Otherworld - It's a word with a very old history that stems back to ancient Irish mythology, when it was believed supernatural beings could cross over to the human realm. This exhibition, called other.world, brings together five artists who use animatronics in their work as a way of exploring a similar kind of betweenness - the liminal zone between human nature and the animated world of machines.

According to famed sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, the only thing that distinguishes ourselves from the machines we make is the human capacity for empathy. Without it, we'd be androids, or "andys," as Dick called the artificial human beings that populated his 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - a book that became the basis for the cult-film classic "Blade Runner".

But empathy is partially our own desire to give things around us living attributes, even if they are constructs of our own over-active imaginations. It's not difficult to imbue an inanimate object with qualities that appear living. In fact, surrogates, even simple ones, can heighten our awareness of the real. Brandon Vickerd's installation of seven freestanding vertical structures, for instance, is called "Bionic Forest", and it looks like a forest, though only in the most rudimentary way. The mechanical limbs that oscillate in jerking movements manage to evoke a breeze rustling through branches and the shadows they cast suggest depth and density. However, Virkerd's "forest" is merely a crude version of nature. Oddly, the more an object is striped of realness, the stronger our impression of reality becomes.

It may be our faulty memories, or that imperfections provide us with a tool for exploration and enhancement. Either way, fakery does enhance reality. When artist Laura Paolini places a stuffed cat on a chair, positioned so its eyes appear transfixed to a television set, it's quite easy to imagine the artificial cat is "watching" TV, and its hissing and purring sounds - which are, in fact, completely random - suggest the little guy has full cognitive control.

Miniaturization, too, can change perceptions. Ingrid Bachmann's micro-worlds, set up inside suitcases, are intimate and filled with a powerful mystery. You have to lean in and watch - a physical response that brings us into another dimension, or into an otherworld, just by being smaller than life size.

The works in this exhibition explore the visceral space between the natural world and the man-made one and on various scales. And while there no "andys" here that are so well disguised that recognition is nearly impossible, the emotional reaction to machinery that moves, stomps, watches, distorts, shifts, or taps out sounds, is open for letting the imagination run a little more wild.

curator: Johnson Chou/Archive Inc.
      special thanks to Amanda
      McCavour and Catherine
      Osborne

Red Bull is already well known for its generous support of musicians. Each year, the Red Bull Music Academy brings musicians, DJs and technicians from around the world together for a month-long residency that encourages collaboration and experimentation. 381 Projects, similarly, promotes visual art at the cutting edge, where ideas and creativity are fostered. Every six weeks a curated exhibition will be installed at 381 Projects and open to the public to explore.

Red Bull's office in Toronto was designed by Johnson Chou, a multi-disciplinary designer whose projects have garnered numerous awards and international acclaim. Designer of the popular asian-fusion restaurant Blowfish and the offices of advertising agency Grip Limited, among others, Chou's design for the Red Bull office is state-of-the-art and an inspired work space. With Patricia Christie, he is also the co-founder of Archive Inc., a gallery and art rental service.

Simone Jones and Julian Oliver
Jennifer Cherniack
Ingrid Bachmann
Laura Paolini
Brandon Vickerd