Friday, April 29, 2011

The Photographer


Didier Lefèvre: Photography and Writing

Emmanuel Guibert: Drawings

Frederic Lermercier: Colouring

This excellent graphic novel and photographic montage that was republished in English (2009) as a compilation of the three issues which were more in the format of French Bandes dessinées (2003-2006). It's unfortunately available a lot cheaper as the English translation.


It tells the story of Didier Lefèvre, a French photojournalist, who accompanied Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, see them here) while they were setting up medical clinics in Afghanistan in 1986, after the Soviet Invasion (and of course, before nine-eleven). Over a decade after returning to France, he decided to collaborate on this project with his friend Emmanuel Guibert, a famous graphic novelist.


The combination of beautiful photos and drawings paints a vivid picture of lives. The drawings allow for continuity in the story when photos were not taken. It shows a daily reality for humanitarian workers and people who are directly and indirectly affected by war.


Didier Lefèvre died in 2007.

I highly recommend this journalist graphic novel, even for the most disinterested in graphic novels. Check it out here: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/events/exhibits/thephotographer/


Cover Art from http://us.macmillan.com/thephotographer
Inside Book Photos from amazon.ca

Absolutely SAFE

(2007)

Today I watched Absolutely Safe, a documentary by Carol Ciancutti-Leyva about exposing the safety issues of breast implants and the continued lack of recognition that a problem exists by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration in the US). This is an issue relevant to us Canadians, because many of our food and drug regulations correlate strongly with those of the US. And of course, women all over the world are getting breast implants.

Women seeking breast implants are often not informed of all the risks, and there is a serious lack of research on the longterm effects of breast implants that was not tainted by conflicts of interest regarding funding. Also, there is an assumption sometimes made that women who get mastectomies (surgical breast removal, for example for breast cancer) will want implants (sadly, many of these women are more at risk for poor outcomes as a result of exposure to silicone and products used in the manufacturing of breast implants). Beliefs about one's body image are important and I don't mean to undermine a woman's ability to make an informed choice nor dis-empower her capability to take charge of her body, but I continue to question what kind of information is really being offered.


I think the Canadian Women's Health Network (CWHN, see them here) sums the film up nicely:
"At a time when more women than ever are getting breast implants, fewer voices than ever seem to be asking “Why?” And fewer still are asking “Are they safe?” ABSOLUTELY SAFE takes an open-minded, personal approach to the controversy over breast implant safety. Ultimately, ABSOLUTELY SAFE is the story of everyday women who find themselves and their breasts in the tangled and confusing intersection of health, money, science, and beauty."

Photo from the Absolutely Safe film website: http://www.absolutelysafe.com/

Thank you to the Toronto Public Library for this DVD loan

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Nuthouse

I like to call this place "The Giant Walnut" which brought about some confusion with my friend (you know who you are) who thought I was talking about the bakery in Korea Town where walnut pastries are sold in the window...

But, as you can see, it is with good reason that I call it so.

(from BlogTO.com, see it here)

For weeks, while this place was still renovating, I wondered with immense curiosity what on earth it was going to be.


And I was pleasantly surprised when it opened just this past winter as a bulk food store. It's not really just any bulk food store, because there's all kinds of stuff there. More particularly, the smell reminds me of home. It's that oatmeal-like scent that is recognizable in many good health food stores.

Their website here: http://nut-house.ca/

They also sell some beautiful bouquets of flowers from Jaiden's Petals Cindiloowho (from a store located at 130 Ossington Ave., seen below from their blog, see it here). The family was also involved in building the beautiful storage furniture at the Nuthouse (seen above, from their blog)

Wooster Collective

I felt a desperate need to post this, in light of some of the dark politics at city hall brought on by he-who-must-not-be-named (see it on the CBC website here)

Now, as it stands, I'm actually quite fond of graffiti.

I think it can show the public a simple message...



Or bring a little beauty to an ugly place...

Underpass Project, Richard Mongiat, from the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art

and can involve art projects for youth...

Look Up, Live Large – a series of large-scale photo installations mounted throughout the neighbourhood documenting young residents of Villaways. These installations are the culmination of six weeks of workshops with artist Dan Bergeron and the children and youth of our Villaways Art Studio.


And then you have...




From the "about" section of their website
woo·ster (noun)
A street in the Soho section of New York City

col·lec·tive (noun)
Of, relating to, characteristic of, or made by a number of people acting as a group: a collective decision.

The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

See it here: http://www.woostercollective.com/

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Birds and Bees

This morning, I attended an interesting quarterly meeting of the Sexual Health Network (of Ontario) that is open to the public, in the North York Civic Centre. The audience was largely members of sexual health clinics, public health workers and sexual health educators.


Advocacy and Birth Control

And to be clear, I mean birth control in the broader sense, an umbrella term for contraceptive methods, plan B, safe abortions, and so on.

It was clarified early on that this meeting would be about advocacy issues that had come up recently, in light of the darkening political climate but also about changes in medications. Here are a couple.

One major challenge, that was brought up by the small sexual health clinics, was that pharmaceutical companies make "minimum order requirements." They will only sell a product if it is bought in bulk which is a significant issue in terms of funding, storage space and expiry dates. They also no longer offer many samples and prices are especially high.

Another issue was around Plan B. A product that is supposed to be made available over the counter has been largely reported as remaining "behind the counter," requiring an intermediary like a pharmacist to issue it. This is a significant problem for accessibility of this time-sensitive medication.

Reproductive Rights?

Perhaps the bigger thing that came out of this talk was about how reproductive rights were no longer what they had been. Taken for granted over the years, we know better than to feel safe in the knowledge that things will remain as they are or improve on their own. The concept of reproductive rights is no longer restrained to simply the issue of abortion or no, is has come to involve birth control, work and pay equality and safety, discrimination and accessibility, environmental health, to name a few. So many health promoting programs are under tremendous threat (if they haven't already been forced to shut down) for loss of funding on municipal, provincial and federal government levels.

There's a lot at stake, so speak out!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

My Neighbor Totoro, となりのトトロ


This is one of my all-time favourites. This animated feature film tells the story of two young girls, Satsuki and Mei, who move to an old house filled with Susuwatari (dust bunny spirits). One day, Mei wanders off following a bunny-like white creature and discovers Totoro, keeper of the forest, deep inside the Camphor tree in their backyard.


Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Produced by Studio Ghibli

1988

86 minutes

Japan

Anne H. Simmonds

A couple weeks ago, I attended a seminar run by the Joint Centre for Bioethics at University of Toronto (see more of their seminars here). Simmonds, a nurse and PhD from the Maritimes, is a bioethicist who seeks to remove ethics from its pedestal and bring it back down to practical and applied use on the Nursing Units.

In her paper, she explored the professional code of ethics framework and pointed out that, in her area of work (Perinatal nursing), the obligations of Autonomy and Advocacy are often ambiguous or even conflicting in practice. The idea of coming up with a prescriptive law governing moral actions is unrealistic and disregards the need for continued questioning and evaluation of individual situations.

Much of the ethics seen in a health care system is that of the “golden rule,” that is the utilitarian philosophy of the greatest good for the greatest number (this concept always makes me think of a factory line where you throw out all the duds), which governs many public health policies, such as vaccination campaigns, where individual issues or reactions are considered negligible when considering the health of the whole population. You can see how this quickly falls apart, when you consider outliers, minorities and oppressed populations whose voices are drowned out by the greatest number.

Perinatal Nursing in itself does not bode well in the medical system as the population has unique attributes:

1. Generally healthy, they do not follow the illness and treatment medical model (but seriously, what does?)

2. Birth is predictably unpredictable, gaining a sense of control in this situation is difficult even for the most experienced health practitioner

3. The concept of informed decision-making is already complex enough for one person but labouring women are often considered in relation to others, there are so many tightly knit perspectives at stake; such as her unborn child’s and her own. This makes it difficult to consider her decision making as an individual (Consider there’s probably no such thing as making an individual decision, all decisions are rooted in an important social context, more on that later.)

"Nurses and midwives also experienced some distress as they struggled to reconcile the ‘ideal’ of enabling informed choice with the realities of practicing in an environment where they felt that their agency was constrained."
This passage reminded me of a midwife friend who told me that she sometimes struggles when she takes on a new patient and because a large portion of her caseload are people who not eligible for healthcare, she wonders whether they would rather go to a hospital but can only afford the services of a midwife at home. Their agency is restrained by the political climate and poverty.

Advocacy & Autonomy

"Advocacy is thought to involve actions taken to promote the patient’s best interests, ideally coinciding with the interests expressed by the patient […] This conception of advocacy fits with more traditional notions of autonomy, where rights are tied to an individualistic notion of self, and people pursue their own interests separately from one another."

But what about unborn children? Spouses? Doctors? Nurses? Institutions? How does this meet their needs? How does this respect their rights?

So, this calls for Feminist Ethics: Relational Autonomy

"A feminist ethics lens focuses on the interdependent, unequal and emotionally charged relationships that shape relatedness, and includes a political perspective that attempts to uncover the patterns of dominance and oppression that shape these interactions. A feminist understanding of advocacy is grounded in relationship."




Simmonds AH. Autonomy and Advocacy in Perinatal Nursing Practice. In Nursing Ethics (2008), volume 15, issue 3

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Lost & Found Photography

Since starting this blog, I have been passed on some interesting things. These have also had me clicking away and finding more things. These two series seem so utterly unrelated, but they are similar only in that they were forgotten for a time and have now resurfaced.

Vivian Maier
(1926-2009)

Seen in a self-portrait to the right (from her website), Vivian Maier worked most of her life as a nanny in Chicago. She took about a hundred thousand photos, though many had never been developed, until they were discovered by a local historian (John Maloof) in 2007, who bought them at an auction. Since then, they have gained much popularity while they were posted on a blog which is now a fulll-blown website. They will be featured at the London Street Photography Festival this summer (July 7th-17th), see it here.

Some really excellent photos, she managed to inconspicuously capture people in the moment. It is so unfortunate that her talent could not have been discovered before her death, but perhaps the story of her discovery has spurred a fair bit of the talk.

Check out the photos here: http://www.vivianmaier.com/


Africa Through a Lens

The National Archives, UK, have posted a collection of the photographs from as early as the 1860s to as late as the 1980s from their Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Seen through the eyes of the colonialists, it is important to bear in mind the context in which the photos were taken. On their site it says:

The collection was brought about by the request of the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1869. He asked governors to arrange for the taking of photographs of ‘noteworthy buildings and scenery … together with individuals of various races peculiar to the colony’. Each governor interpreted the task in his own way, which has culminated in this unique and varied collection.

They’ve also posted a good portion of the photos on Flickr, to elicit comments and possibly put names to faces (see it here). This is a truly incredible selection of photos, worth a look, though it is a bit overwhelming. Toward the bottom of the National Archives webpage, they also have some interesting podcasts about the photos.

Check out the photos here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/africa/

Biographical Graphic Novels

Graphic novels are an excellent starting point to understand lives and history. Visually gripping, they also read very quickly. They are also a very vivid way of portraying political upheavals, revolutions and social activism. Here are a few that I think are really worth checking out.

Louis Riel
by Chester Brown
2006
Chester Brown is a Canadian graphic novelist. Set in the 19th century, this is the story of Louis Riel, the leader of the Métis in the Prairies, he led resistance movements against the Canadian Government with the aim to preserve the culture of the Métis people. Brown also wrote a very good autobiography (I Never Liked You, 1994)


Pyongyang
by Guy Delisle
2004
Guy Delisle is a québecois graphic novelist and animation teacher. He documented his experiences during his two-month stay in North Korea in this graphic novel. He has also written about his stays in Burma (Burma Chronicles, 2007) and in China (Shenzhen, 2000). 


The 14th Dalai Lama
by Tetsu Saiwai
2008
This Japanese graphic novelist tells the story of the life of the current Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of a sect of Tibetan Buddhism.This is a really worthwhile read and I have also been strongly recommended to read the graphic novel series Buddha (1972-1983) by Osamu Tezuka.


Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
2000-2005
This autobiographical graphic novel series of 4 books (often compiled into one large book) tells the story of a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Through the voice of this young girl, one attunes to her view and deep yet simplified understanding of what happened. She also wrote a shorter graphic novel, Embroideries (2006).


Maus
by Art Spiegelman
1972-1991
This American graphic novelist recounts the story of his father, a Polish Jew during the Nazi Regime, through this two-part series. Interestingly, he portrays the Jewish as mice and the Nazis as Cats, but it is not meant to be gimmicky, but it provides a deep metaphor for the hierarchies and power dynamics at this time. Of course, the French are portrayed as frogs.





Book cover photos from Wikipedia, Amazon and Renaud-Bray

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Dave Eggers

This American author is one of my all-time favourites. Beyond his beautiful nonfiction writings, he's done some really inspirational work for the educational system in the United States.




There is a huge library of other very interesting TED talks that are worth a look. You can find more of them here: http://www.ted.com/






What is the What
2006
This book tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee, and his paralleling hardships in leaving Sudan and settling in the US. Beautifully written, this one is hard to put down. When my boyfriend read it, he had dreams of Sudanese ants trying to migrate across our bed...




Zeitoun
2009
This book tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the owner of a painting and contracting company, who stayed behind after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, while his family fled. When the city was flooded, after the levee system failed, he went around in the family's canoe, surviving and helping others to survive.




Book cover photos from Wikipedia

Friday, April 22, 2011

Lhasa de Sela

(1972-2010)

Lately, I've been getting to know the latest and last album by the late Lhasa de Sela. She was probably named after the Tibetan capital city where the Potala Palace is located (seen to the right, from Wikipedia), home of the 14th Dalai Lama, though, as we know, he has been exiled to India since 1959.

Lhasa, the singer-songwriter, had a beautiful unique deep, jazzy voice and sings mellow folk melodies. All her music is really nice but I strongly recommend this last album, called Lhasa, which is really powerful, released while she was living with breast cancer.

You can hear short clips of her songs here


After her death, on January 1st, 2010, it snowed in Montreal for four days.


In commemoration of her life, Patrick Watson, a long time friend, wrote a song with the band Esmerine that was posted on http://snowdayforlhasa.com/ (where I found the image above). Lhasa has been known to sing with Patrick Watson on several occasions, some available on youtube, and she sung vocals on his latest album, Wooden Arms (another great album to check out). You'll note that in honour of her memory, on the website, they have asked for donations to the Owl Foundation of Ontario.

"TOF helps owls that are injured, diseased or starving, to get back to a condition where they can survive on their own and can be released. Some owls with permanent disabilities that are otherwise healthy are kept and used as foster parents, raising orphaned owl chicks in natural-type enclosures. Once old enough, these young birds learn to hunt live prey while still in captivity. The young owls are released when they are able to survive on their own. Where suitable pairs can be formed among the owls with permanent disabilities, the birds are given the opportunity and conditions to breed and raise their own young, which are later released. We provide spacious outdoor enclosures for the owls, permitting flight over a distance and providing a variety of perches and degrees of cover."
For more info, see it here: http://www.theowlfoundation.ca/

Lhasa album art from Audigram.ca
Wooden Arms album art from Wikipedia

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Sustainability

This evening I went with a friend to check out Innovators and Ideas (I Squared): Contemporary Craft Series, the topic was Making Do: Exploring the Role of Creative Production in Achieving Sustainability. This was a fairly interesting group of presentations, though not what I had expected it was certainly thought-provoking.

Speakers:

Mason White – Lateral Office
Elísabet Gunnarsdótter – Fogo Island Arts Corporation
Cynthia Hathaway - Designer
Claire Ironside + Angela Iarocci - moimoi design

Moderator:

Professor Michael Longford – York University

A presentation in partnership between Harbourfront Centre, Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and York University.

For more info, see it here

I particularly liked Angela Iarocci's talk, who spoke on behalf of moimoi design about a interesting project called FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft & Release Project. They had 4th grade Toronto children make species of fish found in the Great Lakes in a plush toy craft. The fish were then "released" to be put on display for an art exhibition, hung where they might like to be in the room as a metaphorical lake (shallow, deep, near the outskirts). Children were photographed with their fish, printed on the walls. Proceeds from the gallery went to conservationist advocates for the Lakes.
For more info, see it here

Sometime toward the end of the panel discussion the idea of sustainability came up. There were certainly differing opinions of it, positive and negative. The word in itself has become somewhat ambiguous in it's usage. It has come to be synonymous with Environmentally friendly, when this is not the case.

One of the presenters, I think it was Elísabet Gunnarsdótter, presented the three pillars of sustainability. So clearly, as depicted, sustainable is more than just the environment. Something about this though, seems to take a lot of the responsibility away from the individual. If, ideally, societies are to hold sustainability as a gold standard, then what of the individual?

As the conversation went on, I could really see how society had transformed the S word into a means to back up a weak rationale behind the development of a project, as it could be misinterpreted as long-lasting. A clock was mentioned, built to sustain, to last forever, deep in a mountain. And Elísabet Gunnarsdótter made a good point again when she spoke about the assumptions we make when things are created to be sustainable, how we assume the needs of future generations are the same as our own. How we need to be careful that things remain purposeful and sustainable on a time axis as well.

The diagram of sustainability lacks adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, it doesn't show the malleability that is sustainable development, a back and forth of knowledge gained and change made, that makes it sustainable.


Because I've mentioned her a few times, Elísabet Gunnarsdótter, you should know that she was speaking as an architect from an Inn development project on Fogo Island (off the shore of Newfoundland, seen above). Though I haven't had a chance to check it out, I am told that there was an interesting CBC radio Sunday Edition (A Rock Turning) about this hotel featuring the funder of the project, Zita Cobb, you should be able to listen to it here.

Sustainability diagram from Wikipedia
Fogo Island picture from Saunders Architecture Website, http://www.saunders.no/

Ethically-Made Clothing

Valsa das Máquinas, Paramount Têxteis from grafikonstruct on Vimeo.


Titled Valsa das Máquinas (Machine´s Waltz), it is an ad for Brazilian textile factory Collezione Paramount set to a waltz soundtrack specially composed by Lucas Lima. It is beautifully orchestrated and cut, but because it has no people in it, it got me thinking – certainly not for the first time – about ethically-made clothing and cloth.

Really the only standards that I know of are Fair Trade ones. For a clothing organization to be considered certified Fair Trade, it must adhere to the 10 principles of the World Fair Trade Organization (and get the label, also Fair Trade International has another set of standards and a longer set of complex guidelines, in terms of clothing):

Standard One: Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers

Standard Two: Transparency and Accountability

Standard Three: Trading Practices

Standard Four: Payment of a Fair Price

Standard Five: Child Labour and Forced Labour

Standard Six: Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association

Standard Seven: Working Conditions

Standard Eight: Capacity Building

Standard Nine: Promotion of Fair Trade

Standard Ten: Environment

More info see it here

Needless to say, most of the clothing we see is nowhere near Fair Trade. Heck, not even the staff working in some of the common shops would meet those standards... Also, though I admit that I am no Fair Trade angel, it really riles me up to walk by H&M and see their “Conscious” line, all organic fibres. Organic does not translate to Fair Trade. So I ask, conscious of what? Or, rather, whom? We forget that these are lives, and many of these seamstresses are women, maybe mothers, sisters, daughters. The conditions in industrial production in Canada may not be grand – don’t even get me started on what I’m learning about environmental occupational health effects – but we all know a great portion of our labels read like an atlas of the world’s most economically disadvantaged countries, to be politically correct. The conditions of some of these workplaces are profoundly disturbing.

So, on a lighter note...

Ten Thousand Villages
We all love it, I know it’s fair to say that this Fair Trade Certified shop is wonderful. They have beautiful things, for a whole range of prices. It smells good and the staff and volunteers are welcoming. As for clothing, let’s just say they still haven’t got much, but they have so many neat things to look at.
Check them out online: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

Freedom Clothing Collective
This itty-bitty shop sells predominantly locally-made clothing and crafts with a flair for environmental sustainability, as well. Located on Bloor, snugly beside Long & McQuade, it’s almost not seen. Inside, the walls are covered in things and at the back there is a “crafting” area and cashier, possibly crafting on the job. It may not be Fair Trade to the standard, but it’s pretty good.
See them online here: http://www.freedomclothingcollective.com/

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Earring Display Craft


This is my third attempt at a earring hanger, but by far the nicest. It's an extremely easy craft, all you need is:

- glue gun (apparently known as a Hot-melt adhesive unless you want a band page, according to Wiki) with a couple glue sticks,

- used frame (check out your local thrift store again)

- piece of cloth (either lace or something with fibres spread enough that you can fit the earrings through it, I used a used curtain)


So you place the cloth down on a table and fold it over the frame, gluing along the inside. Watch your fingers, it's hot! Once you've done one side, do the opposite side pulling the cloth fairly tight. It doesn't have to be so tight that it's about to rip because earrings are just not that heavy.

Do all the sides then try to work on the corners. It's a bit like gift wrapping. You try to fold it over nicely on the sides, but know that no one will see the inside of the frame. Cut any pieces that touch the front side of the cloth from the back, because they'll show through as dark shadows (although I bet you could work with that, making this an even more intricate shadow project earring display!)

I've also seen some interesting variations where they've framed a nice piece of lace, but the selection of frames and lace were pretty limited at my thrift store.

Good luck!