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“Futurefarmers is a group of artists and designers working together since 1995. We are artists, researchers, designers, farmers, scientists, engineers, illustrators, people who know how to sew, cooks and bus drivers with a common interest in creating work that challenges current social, political and economic systems. Our design studio serves as a platform to support art projects, an artist in residency program and our research interests.
Futurefarmers works across many media. This studio has evolved as a means to support Futurefarmers art practice and fellow protagonists in the road to positive change. We enjoy creating platforms for collective learning and engagement. We are a dynamic group of practitioners who provide services for cultural institutions, activist groups and organizations rooted in the transformative power of knowledge sharing and transmission. Our collective body forms a diverse knowledge and skill base that includes graphic design, architecture, urbanism, philosophy, ecology, industrial design, computer programming, information visualization, food practices, research, educational programing. We are aligned by shared interest and dreams.”

See works at Futurefarmers

(From Studio Orta) “The Antarctic Village is an ephemeral encampment that references the plight of those struggling to transverse borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape conflict or natural disasters. The village is composed of Dome Dwellings, hand-made tents assembled with sections of flags from countries around the world, along with extensions of clothes and gloves symbolising the multiplicity and diversity of people. The flags and fragments of clothes are silkscreen printed with motifs referencing the UN Declaration for Human Rights and an article the artists propose to amend: Art. 13.3

Through the symbolic act of founding the Anatrctic Village, the artists reflect on the ideology that embodies Antarctica in particular the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty, which now counts 50 signatory nations, has preserved Antarctica as an area for scientific research with common pacific aims to protect the environment and to encourage international cooperation.
Antarctica embodies utopia: a continent whose extreme climate imposes mutual aid and solidarity, freedom of research, of sharing, and collaboration for the good of the planet. It is a place where the immaculate whiteness contains all the wishes of humanity to spread a message of hope for future generations.”

For more projects see Studio Orta.

The annual Extended Practices Arboretum Mushroom Foray took place Oct. 7th this year, on an unseasonably warm afternoon.

Marije and Rachel with some delicate wing-like brackets, and Nora with the cutest button in the woods.

Alaina’s basket of several different macro-fungi including this jelly – commonly called “witch’s butter”.

A selection of field guides from the library-trunk.

Main identification features for stalked, gilled mushrooms.

Chris Earley from the Arboretum participating in the ID session on the hood of the car. Art Historian and mushroom enthusiast Dario Ré describing morphological features.

Dario, Rachel, Sonali and Marije check out gills and spore colour. I carry deadly poisonous Gallerina autumnalis back into the woods.

Edward, Sydney and an immaculate Clitocybe, smelling of aniseed, aslo edible Hericium with “teeth”.

The day’s species included several jellies, brackets, Clitocybe, medicinal Ganoderma, Suillus, Russulas, pear-shaped puffballs, Hygrocybe, wolf’s milk and other slime moulds. Luckily no one brought back a stink-horn this time!

John Cage inspecting a giant parasol mushroom. Major modern composer, artist, poet and writer –  Cage was deeply enthusiastic about fungi, and was the first president of the New York Mycological Society. He developed several works, pieces of music and writings related to foraging and mushrooms. Aspects of chance and indeterminacy, along with silence – were among his most important themes. See this charming video for Cage’s interpretations of a mushroom haiku.

Carsten Holler, Experience, 2011.

For more information on John Cage, fluxus, and the significant relationships between contemporary art and mushrooms – see Dario Ré’s Mushroom Resource – featuring countless examples of works featuring mushrooms and mycology organized by genus. In Carsten Holler’s work above are the hallucinogenic: Amanita muscaria. In Eastern Canada and Ontario we have only the yellow version (variation: formosa), with the same toxic properties as the iconic red Amanita’s found in the west coast.

Last Friday, Outdoor School spent the day at Monocliffs where I properly demonstrated how to skip a stone.

Stone skimming, ducks and drakes, or more commonly known as skipping stones is the act of throwing a stone across water in a way that it bounces off the surface multiple times.  You want to choose a stone that is flat, skinny and about the size of your palm.  The smoother and flatter the stone the better it will skip across water without breaking surface tension.  I prefer rocks that are not perfectly smooth, so I’m able to grip it for a better spin.

Once you have your stone, you want to hold it between your index finger and thumb, placing the edge of the stone against your index finger.  Place your thumb on one flat side of the stone and your middle finger on the other.  Your thumb should be rested on top and the stone should fit in the crook of your index finger.

Face the water sideways with your non-dominant side closest to the water.  Squat down, so the rock is more parallel to the water when you toss it.  You’ll want to slightly angle your rock upwards.  The front side of the stone should be tilted at about 20°.

Skipping stones may seem simple, but it’s a beautiful pastime because it connects us to our natural surroundings and often with one another.  I think there is something very special about the act of searching the earth for a stone.

It also creates the nicest sound.

thank you Alison for documentation.

Collecting and tasting wild apples.

Picnic at McCarsten’s Lake.

An invigorating (COLD!) October dip.

Outdoor School Group shot in the woods, Fall 2015.

Walk back through the wildflower field.

Today we visited the insect collection on campus in the Bovey building and were toured around by Morgan (thanks Morgan!). The University of Guelph Insect Collection was established in 1863 (that’s older than Canada as a country!) and contains specimens from that same year. Insects in the collection are from all over the world with an emphasis on insects from southern Ontario.

Below are some photos from our visit and some things we learned about:

We learned that to be classified an insect, a creature generally has to have six legs, an exoskeleton, and two pairs of wings.

While all bee species are in decline, the honeybee is the poster child for bee disappearance. In reality the honeybee is an invasive species in Canada, and while useful to humans (who doesn’t love honey?) isn’t the most concerning for entomologists. The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is a native species that was found in abundance in Ontario, but hasn’t been seen here since 2009.

We learned about some different classifications of insects, for example that “bugs” have a sucking mouth part, like a bed bug would use to suck blood. Beetles are distinguished by their front set of wings being turned into an armoured shell. Flies are of the order Diptera, meaning “two wings”. They have two sets of wings, but only one set is functional for flying. Butterflies and moths have scaled wings, the coloured areas of their wings actually being scales. The last order of insect we talked about was that of wasps ants and bees (Hymenoptera).

Then we got to see some live bugs, a tailless whip scorpion and some Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

You can find out some more info on the insect collection’s website: http://www.uoguelph.ca/debu/

Hello Outdoor School Students!

In light of our recent trip and the fact that the e-mail list on courselink doesn’t have everybody on it (since we’re separated into two sections), I decided to make a quick post about making your pictures bigger without making them all blurry. I know Diane said to stretch them, but that makes the quality horrible for some reason, even if your original picture was big and pretty before :O. So in case you didn’t know, there is an option to choose the size of your photo.

When adding media, it uploads it to a media library then you pick the photos you just uploaded, right? Well on the right side there are “attachment details” which may seem useless, I know, BUT, if you scroll down to the bottom of that little thing, you get options for the size! It usually picks thumbnail right off the bat for you, but if you just press Full Size, you should be able to get it as big as it will appear on the blog 🙂 Then you can just make it smaller if you like (or click the “small” or “medium” option)

Above is what you’re looking for, then just insert into post as usual 🙂 and it’s pretty!

Anyways, I will totally delete this post later, but I thought it might be helpful with all the beautiful photos that will be coming in from everyone on our trip! Okay, that is all 🙂

Peace out

– Andrea