An InterAccess Commissioning Project

Walk Yonge Street from Dundas Square to the waterfront this spring and you will hear stories about the neighbourhood, revisit the old Bulova Clock Tower in miniature form, catch a glimpse of the great outdoors, see text messages translated into Morse code, and learn about the lives of urban pigeons.

The Networked City is a series of five outdoor installations commissioned by InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre and presented in partnership with the City of Toronto and the University for Peace. These five commissions from Canadian artists murmur, Paulette Phillips, Marla Hlady, Germaine Koh, and the collaborative team of Luis Jacob and Amos Latteier will highlight the social connections that citizens make on a day-to-day basis by simply travelling from one place to another. These new works are on view from May 26 - June 25, 2006.

The Networked City launches on May 26 with the start of the Humanitas Festival: a city-wide art and culture festival that runs until June 25. Watch for maps and activity schedules soon!

Toronto collective [murmur] explore the democratic potential of everyday communications media - the cell phone in particular - and ask what happens when such technologies and their uses are made public. In this new work for Yonge-Dundas Square, [murmur] invites responses and stories about the square and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Germaine Koh uses similar technologies in Relay: Toronto. Participants can send messages via mobile phones which are broadcast in Morse code by a flashing beacon located in the alcove of the old Dominion Bank of Canada bulding, One King West. Text in your own messages to (416) 836-5007. Viewers and participants can crack the code by watching a monitor that displays the real text of the messages.

The work of Luis Jacob and Amos Latteier incorporates playful interaction to discuss important social issues in Pigeon Condo. Using animal life as a mirror for human social realities, Jacob and Latteier explore urban development and discuss metaphorical housing for pigeons in this area near the railway and the Gardiner Expressway, a site of several condominium developments in progress. Weekend activities consist of pigeon feeding, kite flying, picnics and discussions, while a cell-phone audio tour will inform participants about pigeons and their habitats. This work can be found at the north-east traffic triangle at Yonge and Lakeshore Boulevard. Visit www.pigeoncondo.com for more information.

Paulette Phillips, in her work Bubbalova, recreates the old Bulova clock tower, once a distinctive part of the Toronto cityscape. In Phillips' version, bubbles flow from the tower, exploring the weightiness of public and collective memory through ephemeral and transitory means on the former site of the Colonial Tavern on Yonge Street between Richmond and Dundas, south of Shuter Street.

Marla Hlady has selected the storefront windows of Toronto's historic Bay department store at the corner of Yonge and Richmond for a site-specific electronic installation. In Wilderness Tourist #3, Hlady explores nature and urban environments through glistening and mesmerizing light effects and soothing sounds.

The Networked City has been made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Toronto and the University for Peace.

For media information please contact:
Brenda Goldstein: Project Manager, The Networked City
416 599 7206