Interview: David Han

Name: David Han
Age: 33
Location: Toronto
Craft: Smart ass/Imagineer/Media artist/Basketball enthusiast

How would you describe your craft to people who aren't familiar with what you do?
I usually tell them that I make the kind of film or video installations you might see in an art gallery or at an event like Nuit Blanche.

Where do you primarily draw your ideas and inspiration from? What is your creative process like?
I guess a lot of work I'm interested in really goes back to Gene Youngblood's concept of expanded cinema. Although I come from a film and television background, I really like this idea of the films being drawn out of the cinema, leaking out of the darkened interiors of movie theatres and into real life, real places. Contemporary technology has really pushed this process along, making this an everyday experience.

As a result, it's usually the technology that's the starting point for my creative process. I'm interested in the promise surrounding a new piece of technology. Promise, not in a utopian sense, or in some fetishistic, fan-boy sense, but more like the sense of wonder or magic that surrounds new technology. A lot of my work tries to evoke this sense of wonder through the integration of such technology, often in unsuspecting and curious ways.


"Margaret Learns to Drive From There to Here"
multi-channel video installation exhibited at the MOCCA, 2010 and The Leona Drive Project, 2009.

What kind of materials do you love working with and how are they related to your ideas?
I love trying to find a balance between the familiar and the strange. In a lot of my work, there's an attempt to take something very mundane, or familiar - like a mirror, a car, a treadmill, or, in the case of my most recent work, your own shadow - and then subvert or alter the relationship with that object or phenomenon, usually through the integration of contemporary technologies like custom software. I suppose this goes back to my interest in the sense of wonder or magic that often accompanies new technologies.

I'm reminded of the story of the Lumière Brothers film "Train Pulling into a Station", one of the first films ever screened for the public. As the story goes, during the scene in which the train comes towards the camera, the audience in the theatre screamed and ran away from the screen. I like that story.


"Restive Threshold"
Film and Video Installation, exhibited at the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery, 2011.

What interests you the most about Toronto these days?
Recently, there's been an increased interest in 'maker', or DIY culture. While InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre has been fostering a small, but dedicated, artist-centric maker community for the past 30 years, I've recently discovered a few other organizations that really speak to the diversity and vibrancy of this culture. Places like Site 3 coLaboratory and DDiMIT are popping up all over this city, which hopefully points to a future where Toronto becomes an epicenter for this type of work. If you're interested in seeing for yourself what I mean by 'maker' culture, check out Toronto's first Mini Maker Faire on May 7-8, 2011 at the Evergreen Brick Works.

You've lived in and around the Bloorcourt Village neighbourhood for quite some time now. What about the neighbourhood has made you stay put there for so long?
I've lived there for almost 8 years now. I like the fact that while it has seen its share of changes, it still has a real community feel to it. The pace of gentrification in Bloorcourt/Bloordale is slow and languorous, almost as if it's not really happening, or as if the developers aren't really sure that this neighbourhood is worthy of gentrification. It means that there's enough time for a community to be born, time for adjustment and understanding (instead of resentment) and the formation of unlikely allegiances between community members of disparate backgrounds. If you've ever played soccer with hipsters, humanists, Brazilian teenagers and Eritrean cab drivers, you'll know what I mean.

You have two cats named Sebastian and Eddie. Tell us a funny story about them.
Ah. My cats. They are like a 80s cop movie. You know, the kind of 80s cop movie that features a grizzled old veteran, a few weeks from retirement, who gets partnered with a young, rambunctious rookie whose all bravado and nonsense. Exactly like that. All the time.

Bunny Bling Bling Tip: David is participating in the Sight & Sound: Audio & Visual New Media Festival
from May 11 - 17, 2011 in Montreal, Canada! Go check it out if you're in and around the area.

http://www.davidhan.ca/

April showers brings may flowers and a summer full of satisfaction!

Even though it's raining outside, and everything looks like a hundred different shades of brown and grey, I know for sure that spring is coming for a couple of reasons: it has warmed up, I can wear my Converse again, and there is this one single flower that popped up on the lawn.

Hello, flower!

I started growing some seeds indoors. What a feeling! I got my seeds from a small but fantastic store in Parkdale called Urban Harvest. This is a wonderful little organic place where you can get all your seeds and gardening needs, as well as organic spices, oils, and beauty products made by local people who don't do sketchy stuff.

At work, we get these trays filled with live seedlings that we harvest and then use as a garnish on our food plates. Once they are done, the guys just toss the containers out! I know! I saved a few because they are perfect for seedlings. We get 2 sizes: large and half size. If anyone wants free trays for growing seedlings, just let me know. I'm dying to pull more out of the recycling! Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, folks! There is no excuse. You can grow seedlings in just about anything that has good drainage.



The workshops held at the Stop Community Food Centre's Green Barn teach kids to start their seeds in anything from yogurt containers to milk cartons. I found their little collection very inspiring.

Hey, good job kids!

I started some beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumber, Armenian cucumber, patty pan squash...

And for the cats, some cat grass!

So, just after 4 days, all the seeds have sprouted and I'm so excited for spring. I'm wondering if this year we can use the garden at its fullest potential? Maybe we won't even need to buy any produce and live off the land like the folks did back in the day? That will be my goal this summer. If I happen to buy an onion, or something I'll report back to you!


Up next: planting seeds outside!

Frank McAuliffe

Name: Frank McAuliffe AKA Kiki St John
Age: 32 2/3
Location: Toronto
Craft: Interiors and Exteriors (Blackrock Works)

Tell us about Blackrock.
It's a full service design build firm with a focus on the raw beauty and natural splendor of all materials in all functions.

Where did you grow up?
Downtown Toronto. Cabbagetown, specifically.

Where do you go for inspiration?
Out the window of my car and I Google. Lots and lots of Google.

What are your 3 favourite spots in the city?
I really like the Habitat for Humanity Restore. There is this place by the water where the city dumps the trees it cuts down. A butcher at Islington and Albion called Potenza where if you don't speak Italian, you are treated like an immigrant (I don't speak Italian).

Are the best things in life for free?
The best of the free shit, I guess.

What is your favourite material to work with?
Wood of any kind except ipe.



What are the basic tools you would recommend for craftspeople that are just starting out?
Pen and paper.

What is your dream project?
I think today, with the sun shining and the birds singing, my dream job would be to build a rockery in Central Park or maybe build a garden around the base of the CN Tower. I love the CN tower. I hope they never change the name to something like the Quizno Tower or the Wild Wing Ding. Even if they did, I would still like it more than that thing they built in Kuala Lumpur.

Do you have any hidden talents?
In my line of work, you better bring your talents right off the bat.

What is on important life lesson?
Boys are garbage.

Tell us a story.
A number of years ago, I heard about a guy that was rebuilding a barn in Normandy. In order to secure the contract, I started a somewhat monogamous relationship with his daughter. As the project was nearing the end of the second of four phases, there was a halt to the work due to funding constraints. I broke it off with the girl and, of course, came home. We lost touch after that. She did email me and asked if I knew what the significance of May 5th was to her, and I explained that I am not Mexican, and don't think about what she thinks about. I've been thinking about that lately.

www.blackrockworks.com

Earth Hour

How did YOU spend Earth Hour? Earth Hour is my favourite event of the year, next to Caribana, the Eurocup and, of course, the Airshow. It gives us the chance to take a step back, reflect in our thoughts, share stories and perhaps drink a lot of wine and make a collage.


M. had an Earth Hour get together a few years ago (she loves Earth Hour too), which was a great success. So this year, along with our good friend A., we decided to feast on food that didn't require an oven. We lit a few candles and got a bit cozy.

M. made a beef tartar, topped with a raw egg yolk and it was complimented by a salad made of arugula, cherry tomatoes and fresh figs. Yum!





What is the point of Earth Hour? Well, duh! Didn't you hear? It's a global stand against climate change. Every major city in the world participates, so why not you? Personally, I regard it as a way to conserve energy and, really, a time to shut it all down, man. Take us back to the olden times of yesteryear. Feast on raw meat and rely on the one morsel of light flickering in the darkness. Enjoy intimacy in the dark while talking with your family and friends and listening to the sounds of heavy breathing and awkward silences.

How we spent our Earth Hour:
- Wrote a letter
- Cut pictures out of magazines
- Made a collage
- Ate raw meat
- Recycled
- Drank bottles of wine
- Talked about our feelings

Post a Letter

I love writing (and receiving!) letters!!







Letter writing is one of my favourite activities. I can spend hours writing nonsense and I love packaging things up and sending it out. Receiving letters is always exciting, even it's a bill or some kind of uncomfortable notice from the government.

Once in a while, I'll head over to NACO (over on Dundas, near Lansdowne) for a nacho and a glass of wine. I'll pen a letter in the dark and let Pal-Sac take care of the rest. They provide the stamps and the motivation.

"Post A Letter Social Activity Club (Pal-Sac) is an event open to everyone that takes place in cities and towns around the world. We seek to promote letter writing as a social and political tool, as well as a powerful generator of love, surprises, anticipation, relaxation and fun!"

Ian Jackson

Name: Ian Jackson
Age: 30
Location: Toronto
Craft: guitar/vocals in Persian Rugs

Tell us about your instruments
I have a bunch of instruments. Mainly guitars that I've acquired over the years. In high school, I got a 90s-era Fender Telecaster deluxe (pretty much directly because of Jonny Greenwood, with the same pickups and everything), and later on I bought a somewhat modified Fender Jazzmaster (see: Thurston Moore, Kevin Shields). I have a beat up acoustic guitar whose main selling feature was that it was the cheapest model that the company - Seagull - made at the time. As well, I have a couple other cheap guitars from the 60s that look bad ass but don't stay in tune worth a damn, so they just hang around and look cool most of the time. Oh, and there's my... piano. It's a tiny grand piano that sounds sort of bell-like and is painted silver. It looks like something Elton John might have played when he was a little boy.

What is your creative process?
I tend to happen upon things. I don't have a specific process really. Usually random noodling on guitar is involved and I'll stumble onto something I like, then try to fashion it into something song-like. Writing just happens when it does. If I sit down and try to force myself to come up with something it's usually fruitless. It all comes in fits and starts and hopefully eventually something coherent forms out of it. Lots of keeping notes of words or phrases or small musical ideas and building on them. Often taking a small bit of music to the band will, very much with everyone else's help, turn into something more and we just go from there.

What are your three favourite spots to get inspired?
The edge of my bed. Our hovel of a practice space. The shower.

Are the best things in life for free?
Some of them.

Do blonds have more fun?
Oh yes.

Tell us about a time you felt on top of the world!
On top of the world? Well, I went up the CN Tower recently. And had oysters afterwards. That was a good day.