Innis Town Hall
Children and Youth Picture SickKids Hospital Photo Exhibition
*****
Subjects of Hybridization
May 24-27, 2007
Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto
2 Sussex Avenue
Toronto, ON
Opening Reception May 25
Curated by Lorena Salomé
For centuries, the understanding of human and nature has been a constructed one through the use of technology. As technology changed, the various kinds of communication and representations which we used to communicate also have changed.
In the XVII century, in the context of rational science, we defined ourselves as rational animals. We were an organic and natural body and what separated us from other animals was logic.
Then, the concept of the clock with the Industrial Revolution came into place and the representation we had of our bodies was modified. We started to lose the organic to become mechanical. Our bodies were seen as machines.
Nowadays, in the realm of digital technology, the representation of the body as a mechanical machine is shifting to a body that is understandable as information, data and code. There is a hybridization of the body as organic and informational. Therefore, our relationship with the entire living universe and our understanding of what is life is changing, enabling different perspectives and creating new metaphors.
The selection of posters for this exhibit touches upon these matters. A communication with other living entities, through bioelectronic signals, is generated in order to alter our physical and mental experiences. Animal characteristics are simulated to improve and challenge our limitations. A new kind of artificial semi life is created that can influence our movements, at the same time that we can influence them.
Our bodies become instruments to power digital communication.
Under the influence of all these experiences, new kinds of discourse are inscribing themselves on our lives. So it becomes necessary to review historical interpretations and representations of the body in order not to produce marginalized bodies.
Exhibitors
What is Queer Technology?
Zach Blas
University of California Los Angeles
www.zachblas.info
Embedded in situ: Gender inscriptions within flap-anatomy
Linda Carreiro
University of Calgary
BodyDaemon
Carlos Castellanos
CADRE Laboratory for New Media
www.ccastellanos.com
MEART – The Semi Living Artist
Philip Gamblen
SymbioticA Research Group (SARG)
www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
ENKI
Antony Hall
ENKI technology
enkitechnology.info
Empathic Play
Kathy High
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
www.embracinganimal.com
BirdMan: Hybrid Perception
Jeong Han Kim
College of Fine Art, Seoul Women’s University
KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
banggoo.com/I_did/birdman.htm
Bats, Whales and Medical Ultrasound
John Loewy
Prairie North Regional Health Authority
Fertility in the Age of A.R.T. (Assisted Reproductive Technology)
Jeanette May
Corcoran College of Art & Design
www.jeanettemay.com
Blood Scarf
Laura Splan
Independent Artist
www.laurasplan.com
Curator Biography
Lorena Salomé
Lorena Salomé was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2003, she moved to Canada, where she finished her Bachelor in Fine Arts at OCAD- Ontario College of Art and Design. Her work has been presented in Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and the United States. She makes use of different technologies -video, photography, electronics and mechanics in her artwork. She lives in Toronto.
*****
Children and Youth Picture SickKids Hospital Photo Exhibition
May 24-27, 2007
Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto
2 Sussex Avenue
Toronto, ON
Opening Reception May 25
Curated by David Theodore
The Atrium at SickKids Hospital, designed by architect Eberhard Zeidler, is one of downtown Toronto’s most intriguing public rooms. This grand, eight-storey glass-topped atrium, designed explicitly for sick children and their families, has won prizes and design awards for the way it brings natural light, art, and shopping-mall activities to children’s healthcare architecture. It’s a vision of a kid-friendly hospital continued at the recent Alberta Children’s Hospital, and the much-lauded Evelina Children’s Hospital in London, England. More than a decade after its opening, the SickKids Atrium is still a state-of-the-art image of what a children’s hospital should be.
This exhibition shows another side of the story. It presents approximately 600 digital photos of the Atrium taken by eighty children who use the hospital either as inpatients or outpatients. These images help us to understand how sick kids see hospital architecture. Their photographs offer complex, delicate and acute observations of the Atrium’s fountains, high-speed elevators, murals, and its beloved and derided dancing pig on a tightrope, created by artist Jane Buckles. And, surprisingly, these photographers often look right through the Atrium, focusing their lenses outside the institution.
The photos are displayed in a bank of looped movies shown on five cordless DVD-players. A sixth player features 102 images of the Atrium taken by photographer Prof. Ricardo L. Castro. The viewing stands allow visitors to see several screens at once, giving a kaleidoscopic, sometimes chaotic impression. But viewers can also approach individual screens to examine the flickering images more intimately, and contemplate the personal visions of these young photographers.
Curator Biography
David Theodore
David Theodore is Research Associate and College Lecturer at the School of Architecture, McGill University, where he teaches courses in architectural design and studies the history of healthcare architecture. Contributing editor at Azure and regional correspondent for Canadian Architect, he writes regularly on design for publications including The Gazette, Architecture, and Maisonneuve. He has co-edited a special issue of Architecture and Ideas on the city, and a special issue of ARQ on the life and work of Norbert Schoenauer. He has also published on topics from the history of architecture, including a short study of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s architecture, and a longer essay (co-written with architectural historian Annmarie Adams) on the history of hospitals for children in Canada.
The exhibition is co-presented by Design Exchange and Health Care, Technology and Place (HCTP) Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Research & Training Program, University of Toronto. This work was sponsored by Philips Medical Systems.