Awesome Foundation’s first grant winner, Stephanie Avery, to play connect the dots with Toronto
Who’s the awesomest of them all? According to the Toronto branch of the Awesome Foundation, it’s Stephanie Avery, who was named the recipient of its first grant last night. A self-described “totally rad” artist, Avery was awarded $1,000 for her Connect the T-Dots pitch, a project that aims to turn aerial satellite views of Toronto into a giant connect-the-dots number puzzle.
As we reported in January, the Awesome Foundation made its Toronto debut with the goal of awarding a grand to particularly brilliant projects that improve the city through fun and, well, awesomeness. While the short list for the prize included a Rob Ford Batman signal and a Jesus Machine, the trustees of Awesome chose Avery’s proposal because of its potential for wide-scale participation and international recognition through Google Maps.
The project itself involves placing white numbered dots, three to four metres in diameter, on various rooftops across Toronto. When connected, the dots will form shapes particular to each city neighbourhood—a cabbage in Cabbagetown, say. Avery’s implementation strategy is simple enough: ask nicely and, hopefully, people will respond well. She told the Star:
I think at first people might think it’s a bit of a joke. But once they see how much fun it will be, hopefully they’ll be offering up their rooftops.
Since Avery plans to solicit shape suggestions from the community, we decided to offer up a few of our own: a rose in Rosedale and a boot shape in Little Italy are obvious, but cute. A heart in the downtown core, a beer mug in the Annex, a giant sun in the Beach and a koi fish in Chinatown are fun options as well. Is a big gravy boat at Queen and Bay too obvious?
• Awesome Foundation’s first Toronto winner will turn the city into a number puzzle [Toronto Star]
(Image: Gravy boat, Naval History & Heritage Command)
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Who’s the awesomest of them all? According to the Toronto branch of the Awesome Foundation, it's Stephanie Avery, who was named the recipient of its first grant last night. A self-described “totally rad” artist, Avery was awarded $1,000 for her Connect the T-Dots pitch, a project that aims to turn aerial satellite views of Toronto into a giant connect-the-dots number puzzle.
As we reported in January, the Awesome Foundation made its Toronto debut with the goal of awarding a grand to particularly brilliant projects that improve the city through fun and, well, awesomeness. While the short list for the prize included a Rob Ford Batman signal and a Jesus Machine, the trustees of Awesome chose Avery’s proposal because of its potential for wide-scale participation and international recognition through Google Maps.
The project itself involves placing white numbered dots, three to four metres in diameter, on various rooftops across Toronto. When connected, the dots will form shapes particular to each city neighbourhood—a cabbage in Cabbagetown, say. Avery’s implementation strategy is simple enough: ask nicely and, hopefully, people will respond well. She told the Star:
I think at first people might think it’s a bit of a joke. But once they see how much fun it will be, hopefully they’ll be offering up their rooftops.
Since Avery plans to solicit shape suggestions from the community, we decided to offer up a few of our own: a rose in Rosedale and a boot shape in Little Italy are obvious, but cute. A heart in the downtown core, a beer mug in the Annex, a giant sun in the Beach and a koi fish in Chinatown are fun options as well. Is a big gravy boat at Queen and Bay too obvious?
• Awesome Foundation’s first Toronto winner will turn the city into a number puzzle [Toronto Star]
(Image: Gravy boat, Naval History & Heritage Command)){kind=link}