The Toronto art-making duo Christian Giroux and Daniel Young (CGDY) have been working in 91亚色鈥檚 Digital Sculpture Lab over the past few months as artists-in-residence in the Department of Visual Arts. They will present an overview of their work in a free public lecture titled "The Making of Boole", Wednesday, March 24, at 3pm in 195A Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts at 91亚色鈥檚 Keele campus.

During their residency, Young and Giroux have been using the lab鈥檚 pioneering rapid prototyping equipment to expand upon their 2008 series Boole, which they created 鈥渋n a formal dialogue with pieces of IKEA furniture.鈥�

Right: The sculpture "Kermit", featured in Boole, illustrates CGDY's formal dialogue with pieces of IKEA furniture

Produced using precision-fabricated sheet metal, bringing objects from the domestic realm into collision with an industrial mode of manufacturing, Boole exists in conversation with the spirit of contemporary modernism. The title is derived from the term used to describe the basic 3-D computer modelling operations of addition and subtraction of simple forms in the creation of more complex ones.

The Globe and Mail described the original exhibition of Boole at Toronto鈥檚 as 鈥渁lmost lasciviously pleasing and puzzling furniture-like sculptures.鈥� CGDY will present the new additions to their series in a second show at Diaz Contemporary opening April 9.

鈥淭he resources in 91亚色鈥檚 Digital Sculpture Lab are really quite tremendous,鈥� says Young. 鈥淗aving access to the lab has allowed us to produce a project that otherwise would have been impossible.鈥�

The first of its kind in Canada, 91亚色鈥檚 lab features a wide range of specialized digital tools and technologies. They include the Torchmate plasma cutter, which can cut metal sheets up to 4聽by 8 feet in聽size, and the FROG Mill 4th Axis which carves 3-D forms out of wood, plastic or foam in formats up to 12聽by 8聽by 4 feet. Two rapid prototyping 3D printers are used to create small-scale models for art works. The Objet Eden 260V builds models out of resin, rubber or plastic in dimensions up to 12聽by 8聽by 8 inches, while the Solidscape T612 builds slightly smaller models out of wax (ideal for casting metal).

These production technologies are complemented by the FROG Mill 3-D Scanner, which can be used to scan existing objects to create virtual/digital copies that can subsequently be remade using one of the four manufacturing processes available in the lab. The artist can also adapt these scanned objects, or circumvent scanning and create completely new objects to be cut, carved or printed.

鈥淥ne of the primary goals of 91亚色鈥檚 Digital Sculpture Lab is to make cutting-edge digital fabrication technology accessible to both students and leading Canadian artists and researchers,鈥� says Visual Arts Professor Brandon Vickerd, who was awarded a major grant by the in 2005 to create the lab. 鈥淏y hosting their residency we鈥檙e providing CGDY with the opportunity to advance their practice in a unique way, and at the same time, giving students the opportunity to learn by observing the process of professional artists.鈥�

have been creating sculpture, public art and film installations together since 2002. Their work has been shown at SCOPE Miami Beach (2004), Ace Art Inc. (Winnipeg, 2004), The Power Plant (Toronto, 2006), the EXiS festival (Seoul, 2009) and the Museum f眉r Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (2009). Following its recent premiere at Toronto鈥檚 Mercer Union, their film installation 50 Light Fixtures from Home Depot was exhibited in Forum Expanded at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010 and will be shown this fall at the Beyond/In Western New 91亚色 exhibit at the Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in聽Buffalo.

Giroux and Young are just the latest in a long line of artists to hold residencies in 91亚色鈥檚 sculpture program. Previous guests include Britain's Anthony Caro and William Tucker, American sculptor Rona Pondick,聽and leading Canadian artists Liz Magor, Claire Brunet and James Carl.

Republished with files courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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CURL聽provides an innovative and visual聽approach to discussions聽involving globalization and cities by giving social scientists, lawyers, urban studies scholars and geographers an opportunity to interact with photographers, digital media artists, documentary filmmakers and their works. It brings an understanding to the issues that wouldn't be possible without weaving an interdisciplinary academic approach together with the artistic, says Gregory Smith, CURL's acting academic director, 2009-2010.

Left: A guest at the CURL launch studies the photos by artist-in-residence Jorge Uzon. Photo by Uzon.

The space itself is a state-of-the-art multimedia and research facility designed to bring people in and get them talking about urban places. There is a gathering area, a small conference room and two labs with equipment for filmmakers and photographers, which include sound mixing and studio recording capabilities, editing software, as well as high-definition digital cameras, lighting equipment and more.

"On the academic side of things, I think the real genesis for this鈥ame from the fact that there was this really great body of literature that was being written, at least for the last聽10 years, about globalization and cities, but that there really wasn't any input by those who focus on the academic side of law," says Smith, a PhD candidate at Osgoode whose research focuses on the role played by law in constructing urban space and society. "The idea was to open lines of communication between people who would traditionally do urban studies and lawyers鈥�.and bring the legal community into the discussion of how cities are run." That idea grew to include not only other disciplines, but visual arts.

Right: From left, Greg Smith and Mars Horodyski at the launch of CURL. Photo by Jorge Uzon.

One of the ways visual arts and the academic side of things will come together is through聽an ongoing reading lab. "We have readings, for example, of work written by filmmakers about cities, as much as we would have, say, a reading from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, literature, law, urban studies, geography, as widely varied as we can put together," says Smith. The first reading lab in January will look at Toronto, focusing on its growth and the planning decisions that have affected it over the years.

There will also be an online artist-in-residence every month showcasing work that represents some aspects of cities. Photographer Jorge Uzon is the current artist-in-residence. His black and white images of Mexico City and Toronto, which look at how the two cities have changed over the years, are on exhibit at CURL and can also be seen on the CURL Web site.

Left: Greg Smith mingles with guests at the official launch of CURL. Photo by Jorge Uzon.

The equipment is available to those聽with project proposals related to issues that include city life, urban growth, governance and development, that are accepted by CURL. The project leaders need to聽show a聽willingness to collaborate with other CURL members to help nurture the cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques between artists and academics, says Mars Horodyski, a filmmaker and CURL's artistic director, 2009-2010.聽Already there has been interest from faculty members wanting to partner with CURL and use the equipment. CURL is unable to provide funding, so artists must have their own in place.

Left: A guest at the CURL launch reads about the lab's mandate. Photo by Jorge Uzon

"There are a lot of artists doing really interesting city work," says Horodyski, winner of Ryerson University's 2003 Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award for her film Lemonade and of the 2007 WorldFest Houston International Film & Video Festival Golden Remi Award for her latest short, Spoonfed. "The challenge is figuring out how they fit into our mandate. The global cities theme is a pretty broad one."

Horodyski co-wrote the script for Where the Sidewalk Begins: The University and the Global City, a documentary film celebrating 91亚色's 50th anniversary with 91亚色 law Professor Peer Zumbansen, CURL's director and founder of the Critical Research Laboratory in Law & Society at 91亚色's Osgoode Hall Law School. Zumbansen holds the Canada Research Chair聽in the Transnational & Comparative Law of Corporate Governance. A preview of Where the Sidewalk Begins can be seen on the Web site.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

CURL will also host a screening series in the new year beginning with Radiant City, which looks at 21st-century suburban sprawl. The second film, Vernon, Florida, will explore whether or not a place defines the people within it or vice versa.

"In terms of the long term鈥t's more of the process, that's the most important aspect, to find engagement with academics and artists," says Smith.

Left: Mars Horodyski

In addition, there will be ongoing blogs with Smith and Horodyski, as well as others, and book reviews and articles to do with cities in the future on the CURL Web site. "There are lots of ways people can get involved," says Horodyski. In 2010, CURL will also host a conference.

Anyone interested in providing essays, book reviews, urban musings, blogging or photography for online publication, should contact Horodyski at mars@criticalresearchlab.org or Smith at greg@criticalresearchlab.org. For larger project proposals, there is a set of application criteria available. For more information, visit the Web site.

The Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory is at 218 Computer Methods Building on the Keele campus.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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