In 2007 I bought a Mp3 recorder and began to record many of the lectures I regularly attend in Toronto. In the case where there are superior quality MP3s of the talk available of the event, I’ve provided a link to their source.

Design our Tomorrow Conference
12 Nov 2011 • Edward Burtynsky | Karim Rashid | Aza Raskin | Ron Baecker | David Keith | Raghava KK | Aubrey de Grey | Craig Shapiro | Eric Chivian | Siobahn Quinn • more info (pdf)

The Design Our Tomorrow (DOT) Conference brings together the world’s greatest visionaries to inspire young people to create, innovate, and better the world. The topics covered include: technology, science, design, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and the arts. (More Info)

Information is Quantum
8 Aug 2011 • Mp3 • more info

Charles Bennett lecture on how physics has helped us understand what information is and what can be done with it. Since 1972, Bennett has been at IBM where he has played a major role in elucidating the interconnections between physics and information. He developed a practical system of quantum cryptography in collaboration with Gilles Brassard and John Smolin. As well, he is also known for discovering “quantum teleportation”. Other research interests include algorithmic information theory and the physics of computation. Bennett is known as one of the founding fathers of quantum information theory.

Jan Verwoert: Why are conceptual artists painting again?
1 Nov 2010 • Mp3 • more info

Berlin-based critic Jan Verwoert has been examining the developments of art after Conceptualism. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, his lecture is concerned with the way in which the basic conditions of art practice have changed and what words and models might be used to open up the potentials at the heart of the developments in art after Conceptualism.

Thomas Hirschorn at the Power Plant
19 May 2010 • Mp3 • more info

The celebrated Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born in 1957, Bern) discusses his recent Amsterdam-based project, The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival (2009). Since the 1980s, the Paris-based former graphic designer has evolved a radical sculpture and installation practice that makes monumental works with humble materials like cardboard and packing tape to engage viewers in conversation about philosophy and global politics.

Creative Cities Panel
18 June 2009 • Mp3 • more info

Fuse Magazine and activists collective Creative Class Struggle are holding a Town Hall to talk about the real effects of the Creative City model currently produced in planning trends in communities across the city and globally. This conversation is intended to demystify this celebration and use of ‘creativity’ in economic development, land use planning, arts programming and community development. We are responding to these recent trends, popularized by urban researchers like Richard Florida. Featuring Liette Gilbert, Uzma Shakir, Pamila Matharu and moderated by Heather McLean.

Power Plant Panel Talk on Art & Astro-Physics 
14 June 2009 • Mp3 • more info

In this engaging discussion, physicists and artists consider contemporary thinking about the nature of time. Featuring Sean Gryb, a PhD candidate at the Perimeter Institute for theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Lee Smolin, a founding member of the Perimeter Institute, and Katie Paterson, a British artist included in ‘Universal Code’ whose projects include mapping all the dead stars in the universe and bouncing ‘Moonlight Sonata’ off the moon. Moderated by Misha Glouberman who hosts many things including the Trampoline Hall lecture series.

A Crisis in Leadership 
10 May 2009 • Mp3 • (Talk on TVO’s Big Ideas: video&audio) • more info

Intellectual heavyweights John Ralston Saul, Naomi Klein, Margaret MacMillan and Adam Gopnik discuss ‘A Crisis in Leadership’ at the Globe and Mail Open House Festival. The panelists reflect on what constitutes a good leader and why some leaders fail while others thrive. Journalist Carol Off is the moderator.

Filthy Lucre Book Launch
5 May 2009 • Mp3 • more info

Was the recent collapse of the multinational banking system in the cards? Will the current economic downturn ultimately be seen as a positive turn of events? To celebrate the launch of his latest book, Filthy Lucre: Economics For People Who Hate Capitalism (HarperCollins Canada), acclaimed author and academic Joseph Heath will discuss such hot button topics with noted business columnist David Olive.

Cory Arcangel’s Presentation
10 April 2009 • Mp3 • his Google Sites lecture notes • more info

How is the internet changing our perception of art? In its indiscriminate cataloguing and non-hegemonic participation, the internet presents an idiosyncratic account of art since 1960. The democratic and self-regulating mechanisms of the internet make artworks and art world information easily accessible for reinterpretation by its users. Hosted by Pleasure Dome and the Images Festival, Art Since 1960 (According to the Internet) is an informal multimedia lecture presented by Hanne Mugaas and Cory Arcangel that examines the alternate discourse on contemporary art that is unfolding on the world wide web.

Trampoline Hall
6 April 2009 • Talk 1 • Talk 2 • Talk 3 • more info

A theme show, all about money, curated by Becky Johnson.
(1) Andrew Gardner and Peter Stevens talk about the future of the future of the economy.
(2) Sara Peel did a financial audit of Trampoline Hall
(3) a non-lecture about what everyone thinks about money.

John Ralston Saul at Hart House 
3 Dec 2008 • Mp3 • Lecture on TVO’s Big Ideas:audio & video
• more info

Essayist and novelist, John Ralston Saul, presents the themes of his latest book. His central argument is that Canada is a Metis nation that has been critically influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas. He believes we’ve lost touch with this essential part of our mythology and identity and appeals for a return to the original principles of peace, welfare and good government.

Department of Culture’s Presentation
3 Sept 2008 • Mp3 • more info

Town Hall Regarding Cuts to Cultural and Heritage Granting Programs. Featuring Claire Hopkinson (Toronto Arts Council), Susan Swan (past President, Writers Union), Lisa Fitzgibbons (Director, Documentary Org. of Canada), and Naomi Klein (Writer & Activist)

Art in the Age of Terror Panel
14 June 2008 • Mp3 • more info

In our own age, as the theatre of war intrudes into our living rooms, as war increasingly becomes a spectacular media event, has the role of art vis à vis war undergone a radical change? Neil Murray, Executive Producer of the National Theatre of Scotland and Laurie Anderson, creator of the “concert-poem” Homeland (next page) are among the panelists in this discussion. Also participating are philosopher and essayist Mark Kingwell, and Jeffrey Dvorkin, professor of journalistic ethics at Georgetown University. Moderated by John Ralston Saul.

Mammalian Diving Reflex Presentation
21 Dec 2007 • Mp3 • more info

Performance company Mammalian Diving Reflex has been to Mumbai, Lahore, New York, Dublin, Portland, Austria, Vancouver and Regina. We’ve walked through states of emergency, hung out in slums, met diplomats, had children cut our hair, got sick, had fights, offended powerful people and ate paan. On Dec 21, at 7PM we’re presenting This is the Mammalian Diving Reflex, a public report. A presentation about who we are, what we do, why we do it, what we believe and where we’re going from here.

Fredric Jameson’s Future of Utopia
2 Dec 2007 • Mp3 • see also Goodreads.ca (with links to YouTube videos) and information pdf

Keynote Lecture celebrating the launch of the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto.

Romanticism’s Return
1 Nov 2007 • Mp3 • more info

From the glam rock band Scissor Sisters to Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, contemporary culture is infatuated with ecstatic, anguished decadence. Responding to Paul P.’s interests in the dandyism of writer Marcel Proust and painter James McNeill Whistler, this forum considers the resurgence of romanticism, touching on issues of artist relationships and personae, 19th Century portraiture, pornography’s infiltration of visual culture, and images of desire and loss. Chaired by Max Allen, producer/host of CBC’s IDEAS, speakers include GB Jones, artist/musician whose work appeared with Paul P.’s on the cover for The Hidden Camera’s The arms of his ‘ill’; Katherine Lochnan, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Gallery of Ontario and curator of ‘Turner, Whistler, Monet’ which toured to Tate Britain and Musée d’Orsay; and John Potvin, author of Bachelors of a Different Sort whose research concerns the male body and intimacy in Victorian and Edwardian culture.

Chasing the Self
16 Oct 2007 • Mp3 • more info

Bas C. van Fraassen, Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University. Whenever we reflect upon ourselves, we quickly end up in difficulty. As the philosopher Wittgenstein quipped, “I am not a thing, but I am not nothing.” The Transcendent Self is not just a myth – but it is precisely in myths that it can be understood. By portraying human beings in the company of gods, myths express what is true about the Self and our place in nature.

640 480 Collective Panel Talk
13 Oct 2007 • Mp3 • more info

640 480 members Jeremy Bailey, Shanan Kurtz, Philip Lee, and Jillian Locke for a panel discussion about their current exhibition. Reflecting on the rapid obsolescence of video technology, Grand Gestures memorializes and commemorates the vain attempts we make at preserving our memories.

Nuit Blanche Panel at OCAD
27 Sept 2007 • Mp3 • more info

How does the twelve-hour duration of Nuit Blanche influence the artistic process, and what is the nature of an event that is impermanent and ephemeral? Featuring local, national and international artists and gallerists, this panel will address urban space, public art and site-specificity. Moderated by Toronto Star urban issues reporter Christopher Hume.

Panellists include:
Sara Graham: As a Toronto-based artist Sara Graham’s practice centres on explorations of geographic fictions that blur the disciplines of art, architecture, urban design and geography.
Millie Chen: An active member of a number of artist-run organizations, Millie Chen’s practice encompasses collaborative interdisciplinary projects that engage the public and public space.
Adad Hannah: Based in Montreal, Adad Hannah works in video and photography.
Dyan Marie: Artist and gallerist Dyan Marie explores urban issues, ideas and reflections on contemporary cultural experience. Dyan Marie Projects focuses her curatorial and artistic practices on the Lansdowne and Dupont neighbourhood where she lives.
Craig Walsh: Based in Brisbane, Australia, Craig Walsh is primarily interested in hybrid / site-specific projects and the exploration of alternative contexts for contemporary art, often utilizing projection in response to existing environments and contexts.

William Gibson Interview

William Gibson Interview
20 Sept 2007 • Mp3

In September 2007 I interviewed William Gibson, while he was in Toronto promoting Spook Country.

My Trampoline Hall Talk

Morality as a Form of Idealism
12 Mar 2007 • Mp3 • Review on BlogTo.com

At the Trampoline Hall of 12 March 2007, I gave the second talk on morality as a form of idealism, which was the evening’s theme. It was reviewed on BlogTo.com

Cable Project Interviews

Cable Project interviews conducted by Louis Marrone. The Cable Project consisted in me subscribing these artists to Rogers Cable television service for six months.

2 Dec 2004 Timothy Comeau interview Mp3

22 Nov 2004 Keith Cole Mp3

22 Nov 2004 Kotama Bouabane Mp3

19 Nov 2004 Lex Vaughn Mp3

18 Nov 2004 Zoe Stonyk Mp3

Instant Coffee on Visual Voice

Visual Voice Instant Coffee Interview
20 March 2004 • Mp3

Interview conducted by Ashleigh Elsen and Sarah Milman, with myself, Jon Sasaki, and Jinhan Ko on CIUT’s (89.5FM University of Toronto Radio) Visual Voice, recorded on March 20th 2003. This was during the time I was an active member of Instant Coffee. (Also featured is an interview with the Halifax Drawing Club).