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MDR and the WWW
Everything written about us on the web. |
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Winners!
After being nominated for three years straight, we've finally won the Toronto Arts Award for Youth, a $15,000 cash prize established in 2007 by Martha Burns, Jim Fleck and Jim Pitblado. |
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New Youth Operative: John Caffery
We are ecstatic to announce that John Caffery is piloting a new project with the Upper Canada College's Horizons Program: The UCC Gala Ambassadors Program. The Horizons program works with students from Toronto's public school system, offering them mentoring opportunities. Mammalian has introduced innovation into the program by inviting the students to put forward a material aspect of Toronto they would like to change - they chose to green Dundas Square. In response, Mammalian and UCC is organizing a series of social opportunities for the students to meet and pick the brains of people they think can help realize the goal. It's skills building, good times, network-building and city improvement all rolled into one. John Caffery's artistic practice incorporates music, dance, film, video, textiles, and photography. He is a founding member of Kids On TV, the electro-punk band which has since 2003 melded live performance, film, video, dance-club music and experimental rock. John recently completed a term as the President of Blocks Recording Club, a Co-operative Artist-Run Record Label. John danced for Cyndi Lauper, sang with Boy George, and is a member of the West Side Stitches. He implemented a dance program and developed a theatre production at Sketch: an artist studio for homeless and street involved youth, was a Community Animator for Jane's Walk where he facilitated youth to design walking tours of their neighbourhoods and a Volunteer Coordinator for the YMCA Academy connecting youth. |
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Haircuts by Children in Regina, Canada
Presented by Curtain Razors in partnership with The Room Hair Salon (2115 Retallack Street) Regina, Saskatchewan. Participating school Davin's School Grade 4/5 Class. Teacher: Kelly Maupin Principal: Loraine O'Donnell Supervising stylists: Shelley Hoffman, Debra Tomporowski March 13 and 14, 2010 - 1:00pm - 4:00pm each day. To book an appointment: Mysteria Gallery - 306-522-0080, |
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Haircuts by Children in Perth, Australia
Presented by The Perth Festival
Participating School: Roseworth Primary School Sat 20, Sun 21 - Ebony and Ivory 25 Barrack St, Perth WA 6000 Sun 28 Feb, Mon 1 March - Octagon Theatre, Perth Writers Festival Bookings - Festival Info Centre 6488 5555 |
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The Children's Choice Awards - Perth, Australia
Presented by The Perth Festival
Awards Ceremony: Sat 27 Feb, 2pm His Majesty's Theatre |
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You Can Have It All
2-part performance with the Council of Expertly Aging Experts on Aging presented by the Justina M. Barnike Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto. Friday February 12, 7-9:30pm Saturday February 13, 7-9pm We will be greasing the wheels of conversation with a briefly open bar at 7. Location: Debates Room and others on 2nd floor, Hart House, University of Toronto 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto THIS EVENT IS RESTRICTED TO ADULTS We spent last summer and fall talking to a bunch of people over the age of 65 about their sex lives. As expected, assumptions crumbled. We learned, among other things, that most women over 65 can garner the love interests of a steady stream of young men, it's possible for a man to have an orgasm without an erection, you can be 80 and still attract the sexual interest of people under 30 and, at 75, it's still not too late to figure out how to come. But most important of all, we learned that aging can yield a way of being in the world that is open, generous and fearless. Facing the final leg of life can bring out the best in us. Mammalian Diving Reflex wants to stand on top of the tallest building in the world and shout out this discovery out to the universe. You Can Have It All is a performance starring the Council of Expertly Aging Experts on Aging. Experts on nothing more than aging, the council will let you know where it's at, how to do it and answer your most pressing questions. You Can Have It All: a Valentines performance from Mammalian Diving Reflex and the Council of Expertly Aging Experts on Aging. Please join us and immerse yourself in over 595 collective years of making it happen. Schedule:
Saturday February 13
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SmallTalks
SmallTalks is a series of podcasts hosted by Darren O'Donnell, who, like a log drifting downstream, will snag people on the bank to slow his progress toward death, and chat with them about their aspirations. Created in response to a life with too much time spent on the road, Darren will be interviewing people around the world and describing the sensation of weak knees in the face of vast heights. All SmallTalks will be available here or you can follow Darren's twitter feed for updates. |
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Listen Carefully Publishing partner, Coach House Books, has uploaded audio clips of Darren reading from Social Acupuncture, an essay and a playscript. Listen to other Coach House authors, too. |
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Time Management for Anarchists The amazingly talented, tireless and prolific Jim Munroe and Marc Ngui have written a comic for anarcho-activists who are tired of the grind. It features an illustrated interview with Darren, his first starring role in a comic. Take a look at Jim's website and download a free copy. |
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Carl Wilson writes article about us for Toronto Life
Master music critic, blogger and Celine Dion expert, Carl Wilson has written an article about us for the December issue of Toronto Life. |
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New Australia Operative: Lenine Bourke
Mammalian Diving Reflex is ecstatic to introduce Lenine Bourke as our new Australia Operative. We will be developing her brilliant project, 600,000 Years, an exciting performance about stranger-danger. Stay tuned - more details to come. Lenine's professional experience in the arts and cultural sectors has taken her throughout Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the USA. She has worked for community, government and arts institutions and organizations. She is currently the Director of Young People and the Arts Australia, the national peak body for youth arts. Her experience extends across a broad range of arts and cultural forms, however her work is collaborative and usually responds to individual or community ideas or issues. She has worked in urban, rural and remote geographies. She has worked extensively with young people, children and their families from diverse communities. Some of the major pieces of her work have been based around social justice, change making, culture and heritage, play and place. Lenine's work has been received as innovative, having integrity and continually utilizes socially just and culturally appropriate processes, she is considered a leader in her field and enjoys working with people to invigorate and activate change. In 2006 she was awarded the national Kirk Robson Award for outstanding leadership from the federal government through the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2009 she received a Fellowship from Brisbane City Council to explore the realm of Social Practice. |
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Stealth Pedagogy, an essay by Darren O'Donnell
Darren wrote a small essay for The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy called Stealth Pedagogy: the lessons of vomit, deception, and choosing children over friends, but we're not sure if it was ever published or what happened to it. So here it is; it's a pdf that should download immediately. Thanks to Alana Wilcox for her editing advice. More writing on our writings page. |
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Eat the Street in Tasmania
Presented by the Streets Alive Festival in association with Mowbray Height Primary School We're off and eating all over again. This time in Launceston, Tasmania. 4 weeks, 12 restaurants. A jury of children deciding what they love, hate and which washroom is the worst. Follow the blog
Supervising Teachers: Marcella Glachan, Karen Higgens, Judy Harris, Chris Cullen, Kathy Robson and Julia Rodwell. |
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Haircuts by Children in Newcastle Upon Tyne and Montreal
Haircuts by Children continues to tour and tour and tour:
Haircuts by Children in Newcastle Upon Tyne
Haircuts by Children in Montreal
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Haircuts by Children in Derry, Northern Ireland.
Presented by the Context Gallery. starring Ms. Eileen Barber's P5s from Oakgrove Integrated Primary School, Princial: Ann Murray. Supervising Stylists: Anne Corr, North West Regional College Coordinated by Darren O'Donnell and Donna Soares, Vancouver Operative. Saturday, June 27 11.00-17.00 at Context Gallery, 5-7 Artillery Street Sunday, June 28 12.00-17.00 at Breidge's Barbershop, Strand Road Book an appointment by contacting Mara Cavalli or Theo Sims, Project Managers at info@contextgallery.co.uk or call (028)71373538 An accompanying exhibition will be in the gallery from 27th June - 18th July. |
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Haircuts by Children in Victoria, Canada
Presented by the Belfry and Skam theatres. starring Mrs. Belanger's Grade 4/5 Class from George Jay Elementary School. Supervising Stylists: Seungmin Yoo and Christina Loxam Coordinated by Darren O'Donnell and Hazel Venzon, Vancouver Operative. Fish Hair Salon (1227 Broad Street) March 14: 10 am to 2 pm March 15: 10 am to 2 pm Book an appointment by calling the Belfry Box Office at 250-385-6815. |
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Missing You
Missing You is a set of two amusement park face-in-the-hole novelties by Darren O'Donnell and Lillian Chan as part of Presently Absent, a group show curated by Sophia Lin. The viewer is invited to occupy Khadr, at a time in his life before the current and insane legal limbo, in one of his two homes: Toronto and Afghanistan - an impossibility. The carnival novelty mocks our inability to act, our pathetic complicity with the Canadian state for allowing this to continue, and suggests that when we do try to act, our only option is to act like a buffoon. March 19 - April 18, 2009 Toronto Free Gallery 1277 Bloor Street West Opening Reception: Thursday, March 19, 6PM - 9PM Live Feed Performance by Johanna Householder at 6:30pm |
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Haircuts by Children in Milan, Italy
Presented by Uovo Project Milano May 23 and 24, 2009 Coordinated by Darren O'Donnell and Stephanie Comilang. |
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Eat the Street
"Mammalian Diving Reflex...invents ingenious recipes" Carl Wilson, Toronto Life Mammalian Diving Reflex, in association with Parkdale Public School presents Parkdale Public School vs. Queen Street West 2: Eat the Street, a critical dinner series. Get a brutally honest take on the restaurants of Queen Street West with this unique series of dinners and awards ceremony where the only opinions that matter are those of the kids. Like luminous bolts of lightening, the Parkdale Public School Pumas have suddenly become restaurant critics. They'll be checking out the food at eleven of Queen Street's finest dining establishments and offering their brash, incisive, and audacious opinions. From March 26th to May 1st, enjoy dinner with this illustrious jury of Parkdale Pumas. Get a rare chance to eat with the critics, and get a sneak preview of what they love and what they hate. Loud and opinionated vocal pronouncements guaranteed! Following the restaurant tour, join the Pumas on May 11, at 7PM, at the Gladstone Hotel, for the official Eat the Street Awards Ceremony and find out which Queen Street West restaurant takes home The Best of the Best. Coordinated by Darren O'Donnell and Petrina Ng. Parkdale Liasons: Joe Leibovitch, Sandra Hamilton and Caroline Wallace. Follow the jury on the Eat the Street blog. Thursday March 26
Saturday March 28
Friday April 3
Tuesday April 7
Saturday April 11
Friday April 17
Saturday April 18
Saturday April 25
Tuesday April 28
Friday May 1
Thursday May 7
Eat the Street Award Ceremony
May 11, 2009
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Cecilia Berkovic Designs Eat the Street Poster
Award-winning poster designer, Cecilia Berkovic has once again designed a really sweet sheet for us. After manifesting the amazing Haircuts by Children and Parkdale Public School vs. Queen Street West posters, she is reaching new heights of design lunacy by creating a poster than manages to clearly communicate all the pertinant information, while flexing one of the craziest colour palettes ever. That girl knows her sh*t. We're particularly proud of this poster's incorporation of the sponsoring businesses, while keeping the design completely coherent. It was our goal to see if we could make a sweet design while managing to locate our generous sponsors front and centre, shooting for an aesthetically scintillating cross-sectoral collaboration. Plus it's good art. Copies of all of Cecilia's Mammalian posters can be purchased. Contact poster girl Eva Verity: eva at mammalian.ca |
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Weatherspoon, Dega. Dega, Weatherspoon.
Weatherspoon, Dega. Dega, Weatherspoon is an intervention into the opening night party of the Greensboro, NC Weatherspoon Art Museum's opening party for their Our Subject is You exhibition. In collaboration with the Montagnard Dega Association, Mammalian Diving Reflex will be acting as a mediary between the members of the association and the Weatherspoon, introducing the Dega to the gallery-goers as special guests for the evening. June 19, 2009 Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina. Coordinated by Darren O'Donnell. |
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The Children's Choice Awards - Vancouver, Canada, starring the Jury from Surrey The Children's Choice Awards was a decisive intervention into the PuSh International Arts Festival. 25 students from Bridgeview Elementary checked shows out, did some singing and puking in the van and then distributed awards to the lucky artists. Doing jury duty: DJ, Jeetpal, Thomas, Christine, Sukleen, Paul, Jendhel, Sandeep, Jonebel, Ron, Daniela, Edwin, Jancy, Valerie, Jana, Katie, Stephanie, Alexa and Anna. Take a look at the the young jury's adventures on the Children's Choice Awards Blog. Lots of video. Special juridical nod to Brigeview Elementary Principal Judy Gram and the jury's teachers: Jeanne Atwal and Elizabeth Hinman. Bridgeview is one of the best schools in the world. Associate Producer: Donna Soares Transportation by Alfred Esmeijer Talented winners:
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The Children's Choice Awards - Melbourne The Children's Choice Awards was a decisive intervention into the Melbourne International Arts Festival: a group of the city's brightest kids from the suburb of Footscray were chauffeured from event to event; they checked out the art and offered brash, incisive and audacious opinions. And then they handed out a few awards. You could have seen the young jury as they crawled all over the festival, their tender knees protected from the evils of the world by the thinnest of red carpets and then you might have pulled your finest attire out of the laundry basket to attend the award ceremony and heard their pronouncements. THE WINNERS:
Take a look at the the young jury's adventures on the Children's Choice Awards Blog From Pauline Cady, mom of jury member Sweeny:
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The Monster Makers The Monster Makers is an event for young audiences currently in development. It is an interactive experience dealing with responsibility, power, anarchy and control. The children make a monster, they take it outside for a walk, the monster escapes. Oh shit, what now? There's control, and then there's outta control. Conception and social co-ordination by Darren O'Donnell
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We need your chedder The great work we do needs great people like you to donate a bit of coin now and again. Help out and get a tax receipt, eternal gratitude and a back rub from producer Natalie De Vito. |