Firmament
James Acres, Eric Chan, nichola feldman-kiss and Adrian Göllner

November 23rd - 29th, 2010
Helsinki (FI), Stockhom (SE), Cambridge (GB)

The City of Ottawa, Artengine and the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation are pleased to present Firmament – a digital art exhibition featuring James Acres, Eric Chan, nichola feldman-kiss and Adrian Göllner.

Ottawa is a creative city that recognizes that collaborative thinking and dialogue are powerful tools. They can lead to many great ideas. Collaborations between creative and digital sectors can touch everything from youth engagement, media arts, education, health, to meaningful innovation. But innovation can be an elusive dream. The next radical shift always seems just over the horizon.

Like much of contemporary technological innovation, the artistic projects in Firmament seem intangible. The works each derive their strength from an element that is beyond our physical grasp, but is present nonetheless. Acres engages with the illusion of drawing in space through retro-future anaglyph glasses; Chan's abstract forms are driven by weather which we cannot see; kiss presents a perfect body scan twisting just outside our realm of perception, and finally Göllner materializes the idea of chance, abstracting our concrete superstitions. The divergent content of the work is connected by an elusive ether in which each of the art works exist - a firmament of future creative expression.

It is very fitting then that this exhibition should accompany a digital media trade mission and through collaboration we hope that we can spark a dialogue that forge new connections and networks between our cities, artists and creative industries in the spirit of innovation.