Aug 4 – Aug 19, Wed – Fri 2-7pm, Sat 12-5pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, August 19, 5pm
Satellite Project Space, 121 Dundas St, London
SATELLiTE Project Space is pleased to announce a three-week long experimental project, The Animated Life of Everyday Objects. This innovative project will turn the gallery into a combination of research lab and playground, a sensory space of movement, sound, interactions, and colour light.
Local artists, Tegan Moore and Gabriella Solti, invite the public to join them to create a series of inventive, and performative artworks that combine accessible technology and the everyday, seamlessly and playfully. The artists aim to share their fascination with common objects and the value of empirical knowledge to uncover the peculiar and spectacular properties of everyday materials and mundane objects in our daily environment.
The artists will facilitate daily drop-in workshops featuring different objects and materials each day at four thematic stations (INTERACTION, EXPRESSION, ILLUMINATION, and TRANSPARENCY), exploring the creative potential and inner life of objects such as a toothbrush head, cleaning sponge, fluffy dusters, paper clip, stones, to name a few. The setup of each workshop station enables the discovery of material properties and opens up space for intuition, expression, and documentation.
All events and workshops are free and suitable for all ages and abilities.
INTERACTION
Participants will be able to manipulate objects (e.g. gather, arrange, fold, twist, weave, pile up) in their inanimate form on a light table and create short, imaginative stop motion animations (GIF) showing the objects in a humorous or peculiar way. We will consolidate the animations daily, adding them to a projection in the gallery window, and shared with the makers and the public through social media.
EXPRESSION
This station will facilitate learning and employing creative construction techniques to assemble small robots by making impromptu combinations of everyday items, equipped with miniature vibrating motors, the same kind used to make cell phones vibrate. The workshop encourages observation and reflection on how objects interact with each other and how their properties change their movement on a variety of surfaces.
ILLUMINATION
With the use of colourful LED lights powered by small watch batteries, participants experiment with making luminous objects and sculptures with feature materials. Through this process the material itself is provided agency to display its inherent material optical qualities that transcend its use value. For example, a small sponge takes on the qualities of a gemstone through creative illumination by colourful LED lights.
TRANSPARENCY
Participants observe their own perception of colour and light through an installation of red, green, and blue lights which cast multiple coloured shadows on the gallery’s white wall. By changing the angle of the light and distance from the object, small items can grow in scale and change in appearance. For example, a sponge can be turned into a sharp black shadow of a ceiling high mountain surrounded by larger shadows of magenta, yellow, and cyan creating the illusion of a descending sunset. Participants have the opportunity to explore light, transparency, and colour theory, using their bodies and the featured objects.
The project aims to incite wonder in everyday objects and cultivate an appreciation for their playful reuse through DIY fabrication.
By engaging the community to look at everyday materials with a fresh eye, the artists want to encourage a more sustainable way of thinking and evaluating how we accumulate, save, re-use, and innovate in a consumer-oriented culture. They will also draw attention to the value of the interplay of creative ideas sourced from many participants.
Follow Satellite Project Space on Facebook or check their website for a detailed schedule of workshops, and announcements of ‘Featured Object of the Day’:
https://www.facebook.com/SatelliteProjectSpaceLDN/
https://satelliteprojectspace.com
The artists will blog about the project adding images, news and workshop schedules: animatedobjects.weebly.com
If you would like to schedule a workshop for a group of people (there is no cost for any events and workshops) please send your request to satelliteprojectspace@gmail.com.
About the Artists
Tegan Moore is a visual artist who holds a BFA from Emily Carr University in Vancouver and an MFA from the University of Western Ontario in London. Through closely linked processes in sculpture, installation, and video, Moore uses experimental methods of construction and design often informed by projects in other fields such as manufacturing and environmental engineering. Recent solo exhibitions include Subtraction Inventories, CSA Space, Vancouver, “Specs” at MKG127 in Toronto, “Corruption of Time’s Dust” at 221A in Vancouver and “A Negentropic Promise” at DNA Artspace in London. Moore recently completed an artist residency at the Mustarinda Association of Art and Ecology, in Hyrynsalmi, Finland.
Gabriella Solti is a visual artist who holds an MFA from the University of Western Ontario in London and an MSc in Computer Science from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, printmaking, book art, participatory projects and accessible technology that explore the role and value of labour and skill in the formation of identity and community. Her award-winning artist’s books have been exhibited in public galleries across Canada, US, and Europe. A tireless advocate for community building through art, her curatorial and public programming work was recognized by the prestigious British Columbia Arts Council Innovation Grant in 2012.
The artists are grateful to the London Arts Council and City of London for funding their project, and to Museum London, Satellite Project Space and Western University Visual Arts Department for their in-kind support.
SATELLiTE 
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