Julien Thomas is an installation artist and social designer from Vancouver Canada. He received his BA in International Relations and Conflict Studies before developing a social practice working with issues of public space, land use, conflict, and collective futures. He completed his MFA at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam in 2016, where he investigated conversational dynamics and group decision-making contexts. His current work explores the role of scenarios in facilitating interpersonal relationships. [email protected]Julien F. Thomas
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Julien Thomas is an installation artist and social designer from Vancouver Canada. He received his BA in International Relations and Conflict Studies before developing a social practice working with issues of public space, land use, conflict, and collective futures. He completed his MFA at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam in 2016, where he investigated conversational dynamics and group decision-making contexts. His current work explores the role of scenarios in facilitating interpersonal relationships.
Materials: Circa 1880 Dutch chest (poplar, mahogany, fir)
Technique: Parametric design, robotic milling
Statement: Antique Prototype is the result of research concerning the relationship between traditional and contemporary fabrication techniques. An antique chest is carved with a robotic arm and milling head to create a hybrid object which combines traditional joinery and veneer work with parametric design and precision milling. The antique chest was 3D scanned and disassembled in order to locate key features of traditional handmade furniture. After considering key locations to be milled, a design was developed according to the physical capabilities and limitations of a robotic arm. The result is an expanded gradient of cuts that creates new formal relationships between the handmade object and the robotic mill while retaining the original use of the chest.
Antique Prototype
2018 A collaboration with Roel Heremans, Belgian sound artist and resident at HISK Gent.
Statement: Platform A is an audio choreography that guides two participants through a focused physical and mental exploration of Conversation (Im)balance, a large, unbalanced wooden platform. Participants wear headphones and are instructed to perform and reflect upon a variety of topics ranging from metaphorical situations to their physical experience with the platform.
Platform A (collaboration with Roel Heremans)
2018
Partners: Fonds Kwadraat, Drimensa
Materials: Underlayment, hardwood
Technique: 3D design/CNC milling, hand fabrication and assembly
Statement: Conversation (Im)balance was commissioned by the Kunsthal KaDE in Amersfoort for their exhibition A Balancing Act, and was build during my residency at DordtYart during the summer of 2018. The installation is a second iteration of Conversation Balance (2016), and embodies a series of formal amendments to the original design that includes a more rigid frame and more efficient assembly method. I also made several key alterations that contribute to an improved participant experience: the new platform is slightly smaller and therefore responds to changes in weight and movement with more agility, and the centre is offset 30cm so that participants are continuously in a state of imbalance. These two factors contribute to a more nuanced experience where smaller movements create a larger effect. In conjunction with the Platform A choreography, Conversation (Im)balance hosted 19,000 visitors in exploring the role of weight, movement, and balance during the exhibition.
Conversation (Im)balance
2016
Partners: Fonds Kwadraat, Drimensa
Statement: Conversation Balance is an interpersonal installation that explores the nature of political agency. I propose that agency can be found across a spectrum of human experience and expression, from theory and metaphor, to direct sensation, and perhaps beyond human cognition itself. The installation facilitates participants in embodying and performing certain gestures, scenarios, and concepts, in an effort to enable latent forms of political expression to emerge. Conversation Balance was exhibited at the 2016 Sandberg Instituut graduation show in Amsterdam, and was included as part of the Modern Body Festival 2016: I/WE/THEY in Den Haag.
Conversation Balance
2016
Partners: City of Amsterdam, Knowledge Mile Coalition
Statement: Ondergronds is named for those exceptional conversations below the surface While travelling through Amsterdam on a daily basis, we pass by hundreds of strangers and rarely get a chance to connect. Ondergronds allows you to have a real conversation with one of those strangers – perhaps the connection will last, perhaps it may inspire other conversations on your daily travels.
Media: Het Parool, We Demain pour SNCF (French National Rail magazine)
Impact: The project facilitated nearly sixty conversations over four weekend sessions, several informal get-togethers, and a follow-up lunch among participants.
Ondergronds.org
2014
Partners: HCMA, ThisOpenSpace
Statement: The Faraday Cafe was a pop-up coffee shop that repelled wireless signals. In a space devoid of cell phone or data connections, the team hoped to create personal ones instead. The installation was the first piece created through HCMA’s Artist in Residence (AIR) Program. To achieve their desired effect, the team created a wire mesh enclosure that shielded electromagnetic signals while producing a distinct visual form. The Faraday Café sought to remind patrons of a time before ubiquitous wireless coverage, while also proposing an alternative future relationship to digital technology. Located in Vancouver´s Chinatown, the Café served a rotation of artisanal coffees by donation while hosting a variety of events including morning meditation sessions, afternoon DJ sets, dinner and dessert parties, and evening storytelling gatherings.
Located in Vancouver´s Chinatown, the Café served a rotation of artisanal coffees by donation, while hosting a variety of events including morning meditation sessions, afternoon DJ sets, dinner and dessert parties, and evening storytelling gatherings.
Media: Vancouver Sun, Province x2 (syndicated to Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader-Post and more across the country), Huffington Post, CKNW Radio x2, Global TV, CTV BC, CTV National, CBC BC, CBC Radio Vancouver, CBC Radio Victoria, CBC Radio National, Ming Pao Daily News, Globe and Mail, Sun News Network, Pop-Up City, Fast.Company, Monocle Podcast
Faraday Café
2014–2015
Partners: N/A
Statement: Under cover of night, four Vancouverites meet to celebrate their city. From Spanish Banks, skyline silhouettes Stanley Park, Cypress. Tonight, we have reason: for too long we’ve grumbled of wet, not truly celebrating our City’s great gift – the rain. For in our dark, damp days do we not await the pleasures of spring: sunshine, buds, colours emerge. Alas, what of the pleasures of winter: as rains pour, leaves fall, umbrellas open to meet the skies, rainblossoms. Under cover of night, four Vancouverites meet to celebrate their city, for better or worse, rain or shine. In civic spirit, the Rainblossom Project invited Vancouver’s sister cities of Odessa, Yokohama, Edinburgh, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, and Seoul to spread the red.
Media: The National (UE), NBC News, Vancouver is Awesome (x3), Vancouver Sun, The Province, Vancity Buzz, Inside Vancouver, Westca
Impact: Following its unveiling, this anonymous piece gained recognition as a galvanizing symbol for Vancouverites. The project has over 200 public hashtagged photos on social media, and has been shared widely.
The Rainblossom Project
Commercial Drive Parklet
Duration: 2013 - Present
Partners: Prado Café (funding), Western Forest Products (construction materials), A.J. Forsyth (construction materials, City of Vancouver (policy), Britannia Secondary School (construction work), British Columbia Institute of Technology (steel fabrication) Awesome Foundation
Statement: The Commercial Drive Parklet transforms two parking spots into a new, permanent public space for all to enjoy. The parklet is one of several projects selected as part of VIVA Vancouver’s 2013 Parklet Pilot Program. Unlike other parklets led by architecture and landscape architecture firms, this is the only one undertaken by active residents of the project neighbourhood. Media: Momentum Magazine, Vancouver Sun, Huffington Post, Spacing Vancouver, Vancouver is Awesome, Scout Magazine, Vancouver Courier, CBC Radio 1, CKNW News Radio
Impact: The Kickstarter campaign and associated news articles have contributed to a broad understanding of this new urban form in the Greater Vancouver region. Commercial Drive patrons submitted words and images that were integrated into an abstract art piece, designed by artist Jordan Bent and laser etched into the parklet structure. As part of the crowdfunding campaign, artist Ola Volo created a wall mural adjacent to the parklet in collaboration with students from nearby Queen Victoria Elementary annex.
Commercial Drive Parklet
2013-2014
Partners: Mayor’s Office, City of Vancouver (convener), Vancouver Design Nerds (programming)
Statement: Vancouver residents long for a greater sense of connectedness with their neighbours, and in how they engage and interact with City Hall. The mandate of the Engaged City Task Force is to increase neighbourhood engagement, and improve upon the many ways the City connects with Vancouver residents. The task force will focus on the following priority issues: - Enhancing how the City engages with citizens, including immigrants and youth. - Improving the way the City consults with citizens on policy. - Increasing voter turnout. - Enabling community connections at a neighbourhood level.
Media: 24 (Vancouver), Vancouver Sun, National Post, Vancity Buzz
Impact: Within five months the Task Force released their Quick Starts report containing a set of 16 recommendations which were subsequently approved by City Council. Following a broad stakeholder engagement process, the Task Force released their Final Report outlining 19 priority actions that Vancouver City Hall could take to make Vancouver an engaged city, including increasing voter turnout, enhancing consultation, and better engagement with newcomers and new immigrants across the city. The Report was sent to Council and the recommendations were approved April 2, 2014.
Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force
2013 Summer
Partners: chART Public Art (funding), Vancouver Foundation (funding), Mini-Bins (logistics and materials), Standard Building Supplies (construction materials)
Statement: Park-a-Park was a pilot initiative to transform a roll-off disposal bin into a mobile community space. The bin was dropped at nine locations throughout Vancouver over the summer of 2013, hosting weekly potluck gatherings and acting as an open space to convene and catalyze community initiatives. Park-a-Park was an invitation to reimagine our relationship to streets and the public sphere.
Media: Vancouver Courier, Spacing Magazine, SFU Public Square
Impact: Through Park-a-Park I investigated the pliability of urban form, and the ability of such forms to respond to residents’ desires for social connection and urban transformation. The project also navigated bureaucratic and policy barriers, the findings of which are available in the Park-a-Park Final Report.
Park-a-Park
2012 Spring
Partners: N/A
Statement: Moving through streets, yet another demolishment: a stalwart of our past uprooted. In a city of relentless development, how do we observe the passing of structures? Celebration delivered an explosive blip of primary colours moments before destruction, calling attention to constant urban transformation.
Media: N/A
Impact: Celebration provided an opportunity to investigate the use pigment in highlighting acts of violence. This interest stems from a curiosity in how slight alterations to commonplace activities can alter both the intentions and consequences of our actions. My long-term aspiration is to continue this investigation of colour and violence in the Canadian Armed Forces artist residency program.
Celebration
2012 – Present
Partners: City of Vancouver (coordination), Vancouver Foundation (funding)
Statement: Gather Round is Vancouver’s smallest park, located in the neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant at the traffic circle on East 10th Avenue and St. George Street. Gather Round playfully turns a traffic circle into an active public space, re-prioritizing our streets for people over cars. Over a period of four months in 2012, I hosted weekly, free coffee sessions for cyclists, pedestrians, and neighbours.
Media: CBC Radio 1, Vancouver Courier (x4), Scout Magazine, Shaw TV, UBC School of Journalism
Impact: The circle has gained popularity in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood and regularly draws high attendance for social gatherings. In January 2014, the City of Vancouver Engineering Services Department moved to close the space due to traffic safety concerns. City of Vancouver Deputy Mayor Andrea Reimer, Mayor Gregor Robertson, and City Manager Penny Ballem intervened to re-instate the circle, but its future remains uncertain as of Spring 2014.
Gather Round
2011–2013
Partners: Vancouver School Board (programming), City of Vancouver (contract engagement strategy), Vancouver Design Nerds (programming), Langara College (programming)
Statement: The Green Streets Game leads participants through a collaborative process whereby they examine the considerations involved in turning their street into a neighbourhood greenway. Through play, participants garner an understanding of the diverse viewpoints of others, and how space can be used in a multitude of intersecting ways. Participants come to see potential street transformation options that are grounded in real life experience and problem solving. By the conclusion of game play, a shared community vision is co-created on the game board.
Media: N/A
Impact: The Green Streets Game was employed as the primary youth engagement strategy for the City of Vancouver’s 2013 Point Grey-Cornwall Active Transportation Corridor. Workshop findings were included in the Engineering Services final report to City Council.
4 General GordonHenry Hudson Bayview Kitsilano High
QUESTIONS
371YOUTH PARTICIPANTS
WORKSHOPS
X X
AVG # OFSTUDENTS
AVG # OFMINUTES
Grades 1–4
Grades 5–7
Grades 9+11
92
171
108
GRADE BREAKDOWN
Sample Size
Total Student Enrollment
371 / 2392 = 15.5% of total current enrollment
PARTICIPANT MAKE UP
WORKSHOP COMMITTMENTS
371
2392
Making Point Grey / Cornwall Fun, Safe & Easy for Youth.^more
How do you have fun in your neighbourhood?
What stops you from having fun?
How can we make it safer and easier to have fun in your neighbourhood?
FUN SAFE EASY
INTERSECTIONS 33%
TRAFFICCALMING29%
LIGHTING20%
GREENING 30%
PERMITTING 21%
PLAY 20%PLAY14%
GREENING16% PERMITTING
15%
WORKSHOP METRICS
PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS
2011 Summer
Partners: University of British Columbia (lodging and venue contributions), North Growth Foundation (funding), Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (funding), William F. White (film equipment)
Statement: Peace it Together uses dialogue, filmmaking and community engagement to empower youth as media makers and change agents, in order to build a just, secure and sustainable peace in Israel-Palestine. Over the period of one month, ten Palestinian, ten Israeli and ten Canadian youth lived together in Pemberton BC and the UBC Vancouver campus to dialogue, debate, and co-create short films that represented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film Grave Digging is a reflection on the present circumstances surrounding the conflict, and the glimpses of humanity in which we find ourselves.
Media: Metro (Vancouver)
Impact: Grave Digging currently has over 3,100 views on YouTube, and has been screened at numerous international film festivals. Peace it Together alumni continue to show the film when hosting screenings in the Middle East and Canada.
Peace It Together
2011–Present
Partners: Various
Statement: Late Nite Art is a facilitated workshop that brings community together to collaboratively explore thought-provoking ideas and issues through visual arts. We achieve this by combining fresh local food, gratuitous beats, and explorative artmaking in one tasty package Late Nite Art is an open platform for all non-artists and artists alike to come together. You don’t need to be able to colour within the lines or draw portraits of fruit bowls – you just need eyes, ears, and an open mind.
Media: CBC Radio 1, Vancouver Observer (x2), Vancouver is Awesome, The Peak
Impact: Approximately 2000 participants have experienced Late Nite Art to-date, and the venture has spawned sister outfits in Oakland California, London, and Amsterdam.
Late Nite Art
Late Nite Art
Living City Design Competition
2010-2011 Winter
Partners: Stantec Engineering, Emily Carr University of Art + Design (collaborators)
Statement: The International Living Building Institute invites submissions for city-scale, comprehensive urban sustainability models. Each Living City Competition team must envision a city that meets all of the imperatives of the Living Building Challenge 2.0, including its specific requirements for density, shading, urban agriculture, transportation, energy and water use. The Stantec and Emily Carr University team proposed The Social City: Surrey BC. A vibrant daily social life in the Living City arises from urban and agricultural activities rooted in local, placed-based solutions and stewardship principles that restore the environment. We proposed that the next step in the human civilization experiment will be measured by our capacity to create and strengthen social networks, and that the social city is the key to the living city.
Media: N/A
Impact: While the Stantec/Emily Carr proposal did not place within the top five submissions, the document has heavily influenced my notions of urban sustainability systems planning. In particular, the “tartan grid” concept of alternating and intersecting arterials and greenways subsequently informed my street transformation work to its current form.
Stick Shift Project
2010 Summer
Statement: Stick shift was a collaborative act of urban transformation. Working with students from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, we took four cars, removed the engines and planted fruit trees in their place. The project was a call to action and a symbol of change for Vancouverites, with the goal of creating public support for urban orchards.
Partners: Kerrisdale Lumber (construction materials), Drake Towing (towing services), West Creek Farms (soil)
Media: The Province, The National Post, Ming Pao (Vancouver), Blick am Abend (Czech Republic), CNN, CKNW News Radio, Global TV
Impact: Through a slit in the cars’ passenger windows, I received dozens of notes from passersby sharing their personal ideas and actions of positive change towards Vancouver’s sustainability goals. Upon project culmination the cars were recycled, the soil was donated to an urban farm, and the trees were gifted to a guerilla gardener.
