At DG Dip our team actively participates in homegrown in house projects. Such projects offer a great learning opportunity to the team at large and helps develop techniques that we often put to good use for our customer centric projects as well. Some of the prominent ideas to come out of our research studio are:

Inito it!

In 2004, Faisal Anwar co- founded Action Pact designs and ‘Into it!’. ‘Into it!’ is an interactive installation creating an entertaining and learning experience from animal’s perspective for children. In 2006/07 ‘Into it!’ wasbeen selected under the ‘artist as Innovators category’, for research and development for children with multiple disabilities under CulturalAll (CFC media lab, Banff Newmedia, Adoptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto). In 2006 & 07, Anwar was part of artists in residency @ Banff NewMedia lab for Luminal Screen and Almost Perfect and worked on ‘into it!’ research and production. In 2007 ‘Into it!’ was also nominated at the world summit, Vienna under innovative projects category.

visit actionpactdesigns

GOTCHA

GOTCHA (Gathering Ordinary Telephotos & Capturing Hidden Attitudes)
With the mass commercialization of camera phones and the ease of taking pictures on the fly, our team decided to investigate the possibility of collecting and displaying such photographs online and in real time. After going through the hoops of understanding the format variances and technological restrictions of various cellular service providers, the team was able to develop a prototype application that allowed cellular user to take pictures and instantly upload them to an online repository all through the cellular device itself.

The prototype was brought to life with the support of SAVAC at Nuit Blanche 2006.  Anwar worked with SAVAC on the idea of pictures making an important social impact. The exhibit, titled G.O.T.C.H.A (Gathering Ordinary Telephotos & Capturing Hidden Attitudes), asked the audience to participate in an all night surveillance project at the event. While doing so they were asked to discreetly photograph any person or object that they associated with the term “South Asian”. The pictures were sent to our online repository and were instantly projected onto a screen set up for the event
SAVAC’s intent behind the project was to identify the stereotypes, perception and interpretation of such perceptions that lead us to judge people in everyday life.

visit GOTCHA

Zero Cluster

This Pop Vox Award nominated installation was collaboration between DG Dip and the Toronto based musical collective Lal. Our team got an opportunity to indulge in the emerging art form of interference art. Interference Art is the idea of using art to create a dialogue around issues which effect communities with the aim to counter mainstream ideas of what is best for us as a global community. Thus came about Zero Cluster: Deportation.

The under lying idea of the Zero Cluster technique is to develop an experience using hybrid technologies, live music performance and real-time video/film with multi-layer projection experience. With it, we have developed an unconventional use of consumer technologies that stretches the limits of how both performers and audiences normally experience the music and visuals.

The Zero Cluster: Deportation installation envisaged the underlying message of Lal’s music and focused on the cross-section of information, media exploitation and surveillance. The project took the audience through streams of audio/visual presentations, and provided them opportunities to explore and find ways to connect with space, visual imagery and sound.

visit zero cluster video clips, visit zero cluster pictures

Suno-Kahani

The current object of creative thoughts is an interactive online story-telling environment for children called Suno Kahani.  One can conceive it as an online, multilingual, multicultural playroom for children. The stories, usually based on folk lore, give children an opportunity to learn about their cultural heritage. The stories are linked to historical information and cultural information.

360EXtEndEd

360EXtEndEd is a multi-platform project, which explores a city's evolution. We live in a city where there are infinite stories at every corner, in every neighborhood, in every house. 360EXtEndEd questions how, in this hybrid age of globalization, we perceive our relationship with the city we call 'home'. How does a city’s life, architecture and history impact on us, its inhabitants? What happens to all our unsaid and unspoken stories, which we all carry?

YOUR CITY, YOUR STORY.

360EXtEndEd has two components
Website: This is a place to tell and share stories about the city of Toronto. The website enables community-based interaction where people are invited to post stories, pictures and videos to the site. The website becomes a portal where our experiences about the city, past and present reside. It is a place to celebrate our diversity in today's urban culture and share our relationships with the city we call home.

Site-Specific Installation: Your stories of the city will be a part of the first real-time, site-specific installation at Nathan Phillip’s Square. The installation is part of Toronto's "My City" campaign celebrating 175 years of Toronto. The installation will consist of large-scale projections around the large dome inside the rotunda. 360EXtEndEd will take the audience through streams of visuals and provide them with opportunities to explore and find ways to connect with space and visual imagery.

visit 360ExtEndED