This lecture presented a virtual tour of rural Ottawa – its landscape, its villages, and its economic and environmental issues where the rural land mass represents 90% of the City’s area but is home to only 10% of the its population.
Kenneth Emig, is a multidisciplinary artist, dancer and educator. He has been working with sound from both technical and artistic perspectives. He discussed the Urban Soundscapes and posed the question: “Is the sound that surrounds our everyday life part of the design, or does it just happen?” His answer opened our ears to the City.
Melissa Rombout, cultural historian and curator of the recent (Summer 2000) Ottawa Art Gallery exhibit Ottawa: On Display, provided insight into the problems and practices of visualizing the city through the framing conventions of maps, plans, photographs, films and printed ephemera. Melissa demonstrated how changing technologies of vision implicate us as performers and beholders on the city stage.
Diane Holmes, Regional Councillor, moderated the evening’s discussion.