innovation

Camper's Patch Project Workshop

Charis Birchall — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:28:27 -0400

Congratulations to Truck Gallery for their first successful Camper Patch Project of the summer! Emerging artists Bree Horel and Sarah Hermanutz parked the Camper on Stephen Avenue Mall today and conducted their "Domesti-city" workshop where participants chose an "Alderdoll" to dress up using bits of fabric, paper, felts and other various craft objects. I thoroughly enjoyed creating my "Alderdoll Joe Ceci" (photographed here wearing a patchwork drop-waisted dress with a ruffle) and receiving a beautiful embroidered patch designed by the artists! Watch for more exciting Camper Workshops at various festivals and events this summer. read more »

Biomimicry and Culture

Mike Scullen — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:11:15 -0400

Richard Florida, who spoke on Monday as part of ACAD's Stirring Culture series, referred to culture using biological metaphors at least twice. Once talking about DNA components of culture and again drawing Darwin into the discussion. It's a apt analogy and one that seems to always be referenced sooner or later when trying to understand a system of meaning. There is much talk of memes on the internet which are ideas that get transmitted through culture that undergo Darwinian style natural selection and evolution. The Lol cats phenomenon is one of my favourite examples.

Biomimicry is a buzz word that you may have heard circling around the idea flowers recently. The concept of modeling after nature is often used a in scientific context. Using the design of termite mounds to create passive climate control in modern housing is a good example. This approach has worked very well with engineering endeavors and there is the added bonus that naturally occurring systems usually have some kind of built in sustainability. There is no reason that biological systems can't be used to understand any naturally occurring system of organization. Having sustainable, fully integrated cultural systems is becoming increasingly important. Ad hoc, organically forming systems tend to be more resilient and adaptable. What ways can we learn from nature in how we approach culture? read more »

RSS Feeds

Mike Scullen — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:10:51 -0400

If you don't already use and love RSS we've created an option to turn pull into push but before you sign up to have yet another piece of bacn (it's like SPAM only you asked for it) delivered to you inbox, let me extol the virtues of RSS.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is an information delivery method that all of your favourite websites employ. In order to view this content you need aggregation software that will pull in all of this RSS data and will give you options to organize, search and read at your leisure. This is why RSS is pull media; you have to fire up the aggregation choose which feeds you'll subscribe to.

Pull media is great when you've got time and inclination to search out information. Having information pushed towards you will more likely grab your attention. I signed up all the CADA staff for this email because we are all sometimes too busy to pull even the low hanging information fruits (I've also started bombing everyone with bacn from our project management software).

You can sign up for a daily email of the RSS feed for all of the new content that goes onto our site below (you can also use the user account subscription feature for more tailored emails):

Changing Times

Catherine Knops — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:16:04 -0500

Looking back at the blogs for the past week or so, there seems to be a thread running through all of them and that is creativity.

Creativity and creating creative cities are very much buzz ideas developing in the early years of the 21^st century. With organisations such as Toronto's Artscape addressing how to create the conditions for creativity to thrive within a city and companies such as Pixar and Google addressing creating conditions for creativity within their workforce, there is no escaping the fact that this is an important movement.

Being an historian by trade, this got me thinking about the importance of creative thinking in the past and the revolutions this has created, why they occurred and how that compares to our situation here. Unsurprisingly, there are common themes running through all of them. read more »

News from the creative industries

Terry Rock — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:59:43 -0500

Scanning bloglines today, I noticed an item on the 37Signals blog Signal vs. Noise... it appears that Calgary's own VEER was purchased by Corbis. Congrats are due to the folks at VEER for another major Calgary creative industry success story. Some of the heaviest hitters in the world in the creative industries--Corbis and Getty Images--now both have major operations in Calgary. read more »

Do you think Calgary is fast and fabulous?

Suzanne Boss — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:03:48 -0400

Earlier this summer, Fast Company Magazine published a list of cities they deemed to be “Fast”.

What makes a city fast? In their words,

“It starts with opportunity -- a culture that nurtures creative action and game-changing enterprise. It's where the number of patents filed is high, or where the high-tech sector is expanding. These cities invest in physical, cultural, and intellectual infrastructure that will sustain growth. Finally, fast cities are full of highly creative people.” read more »

So what fast and fabulous places around the world made the Fast Company list?

Re-Inventing TV

Holly Simon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:10:13 -0400

Over and above back-to-back arts events for 11 weeks straight... I find myself in a particularly exciting week book ended by me in a bumble bee suit at the Grave Gala and a flight to Buenos Aires. In between, I had a flash adventure in Regina, Saskatchewan, for the 22nd Gemini Awards. (I hardly even watch television. When I do watch, I watch The Hour or Corner Gas.) I had a line on good seats through a friend and I couldn't say no...

I've seen the Gemini Awards now and again but this was obviously different. If you know George Stroumboulopoulos and The Hour, you'll not be surprised that he and some of his team re-invented the Gemini awards this year.* As soon as the show went live on the air at 5 o'clock, the energy in the room spiked. George was his usual attentive, humorous and provocative self. Somehow, a show about television, became about relevancy and response to the Canadian condition. The humour became a little more real. (I hope you saw the "Saskatchewan IS flat" skit - not the correct title - written by Paul Bates, I think.) This was the first Gemini Awards that was open to the public (which hopefully foreshadows the open and transparent future of Canada). The day ended with a party in the (haunted) Hotel Saskatchewan lobby with a crowd of young and smart Canadian television makers. Besides feeling a little star-struck, I'm reminded of the constructive threat our generation provides to the status quo.

I'm excited for the Juno Awards in Calgary, April 2008!! Let's break the Calgary music scene wide open to the world. Music lives here!

P.S. Many thanks to George and his friends for the hospitality.

*My knowledge of the whole Gemini's production is limited.

Creative Commons and Creative Communities

Mike Scullen — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:47:42 -0400

If you look way down to the footer of this website you'll find a little icon with two 'c's in a circle. If you're not paying particular attention you may disregard this to be a typical copyright indication and think nothing more of it. That extra 'c' within the circle makes a whole lot of difference. It's there to encourage our visitors to take the content found on this site, copy it, distribute it, and transmit it in any way they see fit. More than that, we have no problem if our content is remixed, mashed-up, or otherwise reinterpreted into forms that we have not yet fathomed. There is the stipulation that attribution should be given, but other than that, content generated here is open to the public domain. Our Creative Commons license helps demonstrates our organization's value of transparency and community. read more »

A Shout Out to all the Open Source Communities

Mike Scullen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:26:43 -0400

Today a new version of Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, was officially released. I've been using Ubuntu in both server and desktop environments at Calgary Arts Development for two years now and I can say from experience that the OS is robust, accessible, and just plain works (plus compiz-fusion is bling and how can you not like release names like 'Gutsy Gibbon').

As ICT Coordinator here I rely not only on Ubuntu, but on a whole host of open source projects. Yesterday I was handed a DV tape with the intention of publishing a video of our Art Spaces Investment Process Information Session. I'll trace the process with the open source software applied to the task: read more »

Good Copy Bad Copy: Tecno Brega & Media Innovation

Mike Scullen — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:19:32 -0400

Last Night I had the pleasure of watching the thought provoking documentary Good Copy Bad Copy about the current state of copyright and culture (hop on BitTorrent and download the XviD: the film's creators want you to). read more »

The danish filmmakers take a very global approach and interviewed Swedish pirates, Nigerian film producers, and Brazilian Tecno Brega artists. Not to mention famous folks like Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, and Laurence Lessig. (Speaking of Laurence Lessig, if you haven't read Free Culture yet, put it on your list; it's a free CC licensed download.)