Akimbo is a Toronto-based company that promotes contemporary visual art, video, new media and film locally, nationally and internationally via the internet, mobile media and social. Established in November 1999, Akimbo has built a large and dedicated subscriber and reader base of Canadian and international visual arts professionals along with a client base of hundreds of the country’s most important galleries, museums, art institutions, and media, film and video festivals.
Read the whole hit list by Carrie on Akimbo
From Akimbo:
Carrie Gates is a Saskatoon-based artist who primarily works within interactive video and internet art. Her video mixing performances and recorded works use 3D sound-reactive processing, unusual rhythmic juxtapositions, and hand shot raw footage. She is also behind Pizzabook, a browser artwork that morphs the facebook interface into animated pizza. Recent highlights of Carrie’s live performances and video screenings include Young Internet Based Artists at The Wrong,SPAMMM / CUPCAKE, Blue Balls Festival, Sight & Sound Festival, INDEX Festival, and theVancouver New Music Festival. She earned her degree in Art History from the University of Saskatchewan and has been involved in experimental electronic music communities and artist-run/independent organizations since the mid-1990s. Her work was recently featured on Noisey andThe Creator’s Project. Gates is showing a new video (with sound by Annie Hall) at theUnbecoming Glitch exhibition with Erik Rzepka and Ian Campbell at Nouvelle Terre @ Vidéographe until May 24. The opening reception is next Wednesday, May 7th.
1. Peachy Printer
There is a startup company called Peachy Printer that is building 3D printers that will cost only $100. This totally changes the game for the technology and makes my brain spin at what kind of impact it could have if 3D printers were household objects. Artists and inventors are obviously going to benefit from this as the means for rapid prototyping and the production of multiples will suddenly be much more affordable. Household 3D printing is also going to have a huge impact on factory production modes and copyright law, so I’m excited to see what unfolds. I’m happy to say that this is all happening in Saskatchewan. We don’t have a very big tech start-up scene here and they did really well on their initial Kickstarter. The beta versions are being tested now and they should be shipping the finished version within the year.
2. Ru Paul’s Drag Race
Drag culture is a big inspiration to me, and I look gleefully forward to Monday nights each week as the new episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race airs. The contestants are incredibly creative, intelligent, and resourceful people who are on top of their game, and they make me laugh like crazy. It’s fun to see how such uniquely talented people handle bizarre challenges from Ru Paul in a quasi-survivalist setting. I’m also obsessed with post-apocalyptic survival, and how new sociological orders emerge when people are trapped in stressful situations together. There is a cruise in November where members of the cast from all six seasons are starting in Miami and heading to the Mayan ruins. I really want to go. What if once we left shore, the land disappeared, but the food, water, and other essentials magically replenished themselves?
3. 3D Web GL browser projects
Nick Briz made a really nice interactive browser project called _playGnd for live experimental 3D Web GL visual programming that doubles as a teaching tool. When the slider and checkbox animation controls are interacted with, the live source code is shown on the screen beside it so that it becomes simple to understand the different variables at play if you want to start programming browser-based 3D interactive art. LaTurbo Avedon and Vince McKelvie also launched a related project called Club Rothko Builder that presents an interface for the creative manipulation of images or a webcam-feed mapped onto interactive 3D objects. Lots more to watch for in this realm.
4. Digital sublimation printing
New sites like Print All Over Me and To Be allow people to design clothing and bulk fabrics with their own digital images. The ink is “baked into” the fabric through the digital sublimation process so that the fabric is really soft and doesn’t fade.
5. Pickles
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace. A cold dill Bick’s really hits the spot and makes me feel alive, but I often finish the pickle juice before the pickles.
Comments 1
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