Today we got a brief intro to the place, and received studio assignments. The best part is the free counseling services. It sounds like some people may think a little *too* much when they’re up here…

The view, once again, out my window is pretty nice–beautiful mountains. And we each get an IP phone(!) Other than that, a typical art-school-like-place. All white walls and bulletin boards everywhere. The phone will have to be hacked.

So far my time at Banff is going well. My roommate is nice and the food’s pretty good. The place is beautiful–I have an awesome view out my window. We’ll get our own studio space and they have a library, a pool, exercise facilities, etc. Just like the University, really.

The town of Banff is also interesting. A typical tourist town. They have kitsch street names like “Beaver” and “Bear”. Pictures follow.

Of course, I found some infrastructure along the way, and had to take pictures of it. Notice the different fire hydrants–not sure if these are special in any way, or just the norm here. Maybe they are more resistant to freezing? Or built for the more rugged environment here? And the street signs are interesting, too. The “no stopping” sign is my favorite. Whoever did the information design on this one needs to go back to design school–it presumes you already know what a stop sign looks like. Which may or may not be a good assumption, but still: it’s a principle thing. Signs (especially road signs) should include a complete, understandable message in and of themselves–that’s the point of *good* communication, right?

Yes, we’ll see how true this statement remains. At Banff, we’ve discussed how blogging can be part of ones art practice, and of course also thought about it critically. We concluded by asking, “who wants to see a bunch of half-digested thoughts from somebody else?” Good question.

My answer would be that blogging is more for the blogger, and less for the blog reader (at least for me). “Why not just keep a journal, then?” Because blogs already exist technically; I don’t have to do any programming. Or maybe it’s sort of a cathartic to share with whomever comes by.

Anyway, if you don’t like what you read, just don’t come back!

Okay, so I’m going to break the rules a little bit and write about something in the past (and even set the date back!): the fact that I’m at the Banff Centre in Canada for an artist residency called Reference Check. That’ll setup the rest of what’s to come on this here blog.

Here’s some pictures of my trip:

The people in Canada are so happy. When I got to the airport, the staff pushing people in wheelchairs didn’t look like zombies like they did in Chicago. Go figure! And everything’s in metric–the rationalism is apparent already. Sigh. I want to move to Canada.