Imagine Detroit in the year 2025.

Do you picture a desolate wasteland of broken-down cars and dilapidated buildings?

Or can you see vibrant, successful neighborhoods linked by convenient, high-quality rapid transit?

If you envision the latter, the Transportation Riders United design contest is for you. Detroit in Transit: Visions of a Region on the Move seeks exciting designs of Detroit’s future transit and transit-oriented neighborhoods.

Given the value of effective visuals in sparking public imagination, these designs will help to launch a broad regional dialogue and build public understanding of the role of rapid transit in urban revitalization and the creation of vibrant walkable communities.

For National Transportation Week, we invite artists, designers, urban planners, architects, students and others to submit designs of what Detroit’s transit and transit-oriented neighborhoods could look like in 2025.

There are three contest categories:
• Designs of transit vehicles on a streetscape
• Architectural designs of transit stations in a streetscape
• Urban planning designs of vibrant neighborhoods or intersections around transit stations or stops
Designs are due to TRU by April 30. Finalists in each category will be selected and displayed at a gala event during National Transportation Week, May 13-18.
For design parameters and contest details, register online for the contest. You will receive an email within 3 days with contest details.
Please forward this announcement to any person, email list or website that might be interested in this contest.


Megan Owens
Executive Director, Transportation Riders United
500 Griswold, Suite 1650 MOwens@DetroitTransit.org
Detroit, Michigan 48226 www.DetroitTransit.org
Phone: 313-963-8872 Fax: 313-963-8876

During National Transportation Week

For fifty years, Detroit has had no rapid transit. In addition to holding back our region's growth and development, this also means that the public has little understanding of what transit would look like here, how it would work, and how it could encourage redevelopment and revitalization. Knowing the value of effective visuals in building public perception and sparking public imagination and excitement, Transportation Riders United is holding a design contest: Detroit in Transit.

We will hold a design contest, inviting student and professional artists, designers, urban planners and architects to submit designs of what Detroit’s transit and transit-oriented neighborhoods could look like in 2025. There will be three parts to the contest:
- Designs of transit vehicles on a streetscape
- Architectural designs of transit stations in a streetscape
- Urban planning designs of vibrant neighborhoods or intersections around transit stations or stops
The parameters of the contest will be broad – any design incorporating transit on a real street or in a real neighborhood in Detroit or its inner suburbs will be considered. The design should be something that could realistically be built in the next twenty years (assuming with sufficient investment and support).

We will provide a map of where transit is likely to be developed, including both regional commuter rail and modern streetcar / light rail. We will also provide some specific suggested locations, with current maps, images, and other relevant data.

Contest criteria and details will be sent out to area schools, various web forums, etc in early March. We will work with teachers and professors from area schools to encourage entries. Submissions will be due on April 30.
Designs will be judged both on their visual appeal and design merit by both professionals (in art and urban design) and local residents. Five finalists from each category will be selected. These fifteen designs will be displayed at a fundraising event for Transportation Riders United on Friday, May 18. Finalists will each be given two complementary tickets. At the event, the runner up and the winner in each category will be announced. (If possible, we will get an art supply store to donate gift certificates for each winner as a sponsor of the event, but this has not been confirmed.)

In addition to displaying the finalists and announcing the winners, the event will also include a brief presentation of TRU’s transit vision and what we are doing to make these transit visions become reality.

Transportation Riders United (TRU) is a local non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and improving public transit in greater Detroit, including improving the existing bus service and bringing quality rapid transit to the region, just like every other major city.

In collaboration with the Sharjah Biennial 8
STILL LIFE - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change

The UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2007, organized in association with the Sharjah Biennial 8 on the theme of "STILL LIFE - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change", is at the heart of the global dialogue on the role of art as a vital force for positive change to how we shape our environment, whether determined by spatial, geographical properties or by socio-cultural relevancies, and how we respond to our surroundings, immediate and global. Particularly in times when the concepts of space, time, and social relationship from every sphere of life experience are put in flux via communication technologies, artists are dynamically positioned to drive the questions related to contemporary social and environmental concerns with critical and creative thinking and artistic intervention using, among other things, digital tools.

With half of the world’s population now living in urban areas, creating the conditions of people-centred sustainable environments within an increasingly urbanized world is more and more accentuated across the globe. Cities are subject to innumerable pressures that affect their inhabitants, but could also be centres for expression of cultural diversity and places of vitality at the intersections of art, technology, and socio-cultural conditions. In this regard, young artists around the world are invited to reflect on how urban spaces and city environments could be transformed into creative outlets cultivating artistic innovation and new forms of expression. Potential applicants to the award are especially asked to conceive and design their creative project that is integral to the theme of sustainable urban development. They are encouraged to make up the artistic transformation and social representation of unique observations and reflections on urban environment and its communities.

The award is especially in conjunction with the UNESCO Young Digital Creators (YDC) Programme (http://www.unesco.org/culture/digiarts/ydc) and, therefore, applicants will use the online YDC application "scenes and sounds of my city" (http://unesco.sjsu.edu/) for submitting their creative project.

The "Scenes and sounds of my city" programme gives the floor to users to present their own urban dynamics, taking on a local flair or tone or making collective expressions of their ideas and visions related to urban environment through the digital medium of images and sounds. In the past, there has been an active participation in this programme of over 100 groups of creative learning communities from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Moldova, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc.

UNESCO Digital Arts Award
The UNESCO Digital Arts Award, which forms a special category of the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts dedicated to recognizing outstanding creative achievements by young artists in different fields of arts, aims at promoting cultural diversity and encouraging dialogue between cultures through innovative artistic ideas and forms using new media and technology.

The total award money is US $10.000, which could be divided and delivered to more than one laureate. It is provided by the Higashiyama Fund, managed by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan (NFUAJ), and given by the Director-General of UNESCO.

General Guidelines
• Submitted projects should relate to the theme and topic of the award.
• The applicants must submit one project through the above-mentioned online YDC application (http://unesco.sjsu.edu/).
• The user name and password of the online application would be distributed to the candidates once they have sent their CVs and completed entry forms to the UNESCO DigiArts Team (mailto:digiarts@unesco.org).
• Collaborative participation from more than one artist is highly welcomed.
• Young, talented people from under-represented countries are especially encouraged to participate.

Deadlines and Submission Materials
Preparatory materials by 31 December 2006
• CV and biographies of participating artist(s)
• Completed entry form
Final materials by 16 February 2007
• One creative project submitted online at: http://unesco.sjsu.edu/
• Written documentation (word or pdf format) on the process of building the creative projects with supporting audio-visual materials

Jury
An international jury will be assembled representing the 5 geo-cultural regions (Asia/Pacific, Latin America/Caribbean, Africa, Arab States, Europe/North America) with the support of respective representatives of the co-organizers UNESCO and the Sharjah Biennial.

Contact
For more details, visit:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/digiarts/award
Or contact:
digiarts@unesco.org

detroit contemporary
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd.

Detroit, MI 48208
(313) 898-4ART

www.detroitcontemporary.com
Thurs-Sun 12-6pm.

April 12 through May 18.


When is a group show really a collection of solo shows? When it’s held at detroit contemporary’s unique venue. Rather than being an overwhelming, smorgasbord of art works, the show is laid out in such a way as to maintain the integrity of each body of art, allowing viewers to interact with each artist’s work in an intimate fashion. Despite the number of artists represented here, they all get their respective due.





The sculptures of Kathy Dambach inhabit the floor space and move onto the walls as well of the upstairs gallery. The headless figures she has created are at once instantly recognizable as something, and yet what that something is remains uncertain. This ambiguity coupled with their whimsical and almost magical quality leaves the viewer in a most unsettling place. In “Like Candy” headless sculptures, sit like plucked chickens on a conveyor belt at a meat processing plant. Yet by their colors and the title of the piece, Dambach has made them seem as if they are the candy dots that come on paper strips. The juxtaposition of ideas in this and her other pieces creates an interesting visual conflict for viewers to spend time with and attempt to unravel for themselves.





The rest of the upstairs show consists of wall pieces creating a ground for Dambach’s figure. While Benjamin Keihl has but a single piece in the show, it is a powerful offering hinting at even more to come from this young artist. Keihl captures the subject of this photo-realistic portrait in an upfront, honest and compelling manner.





On a different end of the spectrum from photo-realism, Mary Potts displays three sensuous, atmospheric pieces. She conveys the mood if not the imagery as well of twilight and other moments in the day. A ring that looks as though it was left by a coffee mug on these placemat sized pieces is blended into the imagery to create a perfect hint of sun or moon. Potts packs a great deal into these small pieces, carrying viewers back to a a feeling brought on by a particular time or place.





Jeanne Bieri’s collages are woven together from various materials overlaid with her careful paintings and drawings. They are in some sense a tapestry or a quilt of sorts. Mathematical symmetry groups work their way into the collage mix adding another element of complexity to the pieces. Through all these elements Bieri has found a way to tell resonating stories about American life.





Susan Aaron-Taylor is known for her sculptural work and in this outing she takes a turn at encaustic painting, which as it turns out can be quite sculptural. Within these images she continues to explore the mystical aspect of nature – her tree forms contain a presence occasionally revealed through peering nymph-like faces. Writing wraps through the imagery to bring another layer of depth to their meaning.





The interiors of Renee Dooley’s box shrines are intriguing, jewel-like and thoughtful to take in. She has filled them with symbolism creating an exquisite world for viewers to enter and be engaged in. The exterior doesn’t quite reach the level of wonder inside – the simplistic nature of the imagery seems somehow out of place with the rest of otherwise intriguing piece.





Jo Powers has a single piece upstairs and her own show downstairs. Upstairs she shares a powerfully honest, stunning accomplishment of a self-portrait. It’s a tiny figure surrounded by a large field of white – making viewers look in close and feel closed in by the space around it. The downstairs works continue in this sort of claustrophobic, boxed-in feeling. Angry faces fill these pieces – colored to match the mood of the painting. While perhaps not as commanding as the singular self-portrait, they offer an exciting realm of exploration for Powers to exercise her creativity.





Nelson Smith shares the first floor gallery with Powers. What she does with emotion and expressiveness, Smith counters with rationality and elaborate constructions. The pieces are part paintings and part assemblages. They share a hint of a lineage with Magritte in the surreal sense with upside down flowerpots and other imagery. Smith’s works seem to favor the intellectual aspect of art rather than the visual. The pieces become puzzles to work your way into, take in all the symbols and writing and explore the truly thought provoking ideas that he presents.


Out in trailer two, a group of 2002 Cranbrook graduates explore the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard” through the lens of cultural anthropology. With images and memorabilia from the show, they analyze the show to speak about our society - split between north and south, black and white, male and female, educated and uneducated and rich and poor. A highlight of this investigation displays clips from the series side by side with clips from the “reality” show “Cops”. The juxtaposition reveals just how funny these shows both are or perhaps why they really have never been funny at all.


In T1 and on the detroit contemporary web site, is the Detroit net.art project “Intersections.” Curated by filmmaker Robert Andersen and net artist (and founder of Mark(s) Zine ) Deb King, this grouping brings together many artists to create a piece about many different corners in Detroit. It’s truly a delightful project and a necessary one at that. Each artist has created their own statement tying in some way into the place they have selected. Some highlights include: Chris Tysh’s short stories woven together with images from the corner of Fleming and Pulaski; Martin Schramm’s pixelized imagery from McNichols and San Juan; Bryan Koehn’s poem and imagery, reflecting on intersections of time, space, family and self and the corner of Michigan and Trumbull; and thedetroiter.com contributor Francis Grunow’s look at Woodward and Michigan Avenue. Grunow’s seven silent views alternate between images of the past on the streets of Detroit with present scenes, giving rise to thoughts of the city’s future. (There are a few strange notes in the mix – some of the artists made meaningful, important and timely political pieces. While these are definitely interesting and thoughtful, their presence here without even a hint of the intersection theme is downright confusing. Perhaps a second site could be set up to create a place to let this realm of expression and discourse truly get its due.) All in all it’s a fascinating concept and one that will no doubt continue to grow and include more artists and intersections in the future. Check it out at dc and again through their website.


detroit contemporary takes its name seriously – and provides a great opportunity to see a lot, a whole lot actually, of what is going on in contemporary in Detroit. – nick Sousanis