Evan Tyler's digital pencil

BACK FROM THE DEAD

2006-10-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

The breakdown:

I had a great trip to New York with the Vis Arts crew. I traveled the subways and streets of chelsea recording atmospheric city noise with a handheld digital audio recorder. When I got back I used the audio in a project done for a collaberative show with the people who went on the trip. the show was called "7 Chelsea Mornings".
my work featured a desk with a discman, notebook I had been using to sketch-write in during the trip,and a pen. Instructions on the wall direct the viewer to listen to the audio recording on the discman and draw-write their own additions in the book. the noises on the disc are fairly ambient at times and very cuty like at others. I found this to be a weird kind of prototype of my experience drawing and Listening in New York that other people could engage with in Regina Saskatchewan. The work was called "Drawing and Listening".
-documentation coming soon

I spent the summer traveling to different urban centers collecting video footage and stills of city development for my first solo show at the Fifth Parallel Gallery at the uofr. I traveled to Vancouver, Toronto, edmonton, Saskatoon and of course included Regina in the project.

Entrance to Summer

2006-04-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Excpect more Evan Blog to come! I will be working away steadily on art projects throughout the summer in my studio which I have rented so it's on yall.....

In more recent news I am attending a trip to New York City with some colleigues of mine on the 1st of May. I will be bringing along a handheld recorder with me to capture " the sounds of New York ". I plan on building a project based on these tapes. Look forward to big city adventures and an experience away from home.

2006-04-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

a true story i just made up

2006-04-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

I asked here to marry me but she didnt hear me because she was listening to loud music and clipping here toenails.

video art on tuesday's

2006-04-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday is video art day in room 040, visual arts department/riddell center. The basic idea is for peope to make a short video to play using conceptual means to express an idea(s). Perhaps this sounds slightly ambiguous.....
I have done three videos this year. Using simplistic yet effective techniques in describing a certain enviorment, a short video becomes a great mind stimulant for thinking about one's surroundings and the mystery and metaphors that exist in our connection to them.

1. Pause and Repeat:

Pause and repeat was a section of video in which my dog would drink a large amount of water from it's water dish. The sound of it's toungue licking the water focuses on the idea of a living creature. After a large amount of water is consumed the section of video pauses briefy and then repeats, creating a mechanical and predictable element to a video piece that focuses on the natural life of an animal. Pause and Repeat is video work that deals with the living body as a predictable and ultimatley dependent agent of constant nutrition and hydration. By using a dog I am commenting on the shift from human dependency on agriculture to an animal's dependency on human's for their food. The pause indicates a moment in time where we recognize and anticipate another session of necessary consumption is a foot. The repeat shows this session of consumption as an endless chain of need and reliance on hydration throughout time. My dog died at the age of 14 the day after this video was shown.

Yapper
1992-2006
r.i.p

2. Chameleon

Chameleon is another video piece that coinsetdentialy uses water as subject matter. In the afternoon glow of a spring day I left my sink trailing a thin stream of water from the spout to the drain. I recorded it for 17 minutes with the window open closest to the sink. Over the 17 minute period the water became a camoflaged value of energy dividing the screen in half. The footage repeats itself for an entire dvd, creating an endless visual meditation using water, sink material and light. From leaving the window open, an outdoor audio provides an even more elaborate essence of reality and life.

3. servielance of a calm street on a sunday

story about a nameless wonderer

2006-04-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

story of a nameless wanderer

She was a nameless wanderer. She often would try out different names to brand her identity but could never commit to any of them. Nameless Wanderer would wander the streets and observe human activity. Humans would observe her activity as well, but none of them would ever guess this person had no name. Sometimes people try to guess what other strangers name's are, and if that were ever the case with the nameless wonderer, the guessing party would be dead wrong with whatever name they could produce. One day the nameless wonderer sat still for a few minutes and decided on "Lisa Wagner". Lisa now sells hearing aid batteries.

ok, so the otherday this guy.....

2006-03-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

taps me on ther shoulder and asks me if my name was John and if I were related to an Alex Benson? I said no and I kept walking. I almost said "no, sorry man" but I quickly realized I had no obligation to feel sorry I wasn't the person he was thinking of. I kept walking. I expected him to say, "you look like some guy I know", but he did not. This happened at three o clock in the afternoon. I rememberd that time becaue I was wearing my watch.

BLUR STREET

2006-03-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Blur Street has started today! For in debth description of what Blur Street is visit http://blurstreet.uregina.ca

In a short description of what I did today was wake up, watch a two minute clip of life in Belgrade created by two students in Belgrade that made it specifically for myself as well as a fellow colliegue to respond o within the day. I did just this and had a lot of fun composing a stament of space and visual narrative. This will be a back and forth process of video communication until Sunday, creating a seven day collage of response material created by different teams of students in Belgrade and Regina.

word to the streets homie

Disassembling computers

2006-03-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

In order to produce a large cybernetic helmet for my upcoming project I have been diassembeling computers in search for adequate parts for the helmet. This process has been crucial to my experience with this work. The process includes elements of discovery and revealing what's on the inside of intricate machines. I lost track of time working with the medium and although I was working with my body quite vigorously i was also in a strange sense of meditation. I started to think how a ot of technology is built to be a unit of smooth cananet like quality on the outside but consists of complex and intricit guts. Taking the computers apart and revealing the the inside out perspective was fastinating and fun and I would highly reccomend it as a passtime activity for anyone interested in work-out meditation experiences.

untitled video art

2006-03-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

untitled video art

This is a filming journey with my camera and the city of regina. The film captured meditates on one specific prarie landscape location which contrasts with brief transitions of metropolitan activity. In these transitions of atmosphere time seems to slow down and even when the footage is briefly spead up to increase the pace of city activity, the emphasis on slowness and eventual gradations of time naturally becmomes the meaning of this work.

reality check

2006-03-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

the streets are alive with memories of those who passed/
the elderly, among the children among the mass/
whispering within the presnece of the wind, alas/
everything must die and only memories can last/
but even memories become forgotten as they pass/
life is a struggle minds are struggeling to grasp/
the mere thought of time slipping through the hour glass/
our energy begins and ends and leaves us all too fast/
we never will forget you hope is nothing less than perfect/
a sandstorm of experience but I question if I earned it/
or maybe this is you telling me my words have turned it/
into a flock of rhymes for time to forget in the passing of
their existence both in memory and document/

suffering: the meaning of life

2006-03-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

I am suffering an alercig reaction to a medication I am taking. I am seeking professinal answers but each day seems to be a new experiment with how to get better. I am much better now than I was the last few days, but it has been the last few days that have helped me understand the true value and importance of self health. My regular schdule has been sacraficed because of my preoccupation with my well being. The sacred understanding of staying healthy has driven me to except that life has a grand scale attachemnt to suffering which is the catalyst for a strong mind. Deep thoughts from a sick kid.

sincerely,
sick kid

Sense of Humor: the meaning of life.

Ya, it's true. yesterday I purposley slipped on a bannana peal for a hoot and a hollar. It worked well.

looking back on "For You''

2006-03-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Artist Statement

"For You" is a video installation which encourages participants to investigate their sense of self awareness in terms of memory, and the continuous movement of time.
The installation is assembeled in a large room with two projected images on opposite walls-one image is the emergence of light energy as dawn breaks, and the other is the waning of light as it disappears at dusk. These images provide an optical movement of time, which repeats itself in a continuous way. This is accompanied by an audio overlay of questions which, it is hoped, will prompt the viewer to ponder his or her state of awareness in the present, as well as to recall from past consciousness and life experience.
The questions I wrote to communicate to the participant were performed and recorded by myself, and a friend of mine. I wanted the questions to be delievered by someone else besides me, in order to facilitate a more objective delivery. The use of both our voices is representative of more than one mind responding to a mental questionnaire. Instead of shadowing myself from the formal delivery, I chose to engage with another person to reveal a connectedness through shared communication and experiences. Allthough we had our individual self-contemplation, we also came to the awareness of our connectedness to the moment, as well as other people and their experiences.
Part of the work is it's universality. i found the title "For You" appropriate for the installation because it encompasses the responses of many people and their experiences. The nature of the questions/statements and their relation to time are relatable and adaptable to the general public. Allthough each person will have their intamite and individual responses as the the words carry and direct their minds to recollectable imagery, the overall result is a collective of self awareness. in sayiing this, I believe this installation is a personal invitation to the public to subjectively express their responses based on memory and self-awareness, in a space that stimulates time.
The individual responses to the work define the variables and notion that we are living different lives, but are all connected to each other. Despite how deeply one thinks into the audio, or how much time is spent in the space, one should be able to make a personal connection or association to the work based on individual life experience. For example, I do not think my friend was able to connect to the ideas of thi installation based soley on his participation on the production of it. Rather he was able to connect through the questions and his responses.
The questions and statements shift in terms of how much thought how could put into each one. I wrote the material in a way that allows a person to produce instant associations and answers to the audio, and more time reliant effort towards other prompts. by answering and responding instantly, sugests a self-awreness of oneself. By not being able to answer a question, or not being able to relate to certain vocal imagery, will prompt the participant to conider this. regardless of the respons, at the very least, a person will have taken even the smallest amount of energy to become self aware of a response, no matter how detailed or ambiguous it is.
the movement of time and consciousness of life events and observations are an important part of my art practice. By creating this installation work, I feel I am sharing a part of myself with the viewer. Allthough I am not revealing fine details and aspects of my life, i am providing a universal opportunity for a participant to experience the questionws and ideas that I consider promotes self contemplation, by the use of memory and present consciousness. My aim is to compile a collection of individual responses from the paerticipants in this installation, to each a common idea presented. A person's life is represnted by a sequence of events and emotions throughout time, and these can involve change, growth, mystery, and our subjective interpretations of what it is that seperates us, or holds us together in our communication with each other.
"For You" provides some universal concepts of self swareness, mental imagery, and consciousness in time, which, I hope will play a role in addressing ourselves as individuals among other individuals who contribute to our way of life as a whole.

new project in the making

2006-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

Thinking about commercials, mass advertising and the information we digest through watching television I wish to persue these ideas in my artwork. I would like to create a visual metaphor representative of the psychological relationship that exists between people and the commercial messages they are sent through media. I believe there are strong influencial connections made through the lifestyle's and ideas presented with advrertisments. The advertisors themselves are trying to appeal to people in some way or form and they are often successful in influencing people to behave and act in certain ways. In order to create a visual metaphor representative of these ideas I will do a performative/sculpture piece in a public location. The piece will consist of me watching commercials that I believe show a strong narrative to ideal modern life and human behavior. With these commercial on loop I will sit motionless watching them with a helmet on my head threading out wires and connection to the television itself.

idea change: instead of playing the commericals from top to bottom I will splice them, creating a visually enhanced collage of high speed messages transmitted to the viewer. Commercials and televison in general often repeat themself in order to reinforce the message, as will the footage I choose for my video piece. The video iself will catch the viewers attention and hold it as they witness the mayhem of messages a foot. The wires to my head will suggest a "cyber-connection' from the machine to the human species.
Perhaps this is a very excentric and over the top presentation of mind/machine slavery, but I am myself a product of mass media/culture and of course, commercialism. I think this piece is speaking not only to my awareness of the powerful high speed messaging that inflicts a psychologial reaction on the world, but as well my own involvement with it. As a media artist I am using the very tools used to draw my attention to the media to subversivley present my own message of self awareness and exhadurated human/machine relations. Is this a paradigm of research and action? One may say so, for I am conveying an idea concerning the psychological effects of media by presenting a psychologically stimulating presentation that involves the same media, and in some right the same persuasive tactics an advertising company may use, such as eye catching dramatic imaging. What is the difference? Am I becoming an advertisement for anti-commercialism? In saying what I have said I realize my work becomes a punchline for an idea as does most commercials. My work will become quite literal in the sense that I am leaving little ambiguity for people to figure what this work means to themselves.This does not intimadate my anticipation for the desired effect, which is to create a spectrum of mixed messaging that exists in present broadcating. I am hoping that by altering the commercial footage to take on a more chaotic and scrambeled rol, I will make a strong statement that through engaging with technology we are subject to a high speed chain of commercials and digital messaging which poses an effect on human relations. Do we notcie these effects and for that matter the transitional speed these messages hit us? I would suggest that we are drawn into a systematic chain of ideas that we stare at because they are there staring back at us with fine cut connections and transitions from message to message. Allthough each message is sepreated from the last in an orderly fashion there is no order in message content and by recieving so many messages through such a short amount of time, our brain becomes conditioned to a high speed charge of information aiming for nothing more than to have you agree with it's premice. Maybe this is why studies have proven that through the avant of modern messaging our attention span has decreased and our reliance on fast-paced stimulus has increased. I am not arguing on a particular side of interest, I am simply here to expose the reality of our consciusness to systmatic messaging. So how can I do this in a way that allows other people to engage with the process? First of all, as I said prior to this my initial task will be to remove the messages from their systematic state, and rearrange their contents in a way that shows a more scrambeled and disorderly representation of messaging. The television actually represents a human's brain more than it does a television. Because the brain and the television hold such a tight relationship with eachother, by synthesising both into a single form and energy, both can hold equal value to eachother. In other words, what you see on the television is a representation of the human's brain scamming through the random messages it has interpreted. By using editing techniques, the footage will dispay much of the footage on repeat ( representing a truth in advertising ), many high contrasting messages ( representing the high contrast world we live in and the technology which unifies it all with the act of broadcasting ), as well as collage of messages that will draw in an audiences attention and allow them to contemplate the general nature of digital messages wihtout the zombie-ish systematic transitional safety which contains all commercial messages within a common presentable package. Allthough by doing this I am not presenting a realistic depiction of what it's like to watch television, I am creating a heightened represenatation of high speed messaging, referencing the wide scale structure of media information that is embedded in our brains through use of advertising media, etc. We may question the contents and substance to commercials, which is an important task as well, but to truly understand their ultimate effect we must analyze the mass amount of contrasting messages chained together in a fast flowing presence of digital entertainment. These different messages will represent different things but will share a common purpose and intent: "meant for viewing purpose to the general North American society". What happens when we remove thesemessages from their original plane of existene? When we witness reaity in a different rhythm or blueprint ....m interested with, and the time it takes for one message to lead into another. It is the time that I find most interesting in advertising/broadcasting because it is utilized to convey mass information by audio/visual means in a quick and catchy way, leaving ample time for another different meesage to follow.

The Ora and Influence to the Cyborg Presence

The idea of a cyborg becomes an obvious theme in this project.

My Belongings

2006-02-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

This is my studio space in the basement of the Riddell Center in the University of Regina. It is one of the most important yet impermenent things in my life right now. I use it to store things primarily because i enjoy working at the common hardwood table in the center of the studio, but this space to me is one of the most amazing spaces in the whole room. it is the enterance. i am operating my work habbits two feet from a door. I sound proud because I am. I have a space in the world that is visually a product of my activities. I consider it a huge part of my documentation of work this semester because it builds constructs of material, visual images, objects and evidence of my life. This space truly intertwines with my identity.

commercials

2006-02-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

There is something in the world i have a preoccupation with lately. I am a television watcher. In my time watching television I have recently paid close attention to the amount of commericial messages that are transmitted through television broadcasting. The messages are all built on a foundation to market a product, service or idea. If a person watches television frequently they will recieve a large mass of advertising information packed full of marketing techniques that aim to catch notice in your head, sometimes more subliminally than imediate. I am interested in the effects commercialism has on our lives as humanbeings. How does a commercial affect our state of consciousness? How do corperations/organizations go about communicating messages to a mass audience? Who or what are they trying to appeal to and what does this tell us about human behaviour?
As technology changes, so does the world of economy, marketing and commercism. Those who can afford it are beginning to purchase computer chips for their televisions that minus commercials out of the equation during their entertainment time. Is this a threat to the world of commercials and advertising? In my opinion no. Advertising will always affect us wether through television, computer, sponcorship or other ways. When I picture the future of the world I see avertising s an everlasting influence on our society. It will not go away because we choose to engage in it. Do we want it to go away? This brings me to my next point. I am not in any way anti-advertisment. I am simply interested in the psychological relationship people have with the information they are recieving from the media. Commercials are a huge playing part of the media. They are the quick video segements that offer us the information they believe will convice us of the the commercial's idea. This is done through comedy, economic logic, sympathy, cleverness (especially) as well as many other techniques that legitiamitly speak to the lifestyle's and behavior we show the world as humanbeings.

in the mic booth

2006-02-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Rapping in a mic booth in my basement: The official Rap Files

One thing that comes to mind when I think about the times I spend rapping in my makeshift mic booth in my basement is the process of wiriting and choosing/performing the vocals, as well as the recording preocess. Heres the breakdown to how the vocals for the upcoming "Bridge and E Tea" album were made and recorded:
1. Bridge and E tea enter lab ( my basement )
2. Decide on project ( skim lyrics, ideas, beats )
3. E tea get's in booth and comenses verbal malicia ( rapping )
4. Bridge recieves, records and edits vocals ito
computer as well as expresses his likes, dislikes and constructive critisism towards the vocals.
5. Both parties experience murder lazer visions and understandings from vocal recordings.

The skeleton and flow for the rhyme usually develops into a lyrical composure while I am in a rhthematic state of creativity, naturally connecting ideas and words into the bomb shit( something to be enjoyed ). I usually write alone in scielent public places. There's something about having activity around me that tickles the murder lazer juices in my writing ability. I only write to a specific beat or any beat if I'm at home but even then I just get a feel for the beat and then carry on the rhyme in scilence. rhyme content often becoms slightly modified after a pre-recording run with Bridge. That's it. Imagination is the key and it ain't worth sittin' on that fake shit because fake shit is lame and good hiphop prevails through testing new grounds, revisiting old ground and being yourself. ( even if that means your performing brain surgery sippin' on some yak ). Oh ya, and beats are more important than lyrics in my opinion. If I can't nod my head, I can't feel dome science. ( rapping ). That's why Bridge always comes with that grimy platform for a crazy rap manifesto.

a list qustions I never want to be asked again

2006-02-20T18:21:00.000-08:00

"A list of questions i never want to be asked again...."

a list by Maliboo S Jackson

1. What is your name?

2. Are you Maliboo S Jackson?

3. Are you a son of the Jackson's?

4. Are Marlow and Betty your parents?

5. Ever think of working at Maliboo Enterrises?

6. Will you tell your dad to call me?

7. Are you going to La this wekend?

8. How's Marlow?

The Western Hour

2006-02-19T18:23:00.001-08:00

Quote from Sylviane Agacinski
Time Zones/Recent Film and Video.
Published 2004 by order of Tate.

"Is it ever possible to think about one's own time? The present emerges amid the shadows of a past that no longer evokes nostalgia and an uncertain future. A glance at neither the past nor the future can reveal the meaning of the present. We endlessly repeat the question of time as if it only just appered in all it's force since the retreat of what softened it's tragic aspect: eternity and a sense of history. Against the backround of the retreat, history reveals it's contingency and our naked relationship to passage. can the idea of epoch still hold meaning for us" ?

The Western Hour

2006-02-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

Response to Darren Almond- Time and Time Again

2006-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

Darren Almond shows a projected image of his studio on a wall light graduallybecomes dim in the studio, displaying the movement of time. Almond distinguishes between "real time" and "actual" time. "Real time" is the captured essence of time elapsing through video. "Actual Time" is standing in the present and witnessing the seconds pass.
i enjoy this work but i am curious to what extent Almond considered the nature of his project which is using actual time to concentrate on real time. To what extent is his audience considering and witnessing both? Is this a new form of time experience, existing in the presence of two uninterrupted gradations of time? All real video footage is captured moments in time existing on transitions or no transitions. Almond chooses no transitions outside of the natural transition of light to dark, presenting natural change without transition.

An installation iece I did , "For You" ( see post ) encompasses a similar quality to Almond's "Time and Time Again". In using Almond's theory of real time and actual time, my piece also presents these elements. My video footage of the emergence and dissaperence of light is a natural and inidable process witht the sun as is Akmond's footage. Almond chose to focus on a recognizable enviorment (artist studio ) and my footage was focused on plane sky. I think becasue time is one of the most explored and revisited concepts in art that it will continue to obtain it's popularity due to its connection to infinity and movement.

text work and extreme visual mix matching

2006-02-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

One exercise I have been known to do is matching of text words that creates absurd phrases that often include high contrasting and powerful language.

example one: AMBIENT GOOSE WAVES SERGE THROUGH METALLIC TWIN FIXTURES OF PREDETERMINED GOD VARIABLES.

Why do I do this? That's an interesting question. I have never analyzed this feature of myself until this moment where I forced myself to think about it. I get a rush and an aesthetic satisfaction from using chaotic methods of combination to reveal a sentence that doesn't bring the reader coherence, but instead descriptive language that is interesting to read. I enjoy thinking about how words express ideas and evoke emotion in readers regarldless of logical content. The thrill in this exercise is that there are endless possibilities considering the enormous account of language there is available. I would like to one up this practice and buy a medical dictionary. The main idea is matching words together that you want to see in a chain of description. I feel there is a careless yet very creative freedom that comes with using language in this way. It effects the imagination in a seperate way than a book or body of coherant writing. The imagination is still active in making associations of imagery to words but the words create a much more distorted imaginitive process.

electrical car crash spectacle planes

2006-02-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

ELECTRICAL CAR CRASH SPECTACLE PLANES
a short dialogue

" no, he was walking very slow and breathing heavy".
" interesting"......
" he was very careful and kept very calm."
" where was this" ?
" very careful and very calm."
" You already said that."
" did I" ?
" yes."
" weird."
" His parents were amazed by his performance".
" I can imagine. "

The Mysterious Black Book

2006-02-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

The Mysterious Black Book is a mid sized drawing book that I started last August when I took a trip to Vancouver to visit some friends of mine. The Mysterious Black Book is mysterious because it is mine and I am a mystery to myself. Yes, this is my proof that I am a stereotypical art student who is scribbling their angry thoughts and abstract drawings of metropolitan life. ( insert laughter here). Okay, seriously, this is a very personal artifact of my recent artistic expression. Last semester it traveled everywhere with me and gathered a record of phtotgraphs, drawings, outside additions and text art that I feel truly represented 3 very important things: 1. My experience taking my first intermedia course: very crucial to my present methods of practice. This course allowed new waves of thinking to enter my brain, thus expanding my everyday actions such as doodling in my notebook. Forms and ideas started to conceptualize as my mind drifted away from the security of the traditional art forms. Although the book is filled with drawings and traditional line work, it was present in my research and journey through my first glance at the world of intermedia art.
2. My relationships with friends and family: Both good and bad, the search for communication and the idea of love are translated through ink and quirky text art.
3. boot licking mud fluck
Important note: I was listening to the song "love will tear us apart" by Joy Division obsessively all day everyday. It was my theme to art school. Gotta love that synth line.

response to "Selling Faith", article by Melinda henneberger

2006-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

The article features an enterpeneur by the name of Jordan Rubin who makes his living selling Chistian memorabilia and items, such as energy bars and golfballs. He makes wholesome and family friendly Christian items. This apparently is seperate from the more cultured and less sacred expressions of Christianity the religion has gained, such as tattoos and creative interpretaions of Christian ideas through media. The article explains the fuzzy line that determines "believers and non believers". I propose that just because Mr. Rubin is distributing energy bars that say " Bible Bar" as well as sports euiptment that has bible passeges on it, doesn't make him on a higher level as a Christian Merchant than any other kind, vise versus. Both parties are in it to promote spirituality through the economy which maks them way more similar in my eyes than different. Without getting too into this thought, the important thing is that I recognized something unsetteling and important to analyze when I was sitting in the bathroom today reading a copy of Reader's Digest.

yesterday's binoculars

2006-02-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

His finished statements were undeard but much of his fellowship were convinced he was doing the right thing. Forced to hold back his true words, replacing them with lies he did what his fanclub wanted and recieved high praise for his behaior.
On his eighth year of duty he decided he had had enough and aside from all the superficial support around him he would seperate from the automoton manakin the people had molded with their ideals and virtues. Classic example of cause and effect, much favored in behavioral psychology. The man's family history and surrounding enviorment had always excpectd from him the same idealogical outcome that they had performed in their lifetime. He was promised a lifestyle of safety and stabalization if he were follow in his ancestors footsteps. This is what made him into the unfulfilled block head he had become. After a quick shooter of tequila, he marched up to the main office to anounce his mandate plan for the coming year of business. The crowd seemed comftorable yet anxious to hear these words spoken. One elderly man was noticibaly staring right into his eyes.

" My time here as come to a close ladies and gentleman. I can no longer be a furnace room specialist, selling, repairing and installing furnaces into furnace rooms. I can no longer keep my thoughts sane knowing of the mysterious mental pocessions our furnaces have been inflicting on our customers. I will not speak of this to the public for I know you all very well and actually have family among you. Doug, your my Brother and law. Renne, you and I had a child together. But I can no longer be under the payroll of a company that frightens me. The horrific events which have taken place are too much to come to terms with. i will leave the future of this organization in your hands but I encourage you to do the same as I , as there is undobtly a profound psychlogical danger that comes witht the furnaces we supply our society. That is all, I wish you all a safe future."

The crowd grew loud and agressive as he left the office, and then the building.

Response to Francis Alys- zocalo

2006-02-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

I am without speech

2006-02-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

I had a very humbeling experience observing all the projects included in "I Made This For You" which was a collaberative art collage by the UofR Intermedia students. I was happy to see so much enthusiasm and insight into different art practices.
Today being Febuary 15th, the day after, I have decided to engage in a prolonged period of scilence. The only times I wish to speak will be to my teachers and fellow students regarding art projects, if necessary. I am curious in how my brain will recieve information and how my senses will react to the the absence of speech. This will be difficult to do for I am impusivley conditioned to speaking. This monastic practice is not meant to be " a piece" in it's beginning stages. I am doing this because I know I will never be fulfilled without testing my himan boundaries. I have no doubts in my mind that this will contribute to my art practice as time prevails but for now I am simply engaging in an experiment. Today being the first day of what I plan to be at least a month of scielence, I found myself slipping. Allthough I have remained relativley quiet, I felt obligatd to communicate vocally with my parents. i spoke with them briefly, explaining that our vocal communication would not be cut off completely, just as it will not be with my professors and students, but it will certainly be thinned out to the point of necessity. i am already feeling myself benefiting from this experiement in terms of self awareness. I feel as if my thoughts are resonating much more intamatly and clearer not as I am not concerend with how they will be vocally performed or interpreted. I believe communication is a beautiful neccesary aspect of life, and so far I forsee my communication skills becoming much stronger through a temporary time period of being non audibe. I still communicate here and there with notes and hand gestures, even facial expressions. I will continue to add thoughts and experiences with this experiment as I get further into it.

feb 16
It is interesting how the people around me are reading my actions as a scielent body. I started to sense that that some people were feeling I was angry or resentful. Later on one person made clarrification of this but added they knew it was not true. my general ora is extracting strange anti-social vibes which are a product of my social abandonment. Today I asked myself, am I genuinley carrying through this mission? or am I treading on thin water because I am in a constant work/city mentality at school and all around. The long stetches I take without speaking I am still subject to communicaion in some ways drecting my mind to how I should do this without talking. Seems like a lot of bullshit for nothing when you think about it, but i'm keeping my optimism, enjoying the moments i have saturated in good scilence.

feb 20
What happened to my last three posts? their gone. Gone like my speech.

feb 21
I am feeling like this project is coming to a close allthough I should have about 2 weeks at least to continue like I planned. I'm not caring for the pressure that I'm feeling to be quiet when I want to say something. When I originally planned to do this I wanted to say "necessary" and"important" things only, which I now realize is restricting your speech opposed to being speechless. This changes speech. In the act of releasing only "valueable vocal content", becomes condensed and morphed into "new" communication. This is part of becoming a new self that monitors and keeps cloe observant on the words they use. Allthough this was interesting and productive in terms of an exercise, it did not fulfill the project. My decision will be to pick up again in one week after I settle into some work and preperation for my life. I will predict I will end up doing "practice scielnce" for a another tow weeks or so and then step back and think abou what I've done some more. One day I would like to persue a gap of scilence somewhere in the world where I wasn't working and going to school.

feb 22
I am with speech. I hung out in the studio space today and talked with frinds. Good talks. Real talk. My scilence will return soon so I shall enjoy the art of conversation and freedom of speech for a good hot minute.

April 4th

Ya, that didn't happen. too many things to tak about at school. This exercise might take a little more planning then I originally thought. Summer might be a go.

Phantom of the University

2006-02-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

I am the phantom of the University of Regina. As I exercise my practice as an artist I am also the obervant and calm body that travels the many parts of this building even in the most absurd and unheard hours. I am everywhere at once yet nowhere to be found. I operate and function as a student as well as a hallway phantom who is content and reflective of his time spent in different spaces, observing and contemplating human behavior, spacial relations and general life.
My connection to this University goes beyond enjoying school or having colleiges that I share interesting time with. The location and space around the University of Regina has been my home for 17 years of my 20 year life. I went to elementary school, high school and now University in the same neibourhood. As I grow older, my connection to my immediate perimeter of home enviorment influences my work in a progressive and very intamite way. I find I am thinking about my childhood a lot more as I watch different busnesses close, new people living in the neibourhood, trees and landmarks changing, not to mention the impact of the information I am taking in at school. All this has made me feel very comfortable and belonging as a part of my communities history.

Murder Lazer hiphop in Regina

2006-02-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hiphop. Hiphop music. Rapping. Rap.

I feel fortunate to be an emcee from Regina Saskatchewan. In a land which is heavily populated with hockey lovers, players, parents and coaches, Tim Hortons locations, radio stations that capatilize on playing primarly the latest cock rock including regina frequents, Nickelback and Theory of a deadman, nightclubs that play the latest chart toppers from The Black eyed Peas, there is a large margin of contrast and seperation for anyone who wants to promote the idea of experimental lyricism and the firghtening and often alien presence of hiphop music. In saying this I realize I have created a large generalization on my civic residence and have blocked out the cultural growth that does exist in regina. There is a phenomenal quality in the arts community that is constantly on the move, and there is a "scene" here in regina that supports local hiphop. This cannot be denied. The scene here is held by the glue and fabric of select dj's and hiphop heads who have dedicated their time to "making it happen" in a land of prarie, small city mentality. Aside from the legistics of stereotypes and geography , there is a truth in saying that The Queen City has hit by the power and influence of the universal love for hiphop as way of life and attitude. Attitude is a key factor in both the hiphop participant and the rest of their enviorment which percieves and reads this participant. The modern hiphop emcee, dj and producer is faced with the ultimate decision of what they will reveal about themselves to the world with what they do. Enviorment and experience is key to this attitude one uses in their hiphop practie as is in any other. this emviorment allows certain attributes and characteristics to form in a hipjop outfit. A hiphop artist often speaks or put's forth what they know with their particular style. If a DJ only knows popular industry friedly records, those records shall be played. If a producer wants to create melodramatic beats for a melodramatic mood, the producer will do what they can to get this done. If an emcee is from the street, chances are you are going to hear tales from the street. If someone is capatailizing on trends such as excess ( material value), generic agression or even the pure essence of hiphop as a tangeble quality, despite the originality or legitimacy of this motive, the artist will try to get this done wether subliminally or intentionally. I myself am a a visual artist from the southside regina who grew up listening to hiphop among other genres of music, reading comic books and writing absurd poetry. I still write absurd poetry which is translated with the adapted essence of rythm, rhyme and breath control. This is all the basic analyzing I should probably do of my hiphop practice because allthough my attitude and life experience has been generous in the influence to my rapping, the most critical aspect of why I conduct rapping in such a absurd and science fiction like massicre of words is linked back to a childhood experience.
10 years old i was hit with a psychoactive chemical and neorological attack on my existence by a giant lazer gun that was produced by underground power lord knowledge extremists who were once conducting radical mind altering experiments on a random selection of the human race. The "Murder Lazer" as it is called is a giant lazer gun that shoots a powerful lazer beam towards the human body. In the most laymond and simplistic terms, what occurs is a 45 second spectrum of everything you have ever experienced mentally and physically, highlighted in perfect logic of events and intense visual poetry which reveals shape shifting life secrets and spiritual meaning. The power of this experience is said to be beyond the metapshysical and the natural experiene of death, rendering it as a non organic chemical attack which opens unbelievable facetts of psychological possibility and understanding. Because of the nature and impact of this lazer attack which is uncomprehendable to mortal beings, the result is death after a 45 second manifesto of alien knowledge. why I am alive to tell this tale you ask? I was playing on a dirt hill at my elemntary school ( Ecole Massey ) which is also located in the southside of regina. One day when I was alone on the hill I decided to start digging at a black hunk of laytex plastic sticking out of the dirt that I had prciously noticed. it took me a long time to get deep into the dirt where I finally discovered an arrangement of broken metal shards. Ignorant to what these shards were reminence i started touching the pieces which had, oddly enough, still warm burn marks on them despite the fact they had been barried under this large dirt hill that had ben covering them for as long as i attended this school. ( five years ). From making physical contact with the meatl objects I touched a powerful unkown resiue of an invisible connetic force which put me into a 45 minute physical paralysis, as my mind was shown many poetic visuals which displayed unbeliveable translations of mental phenomena. Amomg these translations came a sequence of events which showed me the origin, events and nature of the Murder Lazer itself. The visual display made sense to me how powerful underground scientists created a lazer that would transform the human mind into a super infostructure of mathamatical and spiritual understanding. The problem was that it ultimatley reulted in death. This is all my vision prevailed to me in terms of the Murder Lazer information. Many seperate visions and emotions I experienced showed me my entire life and enviorment in a fine chain of energy which I traveled through. The reason this happened to me is because I was not struck with the ctual lazer beam itself. I came in contact with old residue of the components which make Murder Lazer syrum. The small amount that absorbed into my skin was still effective and lastedlonger than what would be the regular capacity of a Murder Lazer beam. The only difference is my experience was not as intense as a full effect beam strike, it just flerted with my system. The amount I absorbed did not arrest my abilitie as a normal functioning human being, yet my creative and

Introduction to Evan Tyler

2006-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Evan Tyler is a student at the University of Regina in the Fine Arts program. His interests in his practice are primarly in video installations, photography, as well as sound. Evan is the vocal representative of a hiphop group which operates their project within four blocks of where he attends school. This group is known as "Bridge and E Tea" who have an upcoming debut album on Whitmore Records, ( in part with Murder Lazer Enterprizes ). His strange lust for strange speech and unsetteling rhyme concocktions provide a voice to the grimy boom baps
and soulful music production by Chris Bridge aka The Bridgalant aka Bridgealantee. Evan's musical journey with not only hiphop but other diverse displays of sound and audio production have been a playing part in his means to express himself. Jams sessions with Bridge as well as his friend Dana have proved to be meaningful experiments based on the love to create noise. Excpect an upcoming noise cd release consisting of various recording takes Evan and friends have done. Evan is an imaginitive human who's brain is constantly working to percieve his enioirment and his connection to it. He feels very at home in Regina Saskatchewan, and is very ambitious and appreciative towards the fine arts faculty which he enjoys being a part of. Currently persuing intermedia at the uofr Evan's work has been emerging in a variety of ways from his research and recent concepts and interests. Some concepts he has worked with have been the constant movement of time, presence and absence of sound, self contemplation, coventianalisms of time, the mundanne occurences of everyday life, abstract cartoon comics, text art, as well as a recent look into paranormal activity.
Evan has always showed a passion for line and visual media. His past expereience with graffitti art helped give him some experience in mural building as well as a small connection to public space. His efforts to provide a free wall for upcoming painters was a community supported idea, fueld by three hiphop benefit shows he organized to raise funds for the wall but the final say from the city of regina was no due to their fears and aprehensions of "glorifying vandalism" or spreading veins of spraypaint across the city. This project has not lost it's morale and will strive for success allthough Evan has a very demanding agenda with his music and visual arts practices.
Evan Tyler's digital pencil has been created to provide an infostrcture of Evan's thoughts, artwork and research in his fantastic, scientifical, gama ray balsted super duper awsome futuristic and unforgiving expereience as an artist. This will allow him to analyze himself in his practice and get some feedback from the world. Consider these the digital scriptures of a skeleton blueprint consisting of the fine particles that make up Evan's everyday quest to create.

Forward by H. T Fesellwell.

where do we go from here?
a poem by Evan Tyler

Our lives have been touched deeply
where do we go from here?
we will never be the same again
where do we grow from here?
easy come... hard to go
where do we go from there?
If I can't see my perfect dream I'll scream for wild banchee moans to infect pointless satire
come early or come late
where do we go from here?
if we cannot scare ourselves
how do we show our fear?
siameese bread monitors persue false research
pickeled panic picks certain criteria to follow through with non organic time lapses
so where do I go from here?
where do I go from there?
where do we go from here?
my sympathy comes at a price
where do we go from here?
the world is short of oxygen
where does it go from anywhere
nonsense makes us happier
nowhere to go from here
our lives have touched deeply
where do we go from here