning to school to complete (in encompassed everything from finding a conversation that would change realized, were artists. They decided 2005) an MFA at York University, the financial resources and curating the course of her life. Discussing with that rather than commemorate the Toledo quickly found out that there the themes, to hosting and moderating her partner how best to commemorate military coup, they would gather were few opportunities for her and the talks. Featuring local artists, the 30th anniversary of the September these artists and celebrate survival, her peers. “And those [that] we were designers, curators and scholars, 1973 coup d’état in Chile, which celebrate the lives and loves of their offered were token. My colleagues the monthly series was launched brought Augusto Pinochet to power, parents and their parents’ children. stopped producing work because this year, running from February to Toledo realized she was tired of “We staged a one-night, multi- they had to pay the rent. It was a July. The talks explore big-picture mourning. And she resolved to disciplinary, multi-faceted festival difficult time, the late ’90s, for artists themes such as marginalization and do something different, something and it was crazy,” Toledo recalls. of [culturally] diverse backgrounds. the power in collectives; how artists’ contrary to what her parents had done “More than 50 artists from different We just weren’t getting the grants.” works reflect their past (particularly in the past. communities participated. And Work that’s politically or socially a past marked by exile) and how whereas 20 to 30 people had shown engaged has always been important their notions of politics become a up for these commemorations in the to Toledo, and in recent years, synopsis of their future; inherited past, 600 people celebrated in 2003.” she has found support for her identities, the transcultural arena and So began the Salvador Allende Arts endeavours. Pamela Edmonds, Latin American-Canadian identity; Festival for Peace (named after the former program/exhibition and women artists, Latina artists and Chilean president who was overthrown coordinator at A Space Gallery motherhood. by the military coup). Now five years in Toronto, approached Toledo in old, the festival is healthy and huge. 2005 to co-write with the gallery an As a condition of her continued application for a grant for culturally involvement as visual arts director, diverse curators from the Canada opposite, left opposite, right above above Tamara Toledo Festival Poster, 2007. Tamara Toledo Tamara Toledo Mensajes Enterrados/ design by rodrigo barreda Hemorrhage, 2005. Breastfeeding Buried Messages, 2004. Oil on Canvas, My Mother, 2007. PG21 Oil on canvas, 8˝ X 7˝ Oil on canvas, 90˝ X 60˝ 48˝ X 60˝

The goal of this speaker series is How can one attempt to establish Toledo completed Mourning Like many immigrants, Toledo has twofold: to promote Latin American relationships between two sets of Memory while undertaking her MFA written about “navigating between” artists and to engage them in a ideologies [religion/politics] and two at York. It’s a body of work that takes — between cultures, traditions, discourse that, according to Toledo, is hemispheres (north/south)?” as its point of entry the experience languages, politics. The movement, entirely new. “There are lots of artists Toledo in conversation is serious, of witnessing her mother’s stroke destabilizing as it has been, has also producing work in this community, even exacting. You get a sense and subsequent rehabilitation. She been a source of momentum for her in but there is little discourse.” Toledo of what drives her, and then you writes of the way she set out to her work as an artist. She talks about will close her residency at A Space realize that it’s impossible to forget link and compare past violence recognizing the nostalgia she feels with a visit from Gerardo Mosquera, she’s a painter. In the statement and trauma with present physical for Chile — where she returned a renowned Cuban curator and critic accompanying her Mourning Memory and psychological illness: “Coming to live on several occasions — as who is also adjunct curator at the New series, which exhibited at Toronto’s to terms with illness has meant well as an ambivalence about which Museum of Contemporary Art in New Shift Gallery in 2005, she wrote: engaging…the complexities of my country to call home. Motherhood is York City and author of Beyond the “I wish to denounce loss, validate political upbringing.” changing that. Fantastic: Contemporary Art Criticism experience, and embrace memory It’s an engagement with the work “Things are different. I’m trying to from Latin America (MIT Press). through painting.” that continues to evolve, perhaps settle in Canada, to make my life here. Toledo and A Space are partnering Now, Toledo appears less willing even, as Toledo admits, to transcend. My curatorial profession takes its cues with OCAD, York University and the to make such bold statements. She’s “While doing my MFA, I began to from that.” University of Guelph, where Mosquera quick, however, to underscore the look at my mother and the dialogue will be conducting workshops, lectures parallels, to call forth the universality that was happening around her and tutorials. of the work she’s doing at A Space. rehabilitation and also my own A final piece of Toledo’s time as When asked if the move into curating thoughts about motherhood. Now curatorial resident at A Space is the represents a move from the personal I’m developing a series of works that show in September. Her themed call to the political, she rejects absolutes, look at the myths of motherhood and for submissions for this show was instead speaking of evolution. what my experiences were, entering directed to Latin American artists in “I think my ideas have found different motherhood and being confronted the diaspora, artists whose practices approaches, maybe not as directly by a different kind of trauma, not challenge the “violent imposition political, but more metaphoric ways necessarily a political but an internal of Eurocentric ideologies” on Latin of representing the political aspect one. In essence, the bones are there. America. She asks: “Do our inherited of myself. I’m talking here about They’re what I’ve always talked about, religious and political histories affect my own art. It’s become a lot more but they’ve evolved.” our time and place in North America? transcendent, more emotional. MM7174-07-KK_MM_GD_GE_EN•ocad 2/29/08 10:24 AM Page 1

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