The Treehouse Group

Summer vacation season is sadly coming to a close, but we’re looking forward to some great Treehouse Talks in the coming months. If you haven’t been able to make it to previous events, videos of all the Talks to date can be seen here.

Our next event is taking place on September 3rd at MaRS Discovery District, room CR2, from 6-7:30 pm. It’ll be free to anyone who would like to come, and will feature:

• SASHA GRUJICIC on Technology and Change: How it’s happened, how it’s accelerating, and how we need to deal with it
• SHIRLEY KHALIL on empowerment and healing using music.
• SHAWN MICALLEF on his book Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto.

Many thanks to everyone who’s given us (overwhelmingly positive) feedback - we love hearing what you have to say!

For those of you looking for information about June’s Toronto ideaXchange: Dimensions of Music, photos are up on Flickr.

It’s time for another ideaXchange! On June 13, join dozens of curious and engaging people from across the city for an afternoon of ideas, activities and networking at MaRS. We’re eager to repeat the success of the 2008 and 2009 editions with an ideaXchange devoted to the world of music. Think: beat-boxers, New Orleans Style Brass bands, phonetics in Opera, mental health and music, technology, and the “pirate” problem, plus anything else we can jam in. We’ll also have live musicians writing songs during the conference to be performed at the end.  Ending off the day will be a catered reception, and a chance to continue the discussion(s).

Tickets for the event can be purchased here.

For more information on what we do, you can go to the Events page. Details about this ideaXchange will be updated here.

The 2010 edition of the Grown-Up Science Fair, held May 8th, had even more displays than in previous years, and we were all thrilled to see the roughly 300 people who came out and participated so enthusiastically.

Some of this year’s highlights included: Transcription Hero with Jeremy Feingold from Spongelab Interactive, where players used the Guitar Hero controller to transcribe a section of DNA; mealworm art; an experiment which sought to find out which gender has better reflexes (before and after a few beers); and one which determined the effects that happy or sad images have on people when they are composing music. These, on top of our annual displays of Flubber, Periodic Table Twister (a Twister game set entirely on a giant-sized periodic table), the Scientific Arts & Crafts table, and the baking soda volcanoes, ensured there was more than enough to do until the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks again to everyone who came out - we hope to see you next year!

Those lucky enough to turn into human pretzels on the Periodic Table Twister and make a big (scientific!) mess with Flubber at last year’s Grown-Up Science Fair (GUSF) will be both thrilled and relieved to hear that the Treehouse Group will once again be partnering with city-wide science festival Science Rendezvous for the 2010 edition.

Moving along Queen Street West, this year’s Evening of Madness will be taking place at the Rhino. Our goal is to connect as many scientists and non-scientists as can fit in one room, in order to investigate the lighter, fun side of science and technology in Toronto.

This year’s party will be on May 8, from 8pm - 12am at the Rhino (1249 Queen Street West).

Click here for information on past events, and here for updated information on this year’s GUSF.

If you’d like learn more about and/or get involved with the GUSF, please contact Joe Wilson at joe@treehousegroup.org.

A big thank-you to the almost 100 people who crammed into CR2 at MaRS last Friday for the inaugural Treehouse Talks lecture. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here’s a little taste of what you missed to pique your interest for the next one:

Dan Falk explored the world of time from the perspective of science and philosophy, and even performed an experiment to determine how people estimate the passing of time. It turns out that whether we’re watching a clip from Terminator 2 or staring at a red dot on the whiteboard, we tended to overestimate the amount of time passed.

Nadja Sayej rocked the boat with her in-your-face style of art criticism. She screened the previously unavailable “Three Worst Episodes” of ArtStars* TV in an effort to turn weakness into strength, though the crowd still thought they were only worth 2 stars out of 5. Obviously a spirited discussion ensued. Nadja had to rush off early to interview artist and musician Peaches for an upcoming ArtStars* episode, but you can catch up with Nadja and her art world craziness at ArtStarsTV.com.

Zahra Ebrahim closed the evening with a talk about her company, archiTEXT, and their attempts to bring the world of architecture to the level of everyday people. Complete with “architect glasses,” people got to draw pictures of their childhood homes, which served as an excellent access point into discussions of the buildings in which we live and work.

For more excellent pictures from the evening check out our Flickr set here.

A final thank you to Connie Tsang, photographer extraordinaire, who documented the proceedings so ably.

We’ve been quiet for the past few months as we gear up for a raft of new events in the spring that will be undertaken in partnership with MaRS. We are excited to be launching a new series of free seminars entitled Treehouse Talks, taking place after work on the first Friday of every month. Three speakers, chosen at random, will have 15 minutes to talk about their specialty (or try to make up something up) in a manner that is interactive, and pushes the boundaries of the presenters and their audiences. Powerpoint is banned.

The first of these talks is happening on Friday March 5 at MaRS in room CR2. There we will be fortunate enough to hear from freelance science writer/broadcaster Dan Falk on the enigma of time, ArtStars*’s founder Nadja Sayej on fear and loathing in the art world, and archiTEXT’s Zahra Ebrahim on design and social change.

Join us! They’re free!

We will be keeping updated information on Talk participants, past and future, here.

We’re currently bandying around ideas for our Fall ideaXchange (music? Intellectual Property law? Who can choose from so many options?!) and are soliciting input from any and all interested parties.

We want to avoid the boring PowerPoint/lectern talks that are frequently found at conferences, and would much rather employ innovative variations on traditional modes of presentation. Our main focus is in finding unexpected links between different fields of study and/or work.

Help us organize an event that will engage as wide a cross-section of Toronto as possible: if you have any feelings about what our theme should be, or ideas for brain-cleansers or fun activities, let us know by leaving a comment below, or by writing to us at ideaxchange@treehousegroup.org.

Thanks!

On Saturday June 20, Bloor Street will be closed from Christie to Lansdowne for the 2nd BIG on Bloor festival, and The Treehouse Group would like to invite you to participate.

We’ll have tables between Shaw and Roxton starting at 1 pm, including one of the ping-pong variety, so bring your Skills!

From 6 pm we will be hosting a giant pot-luck, so drop by with some food and good appetite and get ready to mingle with all kinds of interesting people. As the evening wears on, for a $1 donation, step up on the Treehouse Soapbox and rant and rave at the crowd on a topic near and dear to your heart (or one drawn randomly from our box of suggestions).

What better place to argue ideas and learn from each than on a public street?!

Email rich@treehousegroup.org for more details.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Grown-Up Science Fair this year. It was a huge success, and we hope you had as great a time as we did. The first batch of photos have been put up on Flickr, and we’ll update this site with a rundown of the evening’s highlights soon.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to Gilbert’s LLP for their generosity in funding our efforts, and to all the volunteers whose hard work made it so much fun.

The Second Annual Grown-Up Science Fair (GUSF) is nearly here, and we hope you are as excited as we are to take part in it! The event will be held at The Rivoli (334 Queen St. W) at 8pm on May 9, as part of the Toronto Scientific Community’s open house party, Science Rendezvous.

With generous contributions from innovative law firm Gilbert’s LLP, the Treehouse Group will be using GUSF as an opportunity to explore science in decidedly non-traditional ways, through music, arts & crafts, drama, and games. You’ll get the chance to meet a wide variety of people from across the city, test your knowledge, and exchange ideas. Witness the exploding volcano, participate in interactive science experiments, and check out some science class overheads from the 1960s.

Other highlights:

- Meet Steve Mann, U of T’s resident cyborg;
- Have a great idea you’d like to develop? Compete to win a consultation with a patent lawyer from Gilbert’s LLP;
- Play periodic table twister;
- Test your knowledge against a(n imaginary) 8th grader with our science test!
- Play pool with scientists and volunteers from Let’s Talk Science, who will be upstairs from 6pm until 8 pm;
- Join us for the GUSF after-party in the Rivoli back room with live DJs from 11:30 pm until close.

Check out pictures, videos and podcasts from last year’s Grown-Up Science Fair, and look for science project ideas here.
Join us on Facebook.
See photos from last year’s event on Flickr.