This weekend I shoot my first unconference, which surprisingly should’ve happened a long time ago considering how much I love nerding out the commingling of art and science. But I’d only heard of this conference from a Couchsurfing friend who introduced me to the event, and the organizers of Subtle Technologies who needed a photographer.

I love shooting events, especially the ones that raise my nerd cred. Fashion shows? Meh. Give me theatre, opera, a kids’ concert, anything else before a fashion show, unless it’s centred around recycled materials or maybe space. Someone asked me once many moons ago what I’d love to do or be if I’d excelled in another area of study. My answer was I’d be a scientist. Biology, chemistry, physics — I’m fascinated by the esoteric nature of science. I just chose a different path, away from academia. It was no coincidence that at the time (January 2002) we were standing at the top of the Griffiths Observatory in Los Angeles.

But what is ArtScienceCamp?

ArtScienceCamp (#artscicamp) is an intense but informal gathering of artists, scientists, students, engineers, architects, designers, and many others. A Friday-night party is the venue for collaboratively creating a program of events to take place the next day. Everyone is encouraged to bring a crazy idea, a work in progress, or a vital topic for discussion, and to organize a session around it.

ArtScienceCamp is based on an unconference model that has taken off around the world, with events like DemoCamp, SciBarCamp, and many more. Successful Camp events bring together people who would not normally have conversations with each other, and create a space for surprising, serendipitous connections.

Friday 7:00pm – 10:00pm: planning session & party
Saturday 10:00am – 5:00pm: unconference events

ArtSciencCamp1 presentations included:

• Mass Collaboration in Science
• Scientific Imagery in Life & Art
• Design Charrette: Models for Community Art
• Rebranding Science
• Science Tarot
• Proteins Are Beautiful

This event is brought to you by Subtle Technologies and Hart House. Join the Subtle Tech mailing list to hear about our other activities.

So stay tuned for some interesting event photos — I’ve been told there will be structures created with marshmallows!

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You may remember I posted pictures of The Mother Of All Bikes this summer when I first encountered it on the street near my house. It’s really something while stationary, but I figured it must be even more impressive in action. Today I was at Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market on a mission to see man about a horse (OK, I was checking out a friend’s VW van for possible wedding transportation/photo ops next year), and decided to stay a bit longer to get in my churros fix and gawk at the hippiefest that is the market on Pedestrian Sunday.

I spotted the bike at the north end of Augusta Street and shot a bit of video of it with little kids drumming on it, which is the closest I’ve come yet to seeing it in action.

A couple of the tires were a bit flat so maybe it’s moved from Parkdale over to Kensington Market for a longer stay. It made the journey, but I wonder how fast it goes? Maybe next time I see the bike, it’ll be pedalling down the street.

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could these be any more purple??

With all this walking I’ve been doing this summer, I’ve trashed my shoes. I’m currently in week #9 of walking home; I’ve walked the distance to Niagara Falls and back – nearly 250 kms! For seven of those weeks I walked home four days (sometimes it doesn’t work if I have meetings far away), and last week I walked home all five days.

I bought new running shoes on Friday, but the laces were purple. I wanted the lowest-key shoes available, but I don’t think anyone makes those anymore. Shoes are bright and bold — neon, even. I suppose it keeps the wearer more noticeable in the dark? in traffic? Anyway, these were a bit loud for me, so I kept my white laces and donated my old shoes to Nike for recycling to make flooring.

I emailed my 12-year old niece in Vancouver and asked if she wanted the purple laces and she said yes. This is what I’m mailing to her today. I’m sure The Firm won’t mind that I used a million staples.

shoelace art attempt #1

My goal was to make a lace line without crossing over or under itself. I did cheat and cross over once from the eye to the nose, but I couldn’t figure out a way around that without getting overly elaborate, and I want to mail this off today! An abstract piece would’ve been MUCH easier!

shoelace art attempt #2

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“Look honey, it’s a fixer-upper.”

My eyelids are super heavy (I’m in heavy-duting editing mode), so I’m going to link to The Heidelberg Project‘s official website for reference, show some photos I took of it last Saturday, and add some text later.

You can view the whole set as a full-screen slideshow or thumbnails.

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After picking up my Aussie couchsurfer and Xena yesterday afternoon from Jan and Natalia’s and doing a bit of housework, I crashed early. Many late nights, running around Detroit, and long-distance driving finally caught up with me. And now that I’m home, I have an inbox full of client requests to deal with. Time waits for nobody!

But before I race off to The Firm, I wanted to post a few photos of my couchsurfing hosts’ bathroom floor in Detroit. I was pretty awestruck when I first saw it — I have no idea how many bottlecaps were used and the hours it took to make, but it’s an amazing work of art.

By coincidence, on Sunday the artist himself was biking with his children around the old train station where we were filming and I got to meet him! I immediately told him how much I admired his work, and even though it’s in the bathroom of a private home where most people won’t see it (unlike a museum), I wanted to showcase it here on my blog (where I hope lots of people see it). I only know his first name, but I’ll find out if there’s a place I can link to more of his artwork.

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Just like the rock sculptures here, my daily life can resemble a precarious balancing act to keep the volunteer/work/freelance ratio intact. Some days it’s harder to maintain than others. Managing today was relatively simple: one patient drop-off, The Firm, pick up film, subway to meeting in Scarborough, home to emails, editing, writing and whatnot. This is a personal website, not a commercial venture, but for my own reasons I like to write something daily and post some photos. It’s like my daily vitamin and how I unwind from the day. (I don’t take vitamins, but you know what I mean…)

I was pleased to finally see the images from the last two rolls of film shot while I was in Ottawa earlier this month. Picking up film is exciting! It’s all a surprise, especially when the shooting/developing intervals are longer. For any film users out there who don’t know about Shoppers Drug Mart film developing, $2.99 is all they charge to develop a roll of film and put it on CD. It’s simply the best deal around. It was the only way I could afford shooting 18 rolls of film in Havana, Cuba, at the end of 2006. It makes shooting film less of a luxury.

Back to the photos, the artist behind the rock sculptures is a fellow named John Ceprano, who happened to be there while we were so I got him on film just before the sky opened and poured on everyone at Remic Rapids:

More information about the sculptures can be found on Ceprano’s website here.

More from Remic Rapids (I like the reflection):

An abandoned barn in Wakefield, Quebec:

My favourite shots taken in Gatineau Park, Quebec:

To see all the photos in the “Analogue in Ottawa” set, click through the Pictobrowser below or view them as a full-screen slideshow in Flickr.

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This is amazingly creative: a woman on maternity leave takes photos of her baby sleeping, imagining her daydreams. She uses a simple point-and-shoot camera, creating the scene in a few minutes and working quickly before her baby wakes up.

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Mila’s mama worked in advertising and her father is a composer (his music is the soundtrack). I’ll bet Mila has some pretty imaginative daydreams!

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http://www.vancouverbiennale.com

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Just a few for now…

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The official website: http://www.torontoartexpo.com/

I’m still working through the photos, but here are the 30-second videoclips I shot of the Korean Salmunori dance and drum group Jeng Yi and the whirling dervishes from Turkey at the opening night of the Toronto Art Expo:

I spent most of the evening staked out in the front row so I could shoot the whirling dervishes up close. I only brought my 50mm f/1.8 lens with me, not the zoom, because I didn’t have a press pass and usually art events discourage photography. I didn’t want to attract attention to myself.

I also grabbed some brochures about Turkey from their table near the entrance. What helps me to plan trips is to use the tourist brochures as a guide for distances and timing between cities. There are lots of maps for orientation and the descriptions about each city are useful, too. And, of course, it’s all free!

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