"Baked Ham" Features Tsukiji, Felt Cats and Desire Lines

 For Tuesday February 19th's class.

I found these today and don't know what to do with them. I can put them here, right? Let's do a class post in reverse!

First, Anita Hairston talks about city design objectively following data- however diverse the source of that data- instead of ideals. A nice call back to earth if you ask me! Anita Hairston is the senior associate for Transportation Policy at PolicyLink and an adviser for the National Building Museum's Intelligent Cities initiative.

Second, "Welcome to Tsukiji", a documentary about Tokyo's legendary fish market.

Third, Illustrator James Davies' stuffed felt cats dressed in various costumes. Yep, they're pretty awesome.

So, what do any of these have to do with Tuesday's panel discussion class about "The Center and The Margin In Canadian Art"? Find out as I do! In the style of Sackville's "Baked Ham Community Speaker Series", I'll connect things that are seemingly completely unrelated for the pleasure of creativity and of learning about new things.

A poster for a talk. The speaker series features two speakers per evening presenting on two seemingly completely unrelated subjects. It is then left to the audience to ask questions and figure out similarities between subjects.

In a few ways, this makes me think of Anita Hairston's mention of desire lines in cities. Desire lines are the worn-down paths created most often on grass by frequent pedestrian traffic. These pedestrians "desire" a footpath where there is none, and who so make their own by force of habit. Many consider desire lines to go outside the beaten path -pun intended- and we could say that they are in the margin. But the margin is sometimes desirable to the center, to keep playing with words, and this is where Anita Hairston comes in and listens, as a good urban planner should.

The desirability of the unknown - and so of the margin - can also be considered when looking at tourism. Does tourism not bank on this human curiosity for the marginal, sometimes for the exotic? Yes, and sometimes to controversial effects. The famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is a good example, where the market was as of late closed to tourists, because there were simply too many for the local merchants to function efficiently! However, curiosity can now be satisfied via the acclaimed documentary "Welcome to Tsukiji" by J. Almena Redondo.

As for illustrator James Davies' felt cats, we can perhaps tie them in by noting that the domain of illustration is itself a marginal one within the Canadian art world. Come to think of it, documentary-making and urban design also fit quite well into the margin of Canadian art. Are they art? Not all the time, and not to everyone. But are they creative? Most certainly. I prefer this idea, that of being a creative rather than an outright artist. This idea of being a creative takes much of the mysticism and supposed glamor away from the act of creating compared to that of the "artist" title. Instead, it is swapped for a professional, diverse way of approaching situations and a flexibility in occupations, professional or otherwise.

Now if only my university diploma read "Bachelor of Fiiiiiine Creativity"... !