Community Engagement

On Sunday, March 29, 2009 our artist team set out to meet the community where we are placing the Talking Poles. We built a mock up of the Pole (see white tube in picture) and asked people to write a word they could tape to the surface. Since the most common languages are Panjabi and Hindi we hired TJ Grewal to work with us and translate the project goals and to ask people to participate in decisions around the Talking Pole surface. We asked questions like; What would you like future generations to know? and what stories can you tell us about walking along the greenway? For many people who where out on this sunny day running, biking and walking their dog - the idea of stopping to talk was not of interest. There were people though, who were strolling along and wanted to investigate why we were standing beside a this white structure with words taped onto the surface.

TJ was excellent at engaging people in discussion and we would wait to hear the translation. One translation that comes to mind, was when TJ asked an older man what word he would use and he said "love - because if you don't have love in your family, then you won't have unity, and if you don't have unity, the you will not be able be apart of a community".

Another women who I talked to briefly, works for a community outreach program in Vancouver she told us that "to be inspired" was an important message.

At the end of the day we meet over 2o-25 people and had learned a great deal more about the community where the future Talking Poles will live.

Technology for Social Change

This blogg post is in honour of Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. This initiative was started by Suw Charman-Anderson as a way to recognized woman's contributions to technological innovations - to read more about this initiative visit [http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay]
The two women I'd like to recognize today are Lorna Boschman and Cease Wyss. They are my partners in The Talking Poles Project. They are also women who have taken there technical expertise and have applied this knowledge to develop a pedagogy - that empowers people to create stories about the own lives with the greater goal to initiate social change.

Lorna Boschman, is a PhD Candidate, Video Producer and Researcher at the School for Interactive Arts and Technology, SFU [http://www.siat.sfu.ca]. She recently directed this ability, a National Film Board (NFB) documentary that grew out of a two year long community-based media program for adults with cognitive disabilities. In addition to being available online through the NFB’s CitizenShift site and Canadian public libraries, this ability will appear as part of the program at the 2008 American Psychological Association annual conference. Boschman’s videos form part of the collection at the National Gallery of Canada, and at several universities and colleges, have been screened at MOMA in New York and at festivals internationally.
Learn more visit www.sfu.ca/~lornab

Cease Wyss, is a Skwxumesh woman from the village of Sla7an in North Vancouver. Cease has been working as a media artist for close to 15 years, and recently she began illustrating children's books. Cease has been in dialogue with the landscape in Vancouver for over 20 years through community gardening and public art involving plants and other natural elements. She co-produces a blogg called >techno medicine wheel< and used technology as a means to track, trace and archive Indigenous culture.
Visit http://technomedicinewheel.org

World Drum Day: Pattern~Movement~Sound:Serpentine Greenway

Date: March 21, 2009
Location: Kekinow Native Housing
In the Common Room
6455 - 121 Street, Surrey BC
noon to 4 pm (join us for lunch)

In celebration of "8,000 Drums / World Drum Day" Greetings, we are: Lorna Boschman, Vicki Moulder & Cease Wyss.

We are three women working on a public art commission called the >Talking Poles< project. As part of this project we'll be gathering with youth and folks living in and around the >Serpentine Greenway< to celebrate World Drum Day.

At this event we'll be recording drum rhythms and stories about the Greenway and how people utilize it in ways that make them think of >Pattern, Sound, Movement<.

These recordings will later be composed to form the interactive component of the Talking Poles public art work.

Pole Top Design

i.e. Creative (www.iecreative.ca), is the artist team we're working with to fabricate the Talking Poles. This blog post focuses on the design of the pole tops. There has been a lot of discussion as to what the design of the pole tops should be and how it will be constructed. We started with an engineered drawing produced by i.e. Creative and then we built cardboard prototypes exploring the circumference required to house the electronics. Our goal was to design a pole top that was both esthetically pleasing and functional - in the scene that it would provide a high level of protection from the environment and other elements.

The Electronic Schema

This blog post focuses on the design of the electronics that will embedded into the pole. The key idea behind the Talking Poles is that they >talk< and will play back audio pieces collected from area residences. Our artist team worked with Bobbi Kozinukto who drawn up the schema (to the left) of the electronic design. We initially started with a plan to draw to run the electronics by harnessing the EMF from the over head transmission towers. This planed to be too difficult to regulate so we have opted for solar power.

Site View

The Talking Poles will be placed North and South of 68th in between 125th and 126th Streets. The red dots mark the spot.

Kwantlen University College Visit

On Wednesday, Jan. 21.09 Lorna, Cease and I drove out to Kwantlen University College, Surrey Campus - 12666, 72nd Avenue, Surrey, BC just 4blks from the project site. We met with instructor Sibeal Foyle, and her drawing class to invite them into the design process. Students agreed to design the steel cutouts that would be welded on to the surface of the the Talking Poles. We left with the extreme excitement over the students participation, as they seemed like a very interesting group of people with exceptional talent. View our presentation to the class below:

Testing EMF

Bobbi Kozinuk, is the artist designing the electronics of the project. We drove out to the site Sunday Jan. 25, 2009 to conduct some tests to see how much power we could draw from the transmission lines. Bobbi coiled copper wire to measure readings. The voltage readings were all over the place ranging from .15 to 14.008. While out conducting these tests we met with neighbors curious with what we were doing. A man named Ovare, introduced himself. He had some very interesting ideas for building sound sculpture from plastic tubing. I'll have to visit him again. Bobbi and I left the site with a lot of questions. We will return next week to conduct more readings. The pictures below show Bobbi with testing materials.

Site Visit

On Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 we drove out to the Serpentine Greenway, Surrey, BC, CA for a site visit. We want to introduce Mike and Cheryl our fabrication specialists from i.e. Creative [www.iecreative.ca] to the locations where the Talking Poles would be placed. We were able to walk along the path North and South of 68th Avenue and make the final decisions as to why and where we would place the sculpture. Our rationale for choosing these locations was that they are the only places the City of Surrey would place benches without fear of vandalism.

We choose to place the pole within site of each other and made a conscious decision to do some tests to see how far the sound would travel and to involve the people living close to the poles for tests.