This year Apartment613 and Artengine continue our endeavor to foster new perspectives on the media arts landscape with an open call for the 2013 Critical Blogging Residency. This residency is for an art critic or cultural journalist from the Ottawa-Gatineau area, who will cross post thought-provoking dialogues on the Artengine and Apartment613 blogs throughout the year. Conceived as a creative space for expression and research into culture, technology and social engagement, the content and direction will be developed in consultation with the Artistic Director of Artengine. The residency begins with... | Continue reading article

For the third year in a row we asked to you bare all in the name of pseudo science for the pleasure of your fellow citizens. Although you were slightly less forthcoming – 479 of you took this year’s survey, down from 716 the year before – there’s still enough juicy details to make for tantalizing reading. So to celebrate the season of  love and lust, we’re dishing all the dirty details. As always, please keep in mind that no actual statistics were harmed in the making of this survey. In fact, if this survey came... | Continue reading article

This Friday, Creative Mornings is taking on the issue of happiness. John Zelenski from Carleton University is the director of the happiness lab, a facility devoted to testing what makes us happy and how we can control and manage our happiness. If Ottawa’s long (and cold) winter is getting you down, this morning lecture might be just what you need. We sent a few questions over to Zelenski to find out more about his work and his lab. Apartment613: Can you explain the link between nature and happiness? Does this bode... | Continue reading article

HUB Ottawa has now shed its beta status and is entering its most important year yet. The organization was launched a year ago as a collaborative space for Ottawa’s social innovators to network, build relationships, work on projects and learn new skills. To that end, HUB Ottawa has been hosting a number of brown bag lunches and talks on varied topics, including Apt613′s first ever live panel. However, there was a need for something more structured and systematic, with content tailored more directly to HUB members’ needs and ambitions. Enter Impact Academy, which on January... | Continue reading article

This weekend Open Data Ottawa and their partners at the City of Ottawa will be hosting Learn Hack YOW at City Hall. It’s your chance to come mess around with some of the city’s data sets, brainstorm ideas for what to do with data, and learn some practical skills that will help you engage with the exciting new world of open data. You don’t need any technical skills – in fact, the organizers tell me they are hoping that a full range of academics, activists, artists and others will show... | Continue reading article

Sometimes a speaker is so fascinating all you want to do is listen to them for hours. I was left with this impression after attending the keynote lecture at the Eschaton 2012 conference, which was held in downtown Ottawa from November 30 to December 2. Given by the renowned biologist and university professor Paul Zachary “PZ” Myers, the talk at the Canadian Museum of Nature discussed the role of chance in evolution. Like many people, my understanding of evolution is based on a basic view of natural selection. The child’s... | Continue reading article

What’s on your agenda for this weekend, Ottawa? Perhaps some burlesque with your usual Sunday brunch? Or a holiday food market like no other?A bit of improv? Or a classical Christmas concert, perhaps? If you’re looking to take in some art – or trying to find some for gifts – the Ottawa Art Gallery and Cube Gallery might have something for you, or Cyclelogik’s Holiday Sweat-ER in an art sale like no other (we’re talking food and DJing). Craft sales continue, too, with Craftalicious happening down in the Glebe on... | Continue reading article

It appears that Armageddon is all around us. Whether it’s movies about the end of the world, fantasy novels by Christian fundamentalists on the apocalypse or the popular expression “drinking the Kool-Aid” that stems from the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, it seems we can’t help but think about the end of time. So what is a modern, science-loving, rational-thinking person to make of this apocalyptic buzz? Why, attend a conference for rational skeptics at a Best Western Hotel in downtown Ottawa. “We know that there are many myths and ideas about... | Continue reading article

On Saturday, November 17th at the Media Democracy conference, an abundance of workshops and discussions were provided into which participants could sink their inquisitive teeth.  Focusing on National as well as International topics, dynamic and intelligent presenters illustrated issues relevant to critical alternatives to mainstream media, and illuminated new avenues of both interpretation and participation. One such panel discussion that took place at 10:30 a.m. included Jennifer David, a media consultant and one of the founders of the APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network), Jocelyn Formsma, a filmmaker and host of... | Continue reading article

The vibrancy of city life is highly contingent on the services available and the things we do to fill our time. When we think of the places and spaces we frequent, or when we think of the restaurants we enjoy, we are confronted with the immense role that entrepreneurs have in our quality of living. In our second Apartment613 Talks event we’re going to look at entrepreneurship from three different angles – as employment, as creativity and as critical to our standard of living. You will hear first-hand from locals... | Continue reading article