Archive | October, 2009

Toronto’s Ad Busters

11 Oct

Rami Tabello

Cover story of this week’s Eye Weekly features activist Rami Tabello and his war against illegal Toronto billboards.

http://www.eyeweekly.com/city/city/article/73879

In a related story, the group, Dupont & Spadina Corner Collective created a large scale art installation the night before this years Nuit Blanche. They whitewashed 15 illegitimate signs in the neighbourhood and added paintings of flying birds with the purpose of conveying a collective “flock off” the illegal ad space.

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http://www.duspa.org/

In support of stronger billboard regulations and a more creative city,
the group is trying to bring attention to the upcoming meetings between members of Toronto’s By-Law project and the Planning and Growth Management Committee.

Meetings originally scheduled for the week of October 5 have now been
moved to November 4. The Sign By-Law Team will be putting forward
proposals including a New Sign By-law, Third-Party Sign Tax, and ideas
for enforcement. Details of the report and project can be found on the
city of Toronto’s website at:
www.toronto.ca/signbylawproject/index.htm

http://www.publicadcampaign.com/

Advertising that watches you, too

4 Oct

An interesting an article I found in the Globe and Mail about new technology in advertising measurement…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article968999.ece

Big Brother

Nuit Blanche – Speed Shift

4 Oct

Nuit Blanche Toronto 2009

I just returned home from Nuit Blanche. While the event itself is one giant advertisement for Scotia Bank, there was one interesting exhibit that was more of a social commentary about advertising.

Speed Shift Toronto

The installation, SPEED SHIFT, places two artificial visual realities, Minimal Art and advertising billboards, in unmediated juxtaposition. Consumer society made Oscar Wilde’s aphorism “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life” into “Life imitates commercials far more than commercials imitate Life.” Advertising has taken over society

The light and sound installation overlays two constructed visual realities (Minimal Art and advertising billboards) to form a luminous underground passage. Fifty-five meters of white LED lights are secured onto a wall of advertising in the Eaton Centre, displaying two wave patterns combined with a rhythmic sound layer, that moves in varying speeds over time. Eventually, the two elements meet up in the hallway’s centre.
–http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/exhibition.aspx?zone=A&mapID=8

Erwin Redl studied Computer Art at School of Visual Arts, New York and Music Composition and Electronic Music at the Music Academy, Vienna, Austria.

The artist participated in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Most recently he created a sound and light installation for the Austrian Pavilion at the World Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain.

Redl’s work is represented in major international art collections, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

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