Subtle Technologies: Exhibition

Exhibition

This year Subtle Technologies is pleased to co-present with the Deep Wireless Festival a work by Paul DeMarinis at the Drake Hotel opening May 1st: *The Lecture of Comrade Stalin...* (1999-2002) The voices of Joseph Stalin, Elvis Presley, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Spike Jones mingle and converse in the ether and are received and made audible by a mobile of ancient shortwave radios.



SCRIBE artist: Eric Raymond. curated by Jessica Fung May 26 - June 25, 2005 InterAccess Media Arts Centre, 9 Ossington Avenue (at Queen) Opening Reception: Thursday, May 26, 2005; 6-9pm On the evening of Thursday May 26th Subtle Technologies and InterAccess Media Arts Centre will be co-presenting the opening of Scribe, an installation by artist Eric Raymond. While the traditional practice of cartography is restricted to interpreting our physical and visible surroundings, electronic artists have long been exploring the notion of mapping alternate realities - physical and virtual, analog and digital. As an aesthetic medium it provides direction and navigation beyond our immediate surroundings. Within the realm of the virtual, the possibilities for interpretation and classification are endless. Raymond's Scribe consists of miniature robots embedded with radio wave receivers whose cartographic inscriptions are based on an interpretation of non-visual sources. Information is derived from cellular phones, television broadcast signals, solar storm waves and other local natural emissions. The result is a complex and detailed "map" superimposing multiple levels of imperceptible, electronic realities that occur simultaneously at any given time in any given space. Scribe raises questions about the origin of images and visual/mental depictions. It is a poetic illustration of new landscapes transformed by technology and Raymond's ongoing investigation into the interdependency between images, ideas and objects. Curator Jessica Fung Eric Raymond would like to acknowledge the support of Jerred Costanzo, Michelle Kasprzak and Sacha Viltofsky.



Timescale artist: Juan Geuer curated by Camille Turner May 27 - June 17, 2005 Emmersive Gallery, 1096 Queen Street West (at Dovercourt) Juan Geuer is represented by Peak Gallery Opening Reception: Friday, May 27, 2005; 7-9pm On the evening of Friday May 27th Subtle Technologies will be hosting the opening of the show Timescale by artist Juan Geuer at the Emmersive Gallery. Timescale Einstein occupies the space of a cultural icon who challenged the idea of absolute time and caused an uproar in the Newtonian model of the universe. Science has been staring at the reflection cast in the mirror he has held up to the world ever since. In curating an exhibition that reflects on Einstein's "miraculous year", my intent is to present an artist whose work uses the tools of science and challenges us to think "differently" about our world. I believe I have found that artist in Juan Geuer. Juan Geuer has been exhibiting in Canada and internationally for over 40 years in museums such as: Rotterdam's Museum Boymans van Beuningen, The List Centre at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Gallery in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Geuer builds scientific instruments that shift us into a contemplative relationship with the universe. His works manipulate time, slowing it down so we can observe minute, subtle shifts or speeding it up so we can perceive patterns and experience the world as a place of wonder. Three pieces are included in Timescale: WIS, (Water in Suspense), 1999 In a dark room, a laser beam shines through an ever-falling drop of water, illuminating the shimmering worlds inside. The Loom Drum 1986-1991, presents a rich visual representation of the 5,500 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or more occurring in North America between January 1960 and January 1989. Each earthquake is temporally and spatially represented by a flash of light on a concave, circular screen which maps the platectonic structure of North America. The flashes are precicely scaled so one day lasts 1/12 of a second and all the earthquakes occuring in the 30 year timespan represented by the piece lasts 14 1/2 minutes. Surface Back in Time 1977, presents the viewer with a map produced by a "terrascope", an instrument invented by Geuer in 1973 to visualize the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates. The map is mounted on a mirror behind a transparent dome giving the viewer the feeling of standing at the centre of the earth and seeing the planet as it would have appeared millions of years ago. Curator Camille Turner