ARTENGINE IDEAS

Art interfacing with the world

The Ideas section of our website brings together conversations and presentations about art and its place in the world. We explore how art and the work of artists intersects with some of the most interesting and challenging transformations in society. We see the term art as a big tent that captures a wide range of practices. 

The ideas here are driven by a desire to welcome more people into the tent so we can move beyond gatekeeping and explore how different practices contribute to making the world a better place. 

It’s a simple idea that creates fascinating conversations!

In conversation with Cheryl L'Hirondelle (who was in conversation with eels)

Cheryl L’Hirondelle joins us in the Artengine Studio to talk about her conversations with eels and a broader understanding of communicating with the world. After an excellent artist talk on the development her work Nipawiwin Akikodjiwan: Pimizi ohci (which you can check out here), Artengine’s Artistic Director, Ryan Stec, chatted with Cheryl about the works relationship to politics and the Climate Crisis, language and the land and the eels desire for her project.

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Expand the scope of your curiosity with Jerrold McGrath, founder of UKAI Projects. In this conversation, Jerry shares the inspiration behind UKAI Projects and his desire to design for useful people–no…
Cheryl L’Hirondelle joins us in the Artengine Studio to talk about her conversations with eels and a broader understanding of communicating with the world. After an excellent artist talk on the development her work Nipawiwin Akikodjiwan: Pimizi ohci (which you can check out here), Artengine’s Artistic Director, Ryan Stec, chatted with Cheryl about the works relationship to politics and the Climate Crisis, language and the land and the eels desire for her project.
Cheryl L’Hirondelle presents the process and ideas behind her new work Nipawiwin Akikodjiwan: Pimizi ohci, shown for the first time as part of our Entanglements exhibition. The work is a immersive AV installation about (and with) the eels and their challenges in the context of our local hydroelectric dam on the Ottawa River. L’Hirondelle discusses how her relationship with the falls evolved as she discovered the existence of eel ladders designed to help the endangered animals on their journey through the river.
Expand the scope of your curiosity with Jerrold McGrath, founder of UKAI Projects. In this conversation, Jerry shares the inspiration behind UKAI Projects and his desire to design for useful people–not useful objects. Throughout the conversation, Jerry challenges viewers to question the assumptions society is built upon, reconsider the impact of metaphor, and embrace death and decay.
What is software without hardware? Join us as DEL participant, artist and National Director of the Independent Media Arts Alliance Emmanuel Madan shares his vision for the viability of the Arts ecosystem and what role a union, Artwork_Local404, could play within that system. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of language, authorship, and time when it comes to the development of meaningful work (tools, platforms, initiatives and art).
Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey helped shape the structure of the Digital Economies Lab and here we discuss their vision for artistic prosperity in the 21st century. We chat about artists’ complicated relationship to capital and how we are in an exciting moment of transformation. Join us, as we delve into questions of value, the pace of production, and our perception of reality, augmented or not.
From NFTs to governance structures, blockchain technology may be a glimpse into the future. At least that is what Jesse McKee and the team at 221A are exploring. In this conversation McKee shares a bit about the history of artist-run centres in Canada, the limitless potential for blockchain to change how society is ordered, and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Listen closely to discover the literary Easter eggs Jesse drops that are framing research at 221A.
Dames Making Games (DMG) founder Izzie Colpitts-Campbell speaks with us about her art and design practice and how her role as a community organizer influenced her contributions to the DEL. In this conversation we discuss her new DMG project Damage Labs, similarities between game design and community organizing, and how artist solidarity can be provoked digitally.
Artengine’s Artistic Director Ryan Stec in conversation with Digital Economies Lab (DEL) participant, strategist, designer, artist and independent creative director, Julie Gendron, where they discuss Gendron’s work on the Offer Need Machine (ONM). Within this discussion Gendron addresses quantifying value by breaking down the mechanics of trust, recreating the ephemerality of chance interaction, and rating and evaluating with care.
Join us as Macy Siu gives us the lowdown on another development from the Digital Economies Lab – the Offer/Need Machine. In an era where the gig economy has monetized every informal network from ride sharing to pet sitting, the Offer/Need Machine proposes a network of decentralized reciprocity. Pay close attention to when Siu explains the need for an anti-capitalist model and more-than-human design.
In this conversation Tim Maughan chats with us about digital infrastructure, the role of organized labour in the creative landscape, and the DEL project Artwork_Local404. Join us, as we discuss technology and capitalism, the benefits of organizing, and what form collective action might take. Maughan also talks about how we need to rethink many of the platforms of tools of the digital world as public infrastructure: this may change how we understand what the government could do with them.
Developed in our Digital Economies Lab, An Artist’s Almanac is Suzanne Kite’s dive into artist solidarity through exchange and sharing. Kite discussed how she began from the DEL’s central focus on fostering artistic prosperity, and expanded toward questions about whether existing resources are going where they are needed most. Through her work on the project she builds a network of collaborators and fosters dreaming and imagining workshops as a path toward a better future.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) made their way into the popular imagination and have been a lightning rod topic in the realm of culture throughout this year. As part of our Digital Economies Lab, we invited Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey to help us consider this current moment and put it in a larger context of art, culture and technology. Check out the conversation as well as links and notes to help orient you or expand your considerations of this NFT moment.
Tracey Lauriault provides a dynamic introduction to the relationship between data and the city at the Future Cities Forum. This talk delves into the social and technological infrastructure and frames a new more open and democratic version of a data centered city.
An engaging panel with Kristin Anne Carlson, Davide Rokeby and Chris Salter, moderated by Nell Tenhaff which delves into different relationships artists are cultivating with machines. The panelists explore the question, if our body is essential for our perception of the world, what happens to the perception of an intelligent thing without a body or at least a distributed body? What does creative movement and expression look like when it is authored by an intelligent machine? Whether as a thing separate from us or as something we wear or even something inside us, can and/or how we co-create with an intelligent machine?
This discussion brings together artist, scholar and Director of Creating Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations at the Canada Council for the Arts, Steven Loft; craft historian Sandra Alfoldy; architect Tom Bessai; and fashion designer, Valerie Lamontagne, to consider the way we talk about making. Which terms do you we use to describe what is done now? Some reach back to claim connection to European traditions of craft while others search for new broadly inclusive language. What is important in staking a claim on terms and definitions? How do we facilitate constructive and inclusive conversations about making?