The Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC), is thrilled to announce it’s latest endeavour: the LED Exhibition. This exhibition allows our diverse community of members to showcase their digital artwork on our impressive 7ft LED display. As we invite submissions, we aspire to inspire passersby of the Arts Court building and affirm our shared commitment to fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and supportive artistic community.
This month’s Exhibition features works by Helen Lam and Von Allan.
“The Cosmic Egg” by Helen Lam
In the cosmic egg lies the origin of the universe. In many mythologies, it’s the source of heaven, earth, and the world’s first people. This experimental digital artwork plays with the core promise of the cosmic egg, that at the heart of the world is an endless source of potentiality. Made in Unity, this artwork integrates 3D modelling, shaders, particle systems and code to explore the idea that all things are in a continuous state of becoming something else. The symbols that transform are representations of life and the quest for meaning. The circular nature of the symbols suggests a return to the beginning, where all things start again.
Helen Lam is a Canadian extended reality (XR) and narrative designer with experience in video games and virtual reality. Her recent work includes the AR portal experience Now That I’m Here (2022), exhibited online in the Tender Circuits exhibition with the Digital Arts Resource Centre. Her previous projects include a collaborative video game made in 48 hours featured in the 2021 Ars Electronica Festival and fiction that has appeared in the Ottawa-based indie zine Subscribe/d.
“WOLF’S HEAD” by By Von Allan
“WOLF’S HEAD” is about a secretive, warmongering scientific corporation that accidentally creates a humanity-loving artificial intelligence (AI) while trying to build a new war machine. Patty, a cleaning lady, and her daughter Lauren, a former cop, help the young AI escape the mega-corporation and then must hide it. The protagonist of “WOLF’S HEAD” is Lauren Greene, who is a young woman who quits the police force after becoming irreconcilably frustrated with growing police violence. She is becoming more and more aware of the injustices around her: the divide between rich and poor, racism, lack of opportunity for many people, health and illness bankrupting and destroying people, and more. Once she quits the police force, though, she’s at loose ends. Lauren’s situation and her various struggles are resonating with readers of part 1 of the series, especially when so many people (here in Ottawa and throughout the world) are dealing with so many similar challenges.
Adapting key art from “WOLF’S HEAD” for DARC’s LED exhibit was a perfect opportunity to showcase the story in a completely different form. Comics are remarkably adaptable and I think the LED display is an excellent example of that. I’m grateful to DARC for this opportunity.
Von Allan is a Canadian independent comic book artist/writer and the creator, writer, and artist of the ongoing series, WOLF’S HEAD. Von has won multiple awards and grants, including a City of Ottawa Arts Funding Program grant in 2020 and 2022 and a shortlist for the Ottawa Arts Council’s prestigious Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award in 2020.
