Subtle Technologies

A fund for Young Artists eXploring Interdisciplinary Strategies

Developed to support young and emerging artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology, this dedicated fund allows us to commission at least one project annually that addresses critical issues through interdisciplinary strategies and innovative design.

y-AXIS aims to:

• Support the next wave of makers and thinkers working at the intersection of art, science & technology
• Promote the value of interdisciplinary strategies & integrated media
• Stimulate cultural & economic growth on the local level
• Incite collaboration across industries & disciplines

y-AXIS is also a metaphor for growth and upward momentum. In our present landscape, myriad training programs exists for artists including those exploring art and technology. However, Subtle Technologies recognizes a critical lack of funding opportunities for emerging artists that are exiting these programs. Every year thousands of graduates enter an arts community without enough opportunity to sustain them, especially those interested in working across and between disciplines. y-AXIS is an initiative combating this trend—carving out new spaces for commissioned work, where project proposals are not so easy to slot into categories like medium or genre, and that’s a welcome challenge.

See the 2017 y-AXIS Call for Submissions

2016 y-AXIS Recipient: Adrian Wu (Toronto)

This season, y-AXIS funds will support the creation of a unique window installation at The Sewing Junction by rising designer Adrian Wu as part of Toronto Design Off Site 2016.

Adrian Wu is a Toronto-based wearables designer and creative consultant, and the founder of Fleecer.ca. Adrian founded his first, eponymous company at age 19, since renamed mingbong. It all started with a simple cocktail dress, evolving into a multifaceted career surrounding the discussion “what is normal?” Discovered on Facebook, Wu’s work has been presented across the country from the National Gallery and Textile Museum of Canada to Toronto Fashion Week. Going from a simple dress maker to corporate collaborations with architect firms such as Freed Development or authors like Margaret Atwood, the reoccurring challenge has been “How can beauty and function co-exist?”

January 18-24th, 2016
at the Sewing Junction
2841 Dundas Street W, Toronto

A preview of key topics and concepts in our 2016 festival will take place as a week-long window installation for this year’s Toronto Design Off Site Festival. The installation concept and construction are by local designer and first-ever recipient of our y-AXIS commissioning fund, Adrian Wu.

Integrating fashion, computation and sociology, his project Fleecer Port will use the famous Myers-Briggs personality test as the basis for a symbolic entryway to an alternate dimension. In this “otherworld” our society does not function according to government or an equity based economy but mainly in cognitive variance—namely, 48 possible archetypes plotted on the Myers-Briggs matrix.

Using cutting-edge 3D scanning techniques and laser cut plastics donated by Philip Beesley Architect Inc., Wu will construct a modular tapestry that catalogs all 48 personas and stores them as data to be used in digital media.

Donate to y-AXIS

Create more opportunity for young and emerging artists.
Help us grow the y-AXIS fund.

Your contribution will provide crucial resources for raising the profile of the next wave of influential Canadian makers and thinkers.

Make a donation in the amount of your choice at any time right here on our website.
All donations are tax-deductible.

y-AXIS FOUNDING DONORS

Ala Roushan
Avideh Saadat Pajouh
Ben Walmsley
Caoimhe Morgan-Feir
Caroline Langill
Cary Sandford
Chase Everett McMurren
Daniel Cooper
Debbie Lewin
Diana Tarasca
Gillian Green
Gregory Lee Newsome
Isabel Beveridge
Janice Fung
Jason van Eyk
Jayanne English
Maxwell Hyett
Nichola Feldman-Kiss
Nina Czegledy
Paul Wu
Sanam Samanian
Susan Lewin