books TECH TALK
Web shares PUBLIC PARTS: HOW SHARING IN THE DIGITAL AGE IMPROVES THE WAY WE WORK AND LIVE by Jeff Jarvis
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(Simon & Schuster), 272 pages, $29.99 cloth. Rating: NNNN
even if you’re not a fan of books about the web, you’ll see the value of media guru Jeff Jarvis’s Public Parts In very clear and accessible language, he argues that our obsession with privacy squanders opportunities to make connections in the connected world. According to Jarvis, the more transparent we make ourselves, the better
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people we can become. The tools of the internet, primarily social media and their “oversharing” instruments, are giving rise to new ways to organize – not just linking us with people sharing our interests, but also broadcasting revolutions. The Arab Spring, Jarvis says, would not have been possible without access to those unfiltered and very public tweets about the uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. In the corporate world, info is the new currency. Facebook, for one, wants to learn as much about you as possible to better serve you more customized ads. Jarvis sees no problem with that kind of complicit surveillance. He surrenders his stats will-
ingly, and likes the idea of ads tailored to his interests. Jarvis is enthusiastic about what he sees as the new future: companies continually asking customers for direct input on new products; governments working with data geeks to create new interactive projects for citizens. Alongside all that, we’d compile shared principles for online culture and society. Jarvis wants to continue the discussion on his blog Buzzmachine, to which readers are already flocking. Public Parts arrives on the heels of several recent books on an open and look-at-me internet like The Peep Diaries, by Toronto’s Hal Niedzviecki. But Jarvis brings his depth of experience in media and digital start-ups, and with it a degree of confidence that very few tech writers have DAVID SILVERBERG earned. Write Books at susanc@nowtoronto.com
READINGS THIS WEEK Thursday, January 26 ROBERT DOUGLAS Talking about That Line Of Darkness. 7 pm. Free. Palmerston Library, 560 Palmerston. 416-393-7680. MAYA EICHLER Launching Militarizing Men, with a signing. 6:30 pm. Free. Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord. 416-922-8744. CATHERINE GRAHAM/EDWARD NIXON/LIZ HOWARD Reading. 8 pm. Free. Regal Beagle,
335 Bloor W. 416-591-6859.
TENEILE WARREN/RICHARD SCRIMGER/LEIGH NASH/NINO RICCI Reading. 7:30 pm. Free. Magpie, 831 Dundas W. 416-916-6499.
Friday, January 27 GEORGES BENAY 1 pm. Free. Deer Park Library, 40 St Clair E. 416-393-7657. CANADA READS Meet the 2012 contenders and defenders in CBC’s battle of the books. 7 pm. Free. Reference Library, 789 Yonge. torontopubliclibrary.ca. CLARE WALKER LESLIE Talking about her book The Nature Connection. 7 pm. Free. Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles. 647-987-7793.
Saturday, January 28 FAYE HARNEST Launching her YA novel Girl
Rethinking pics Two photo shows go to the source By DAVID JAGER
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Bloor West), to March 10. 416-536-1519. Rating: NNNN
archives are the conceptual launching pad for two shows that opened last week at Mercer Union. Curator Sarah Robayo Sheridan has selected two strong artists who explore the taxonomy of images. In the front gallery, as part of her
Originality And The Avant Garde show, Annie MacDonell has rephotographed five pictures from the Toronto Reference Library’s picture collection. These images, reproduced, refracted and doubled, grow into a maze of visual paradoxes reflecting on the elusiveness of anything original. In the room-sized mirrored box nearby (which is also a camera obscura), the same five images appear in her short film, superimposed and
ART LINK
WEEKLY ART GALLERY DIRECTORY
reserve your art event or gallery - call 416-364-1300 x 371
Susanna Heller January 26 – February 28, 2012
olga korper gallery
Opens January 26, 6-9 PM
17 Morrow Ave, Toronto 416 538 8220 | olgakorpergallery.com
Annie MacDonell video probes originality (left); Pierre Leguillon honours Diane Arbus.
folded in on one another. A young actor delivers an impassioned manifesto on contemporary art’s obsession with the novel, the original and the authentic, suggesting that the quest is misguided. He becomes another element in MacDonell’s larger meditation on the crucial question of whether representation can ever be original in every sense of the word. MacDonell has no ready answers but she seems to enjoy not knowing in a pointedly intelligent way. In the back space, Pierre Leguillon’s Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective is made up of his own personal archive of Arbus photographs. He tracked down copies of every magazine that commissioned an image from Arbus in the 1960s, looking for the most powerful elements in her multifaceted imagery. The tower of magazines from which the pages of reproductions were taken sits
stacked in a plexiglas case, while viewers can sit on grey archival boxes. Leguillon orders the photographs according to his own perceptive reading, taking into account the totality of her work. Thus, Arbus’s early commercial and fashion portraiture are given a place alongside her more celebrated pictures taken on the margins of American life: a portrait of a transgendered man hangs next to a portrait of Warhol superstar Viva, both of them beneath a generically smiling cover model from the early 60s. Leguillon taps into Arbus’s talent for crossing visual and cultural boundaries by creating his own arresting and poignant juxtapositions. Both shows offer keen readings of the philosophical and social tensions hidden within the source imagery, making for thoughtful viewing. 3 art@nowtoronto.com
THIS WEEK IN THE MUSEUMS AGO 15 Years Of The Loop Collective, screen-
ing 3, 5 pm Jan 28-29 (free). Yael Bartana, to Apr 1, artist’s talk 7 pm Jan 26. Team Macho; Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette (free, Young Gallery), to Apr 1. Jack Chambers, to May 13. $19.50, srs $16, stu $11, free Wed 6-8:30 pm. 317 Dundas W. 416-979-6648. ART GALLERY OF YORK U Will Munro, to Mar 11, workshops 6-9 Feb 1 (at Student Centre, free bus from 333 Sherbourne 5 pm). 4700 Keele, Accolade E bldg. 416-736-5169. DESIGN EXCHANGE Art Deco & Streamline Moderne 1 pm Jan 27 ($8). Design Exchange Awards, to Feb 26, tour 1 pm Jan 26 ($8). B Stephen Burks, to Apr 1. $10, stu/srs $8. 234 Bay. 416-363-6121.
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JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 1 2012 NOW
Sunday, January 29 JUNE HARIS/QUINCY McCOLGAN Poetry reading and an open mic. 11:30 am. Free. Ellington’s Café, 805 St Clair W. 416-652-9111.
Monday, January 30
Benefits
AUTHORS FIGHT ALZHEIMER’S Signing of
Read... Think... Remember with authors including Joanne Elder, Doug Smith and Rick Blechta. 6:30 pm. North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge. jelder1@rogers.com.
Wednesday, February 1 ALL-FEMALE POETRY SLAM Poetry competition featuring Lishai Peel. 7:30 pm. $5. The Boat, 158 Augusta. 416-312-3865. KOOM KANKESAN/MARIA MEINDL/JEFFREY ROUND/SUZANNE SUTHERLAND Readings
and an open mic. 7 pm. Pwyc. St Anne’s Church, 270 Gladstone. 416-536-2233.
MUST-SEE SHOWS
PHOTO INSTALLATIONS
ANNIE MacDONELL/PIERRE LEGUILLON at Mercer Union (1286
Fight. 3 pm. Free. Type Books, 883 Queen W. typebooks.ca. POETRY SLAM Poetry competition. 7 pm. $5. Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen W. 416-531-5042. WAHIDA VALIANTE Launching A Mosaic Of Thoughts. 3 pm. Free. Noor Cultural Centre, 123 Wynford. 416-444-7148.
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GARDINER MUSEUM OF CERAMIC ART Greg
Payce, Feb 2-May 6, artist’s talk 6:30-8 pm Jan 31 ($15). $12, stu $6, srs $8; Fri 4-9 pm halfprice, 30 and under free. 111 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8080. BJUSTINA M. BARNICKE 28 Days: Reimagining Black History Month, to Feb 19. 7 Hart House. 416-978-8398. POWER PLANT Coming After; Stan Douglas, to Mar 4. $6, stu/srs $3, free Wed 5-8 pm. 231 Queens Quay W. 416-973-4949. ROM The Kingston Prize, to Jan 29. Maya: Secrets Of Their Ancient World, to Apr 9, talk 7-8 pm Jan 31 ($25, stu/srs $22.50, Fri after 4:30 pm $19, stu/srs $17). $15, stu/srs $13.50; Fri
BIRCH LIBRALATO Painting/works on paper: Renée van Halm, Jan 28-Mar 3. 129 Tecumseth. 416-365-3003. DIAZ CONTEMPORARY Prints/video: Dara Gellman, to Feb 11, artist’s talk 5 pm Jan 28. 100 Niagara. 416-361-2972. GALLERYWEST Dare Night: The Torontonians/Mammalian Diving Reflex, 7:3010:30 pm Jan 28 (pwyc). Erin Gee, to Jan 27. 1172 Queen W. 416-913-7116. GENDAI GALLERY Sound installation: Mitchell Akiyama, to Feb 21. Offsite at 1265 Bloor W. 647-200-6161. GENERAL HARDWARE CONTEMPORARY
Painting: Alexander Irving, Jan 28-Mar 3, reception 3-6 pm Jan 28. 1520 Queen W. 416-516-6876. MADE Radiant Dark: The Devil Is In The Details, Jan 26-29. First garage, St Mathias S of Dundas W. 416-607-6384. MILES NADAL JCC Textiles: Sheree Rasmussen, to Jan 30. 750 Spadina. 416-924-6211. MIRA GODARD Painting: Takao Tanabe, Jan 28-Feb 18, reception Jan 28. 22 Hazelton. 416-964-8197. MKG127 Photos: Liss Platt, to Feb 4. 127 Ossington. 647-435-7682. OLGA KORPER Painting: Susanna Heller, Jan 26-Feb 28, reception 6-9 pm Jan 26. 17 Morrow. 416-538-8220. ONSITE [AT] OCADU Twinning Artists – Twinning Cities: Avalon (Bangalore And Toronto), Jan 26-Jun 3; panel noon, reception 6-9 pm Jan 26, screening 7 pm Jan 27. 230 Richmond W. 416-977-6000 ext 327. SCRAP METAL Read All Over group show, to May 1. Fri-Sat or by appt. 11 Dublin (enter via laneway). 416-588-2442. VTAPE Video: Aleesa Cohene, to Feb 25. 401 Richmond W. 416-351-1317. WYNICK/TUCK Painting: Gerald Ferguson and William Kurelek, to Feb 18. 401 Richmond W, #128. 416-504-8716.
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4:30-8:30 pm $9, stu/srs $8. 100 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8000. TEXTILE MUSEUM OF CANADA Andrew McPhail, Grace Ndiritu and Tazeen Qayyum, to Feb 12. $15, srs $10, stu $6; pwyc Wed 5-8 pm. 55 Centre. 416-599-5321. U OF T ART CENTRE Vertical Fictions, to Feb 4. ‘Photography Collected Us’: The Malcolmson Collection, to Mar 10, reception 6-8 pm Jan 26, talk 4:30 pm Feb 1. 15 King’s College Circle. 416-978-1838. VARLEY ART GALLERY Deconstructed: Works From The Permanent Collection, to May 12. $5, stu/srs $4. 216 Main (Unionville). 905-4779511. 3
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