My chosen site is know to Emily Carr students and staff as the “piano room.” It is actually a seminar room in the north building that houses a dilapidated old stand-up piano for no apparent reason than storage.

I taped it to a corner in the room with 6 rolls of duct tape, looking for the moment when the piano disappears.

These projects are from Sculpture 218: Site Specific/Installation, with Liz Magor from the Fall 2008 term.� Every Emily Carr student should have to take a course with Liz – her reputation as an artist and an instructor precedes her.� She is very knowledgeable and says what needs to be said in plain language.� She has high expectations of her students and little time for “slacker art.”� If you have an open mind and tough skin, you will learn a great deal from her.

I am currently taking the next level course, Sculpture 318.� Below is an on going list of “Liz-isms” that she has provided in class:

NO MEANING MACHINES!
Work should be something, not about something
Every space has its genius
The best Liz hires the worst Liz – you have no boss
There is no neutral signifier
Ask – “what is the reason for this being in the world?”
Don’t play intellectual silly games
Consider how all parts relate
Intuition is our “well spring” – the more you learn, the more intuitive you are
Nothing should announce your work – it should speak for itself
Don’t leap to meaning
Don’t try to be a shaman
Look for a pleasure node that elicits excitement
Conditions are real, signifiers are not
Process should lead to inquiry
Most brains shut-down when they are being dictated to
Venture off into the scary zone
It’s better to be weird than not to work
Viewer participation should have a purpose
Work should observe structure vs. concept
Look for how the “unnoticed” affects the “seen”
Work through early projects – don’t abandon yourself
If you retain one thing, you have something to draw on – work comes out of a flow
Developing work takes 10 years, during which time you should expect to be vulnerable and unsupported
Stay open as long as possible without trying to control your ideas
Make work about life – the hot places

My time on the island was too short. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive from Nanaimo (including a wrong turn it Courtney – don’t take the second exit unless you want the cow-path tour). The day was supposed to be a downpour, but turned-out to be clear and hot.� It was a race to get lunch at the store and get over to the Big House to see the dance performance once the ferry docked. It’s a 1.5 km walk, so if you ever do the trip, bear that in mind or you will be running and eating at the same time like I was.

The dances were really well done, focusing on a cast of young peformers, the littlest of whom was 3. The last number was the “happy dance” were everyone in the crowd was invited by the dancers to join in. It ended with the kids wading into the crowd, shaking everyone’s hands and thanking them for coming.

The former St. Michael’s Residential School adjoins the U’mista Cultural Center on the water front. It stands-out in its decrepit state, weathering away like an old stump – the site of much pain and suffering in the community.

As I slowly worked my way back to town, the image of my cousin running towards me in the distance cued me to the fact that the ferry was leaving earlier than I thought. I didn’t get a chance to visit the town this trip. Next time, it will be an overnight trip.

I am so impressed with the village and the Namgis First Nation. The people that I met were friendly and helpful. The speakers at the dance performance genuinely connected with the visitors and explained issues important to the Kwakwaka’wakw people, the environment and their relationship to non-Natives. The last picture I took was a mural painted on the side of a building which read, “Share, Connect, Create, Soul.” That summed-up my experience perfectly.

Special thanks to Barb Cranmer for granting permission for the pictures from the Big House to be posted on this site.

I am launching this site of my recent work done at Emily Carr from the Spring of 2006 up to the present. I will be adding to it periodically throughout the year. Your comments are welcome.

This is a companion site to my portfolio page at:

http://brumwell.ca

Translink iPhone App

The link below takes you to the concept page for the Translink iPhone application, developed by the design team that I participated with in Interactive Design Essentials 205 at Emily Carr during the Spring of 2008 with David Humphrey.

The idea is to combine the iPhone’s touch screen interface, GPS technology and ‘Smart’ features to provide real time transit information, payment options and mapping in minimal clicks.

This model provides selected navigation examples for the scheduling option. What you see is my own “skin” on our team’s conceptual design.

Click on the following link:

Translink iPhone App: Interactive Model

Below are some photos of the teams in different stages of the development process.

Resurfacing is a project arising from investigations into the hunting and gathering processes involved in art as examined in Interdisciplinary Forum 333 at Emily Carr in the summer of 2007, taught by M. Simon Levin and Anne-Marie Slater.

The project was initially intended to commemorate the abundant food resources that were harvested by the Squamish, Musquem and Tsleil’waututh First Nations from the streams draining into the eastern tidal flats of False Creek, known as Skwahchays. The largest stream became known as China Creek. It has transformed into an agency of capturing and harnessing community interest in restoring China Creek as a surface stream, or “daylighting” it. The goal of the project will be to work with existing organizations and agencies to return salmon and trout stocks to a buried watershed in much the same way that it has been done at Spanish Banks Creek on the West Side and Beaver Creek in Stanley Park. In the process, continued community involvement in on-going community gardens and commons can be extended and expanded upon, producing an ecological and educational focus for neighbourhood stewardship.

Resurfacing is a site installation, demonstrated at North China Creek Park in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, using harvested willow bows from the Means of Production Artists Garden. The bows are stripped of their leaves, folded back on themselves and carved with a scalpel to resemble a salmon in the act of jumping up river on its way to spawn. The design is Native referenced signifying the primacy of fish as a First Nations food source and the region as a traditional hunting and collecting ground. The bows are installed between the path and the Means of Production public.

The location is appropriate because the path connects the lower part of the park along Great Northern Way to the upper slope at 6th and St. Catherine’s Street, where the Means of Production Garden is planted. Historically, two smaller intermittent streams flowed north between St. Catherine’s and Glen Drive, one of which entered the wetland at the mouth of present day Windsor Street in the vicinity of the bottom of the Means of Production slope.

In the future, single bows will be dug into the path of lost streams in the area as a reminder of the rich ecosystem that sustained the landscape for millennia. They will function as conspicuous yet poetic calls to the community to consider working together to breathe new life into an open, regenerated riparian urban stream system. Similar to the fish painted beside storm drains a decade ago where residents are still reminded to be wary of what chemicals are put into drains, the willow fish will suggest to community members and passers-by, the presence of the streams covered below them, and the possibility of a rejuvenating a stream system. The project will be an extension of the care and stewardship for the commons already so evident and active in the community, such as: community gardens at Broadway and Clark, beside Kind Edward Campus at 8th and Keith, in the 300 block of East 6th , the path adjoining the Granview Cut east of Victoria Drive and the numerous “bubble” corners and traffic calming circles of the neighbourhood streets. In a community stereotyped by crime and social problems, the project metaphorically and literally would bring to the surface the positive energy of collective stewardship and community integrity of the multi-cultural communities.

This project carries on the efforts of other organizations that have spearheaded similar efforts, such as the Vancouver Salmon and Stream Society, the Brewery Creek Society, and the Public Dreams Society. Government organizations such as Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Vancouver Parks Board, the provincial government’s Urban Salmon Habitat Program and corporations like B.C. Hydro are currently involved in other stream restoration projects. The China Creek Resurfacing project extends these initiatives to connect False Creek ultimately to Trout Lake where a network of green space already exits, including China Creek Park, Cedar Cottage Park and Clark Park. The willow fish of Resurfacing are visual reminders to the community to consider the possibility.