Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair : Leila Armstrong, Cindy Baker, Christine Clark, Kelaine Devine, Leanne Elias, Mandy Espezel, Denton Fredrikson, David Hoffos, Emily Luce, Glen MacKinnon, Petra Mala Miller, Mary-Anne McTrowe, Megan Morman, Shanell Papp, Beth Porter, Rod Sayers, Corinne Thiesen-Hepher.

Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair was a collective of sixteen artists who have come together to interpret and play with the spectacle of a national science fair through visual language. By drawing on-site during the Canada-Wide Science Fair, the artists created and immediately broadcast drawings of selected projects on display. The idea is to expand the notion of drawing around science themes to include the potentials of visual priority, cross-disciplinary work, collaborative drawing, multi-perspectival drawing, non-precious drawing, interactions with people, live tweeting, 5-second-delay blogging, and other unexpected possibilities.

Hosted by the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, participating artists were: Leila Armstrong, Cindy Baker, Christine Clark, Kelaine Devine, Leanne Elias, Mandy Espezel, Denton Fredrikson, David Hoffos, Emily Luce, Glen MacKinnon, Petra Mala Miller, Mary-Anne McTrowe, Megan Morman, Shanell Papp, Beth Porter, Rod Sayers, Corinne Thiesen-Hepher.

Rather than preferencing scientifically innovative or accurate projects, artists focused on the weird and wonderful, not just in the projects, but also in the whole science fair experience. Each day had a different feel, and each artist alighted upon different projects and aspects. (Although The Insulating Properties of Seal Fur, Fat and Meat was very popular.)

A slideshow of some of the work:

[portfolio_slideshow id=398]

We tweeted the drawings as a sort of visual news service of the science fair (hashtags were: #drawingscience and #cwsf2013) then scanned and reworked the images later. The immediate drawing broadcast has potential, but needs to be improved and streamlined for next time– there were too many frantic, blurry photos, some drawings escaped, and that blue iphone glow was really annoying.

All in all it meant something for artists to be present at the science fair, and the artists’ gracious, witty work was a testament to their openness to creative exploration, their commitment to not just working with each other but with young people, and their professionalism. I hope there’s a next time. Anyone want to go to Windsor?