Group 1 reflects on their project. Photo by Paul Catanese

Triple Canopy is:

“an online magazine, workspace, and platform for editorial and curatorial activities. Working collaboratively with writers, artists, and researchers, Triple Canopy facilitates projects that engage the Internet’s specific characteristics as a public forum and as a medium, one with its own evolving practices of reading and viewing, economies of attention, and modes of interaction.”

Our department recently had the privilege of hosting a weekend long workshop with Colby Chamberlain (Senior Editor), Adam Florin (Senior Web Developer), and Peter Russo (Editorial and Program Director) of Triple Canopy. In the workshop we spent three days reading, discussing, and creating. The material covered was intense and challenging — it addressed a dialogue about how we digest information (and what that means socially, politically, and culturally) that spanned a century. Dominantly discussed was the idea of magazine and the role of the magazine in art and literature. This was paired with the advent of the internet. We discussed authorship and how the internet has changed that concept completely, in a way that no other medium before has had the power to do. We discussed form and structure, the idea of the expert, we discussed a lot.

Presentation of a project featuring Gordon Matta-Clark. Photo by Paul Catanese

As a book artist, the question of what to do with advancing technology is a really intriguing and exciting one. In the book and paper arts in general, there seems to always be a push and pull between an advocacy of embracing technology and a desire to hold true to the traditions of the past. The question that they were posing in the Triple Canopy workshop, is what does the internet do that print can’t do? What qualities does it have that we can take advantage of to change the way people absorb information? In our program, we have several students who are doing work with artists books on ipads. How does that format change the reading of a piece of book art? As those students make those books for ipads, they are having to pose the same questions as Triple Canopy – how do I not only take advantage of this technology because, let’s all admit it, iPads are cool, but how do I utilize the specific qualities of the iPad (not trying to make it a book, not trying to make it an artists book), to create an entirely unique viewing experience?

The weekend also included a project. We were divided into three groups and assigned an artist. We then had to devise an approach to presenting the material using qualities unique to the internet. You can see my group’s project, featuring Gordon Matta-Clark, in the images I’m using today.

Group 1 presents Gordon Matta-Clark collage as part of their proposed project. Photo by Paul Catanese

For me, the workshop brought up a lot of questions about responsibility of use of materials in this technological age. I felt like the way Triple Canopy is thinking about online publishing, in this balance of old and new, is highly reflective of the way that our own Interdisciplinary Arts Department works. Our department is an interesting, incredibly contemporary (theoretically and artistically) space to create work in. I think it’s important to consider these discussions and use them as a way to really critically examine our own practices.

So, cheers to Triple Canopy and a great visit. I highly recommend viewing the Triple Canopy website. You can browse the current and all previous issues for free on the internet.