Tom at Fire in the Brain recently told a story of some guerilla signage with longevity in his community: Last spring someone affixed a hand-written sign to a lightpost at the intersection of Fellowship Road and Church Street. I thought to myself "I better get a picture of that before it gets taken down, there's no way the town's going to leave that up there." I never did take that picture, and the never did take down the sign. It stayed all through the winter, even after the writing had faded away. This spring the ...

For those not able to attend the Inter-Society of Electronic Art Symposium this year, they may wish to participate remotely through the ISEA re:mote programme. Of particular interest to Spacing readers may be the "Interactive City" theme at this year's symposium. ISEA2006 re:mote is inviting media spaces and individual artists, theorists, and curators from around the world to speak or perform via remote technologies to the audience at ISEA on one of the four themes of ISEA 2006. ISEA re:mote will focus on presenting media spaces and people that would otherwise be excluded from presenting their ...

July is the final month of art content curated by Michelle Kasprzak and Michael Alstad on the pedestrian-level billboard in Dundas Square. The end of the Transmedia :29:59 project begs a couple of questions: Since it appears that video billboards are a fact of contemporary urban existence, should we demand that a certain percentage of content belongs to local community/creative/independent groups? Is it too late to do so (i.e. should community content have been mandated from the beginning)? You can read Michelle's more detailed reflections on the year of programming here. TRANSMEDIA :29:59 +media art in public urban space+ http://www.year01.com/transmedia2959 July ...

Rebecca Solnit, whose wonderful book Wanderlust I would recommend to any psychogeographer or public space enthusiast, has just posted a great article on public space and civic action to the Guardian's blog. "The exercise of democracy begins as exercise, as walking around, becoming familiar with the streets, comfortable with strangers, able to imagine your own body as powerful and expressive rather than a pawn. People who are at home in their civic space preserve the power to protest and revolt, whereas those who have been sequestered into private space do not." Read the article in its entirety here.

"Platial enables anyone to find, create and use meaningful maps of Places that matter to them. We hope it can connect people, neighborhoods, cities and countries through a citizen-driven common context that goes beyond geopolitical boundaries. We are building it, because we adore Places."Platial is essentially a Google Maps hack that allows you to annotate and share maps with anyone on the World Wide Web. While it's easy enough to narrow down and find places you care about (there are quite a few entries on Toronto, for example) services such as these cause me ...

Year Zero One has just released November's new content as part of TRANSMEDIA :29:59, a year long exhibition on the pedestrian level video billboard at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto. Launched August 1st 2005, TRANSMEDIA :29:59 features one minute video works 24/7 every half hour on the 29th and 59th minutes. This month, on the 29th minute: Cheryl Sourkes - Live from the Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. And on the 59th minute: BlueScreen - streamScape. Cheryl Sourkes' Live from the Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas is a series of videos made by animating stills captured from a remote ...

"Once every five years a city gets the opportunity to step onto the world stage and become a focal point of international attention and achievement. In 2015, that city could be Toronto. Early in 2006, Toronto City Council will decide whether to submit a bid to host a World Expo in 2015." (from the Expo 2015 Public Consultation website) Hosting the Expo is a huge undertaking that will undoubtedly change the face of Toronto. Even the preparation of a bid will draw resources and inspire both darts and laurels by proposing dramatic changes. John Sewell spoke out in Eye ...

German artist Martin Kippenberger envisioned a sort of global underground system, with stations as far apart as Greece and Germany, and in his art projects inspired by this concept, installed many entrances to the imagined global subway system, most of which lead to nowhere. Kippenberger has been dead for eight years. The Canadian iteration in this work is celebrating its 10th anniversary in Dawson City, Yukon. It's the first and only "subway" in the Yukon. The subway entrance was built by his friend, Reinald Nohal. The project is playful, suggesting that the entrances to ...

A group called Heavy Trash has installed "viewing platforms" on the edges of gated communities in Los Angeles. Heavy Trash is "an anonymous arts organization of architects, designers and urban planners". Their blog extensively documents their viewing platform project, which aims to stimulate dialogue about urban issues. Their blog also has some excellent information about gated communities, and instructions on how to build your own viewing platform. Via archinect, and Space and Culture.

TRANSMEDIA :29:59 A project by Year Zero One Curated by Michael Alstad and Michelle Kasprzak This Wednesday, August 3rd, a programme of one minute videos by artists will be launched on the pedestrian-level billboard in Dundas Square. Two videos will play each hour, on the 29th and 59th minutes. Launching on August 3rd on the 29th minute of each hour is "Movie Stars" by Manu Luksch, and on the 59th minute, "Screen Kiss" by Jillian McDonald. These two artists will have their videos broadcast on the 29th and 59th minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days ...