About Artists Walking Home

Artists Walking Home is a multi-year collaborative project between artist Catherine Pulkinghorn and 221A Artist Run Centre that invites public participants to discourse and learn about the complex historical and social conditions of Vancouver through the embodied experiences of the city’s cultural producers.

The project engages the public in two ways:

Community Connections
With a large focus on youth, the Community Connections programming partners with local schools and non-profit organizations to include young and/or interested people on exploratory walks in the city with Catherine Pulkinghorn, Director/Curator, in an experiential education environment.

Contemporary Projections
Artists Walking Home presents walks by Artists, Designers, Architects and Planners who share perspectives on dynamic aspects of the city. The program seeks engaged conversation with the public on critical points of change, intersection, convergence and problematics, in addition to influences of history and the under exposed nuances of urban life.

Co-Producers

221A Artist Run Centre

221A Artist Run Centre’s mandate is to support and facilitate a dialogue between contemporary art and design in both the professional and public spheres. 2012 marks the organization’s fifth year of programming artistic and curatorial practices in Canada. Presently, 221A is committed to becoming a foothold for ‘Critical Design’ – an emerging field of contemporary art that seeks out a wider space for work that examines and challenges the application and implementation of design. As such, 221A has engaged in an alternative conception of design in Canada – away from existing market-oriented practices and into a space for the critical investigation of the lived effect of designed graphics, products and architecture or more broadly, the use and development of social codes and conventions.

Walking Home Projects

Walking Home Projects is a series of critical urban explorations curated and directed by artist and educator Catherine Pulkinghorn. Within frameworks of socially engaged and interpretive research practices, and using strategies of experiential education, we provide an opportunity for active learning, engaging youth and various publics on site-specific walks, with the hope of increasing civic awareness and engagement among participants. With direct reference to a range of studied opinions, as well as both practical and abstracted contextual documentation (public artworks, performance, mapping, photo-based work, histories and archives), Pulkinghorn and a roster of guest presenters introduce contemporary ideas in planning, architecture, psychogeography and relational aesthetics, deepening the context based curriculum for each project.

Team Bios

Catherine Pulkinghorn

Director/Curator
Catherine Pulkinghorn has worked in site-specific embodied and experiential practices for 2 decades. During the past 8 years she has extended her focus to including socially based work, therefore moving away from researching and producing independently, to working collaboratively, engaging community members as key contributors to resolving the queries of her work. Within the walking based explorations of the past few years, Pulkinghorn has worked with small children, newcomers to Canada, youth, adults, families, as well as colleagues and sector experts to investigate social and actual history and transformations in Vancouver.

Brian McBay

Co-Producer
Brian McBay is an artist, designer and curator and has been the Executive Director of 221A Artist Run Centre since 2007. During this time, McBay has been active in testing spatial and economic models in Vancouver with the intent of increasing artistic agency. McBay’s practice often reviews the aesthetic and productive logic of business, applied systems and economies as connected to social order. His work has led him to take on a variety of roles in consultancy and planning positions for institutional and governmental organizations. He has been invited to speak at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2012), Western Front (2012), University of British Columbia (2011), Emily Carr University (2011) and Centre A (2010).

Denise Cymbalist

Communication Designer
Denise Cymbalist is a communication designer who holds a BDES (Communication Design) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC. Cymbalist acted as project manager for the award winning (Applied Arts Student Awards) 2010 Emily Carr Graduate Catalogue. Her current work is focused in two streams; large-scale environmental graphic design and branding and identity design. Recent projects include branding the Reading Culture Writing: Liminal Positions symposium at Emily Carr University and production of environmental graphics for Klahowya Village at Stanley Park.

Hailey Whitt

Communication Design Intern Summer 2011
Hailey Whitt is a 4th year Communication Design student at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, working towards obtaining her Bachelor of Design in April of 2012. Prior to this, she moved from Calgary, Alberta to Montreal at the age of 17 to study Design Art (both graphic and industrial design) at Concordia University for two years. Two of her other passions besides design are painting and drawing. Most of her works are portraits drawn from memory, which are largely inspired by music. She is also interested in motion graphics and animation. Hailey cannot wake up in the morning without a cup of black coffee and, although she wants to cut down on the amount of caffeine she consumes, she often finds herself drinking multiple cups throughout the day. She attributes a lot of her determination and enthusiasm to this fact. She also has a strong interest in psychology and you will always find her in the midst of reading a book about the brain or other related subject matter. Spending time with her family and friends is her absolute favorite past-time, and attributes much of her success and motivation within the arts to having such strong love and support from both. She thanks her older sister for having taught her how to draw before she could properly spell, which has shaped her entire life around putting her artistic practice before academia (which might have been a problem in high school but nevertheless has led her to where she is today).

Manhal Adam

Program Coordinator Summer 2011
Manhal Adam is a fourth year international student studying Sociology and Psychology at the University of British Columbia. In the future she hopes to be working with a non-profit organization helping refugees and orphans. Growing up Manhal felt truly privileged. Originally Sudanese, she was born in Yemen and grew up in many different countries including Pakistan, Tanzania and Syria. While traveling to many countries due to her father’s work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Manhal and her three siblings learned countless life lessons that she would like to pass on to her children. Manhal’s passion is learning and experiencing as much as she can about other cultures. She finds it fascinating how much culture influences people around the world and she would love to get to the point where she can figure out an individual’s background based on his/her actions, because that is the point when she would really feel like she understands.

Daniel Choi

Communication Design Intern Fall 2011
Daniel Choi was born in Suwon, Korea and spent his childhood in Ikuta, Japan. He is an artist / graphic designer and lives in Surrey, British Columbia. Currently, he is in his third year majoring communication design in Emily Carr University of Art and Design. In his freshman year, he mainly focused on graphic design. When he had an opportunity to take a year off to revisit Korea and Japan early 2010, he finally had the time to further develop his skills in the fine arts through many different types of mediums. Today, Daniel continues to push his creativity to its limits throughout both fine art and graphic design.

Amy Wang

Communication Design Intern Spring 2012
Amy Wang was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. From a young age, it was clear to her that she would be pursuing her post secondary education in art and design. Now in her fourth and not final year, she is taking the time to finish her degree in Communication Design at Emily Carr. Amy’s interests and hobbies include drawing lines that don’t represent anything, illustration, typography, the meaning of life, and reading.

Aska Djikia

Project Coordinator 2012
Research Assistant 2012
Workshop Presenter Nature in the City
Aska Djikia (a·ska jee·kee·yah) is a global mess of a child, having lived in five countries, and moved across continents three times, prompting the slogan, “home is where my ass is.” At the age of 17, she moved on her own from Ankara, Turkey to Vancouver, BC to complete a degree in the arts. She discovered design at an ungodly 8:30 in the morning on a Monday in first year and today is a recent graduate from Emily Carr University with a Bachelors in Interaction Design. Currently, she is merging her interests of design, the arts and research working as a program coordinator at Artists Working Home, where she is helping build the foundation for a wayfinding project in Yaletown. Ten years from now, Aska sees herself traveling, living and preaching sustainable design/redesign, working with impoverished communities and fighting to keep this planet green (and saving small animals on the side.) Her lifelong passions include playing the flute, exploring nature and turning late-night, occasionally wine-induced cynicism into creative solutions.

Christine Carino

Planning Researcher 2012
Workshop Presenter Community and Transportation
A San Diego native, born to First Generation Filipino immigrants, Christine Carino has embraced creative expression from a young age. Blessed with a great upbringing and possessing a strong work ethic, Christine ultimately wants to beautify cities; like all individuals, each city has the potential to thrive on this planet. From the exposure to social and economic disparities within her native roots in the Philippines, Christine finds refuge from anguish and injustice through the power of paint and canvas. Previously an art teacher in culturally and socially diverse neighbourhoods throughout San Diego, she understands the importance of empowering the individual through art in varying forms. With the completion of a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design with minors in Environmental Studies and History at San Diego State University, Christine seeks to pursue a Master’s in Urban Studies and Design. As she removes herself from her natural environment, embarking on six-week artistic journey throughout Vancouver, this self-proclaimed wanderluster cannot help but kiss the sky for this wonderful opportunity!

Madeleine Hebert

Wayfinding Research Assistant 2012
Workshop Presenter Architectural Features
Madeleine has lived in British Columbia her whole life, from Prince George to Nanaimo to Victoria and most recently Vancouver. She enjoys outdoor activities and traveling, inspired by her childhood sailing and traveling around North and Central America with her family. She started University in Physics, and then branched out into everything from Anthropology to Environmental Studies. She recently discovered design as a problem-solving tool that accommodates her inter-disciplinary interests and poses challenges like nothing else. She recently graduated from the Environmental Design program at UBC, and is planning on continuing to a Master’s in Architecture in 2013. She is interested in how design and context inter-relate: the built fabric stems out of context (or the designer’s perception of that context) and that built fabric in turn affects its context. The Artist Walking Home project provides an amazing opportunity to explore this complex relationship; she is excited about what this project will morph into.

Sandy Wang

Wayfinding Research Assistant 2012
Sandy Wang is an M.Arch thesis student at the University of British Columbia, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Before her studies at UBC Sandy graduated with a B.Des in Industrial Design from Emily Carr University of Art & Design.  Over the past four years she has been involved in a wide range of projects and interdisciplinary collaborations, ranging from graphics to robotics to architecture design. Most recently Sandy has just returned from a yearlong study in Sweden, where she has been working on urban design projects and research. The multitude of scales represented in her breadth of work speaks to her advocacy in interdisciplinary collaborations as means to solve problems and generate knowledge, empowering a wider audience to participate in the active critique of our cities and environments.

Carter Xin

Research Assistant 2012-2013
Carter is a student of geography specializing in Urban Systems.  His curiosity and interests lie in city planning, sustainable transportation, and mapping.  Having returned to Vancouver and his hometown after 2 years abroad, he has found renewed loyalty and partiality to his hometown. He hopes to delve just a bit deeper into the roots of this city while actively exploring and discovering through a new set of eyes. When bored (or not bored), his ongoing obsession with the anatomy of the city and its complex dynamic keep him occupied. In particular, he is fascinated by rapid transit systems around the world and their visual representations. Otherwise you can find him trying to take his mind off things by reading, biking, or baking.

Sandy Chang

Design Assistant 2012-2013
Maquette Series
Sandy Chang is a digital artist, social media strategist, and graphic designer, and a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Coming from a designer family, she has been greatly inspired by her father. Chang’s aspiration to become a designer had always been deeply rooted within her. Her appreciation for and interest in the fine arts were fortified by frequent visits to galleries, plays, and performances with her family from a very young age. With a solid fundamental basis both academically and practically, Chang is avid about further expanding her knowledge in the fields of art, social media, and design.

Adrian Wu

Design Assistant 2012-2013
notice Series, Public Art Project
Adrian Wu is a Vancouver based industrial designer who graduated from Emily Carr University and majored in industrial design. After his graduation (2012) he started his freelance practice, in which he has been involved in various projects such as the souvenir design competition for the National Centre of Performing Arts Beijing, and outdoor furniture design (Ingage Chair) for the Seattle Design week. As an industrial designer, he is interested in poetic designs that enrich people’s life experience in an elegant and riveting way. In addition, he is passionate about observing people’s daily needs and problems, whether psychologically or physically. Through the process of design thinking, sketching and hands on prototype making, he explores and cultivates creative solutions which balance between form and function. He believes design not only generates sales for the consumer world, but it serves a greater purpose of improving the experience and quality of life, as well as offering a fresh perspective that may change the world in little steps.

Vicky Kim

Design Assistant 2013
Transit Shelter Public Art Poster Project
Vicky Kim is a Vancouver based illustrator and graphic designer who has recently received her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Over the past 2 years she has developed her own style with her line drawings, which articulate a narrative visual language of its own. Using a mix of traditional methods of drawing with digital tools, she is constantly enhancing her skills and creativity in the field of illustration. Today, she creates new works, hoping to further her experience and knowledge in order to obtain great new insights in the field of illustration. Vicky is currently working as a freelance illustrator, focusing on book cover designs and collaborating with various companies to create personalized illustrations accordingly to publication needs.

Heather Mitchell

Archivist 2013
Design Assistant 2013
Exhibition Art Posters
Heather has a strong presence in the local community and is the Project Archivist at Artists Walking Home. She is involved in local recycling initiatives, urban farming, creative speakers events, and the host and participant of various Meet Up groups ranging from design to outdoor yoga. Heather is an urbanist designer retrofitting civic input with a focus on communal living. Moving to Vancouver from a small rural community has inspired her to adopt urbanization as a source of creativity transforming the social and environmental conditions of her surroundings. Her unique skill lies in the ability to connect people from outside groups and opposite areas of interests. Heather received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design while studying at Emily Carr University; her thesis was focused on urban recreation, reuse of local materials, and natural capitol of green spaces. She uses design to as tool of change, and investment in people.  Heather now embarks her new role as an archivist, project researcher and design assistant for Artists Walking Home. With similar values and goals, it is no co-incidence that Heather has found her way onto the team at Artists Walking Home.