Curator: Dan Browne, Jennifer Sider, Cam Woykin

A visionary collection of student media works, spanning themes of technology, religion, nature, temporality, memory, the senses and the human condition. Exploring the thresholds of perception, the program offers viewers a unique opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a burgeoning generation of artists.

Inaugurating their collective enterprise in the heyday of the “medium is the message,” General Idea were often dismissed as camp “triviality.” Yet they created a fictional system based on popular culture that was as coherent as the media analyses of Marshall McLuhan and the International Situationists. The lecture considers General Idea’s contribution to the Toronto School of communication theory.

With an introduction by Outsiders co-curator Sophie Hackett
Directed by Martin Bell

David Jaffé, Senior Curator in the Department of Painting, National Gallery, London will talk about  the work of 17^th Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens.  In particular he will discuss the Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens from the Thomson Collection at the AGO.

Companies claiming to represent the "creative industries" have turned into unlikely advocates of censorship, surveillance and control. Entertainment industry associations have asked world leaders to remake the Internet as a nightmarish panopticon, in the name of defending the arts and copyright.

A professor at York University, Dr. Douglas Peers specializes in British-Maharaja relations.  He will discuss the Durbar of 1877, also known as the Proclamation Durbar, which was held to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria and to proclaim her as Empress of India. 

In association with the exhibition Beautiful Fictions: Photographic Art from the AGO featuring the Vivian and David Campbell Collection, Thomas Ruff will discuss his work in a public talk at the AGO’s Gallery School.

Wednesday, September 21: Michelle Jacques
Michelle Jacques is the acting curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Wednesday, September 28: Myles McCutcheon
Myles McCutcheon is a photographer and photo editor in Toronto.

Wednesday, October 5:  Sophie Hackett
Sophie Hackett is assistant curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Wednesday, October 19:  Srimoyee Mitra
Srimoyee Mitra is a curator, writer, and Programming Co-ordinator at SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre). 

Guest Speaker: Norman L. Kleeblatt

Be It Resolved that Toronto will Never Be Beautiful