The Pulse: June 28, 2023

At a time when AI is generally seen as negative for artists, Latitude 53 is hosting a virtual exhibit that explores artificial intelligence as a source of inspiration and collaboration.

The artist-run contemporary art gallery is hosting AI.Craft as part of The Next 50 Years, a trio of exhibits that explore the past and future of art as Latitude 53 prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

"I think it's just interesting to hear how artists are processing what's happening right now," said program manager Adam Waldron-Blain. "This Next 50 Years project is a great way to mark an anniversary by trying to think about futurity and the ways that our practices might change in the next 50 years, as well as look back a little bit."

The most future-focused part of The Next 50 Years, AI.Craft is led by Mohamed Somani and Blaine Campbell of Mobil Art School, who have been researching the ways in which AI can work alongside or with human collaborators to create art. They use a collaborative app called Arpp, which is based on the Dadaist art game Exquisite Corpse.

"With Exquisite Corpse, you draw something and then somebody takes on a hint and draws the next piece," said Campbell. "Could we have the AI be the one that draws the next piece, and then it'd be back and forth between people and AI? So that's the way we've gone."

AI.Craft is also hosting workshops with artists who use AI in their work. The next one, which takes place on July 8, will be led by artists Ben Bogart and Fatima Travassos.

Travassos uses generative AI programs like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion alongside her experience as a fashion designer to take her physical art pieces and transform them digitally with AI tools. Bogart is an artist, researcher, and teacher at Emily Carr University who has been exploring the use of generative computational processes since long before the emergence of current tools like Dall-E.

Their workshop is online, as has been the case for much of AI.Craft so far, as Latitude 53 is in the middle of setting up in its new home in the McLeod Building after leaving its previous location on 106 Street.

"We have a new space that we are setting up, but we're not open yet," said Waldron-Blain. "A big part of figuring out how to operate this year has been to find projects that could work in alternate spaces, could work online, could work in different ways."

• 4B Harm Reduction founder Angie Staines told Postmedia there is desperation on Edmonton's streets as the province reports some of its highest-ever opioid fatality rates. Alberta's substance use surveillance data shows 179 opioid poisoning deaths in April, and 613 from January to April, including 197 in Edmonton. Staines said the increase is "blatantly obvious" to front-line workers and that deaths will continue as long as the province pursues a recovery-oriented system of care. NDP health critic David Shepherd criticized the province's slow data-reporting and said the record number of deaths in April shows "a failure of policy."
• The city and the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights collaborated on the YEG Dignity Mural, a permanent art installation in the underground pedway between Churchill LRT station and Edmonton City Centre. The art piece, unveiled June 27 to honour National Indigenous History Month and Canadian Multiculturalism Day, was created by 15 young and emerging Edmonton-based artists led by Carla Rae Taylor and contains 32 circular panels. It is the latest public art installation in the Paint the Rails initiative. A short video profiling the artists and their work was also released.
• The Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market will be moving next spring from its current location on 97 Street because it can't afford its lease. Executive director Corinne Olson said the board was forced to make the call due to the pandemic's effect on the downtown core and a falling visitor count attributed to several moves in recent years. The current lease expires in April, and the board will choose a new location in coming months. Olson said the market will share updates online.
• The Muttart Conservatory premiered the Muttart Brick by Brick exhibit on June 26. The Northern Alberta LEGO Users Group (NALUG) created LEGO models throughout the pyramid, including a 7.5-metre model of the High Level Bridge, a model of the Muttart Conservatory, and replicas of Edmonton buildings. Around 25 NALUG members contributed to the exhibit, including St. Albert resident Angelique Roth, who built a Disney-themed display. The exhibit is open daily until Aug. 25, with late hours for families on Thursday evenings and adult-only hours on Wednesday evenings. You can make reservations online, but walk-in guests are also accepted.
• A panel has upheld a 2022 decision by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) to deny a proposal from Capital City Casinos to move its Camrose Resort and Casino to Edmonton, citing a lack of community support and negative effects on local casinos. In a press release issued after the original denial, Capital City Casinos said the Camrose casino would close if it could not relocate and 650 rural charities would lose "desperately needed revenues". The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues opposed the relocation because it worried the move would decrease charitable revenue for Edmonton's community leagues, since the casino would have retained its rural status despite being located in the city.
• Oilers captain Connor McDavid is being praised after he "dominated" the NHL awards this season, taking home his third Hart Trophy for being the NHL's most valuable player, his fourth Ted Lindsay Award for being the league's most outstanding player as voted by his peers, his fifth Art Ross Trophy, and his first Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy. At the awards ceremony on June 26, McDavid also spoke about the NHL's decision to stop having teams wearing themed warm-up jerseys, including Pride jerseys. "We strongly feel hockey is for everybody, and that includes the Pride nights," he said.
• The 2023/24 regular season schedule for the Edmonton Oilers is now available. The season opener against the Vancouver Canucks is set for Oct. 11 in Vancouver, followed by a match against the Canucks in Edmonton on Oct. 14.
• The Edmonton Elks have signed quarterback Khalil Tate, the team announced June 27. Tate, who has also played with the Toronto Argonauts and the Philadelphia Eagles, previously signed with the Elks in March 2023 before being released in May. The team's next game is June 30 in Ottawa against the Redblacks.

Correction: This file has been updated to more accurately reflect the reason the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues opposed a proposal to move the Camrose Resort and Casino to Edmonton.

On this day in 1975, the still-young Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village faced an uncertain future.

Today, Edmonton is home to one of the world's largest Ukrainian populations living outside of Ukraine; nearly 145,000 residents identified some sort of Ukrainian heritage in 2006, the most anywhere in Canada.

But when the first Ukrainian immigrants came to Edmonton in the late 1800s, few of them stayed. This was a couple of decades after the federal government bought Rupert's Land from a reluctant Hudson's Bay Company. The Government of Canada had a quarter of the continent on its hands, and it offered free land to entice European settlers to live there (ignoring the fact that people had already been living there for thousands of years.)

The Ukrainian immigrants that passed through Edmonton were mainly on their way to eastern Alberta. Many of them headed to the Edna-Star colony, Canada's oldest and largest block settlement for Ukrainian homesteaders. It wasn't until 1905 — after Edmonton was better connected to the rest of the country by railroad — that the city saw the first real wave of newcomers looking to stay in the city. While some still moved to farms to the east and south, many worked in the city's growing industrial base or opened small businesses.

A small log church was built in 1904 to serve the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community. It would eventually become Saint Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, which moved to its current, impressive McCauley building in the 1940s.

One of the city's first bookstores — aptly named the Ukrainian Bookstore — opened in the Koermann Block in 1914 and specialized in selling newspapers, books, and other literature from Ukraine to the growing community. While the original building still stands on the corner of 96 Street and 102A Avenue, a reconstruction of the bookstore was also made in Fort Edmonton Park.

In 1971, the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village Society was founded to commemorate the history of the Ukrainian settlement in eastern Alberta. Using government grants and donations, the organization bought a patch of land east of Edmonton and began relocating and preserving historic buildings from across the province. The Alberta government took over the site in 1975, prompting worries that the site would lose its focus on Ukrainian-Canadian history.

However, the heritage village has only grown since the change in ownership. It now contains nearly 40 buildings from towns and hamlets across eastern Alberta. The staff of the open-air museum remain in character, guiding visitors through the history of Alberta's Ukrainian settlement up until the 1930s.

Edmonton's Ukrainian population continued to grow past the 1930s, with more waves of immigration surrounding World War II and in the 1980s. In recent years, Edmonton has seen another influx, with many newcomers arriving following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And despite its uncertain early years, the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village remains part of Edmonton's cultural world, with several special events planned over the summer.