JasonParis
Moderator
Artists get (TTC) platform for upbeat videos on city
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Tess Kalinowski
TORONTO STAR
Transportation Reporter
TTC riders will receive some artistic affirmation for taking transit this month, along with the news, weather and community service messages that regularly play on the 190 subway platform video screens.
The company that programs the screens, Onestop TTC Network, is using them to showcase eight environmentally themed, short videos by local students until March 2.
The videos are part of a first-time competition called Art for Commuters, founded by Sharon Switzer, who has been working with Onestop on other projects, including a student film festival.
The assignment was to make a video envisioning a hopeful future for the city.
"What we were asking for was for people to imagine positive, possible futures even if it's crazy. What was easier for students was to give me the negative possibilities for Toronto – the smog and congestion – (the) response I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to go for something more hopeful," said Switzer, who has taught university arts courses and makes video art herself.
"I know what it is to be a young video artist/filmmaker, how hard it is to get started. I think of this as a launch pad for them as emerging artists," she said.
The project will also impact positively on commuters.
"I'm hoping the ecological theme will energize people a little bit as they go through their daily lives," said Switzer. "A lot of it tends to be animation or hybrid animation. When you're asking people to imagine a possible future it's easier to do that as an animation. A lot of it has to do with actual greenery, flowers and growth. Some of it is kind of playful work."
Commuters are an interesting audience, too, in that the subway population is so diverse, said Kat Burns, who along with her friend Winston Hacking, made the short video called "Energy Cycles," a vision of Toronto powered by bicycles.
"It illustrates gears shifting and wheels turning," said the 25-year-old printmaker and musician.
The project fed her interests on several levels. It was an opportunity to showcase some creativity, indulge her avid interest in cycling and recycle cardboard and other materials to make the set for the piece, which was recorded in a friend's apartment.
The popularity and pervasiveness of public transit makes downtown Toronto a more hopeful place for Burns than a suburb like Whitby, where she grew up.
"If you ride your bike in Whitby people don't look for you. You're more likely to get hit. It's made for cars," she said.
The eight videos – two will be screened each week of the month – were selected from 12 entries overall. Even though the competition was advertised on campuses around Toronto, all the videos being shown were made by students from the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Another Art for Commuters video series will air in July. The deadline for submissions is May 15.
The subway video screens, known as a passenger information display system, have real-time messaging capability so the TTC can override the programming at any time if it needs to communicate urgently with passengers.
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Tess Kalinowski
TORONTO STAR
Transportation Reporter
TTC riders will receive some artistic affirmation for taking transit this month, along with the news, weather and community service messages that regularly play on the 190 subway platform video screens.
The company that programs the screens, Onestop TTC Network, is using them to showcase eight environmentally themed, short videos by local students until March 2.
The videos are part of a first-time competition called Art for Commuters, founded by Sharon Switzer, who has been working with Onestop on other projects, including a student film festival.
The assignment was to make a video envisioning a hopeful future for the city.
"What we were asking for was for people to imagine positive, possible futures even if it's crazy. What was easier for students was to give me the negative possibilities for Toronto – the smog and congestion – (the) response I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to go for something more hopeful," said Switzer, who has taught university arts courses and makes video art herself.
"I know what it is to be a young video artist/filmmaker, how hard it is to get started. I think of this as a launch pad for them as emerging artists," she said.
The project will also impact positively on commuters.
"I'm hoping the ecological theme will energize people a little bit as they go through their daily lives," said Switzer. "A lot of it tends to be animation or hybrid animation. When you're asking people to imagine a possible future it's easier to do that as an animation. A lot of it has to do with actual greenery, flowers and growth. Some of it is kind of playful work."
Commuters are an interesting audience, too, in that the subway population is so diverse, said Kat Burns, who along with her friend Winston Hacking, made the short video called "Energy Cycles," a vision of Toronto powered by bicycles.
"It illustrates gears shifting and wheels turning," said the 25-year-old printmaker and musician.
The project fed her interests on several levels. It was an opportunity to showcase some creativity, indulge her avid interest in cycling and recycle cardboard and other materials to make the set for the piece, which was recorded in a friend's apartment.
The popularity and pervasiveness of public transit makes downtown Toronto a more hopeful place for Burns than a suburb like Whitby, where she grew up.
"If you ride your bike in Whitby people don't look for you. You're more likely to get hit. It's made for cars," she said.
The eight videos – two will be screened each week of the month – were selected from 12 entries overall. Even though the competition was advertised on campuses around Toronto, all the videos being shown were made by students from the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Another Art for Commuters video series will air in July. The deadline for submissions is May 15.
The subway video screens, known as a passenger information display system, have real-time messaging capability so the TTC can override the programming at any time if it needs to communicate urgently with passengers.
