Summer Institute

Hey everyone, here are some of the artworks from the DIS Open Studio! Everyone was so talented! Throughout the Summer Institute, Marco's mantra was, "energy over quality", but I personally think quality matched the energy! Thanks so much for the packed weeks, it was so wonderful getting to know everyone. Take a look at some of the photos of the artwork below. I would also like to apologize in advance about the lost documentation. If the photos are found, I'll be sure to update! Chris Andrews, heel concept and untitled text , sculpture & text. Chris Andrews, untitled text , text. Chris Andrews, Performance for Hermès , sculpture & text. Steph Berrington, untitled , installation. Steph Berrington, untitled , installation. Details. Steph Berrington, untitled , installation. Details. Ibai Gorriti, Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis , install. Ibai Gorriti, Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis , install. Details. Ibai Gorriti, Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis , ...

Sunny Lee in Studio. Instant Coffee I was able to sit down with Instant Coffee members Jinhan Ko and Sunny Lee where we talked about their practices individually and working as a collective. A bit about the collective: Instant Coffee: Get Social or Get Lost. Instant Coffee is a service-oriented artist collective based in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver (Canada), and Seoul (South Korea). Through formal installations and event-based activities, we build a public place to practice where ideas, materials, and actions can be explored outside of the isolated studio and in a manner that renegotiates traditional exhibition structures, but is still supported by them. Instant Coffee's frequent practice is to build architectural installations, which become venues for a series of organized events from formal lectures and screenings to informal gatherings and workshops. Each installation requires hosts who initiate some form of social interaction through the presentation and performance of ideas t...

Erica Stocking during Hannah Black's artist Talk. Erica Stocking Erica's practice is interdisciplinary and has the tendency to physically and conceptually exist between geographic spaces. She has a history of creating permanent and public work with a background in sculpture and textiles. Though her work isn't always sculpture, she operates from the lens of sculpture. Materiality, process, and ethos is essential to her work. Erica explained that for her, ethos is the product's personal histories and the state of the artist which participates in determining the output, the quality of the work, and how it engages the space. Erica describes her method of working as a constellation of processes. (!! we LOVE astrology !!) During the DIS Summer Institute Erica has been able to use her ongoing research to focus on working in the studio. She's been hard at work completing three projects, one of which has been ongoing. In 2010, she had been thinking about layers, materials, ...

Chris Andrews in studio. Last year the Summer Institute blog brought you Bite Sizes - mini interviews with the visiting artists - and I thought I'd bring those back as artist Hangouts. There weren't specific questions, but rather just sitting down and talking about their practices and what they worked on during the Summer Institute. Chris Andrews At the Summer Institute, Chris is continuing research on the art market, toxic assets, and care, and how these concepts become entangled. Chris has established a platform lois which is a web-based curatorial platform and network for contemporary artwork, facilitating the sale of work from artists internationally." (from http://loisprojects.info/) Chris is particularly interested in supporting underrepresented artists, and helping to grow their market through this new contemporary art platform. Lois embodies an alternative to the contemporary commercial gallery model, and works to bring care into the art market, through the redis...

Just as we (Jaz and I), head to the rooftop for another interview, another man is trying to catch the elevator up. Jaz presses the button that holds the door open and lets the man enter. I'm not really paying attention, looking over my notes for the day, when I hear the man drop, "Well maybe you should just give me your number". [eyes emoji...] He exits the elevator and as we get settled in on the roof, he comes running toward us and Jaz lets him have their number. His name is Gavin :•) from tech :•) For the record, Jaz is a water sign. Jaz Papadopoulos in Studio. Jaz Papadopoulos Jaz doesn't have an art background, they received their undergrad in conflict resolution. They are interested in non-violent action which has led them to feminism and art which further pushed them to study clowning. Jaz also interest in critical theory, especially post structural theory and post-colonial theories – the likes of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and Gloria Anzaldua...

I'm so pleased to bring you another artist hangout. Ryan wanted to sit on the rooftop where Dan Graham's permanent installation sits. It was beautiful outside and acted as a quiet and private space to sit and talk with artists who chose to be interviewed up there. (It's been sunny during the entire Summer Institute, we're so lucky not to have had any prairie storms!) Ryan Josey At Plug In ICA, Ryan has been thinking about labour in the art world, mediation of the self and participation in social technology, and how all the parts of himself can reconcile. Labour in the art world pertaining to Ryan's experience working as a camboy to pay for an unpaid internship in NYC in 2015 (don't @ me about unpaid internships, they're all types of evil :*| ) and how webcam modelling has been used to support him and his practice. It is through these multi-facets of himself that Ryan has shown interest in the way our "selves" are presented materially and intentiona...

Hi everyone! You may have noticed from the past few posts that Luther wasn't writing for the blog anymore. This is because Plug In has a couple of new interns this summer and I have specifically been put in charge of updating the blog! I love what Luther has done already and I'm so excited to bring you all of that with my own personality. I'm here to bring you updates as well as document what's been going on with the Summer Institute. Photo of me thinking about dim sum and taiwanese breakfast literally 365 days a week. A bit about me: My name is Natalie Mark and I am an illustration student specializing in publications, comics, and a bit of editorial. I'm a Libra sun, Sagittarius moon, and Virgo rising (don't ask about the rest of my natal chart, you don't want to see it). I have experience with community/public programming and I'm so excited to be sharing the Summer Institute with you all! I've been able to see the artists working first hand and t...

Ilana Harris-Babou Reparations Hardware . Video still. So wonderful to have had speakers Ilana Harris-Babou and Hannah Black invited as guests for the Summer Institute. The day before we had Ilana Harris-Babou and a screening of Reparations Hardware as well as some of her other films. Something wonderful that Ilana brought up about the choice of making films was the ephemeral quality of seeing images that would disappear and the integration of motion that the screen suggests. In particular, the ephemeral quality of cultivating space through film and the sites which viewing the screen exists. It was so lovely to sit in on Ilana Harris-Babou and listen to them talk about writers like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and how they've influenced their mode of thinking and processing. (They also happen to be two of my favourite writers! I recommend Giovanni's Room , Ilana mentions Sister Outsider ). Unfortunately, we weren't able to get footage even though we had the camera set u...

We are so pleased to have another installment of Summer Institute at Plug In ICA! With the session starting on the 25th, we welcomed representative Marco Roso of DIS as the faculty member along with twelve amazing artists. As part of this ongoing blog, we'll be presenting you with interviews, photos, and updates on what we've been up to. We are already onto the second (and last) week before we finish the Summer Institute and we'll be ending the session with an open studio to see what the artists have accomplished on Saturday, July 7, 2018. In the meantime, the accompanying exhibition Thumbs that Type and Swipe: The DIS Edutainment Network is running until Sunday, July 29, 2018. We kicked off the Summer Institute with basic introductions and administrative things. On the very first day we already had one screening of The Seasteaders and a video call with creators, Daniel Keller and Jacob Hurwitz Goodman. The interest in anarcho-futurist and libertarian society and the p...