We revisit our first two shows with Christian Giroux and Janet Morton through the lens of the "clip show" television trope (the flashback-heavy episodes pieced together from already-aired footage often brought on by writer's strikes), looking at how we can see the act of putting two different interviews in conversation as a creative act. We engage with the power of ambiguity, interpretation, and discussion. We look at these episodes through the lens of artist Charles Stankievech, who creating narratives through unlikely parallel texts. In the spirit of investigation, we explore Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick’s concepts of paranoid and reparative readings, either drawing connections in anticipation on re-sampling narratives in new constructive ways. Re-investigation is important as we can engage in our practice more critically. We also play a set of cover songs to musically investigate re-sampling.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, Eve. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003.

This week we re-visit Norton’s public project Site Lines, a suggestion box placed in Saint George’s Square which invited downtownites to suggest fantastical improvements to public space. Norton discusses the project in relation to utopia, that “things are created in a specific context and a specific time and place by a specific person.” We discuss a book written by Simon Brault, called No Culture, No Future, exploring the idea of the democracies of culture, that while we can all enjoy culture at different levels, we cannot choose what is inaccessible to us. In relation to this, Norton talks about the futility of appealing to everybody, and the importance of cultural production that acknowledges context, time, and place.

Brault, Simon, and Jonathan Kaplansky. No Culture, No Future. Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2010.

Artist Adrienne Spier joins us in the studio to talk about her practice. Spier works with unwanted objects and overlooked spaces, taking what people have thrown away and seeing them with new eyes as art. Her practice allows her to be open to possibility, and to explore new angles. As Spier notes, anxiety can be a powerful fuel to make it happen. Spier is a resident artist in the Arts Incubator at Boarding House Arts, a program offering studio space to seven emerging artists.

"Over the years as I’ve thought about process and how things work, I believe there are two secret ingredients in art. The first is obsession, and the second is letting go and letting things happen. I know, very early in my art making life, I made some pieces that I thought about so much and I killed them through over-thinking every aspect and being able to explain every aspect visually. The work was dead. Leaving some mystery in the process, even for the artist, is a very important ingredient." – Adrienne Spier

This week, we talk about artist, social worker, and DJ Will Munro and his extensive work in community-building before his death in 2010. Through his work, we discuss queer culture and collective otherness, and the desire to be recognized. We talk about strong communities as inherently political, resistant, and resilient. We discuses the book Army of Lovers: A Community History of Will Munro, as well as how he stitched communities together with his record needle. In artist Luis Jacob’s words, Munro’s work “fill[ed] the blanks of this community in waiting.” Read more about Will in Sarah Liss’ excellent book, available at http://theagyuisoutthere.org/everywhere/?p=3314.

Liss, Sarah. Army of Lovers: A Community History of Will Munro. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2013.

The founder of Guelph’s own Silence, Ben Grossman, joins us in the studio today to talk live music and how Silence has become a locally iconic epicenter of culture in Guelph. Grossman also brings up the science fair meets party meets nerd-fest event known as Handmade Music, which offers participants a chance to try DIY music and instrument making. He argues that improvisation is no longer merely an embodiment, but instead a metaphor for social intervention. Looking at book The Fierce Urgency of Now by Daniel Fischlin, Ajay Heble, and George Lipsitz, we discuss freedom, improvisation, and its relation to social interaction.

"Why is it that when I go out to see music and art, I want to be challenged? For me, that is the secret ingredient in art." – Ben Grossman

Fischlin, Daniel, Ajay Heble, and George Lipsitz. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.

Having recently participated in The Mulch Project, we discuss the art collective FASTWÜRMS, who alongside the Specialized Studio students of the University of Guelph have developed this project in the local neighborhood known as The Ward. The Rhizome collaboration looked to grow roots out into the community through affection, art, and community exchange. Custom designed burlap bags were filled with mulch at the Tytler Public School, where local residents could come and take as many as they needed. In this episode we talk about the FASTWÜRMS’ practice of DIY aesthetics, social exchange, and blending high-end pop culture with bent identity politics. We also talk about the not-for-profit organization rare and use the paper The Art of Resilience, The Resilience of Art to discuss complex systems.

The Art of Resilience, The Resilience of Art. Montreal: J.W. McConnell Foundation, 2013.

This week we talk with Vancouver-based artist Althea Thauberger and her work in Rijeka, Preuzmimo Benčić. Thauberger calls into question to future of Rijeka through the occupation by over 70 children between the ages of 6-13 of a local heritage site Benčić, a former sugar refinery, tobacco factory, and machine parts site. Thauberger became interested in the way watching the children work became like watching the children play, and watching the children play became like watching the children work. The inclusion of children in art and community is also addressed through our discussion of Darren O’Donnell’s essay “Toronto: The Teenager. Why We Need a Children’s Council” as well as a text piece by radical group The San Francisco Diggers. We explore with Thauberger who public space is made for, and how to address problems such as a lack of public space.

"The secret ingredients in art for me are ideas and new ways to bring ideas to a conversation. This is the most important thing about art, and the most important thing about being an artist." - Althea Thauberger

Darren O’Donnell, “Toronto the Teenager." In UTOpia: Towards a New Toronto, edited by Jason McBride and Alana Wilcox. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2005.

This is a special episode as part of CFRU’s Raise your Voice campaign, and we sit down with Art Incubator Residency participants Monika Hauck and Annie Dunning in our local coffee shop, Planet Bean. Monika speaks with us about her varied practice, looking specifically at marginalized and unused spaces in nature. Annie Dunning is currently working on an interactive sound sculpture, based around a collaboration with a woodpecker hammering away at a tree. Both artists are making the city of Guelph a key character in their work, as it is a good place to explore and grow as an emerging artist.

"For me, it’s the ability for art to make a connection, just the ability to spark a thoughtful intention." - Monika Hauck

"The secret ingredient in art for me is discovery. Discovering a new way of thinking about something and exploring that and sharing it and discussing it. It’s that discovery and developing those new ideas." - Annie Dunning

As Halloween approaches, we talk haunted houses, specifically Killjoy’s Kastle by Allyson Mitchell. Filled with, demented women’s studies professors, straw feminists, and the ghost of Valerie Solanas and gravestones marking the death of the Gender Binary, this feminist haunted house demands that you actively participate in the work. The project also offered the chance to reflect on your experience in a processing room with real-life feminist killjoys like Anne Cvetkovich. However, it is also recently the subject of an active online conversation about restrictive spaces and the more complex aspects of feminism’s ghosts. In this context we also discuss Suzanne Lacy’s Between a Door and The Street, a project in New York that brought different groups of people together to discuss themes of poverty and economy. We explore questions of representation, exploitation, inclusiveness, and remember art cannot be all things for everyone. What methods can we explore to facilitate dialogue?

Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso Books, 2012.

Today’s interview with Rich Marsella tackles a number of topics including musical production, collaboration, and community involvement. An improviser, composer, and musician, Marsella talks with us about his recent project Scheherazade which is part of Musagetes Improviser-in-Residence program. It included a wide number of performers from Guelph’s own creative audience to perform Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade dramatically rearranged for electric guitar, orchestra, and whoopee cushion organ, among others. Later, we discuss a passage about a composer suffering from amnesia, from Oliver Sacks’ book Musicophilia. Through the narrative we discuss the ability improvisational music has to create a presence when people collaborate together. What can we build through music?

"I think the secret ingredient for me is people. I know that’s a simple answer but it’s true. There are so many people in this project that have blown my mind and come up through the woodwork and I ask myself why? I just love that fact that they are putting this thing into an area that I couldn’t have imagined." - Rich Marsella

Sacks, Oliver W. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.