VIDEO: The Narrows Today

An upcoming exhibition at my work centers around the expeditions of Samuel de Champlain through this area 400 years ago and his interactions with the different indigenous people along the way. One portion of the exhibit will look at the Mnjikaning Fishing Weirs at The Narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. I've been given the opportunity to go film at the historic site of the weirs to contribute an audio/visual portion to the show.

While the work itself will be ambient to the atmosphere of the exhibit, there was still some curating to be done in deciding what we wanted to be shown and what impressions visitors would get. I had the awesome opportunity to also work with a GoPro for this adventure. This meant being able to take footage under water which I was quite excited - albeit a little nervous - about trying.

The final piece, entitled The Narrows Today, depicts the pockets of wetlands and thriving wildlife at the site as well as the unfortunate development that has overtaken the area. The historic site is under a 6-lane highway overpass and the Narrows still function for boats to travel between the two lakes.

I also worked on capturing a soundscape of the area to create even more of an atmosphere for visitors to the exhibit. Birds chirp, a breeze blows, waves splash against the shore. For this exhibit we want appeal to the many senses of our visitors behind just visual. Baskets of sweetgrass will line the room and this soundscape will create a sense of place in correlation to the video that will project onto the wall.

To see the final product of this project come out to the Opening Reception for Touch: Champlain at 400 this June 26 with the exhibition running until December 26, 2015.