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Art with byte >> Brad Todd, virtual success
The work of Montreal-based artist Brad Todd is indicative of the growing alliance between technology and the art world. Todd came to Montreal from Alberta eight years ago as a painter, and has since discovered and embraced the countless possibilities that the digital domain has made available for artists. And like many young visual artists, he feels a sense of excitement about the increasing presence of computers in art. "I think that this acceleration of availability is basically speeding up the discovery of aspects of the world on a personal and global level," he says. "In fact, it's having an impact on our faculties of creativity that will not be properly seen for some time to come. The idea of 'relationship between' and other dichotomies will cease to have currency as the interface with the medium becomes more and more transparent... it will simply 'be.'" Todd now divides his time between painting, technology-based art and the composition of computer-generated musical soundscapes. In 1998, he was contracted to put the Oboro gallery's entire archives onto a Web site comprising over 900 pages. At the same time, he was featured in a solo painting exhibition at the up-and-coming Pari Nadimi gallery in Toronto, where he is continuing to show in a group exhibition. Todd was recently selected for the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts, Paris Studio. He will be off to Paris in March to paint under the patronage of the government of Canada. He also has a Web site piece which he was invited to produce as part of TechnOboro's online artist project. Titled Worlds Within Worlds, the site incorporates recent digital technologies that allow the viewer to manipulate or navigate scenes and objects. This year will also bring a Web collaboration with internationally known video artist Daniel Dion. The address for Worlds Within Worlds is:http://www.cam.org/home/Woboro/worlds/
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by KEITH MARCHAND