Education/training:
Ph. D., History & Theory of Architecture (McGill University, 2004-2009).
on images of architecture and cities in three versions of Metropolis: film (Lang, 1926), manga (Tezuka, 1949), and anime (Rintarô, 2001).
M. Sc., City Design & Social Sciences, with Distinction (London 1999-2000).
B. Arch. (McGill 1990-1991).
Training sessions in Touchdesigner, Trinity Square Video, Toronto (2023),
Workshop participant, Creating Spontaneous and Mobile Immersive spaces using FLOSS, ISEA 2022 Art, Barcelona, Spain (June 2022).
Workshop participant, Elastic Spaces: Projected Narratives of Being and Belonging, ISEA 2017, Manizales, Colombia. Projection mapping workshop by S Tavera, A Head, and L Acosta (June 2017).
Workshop participant, Out in the new country – design for digital terrains and territories, DRHA 2014, Greenwich, UK. Workshop by N Hirst and S Pitsillides on digital psychogeography (August 2014).
Participant, Movable Borders, Furtherfield Gallery, London, UK.
Workshop on aerial imaging, mapping of drone surveillance & strikes (May 2013).
Participant, Social Cities of Tomorrow Haagse Havens Workshop, Den Haag/Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Workshop on use of digital media arts in urban design & activism (Feb 2012).
Participant in workshops at Winnipeg Film Group & Video Pool, Winnipeg:
Bolex Camera (Aug 2012), Writing (Feb 2012), Basic Film-making (Jan-March 2010), Advanced Editing (Feb 2010), Basic Editing (Oct 2009), Art of the Interview (Sept 2009).
Research Assistant: Canadian Centre for Architecture/Fondation Daniel Langlois Documentation and Conservation of Media Arts project (DOCAM). (2006-2007)
Research Student in Architecture: Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Kanazawa, Japan (1997-1999).
Awards/Grants
Research and Creation Grant (2018-2020), Canada Council for the Arts
Grant to Film and Video Artists: Research/Creation (2017), Canada Council for the Arts
Individual Artist Grant (2016), Winnipeg Arts Council
Travel/Professional Development grants (2017, 2016, 2013, 2012), Winnipeg Arts Council
Travel/Professional Development grants (2016, 2014), Canada Council for the Arts
Travel/Professional Development grants (2016, 2013, 2010), Manitoba Arts Council
Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2011), Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council
First Film Fund grant (2010), Winnipeg Film Group
Doctoral Fellowship (2007-2008), Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council
Doctoral Scholarship (2004-2007), Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture
Monbusho Scholarship (1997-99), Japanese Ministry of Education
Media Arts
My media arts work can be viewed at: vimeo.com/lawrencebird
Professional Memberships: Video Pool, Winnipeg Film Group, CARFAC
Projects & exhibitions
Net (2022-ongoing).
Research/creation project on shipping industry and its impact on landscape environments. Funded by a Canada Council grant in research and creation
installed: as part of the Themed Commission Residency Borderless, Stateless at Trinity Square Video, Toronto (June-August 2023)
The Matter of Image (2018-2020)
An exploration of the interaction of the projected image with materials and assemblies of materials from construction and demolition projects. Funded by the Canada Council.
M:mobile (2018)
Eight sequences from Fritz Lang's 1931 film M filmed from a computer monitor whose malfunctioning superimposes successive frames of footage, rendering two distinct architectures: the blurring or dissolving moving body; and the spatial and material frame, static, super-solid.
screened:
at Besides the Screen Conference of Vaults, Archives, Clouds and Platforms: Archiving and Preservation in the 21st Century, King’s College, London, UK (July 2018)
Dominion (2017-2018)
An exploration of the prairie landscape and its image, employing aerial and satellite imagery. Funded by the Canada Council. With parallel and Transect, Dominion forms part of a sustained exploration of the image of landscape and geography.
installed:
as Dominion at Bath Spa University, Bath, UK (October, 2018)
as Dominion at Winnipeg Design Festival/ Nuit Blanche, Winnipeg (Sept. 29, 2018)
as Dominion: 16 Trajectories at Nuit Blanche Illuminate the Night (juried), Winnipeg (Sept. 30, 2017)
as Dominion: 16 Trajectories at Univ. of Manitoba Atmosphere Symposium (juried), Winnipeg (Jan. 30, 2017)
parallel (2012-2016)
Single-channel video from satellite imagery.
screened:
The Map is Not the Territory, CTM Vorspiel, Berlin, Germany (2023)
International Symposium on Electronic Art (juried), Manizales, Colombia. (June 11–18, 2017)
Coder et Decoder la Frontiere à l’Aube du 21ème siècle, Anti-Atlas of Borders exhibition (juried), Université Libre de Bruxelles. (April – May 2016)
Once is Nothing: a Drone Art Exhibition (juried), Inter/Access Gallery, Toronto. (February 2016)
Movable Borders: Here Come the Drones! (juried), Furtherfield Gallery, London, UK. (May 2013)
Another Atlas (invited), RAW:Gallery of Architecture & Design. (April 2013)
Culture Days Nuit Blanche, Winnipeg Art Gallery outdoor projections (invited). (Sept. 2012)
reviewed:
Discussed in reports on Once is Nothing by CBC Arts, ArtToronto, Now Toronto, The Varsity (2016).
Reviewed with other work in Another Atlas by Steven Leyden Cochrane in "I Think You’re Holding It Upside Down", Winnipeg Free Press (March 14, 2013).
Transect (2014)
Video from satellite imagery, projection-mapped.
projected:
Queen Anne Court, Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, UK (juried). (Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2014)
Brief Encounters (October 2013)
Video/film installation & projection, with Solomon Nagler and JNZNBRK:
projected: Parade Square, Halifax; at colloquium Urban Encounters: Art & the Public, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. https://vimeo.com/76835823.
Beyond the Desert of the Real (2009-2011)
Research-creation project completed at University of Manitoba.
Video exploration of dysfunctional urban spaces. Funded by SSHRC.
My role: project concept, coordination of workshop participants + filmmakers, filmmaking, exhibition design, projection design (with Skot Deeming).
Individual films produced as part of this project screened:
Lost Spaces, WNDX Experimental Film Festival. (2010)
Fontaine (2005)
Narrative in sequential still images, video & graffiti for Square Viger, Montréal, Québec.
My role: project concept, coordinator, filmmaker, artist (with Adam Foley).
published: Thresholds, Passages, & Other Crossings, exhibition catalogue, McGill University.
Film
Flood_Light
Video (3m) My role: filmmaker. Screened at Art’s Birthday, Video Pool. (2012)
Time One
Two short videos, from archival material (each 3m 45s) My role: filmmaker. (2011—2012)
One short film script. My role: writer (with Jaimz Asmundson). (2012)
Back to Back
Film (Super-8, 3m 30s) My role: filmmaker.
Screened: WNDX festival of independent film. (September 2009)
Independent Criticism
I write on media arts, architecture, and urbanism.
Books
2021 Co-Editor, contributor, Warming Huts: a decade + of art and architecture on ice. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press.
2016 Co-Editor, contributor, Re-Imagining Winnipeg. Winnipeg: Storefront MB.
Book Chapters
forthcoming "Legacies of Trauma: Harvesting Colonial Space for Moving Image Media," in THE SPACE OF IMAGE: Architectural Experience through Media, London: Intellect Books.
2023 "Burning Down the House: Architectures of Image in the films of Rhayne Vermette", in Exovede in the Darkroom, Winnipeg: ARP Books.
2020 "Un-Earths: disorientation, landscape, and the technical map", in Paisajes artificiales, I. Hernández, R. Niño, J. Hernández, eds. Bogotá : Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
2017 with S. Nagler, “Brief Encounter,” in Urban Encounters: Art and the Public, ed. M. Radice, A. Boudreault-Fournier. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 161-181.
2016 “Territories of Image: disposition and disorientation in Google Earth”, in Imaging the City – art, creative practices and media speculation, ed. S. Hawley, E. M. Clift, K. O'Brien. London: Intellect Press, 13-30.
2015 “Earth or World? Aerial Image and the Prosthetic Imagination”, in Architecture’s Appeal, ed. M. J. Neveu, N. Djavaherian. Abingdon, England: Routledge, 106-120.
2014 “Beyond the Desert of the Real: Regenerative narratives in the cityscape”, in Emerging Landscapes, Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Journals
2022 "Veil House”, in Azure, December
2021 "Fiction All the Way Down: Impostor Cities Venice Biennale", in Canadian Architect, September.
2021 "Letting the Light Out: Qaumajuq, Winnipeg, Manitoba", in Canadian Architect, July.
2020 "Naming and Belonging", in The Leaf, August.
2019 Review of The Long Now by T. Sawatzky and E. Fanning, in Canadian Architect, July.
2018 Review of "Berlin 2013/1983" by D. Young & C. Giroux, in Canadian Architect, June.
2018 "Free Run", in Canadian Architect, March.
2018 "RAW:Power," in Canadian Architect, February.
2017 “Skewing the Square,” in Canadian Architect, April.
2017 “Winnipeg Warmth,” in Canadian Architect, Jan.
2016 “Worlds Colliding,” in Canadian Architect, Oct.
2012 “Dialectical Imaginaries: forms of life, forms of fascism in the Metropolis of film, manga and anime”, in Critical Planning, 19, Los Angeles: UCLA Department of City Planning.
2011 “Lumen Opacatum: Flesh in Fritz Lang's Metropolis”, in Chora: Intervals in the History of Architecture, Volume 6, Montréal: McGill/Queens University Press.
2010 “Re-animating the Embryological House: a case-study in digital preservation,” with Guillaume Labelle, in Leonardo, Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Editorial review
2012- Editorial review for Leonardo, The MIT Press, 12 papers.
2017 Editorial review for Journal of Architectural Education, 1 paper.
Online Journals
2021 "parallel", in On Site Review 38, ed. Stephanie White.
2016 "Temporal Earths: Technical Memory and the Global Map," in Montreal Architectural Review, Vol. 3., ed. O. Recktenwald, A.C. Syrakoy.
2016 "parallel," in The Site Magazine, Spring, ed. N. Bruun-Meyer et. al.
2014 "Art in the Field: harvesting visual narratives in the dispersed city," in London School of Economics Field Research Methods Lab, July, ed. H.B. Shin. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2014/07/21/art-in-the-field-harvesting-visual-narratives-in-the-dispersed-city/ .
2014 "Once by Water, Once by Fire: imaging the end of architecture," in Edge Condition, Vol. 2, ed. G. Barton. http://www.edgecondition.net/vol-2-presenting-architecture.html.
2013 “Hybrid Cities“, for furtherfield.org, interview with Roger Malina, Editor-in-Chief of Leonardo, Mariateresa Sartori (artist) and Bryan Connell (artist and exhibit developer, San Francisco Exploratorium). http://www.furtherfield.org/features/interviews/hybrid-cities-interviewing-roger-malina-mariateresa-sartori-and-bryan-connell
2012 “Intimate Politics“, for furtherfield.org, interview with Andreas Broeckmann, Berlin-based writer on media and technology.
2011 “Global Positioning“, for furtherfield.org, interview with Ricardo Dominguez, Associate Professor in Visual Arts at UCSD, on Dominguez and b.a.n.g. lab’s Transborder Migration Tool.
2011 "An Interview with Michel Bauwens," for furtherfield.org; interview included as a permanent listing on Arts Council England's Digital Knowledge Bank.
Talks, juries, curation, facilitation
2015-18 Juror, Archishorts Film Competition, Winnipeg Architecture and Design Film Festival.
2017 "Un-Earths: Landscape, Memory & the Global Map," talk on my work at International Symposium on Electronic Art, Manizales, Colombia.
2016 Panel discussant, Once is Nothing: A Drone Art Exhibition, Inter/Access Gallery, Toronto.
2014 “Google Earth and the Prosthetic Imagination,” talk on my work at Digital Research in Humanities and Arts, University of Greenwich, UK.
2012 Artist talk, Aceart Gallery, Winnipeg.
2012 Facilitator, WNDX, Situated Cinema by S. Nagler, T. Evans & C. Rodmore.
2011 Member, Project Steering Committee for Artspace 2 Feasibility Study, Winnipeg Film Group & Artspace.
2011 Co-chair (with Richard Milgrom), Mediated Cities symposium, University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture.
2010 Special Program Curator (with Carole O'Brien), WNDX Experimental Film Festival.
Architecture
Professional Memberships: MAA, MRAIC, MPPI, MCIP, LEED®GA, Sustainable Building Manitoba
2017- Member, City of Winnipeg Urban Design Advisory Committee
2015- Board of Directors (Executive Committee), Sustainable Building Manitoba.
2015-17 Member, Programming Committee, Sustainable Building Manitoba.
Practise
2019-2023 Urban Designer, Sputnik Architecture inc.
Significant leadership roles in: Nature Conservancy of Canada Interpretive Trail, St-Lazare, Manitoba. Fort Ellice Interpretive Development, St-Lazare, Manitoba. Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre conceptual design and feasibility study, Morden, Manitoba. Bilingual Municipality Road Signs, communities of St-Lazare, Taché & Alexander, Manitoba. Winterscape International Ice Carving Competition (2023). Winter Wanderland Ice Sculpture Installation (2022, 2023). Warming Huts 2021 Divergence (execution of design by Thomas Cheney Architects, Seattle). Warming Huts 2020 (S)hovel (execution of design by Modern Office of Design and Architecture, Calgary). Lake Minnewasta Masterplan, Morden, Manitoba. Rideout Bay Housing Masterplan, Kenora, Ontario. Support role in: Riverwood House Transitional Housing
2016-2019 Architect + Planner with pico ARCHITECTURE / Winnipeg. Design, construction documents, project management: institutional and commercial buildings.
2012-16 Urban Design Consultant, Gem Equities / Winnipeg. Urban design, masterplanning, space planning: residential infill Transit Oriented Developments.
2012-2013 Architect, Richard Prins Architect / Winnipeg.
2001-2004 Design Principal, Nordicity Design / Montréal.
2000-2001 Urban Designer, London School of Economics Cities Programme / London, UK.
1999 Architectural Intern, Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson / Philadelphia.
Design Competitions
2019 BenchMARK Urban furniture design competition entry. With pico ARCHITECTURE.
2018 “Windbreaker” Warming Huts design competition entry. With pico ARCHITECTURE.
2018 “Reconciliation Gardens” On the Docks competition for Alexander Docks.
2017 "UNIdos," entry for Unbuild the Wall (Nogales, Mexico/USA). With Ager Little Architects.
2015 "Benchscape," entry for BenchMARK urban furniture design competition.
2015 "Make Your Mark," entry for Chair Your Idea urban ideas competition.
2012 "The Post-Prairie Park", a speculative urban design project for Winnipeg;
exhibited at Re-Imagining Rurality conference, University of Westminster, London, UK.
Architectural Installations
2011 éCartographies, RAW:Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Mixed-media: chalk, found objects, string, industrial hardware, video.
A 3-dimensional map of Winnipeg, constructed from string network, pulley system, counterweights. Projected video collected from workshop participants; projection design in collaboration with Skot Deeming.
published:
MB ARCH: A Collection of Manitoba Architecture, Vol. 1. Winnipeg:Storefront MB (2014). http://storefrontmb.ca/mbarch-vol01/
reviews:
by Milena Placentile for Akimbo (2011) http://www.akimbo.ca/akimblog/?id=453
I was interviewed about this project by Winnipeg Internet Pundits, CJUM 101.5 FM.