• Abstract and Figures
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Concorctia~s I Voll~ 2611) No~ J.2 March J.4" 2002 pr.conc:ordi.a .. cca./'ct.r Conferences, friendly competition at Engineering Week ational Engineering Week was was co-sponsored by Microsoft Cana­ Timothy C. Lethbridge, of the Uni­ accessibility, and is working with year. Displays by the Society of Auto­ celebrated over two weeks at da. It coincides with the graduation versity of Ottawa, addressed software Alzheimer's patients in his research. motive Engineers and other student Concordia, as the Engineering and this term from Concordia of Que­ engineering as an emerging branch of The annual Women in Engineering groups filled the atrium of the library Computer Science Students Associa­ bec's first software engineers. engineering. W. Morven Gentleman, and Computer Science Conference complex and the mezzanine. On tion (ECA) and its member associa­ There were four speakers from from Dalhousie University, talked organized for young women from March 9 , students celebrated the tions staged a variety of events, ind us try. Among the academic about the need for software engineer­ Montreal-area high schools was as best of academic and student life ranging from fierce but friendly speakers were Concordia's Peter Gro­ ing to be multidisciplinary. lively as ever, and this year students with their football tournament, fol­ sports contests to a conference with gono, who discussed the demands Jacob Slonim, also from Dalhousie, organized a separate tour for Grade 4 lowed by the annual awards ban­ the theme Design for Change. , put on teachers by the rapid evolu­ addressed issues that relate to the students. quet at the Molson Brewery. The conference was called CUSEC, tion of software design, and Ahmed cognitively challenged. Slonim has The popular Annual Concordia Still to come, April 9, the RoboWars for Canadian Undergraduate Soft­ Seffah, on usability and involving the embarked on a project to add a layer Bridge Building Competition (photo robotics competition. The Web site is ware Engineering Conference, and user early in software development. of computer architecture to increase above, left) attracted 40 teams this http://ieee.concordia.ca/robowars. Artist-teacher Irene Whittome has followed her own muse Concordia Research Fellow on clean refinement, stark contrasts, and the subliminal impact of art school BY JAMES MARTIN "I hadn't realized this thing about "Here come the hands!" quipped the eye and hand at the time," she Whittome as she showed a 1995 l L 1th a half-hour slide show of continued , forwarding to a slide series of photographs depicting her her work, Irene F. Whittome taken in 1970. She let the imagery own bound hands, a powerful visual gave her audience a clear sense of sink in: a mixed-media piece in metaphor for the artist unable to cre­ how an artistic career is given shape which found objects form a shell ate. "It seems to have come full circle by influences, symbols and hunches shape around ... a print of an eye. with the eye from 1970." - provided the artist is sensitive and She noted the personal impact of Whittome concluded with photos brave enough to make the right retroactively seeing "the source of of a granite quarry, taken from her choices. things on a subliminal level." current work-in-progress. "And that's Professor Whittome was one of the The images that followed were where I am at this moment," she said. two annual Concordia University diverse - arrangements of small "It's a very exciting time." Research Fellows for 2001 , an glass veterinary tubes, large waxed She paused to reflect on the pat- accomplishment made all the more logs, digitized prints of marine para­ terns and connections that have impressive because it marks the first sites - but united by a simplicity in slowly revealed themselves over the time the School of Graduate Studies presentation. Whittome used words past three decades. "It all adds up has recognized visual arts as research. such as "minimalism" and "Zen" to and accumulates, and that gives me The award carries $5 ,000 and the describe her defining aesthetic of ~ the confidence that this is where I opportunity to give a public lecture, clean refinement and stark contrasts. i should be in the world." which her busy artistic and teaching Another uniting precept in Whit­ Professor Whittome has taught at career did not allow her to fulfill until tome's work is "communicating Concordia virtually since the begin­ February 25. through objects that had had a pur­ It was announced this week that Irene F. Whittome Is one of seven winners ning of her career in the late 1960s. She began her talk with her years pose but are translated into another of a Governor-General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. The award will be At the same time, she steadily grew in at the Vancouver School of Art (now meaning." presented at Rideau Hall on March 20, and carries a $15,000 cash award distinction as an artist. and a painting by one of last year's winners. the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Perhaps the most popular of these She has had more than 35 solo art Design). She attended the school in objects is a 1987 mold made from a they're rarely seen again!"), the "user­ resonate with an audience. "You just shows, notably at the Musee d'art the early 1960s, but it wasn't until leatherback turtle at the Museum of friendly," nine-foot-long reptile repli­ send it out there." contemporain and the Canadian years later that she realized its Natural Science in Ottawa. Before ca appeared in installations around The turtle motif showed up again, Centre for Architecture, and won longterm subliminal impact. being purchased by the Art Gallery of the world. albeit in miniature, in a slide of a many awards for her work, among Pointing to a slide of the school's Ontario (where it has disappeared "What makes things really interest­ 1994 sculpture: an oddly elegant cab­ them, the Prix Paul-Emile Borduas, logo, an eye set in the palm of an from public view since its initial exhi­ ing is you never know what you're inet of curiosities containing a small Quebec's highest honour, and the open hand, she said, ."This is the base bition - "the worst place your works communicating," Whittome said, turtle, a book, and ostrich eggs. The Gershon lskowitz Prize for excellence for me, one of the guiding structures. can go is a museum, because then referring to what does, or doesn't, next slide also united earlier ideas. in the arts in Canada. Irish-Quebec concert series raises profile of new music The Oscar Peterson Concert Hall is a venue for contemporary musicians from Montreal and Dublin BY ROB ERT SCALIA has changed the nature of music," he said, "so in the middle of a string ention classical music, and quartet, I'll throw in an electric guitar MBeethoven's Fifth Symphony that sounds like Limp Bizkit. It springs to mind. Try the same thing doesn't seem peculiar to me , because with "Canadian contemporary classi­ these are sounds I like." cal," however, and the term rings It makes for interesting music, a hollow more often than not. Tim fusion of chamber music, jazz, Brady knows it all too well. musique actuelle and electronica. ln countries like France, Germany Brady is relying on Montreal's and ltaly, the idea of a living compos­ vibrant and dedi cated new-music er isn't a strange one, he said light­ audience, which numbers in the heartedly, but "we're still trying to thousands, to make the festtval a suc­ convince people that someone with a cess. He's also hoping the St. Patrick's Canadian or Irish passport can actu­ Day spirit will lure people interested ally compose classical music." in exploring what he believes is an So this composer, one of nine important facet in Irish culture. musicians in the Oscar Peterson The way Brady sees it, getting the Above, the Bozzini Quartet of Montreal. The CRASH Ensemble, seen on the front page, perform tomorrow night at Hall's resident ensemble called Con­ crowd is more than half the battle. "I the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall. The concert series ends on Saturday. certs M, is organizing Voyages : almost always have a positive reac­ Dublin-Montreal, running from March Dublin four years ago to open Brady's landscape that offers a broad range of of five ." A baby boomer, Brady was tion to my music wherever I play it." 12 to 16. eyes to the musical and social paral­ tools, sounds and instruments. heavily influenced by the Beatles and Remaining events in the festival: The festival will showcase Montre­ lels between Ireland and Quebec. Ever more bold, dissonant, evoca­ 1960s pop. He was into garage bands tonight at 8 p.m., a concert of elec­ al's Bradyworks and the Bozzini The composition of classical (also tive contemporary classical music in before he studied jazz and classical troacoustic music; tomorrow at 8 Quartet (both part of Concerts M), called serious, or new) music has both cities is actually being written music. p.m., the CRASH ensemble from plus Dublin's CRASH Ensemble and only been a feature of the musical now, Brady said. Those influences persist. His music Dublin; Saturday at 8 p.m., Brady­ Vox 21. Lectures are also part of the landscape in both countries for 60 "Because we're such a young musi­ reflects today's cultural environment, works and Vox 21 . package. years. Young composers aren't cal culture, most composers are what where creating very strict, narrow, For reservations, call the Oscar Peter­ It took a backstage conversation hemmed in by the walls of history, I would call very 'impure.' Not many pure art forms simply doesn't work.

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