Since 2014, Ramsay has been exploring stop-motion animation as way of exploring creative and imaginary worlds.
He has continued have the drive to improve upon his story telling and digital media techniques.
Ramsay created these stories, illustrated them, narrated them and did all the digital media edited at the Atwater Library.
Backyard Buddies – By Ramsay (2016)
The Wee People – By Ramsay (2015)
The Singing Tree – Ramsay (2014)
Seeing Red: Young People’s Stories for the Eyes, From the Heart
On Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am at the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater Ave)
Except for school hallways, kids don’t usually have the chance to share their thoughts and experiences, expressed creatively. In Seeing Red, twenty-one Montrealers aged 6-11 create stories and transform them into digital art that comes from their hearts.
Working with three Montreal authors (Raquel Rivera, Marie-Louise Gay, and Greg Santos) and with new media facilitators ( Nicola Sibthorpe, Nina Pariser, Viola-Rose Day and Eric Craven) youth at the Atwater Library and at the Pointe St-Charles YMCA created these works of poem and story-based video and animation.
Part of the Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE), a multiformat celebration of English-Quebec writing, with support from the Community Cultural Action Fund, Department of Canadian Heritage.
On Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am we are welcoming the public for an exciting community-based new media installation.
Immerse yourself in a sound and video installation that begins with images projected through the front windows of our heritage building. Inside, our reading room will be transformed by a multi-media exhibition created by seniors who digitized and re-edited home movies from the 40s to the 70s, and made their own music and sound using digital tools. An extension of our Digital Literacy Project with support from New Horizons for Seniors and Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT).
Armed with reels of old home movies, a small group of people met with Eric Craven, the Digital Literacy Project Coordinator of the Atwater Library, in October 2015. This original footage was, in some cases, filmed by the participants themselves, as children. Other reels were home movies shot by their parents. The film dates range from the 1940’s to the 1970’s.
After the films were digitized into a modern format by Karl Lemieux, a Montréal filmmaker, Eric taught each participant how to use editing software. Over the ensuing winter months, the group came to the Library in their spare time to work on their projects. He encouraged them to explore the available features and craft new versions of their movies. This evolved into the creation of a collaborative film.
Since the summer, a group of seniors have been meeting every Friday to make music digitally. The music you hear tonight is the result of their exploration and creation centred on listening in new ways and hearing differently. Some of the work is more traditional, with familiar melodies and rhythms. Others are less traditional and explore a different range of melodies and rhythms of everyday life. Birdsong, crowd speech, construction sounds and more.
Juxtaposed against the videos of the Moving Pictures project, these sounds form an unlikely soundtrack to a world of memories captured in light and time.
A string of events, seemingly unrelated, yet charmingly harmonious, have come together in this ambitious and tender project. Some have narrated their scenes – sharing memories and thoughts with the viewer.
Inspired by the popular series Humans of New York, we organized a workshop where participants document a library scene or subject and have the choice of conducting a short interview with their subject or writing a description of the scene. You can view the presentation here and the handout here.
One of our most popular classes, we had students ranging from complete novices to more practiced photographers. One of our participants runs a section on her blog Jittery Cook called Jittery Jabber where she posted her photos and interviews of the day. While some of the shorter work by other participants were uploaded to Twitter and can be viewed here. One of our participants conducted longer interviews and both her experience and photos are posted below.
Of her experience Marcia said
For me, an unexpected benefit of the photo workshop was that my vision (inwardly speaking) improved as I […] shot pictures fully knowing why I was reaching for this one and not for that one…..Thanks to you for your good work!The question that I had in mind is: What Are You Doing on This First Beautiful Weekend in Montreal in 2015
I found seven people who allowed me to get their photo and talk with them and five who would not….
Amita at the Atwater Library told me, ’I go to the library mainly to borrow books and read the newspapers to find out what’s going on in the world…food for the soul.’ Often she visits the library in Brossard close to her home.
Mitchel is the Atwater Library gardener who told me “I just moved from one part of Montreal to Mile End in a student house with five others, a brand new whole house.” Clearly he loves his new home and will be moving in all weekend, unpacking.
Maureen was “on her way to the Jazz Festival with a friend who reached out to her on this Friday because she lost her husband three weeks ago.” She said she felt “If someone reaches out, the least she can do is reach back.”
I found the four members of a family on the corner of Atwater and St-Catherine this sunny Friday in Montreal waiting for a walk signal. One daughter in a two tone hijab and blue dress would not stand for the photo with her sister Naira and brother Anas, but she was radiant as her mother Qaisai said she is out enjoying her three children. Usually she’s cooking, cleaning, and shopping or going to work in a sewing factory. Naira “works for a federal public service in Ottawa and comes to Montreal every two weeks to visit.” Anas was just “taking a break from cleaning” and seemed glad to be out and about with his kin.
Evelyne and Toto were on the corner of St-Catherine and the east corner of the park being renovated; she said she will take her two boys to play in Westmount Park” but they haven’t been to the Jazz Festival at all.
David received my introduction saying, “Enchante” and explained in English he was waiting for a friend “to walk the La Chine Canal.” He does free lance writing for papers such as La Press, but was born on the south shore and hasn’t been to the Jazz Festival this year because of “all the road blocks and construction on the bridges and streets this year.”
Finn and Gordon, who are part of the Humans in New York workshop are “Doing something that’s a surprise for Finn’s brother’s 11th birthday and Finn is excited to find out what the surprise is all about. She’s 14 and goes to Royal West. He’s retired and was looking after his mom and dad (90 and 95) till his mom recently passed away. “We’re going to visit our other grandmother on July 5th in Ottawa,” Finn told me.
Popularly know as a DIY way to self publish writing and art. Zines are created by people interested in political issues, punk culture, or even cult TV shows, and movies. Zines are a way to share thoughts to your community and beyond. We used the medium to create miniature E-Books. People were inspired to create books of poetry, cookbooks, and photo experimentations.
The first class focused on photoshop (handout here), showing students how to edit stock photos to create something completely new. On the second class we introduced the website BeFunky. A free photo editing site where people were able to play with, and edit their photos quickly and easily. The ones below were made by Susan who said “[she] had always wanted to make greeting cards”.
Check out some other cool zines at the bottom of this post!
Other community work:
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