Wired Women S@lon 106 : Wild City Mapping

With Maia Iotzova, Maya Richman, Dominique Ferraton, Igor Rončević, Marilene Gaudet
+ The Sierra Club with Floris Ensink

Friday, February 27th, 2015 – 7 PM
Suggested donation: 5 $. Free for Studio members.
@ STUDIO XX – 4001, Berri (corner Duluth) space 201

On Friday February 27 at 7pm, Studio XX presents The Wild City Mapping collective and their open source based,collaborative project, mapping the wild green spaces in Montreal. Artists Maia Iotzova, Maya Richman, Dominique Ferraton, Igor Rončević and Marilene Gaudet will share their work and invite the public to contribute to their online platform. Floris Ensink from The Sierra Club Quebec, one of the collective’s community partners, will join the event to present Montreal Bioblitz, the Sierra Club’s online urban biodiversity map.

Wild City Mapping is a project started by a collective of artists, green space enthusiasts and geeks. They map the wild green spaces in Montreal through the eyes of the community that uses them. The on-line open source based map that they are compiling weaves the physical and geographic features of each space with people’s personal connection to it.

On February 27th at Studio XX the collective will launch the Wild City Map and the website that hosts the project: www.wildcitymapping.org 

In the spirit of open-source software, the documentation for the project will be made public for other communities that would like to replicate it. Besides the map, the website feature a monthly journal where a new contributor will explore urban nature in a creative and meaningful way. The Wild City Mapping collective hopes that the website will serve as a focal point bringing together the community, artists and organizations working within the realm of urban nature.

In addition to the on-line component, the collective holds creative interventions in urban green spaces, from interpretive art walks to film screenings and yarn bombing. Each intervention allows the opportunity to explore a green space in-depth. The collective is always interested in collaborating with community groups for interventions in green spaces in and outside of Montreal.

Sierra Club Québec is a chapter of Sierra Club Canada, active in Québec since 2003. They are the Quebec chapter of North America’s oldest environmental organization, founded in 1892 by pioneer of the environmental movement, John Muir. Each chapter works on local environmental issues, relying on the engagement of active citizens. In Quebec they are active on the protection of green spaces, protection of biodiversity, water conservation and energy efficiency. quebec.sierraclub.ca

They regularly organize bioblitzes, in both urban and rural environments, with the objective to better understand human influenced ecosystems and to bring people closer to the nature that surrounds us on a daily basis. An online tool they use for their biodiversity inventories can be found on www.montrealbioblitz.com