Language, Politics, Manifestos Reading Seminar at Concordia University

- a theory class with the not missing practical part with Inspiration from the Internet, Montreal's contemporary art/design events, lectures and more

In the 'Language, Politics, Manifestos - Reading Seminar' taught by PK Langshaw We analyzed and discussed so far different manifestos, to mention only a few:

futurist manifestoes, situationist manifesto, cyber dada manifesto, cyborg manifesto, they rule, concrete poetry - a world view- mary ellen solt, experimental visual poetry- contemporary and animated experiments

These manifesto examples are supposed to help to generate our final paper which will consist in the manifesto of our project. A previous five-page context paper and a one-page summary will lead to the manifesto.

Outside university events can also be a rich source of information: At the Pecha-Kucha night in Montreal on September 18 Sept, 2007, projects were presented, that featured a critical view on the internet, interactive gamings, sound research (Yon Visell and Karmen Franinovic from zero-th.org), a critical view of internet connections, human architecture without shopping malls, an airport Installation to make people aware of deportation air trafic or Brazilian everyday scenes.

We also undertook a field-trip and went to see the exhibit e-art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. I especially liked David Rockeby's work, and especially the installation 'Seen' from 2002, which usesComputer, 2 projectors, digital source footage and a software created by the artist. The piece looks like a beautiful slow moving digital painting with its own behaviours. There is also the piece of the Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. In his work 'Subtitled Public', dating 2005, he projects words on public in the space.

We also went to see projections on the external walls of the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, showing pictures from the Darfur Crisis in by renamed photographers. We discussed our responsibility and what if we can change what is going on in the world.

To see PK Langshaw's most recent research we went to the uqam hexagram space. The sound and drawing installation is an interesting part of the projection. It is based on an opensource c++ application, which can be modified for personal requirements. In this case soundloops are annotated to simple drawings, which will be drawn visible for the public on a computer, which will then be projected on the stage, where dancers perform. An other interesting project is the collection of typefaces of differnet places in the world. Mexicos often handdrawn signs are different from those in North America. This project can demonstrate how much typograohy can tell about socio-economic facts.

On October 1, 2007, M. Xavier Bermudez, creator and founder of the International Biennale of the Poster in Mexico (Bienal Internacional del Cartel in Messico), lectured at Concordia University. In his lecture he showed the work of fellow graphic designers which has enriched the biennale over the years.

Every theme is present from political poster, featuring themes like whale killing, pedophilia, Gun trafficking to commercial poster projects. Important Designers are Vittorio Fiorucci, a twenthiest century poster designer in Quebec, Canada. There are some of Mexico's most important graphic designers like VicenteRojo and German Montalvo. The 2 mexicans Maurica Gomez and Leonal Sagahon rent bus stations in the public space to showcast their posters. Finland has an important role in Poster Design according to M. Bermudez. Works created by IdcN, the international Design Center Nagoya, one of the best Design Centers in the World, are shown as well. There is also Morisawa, Digital typefaces, Japon, taking part in the biennale. Present is the polish graphic designer Wiktor Gorka and Yossi Lemel, poster Designer from Israel, who works on two levels: On political posters against israelian-palestinian violence and in collaboration with a Palestinian designer.

Very inspiring are also the short movies and animations inspired by poetry shown at Cinematheque Quebecoise, Montreal, shown on October 4, 2007. I had also the chance to get to know one of the filmmakers after the screening, Don McWilliams, who did the movie 'Aloud/Bagatelle'. DichtVorm, from the Netherlands has a collection of their litterature inspired movies online. I liked a lot "Susumu Yokota - Kaiten Mokuba".