Canadian artist group Definition of Progress is part of a conceptual art movement centered in Windsor, Ontario. Formed in 2006, the group works collaboratively with environmental and social justice groups at the University of Windsor and the surrounding area. They produce individual and collective works of art in traditional to modern mediums and invite non-artists in the Windsor community to participate in their exhibitions. One of the main points in their Manifesto is that “art is more than a pretty picture on a wall—it’s a forum that demands individual expression”.

Artist Statement

They operate under an artist statement called <i>Manifesto of Active Adaptation</i> and define their art as distinctly Canadian. “Art produced in Windsor has a unique flavour,” says spokesperson Jane Doe. “Windsor is a border city channeling the largest truck flow in North America, and because our primary trading partner happens to be the most powerful country in the world, and we are situated in isolation from other Canadian cities, we are very aware of our identity as a small industrial city reliant on outside resources for survival. We believe that Windsor stands as a microcosm of Canada in relation to the global economy. In a positive light, that means that we’re a weathervane for seeing how Canadians grapple with modern technologies and the economic pressures of globalization – by the same token, it also means that we’re the canary in the coal mine.”

Canadian Influences

The group’s <i>Manifesto</i> is based on the works of major Canadian theorists Robert Babe, Jane Jacobs, George Grant, Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and David Suzuki. Their Manifesto claims that all five theorists, writing from the thirties to the present, challenge the modern idea of Progress in the technological age. The <i>Manifesto of Active Adaptation</i> operates under the premise articulated by Grant, McLuhan and other non-Canadian mass society theorists such as Guy Debord, that the artist’s role in society is to challenge adaptation and use imagination to explore the human condition.
These theorists share an appreciation of imagination, creativity, and aesthetics and consider these elements to be fundamental components of the human psyche. They feel in addition, that these integral elements are not valued or supported in the modern city – rather what is celebrated is an individual’s ability to adapt to the always accelerating conditions of modern society. For the Definition of Progress, however, adaptation is just another word for doing nothing.

According to the group’s website, “We don’t want to be the frog in the slowly boiling pot of water. Adaptation does not always pave the way for survival. As Canadians and Windsorites, we can see first hand the negative effects of globalization and expanding industrialization on our city, our children.”

Location

“Windsor has some of the most community-oriented, active social justice groups I’ve ever seen,” says Lynn Spencer, one of the participating artists. “That’s because Windsor is a small town that feels the pressure of outside forces very keenly. Windsor city residents are constantly confronted with truck traffic from everywhere in Canada and the United States – there is no way to ignore the presence of the border. You can hear it, see it, and feel it, everyday your life is affected by it.”

The <i>Definition of Progress</i> advocates art, education, critical thinking, and activism as a way of <i>Active Adaptation</i>, drawing from its theoretical roots in Canadian thought to guide its principles.
The thrust of Definition of Progress’s critique is that the modern city is a toxic environment for people to live in. Consumer culture breeds passivity, self interest, geocentricism, technological dependence, and the destruction of the environment. In short, it obliterates ethics of community, connection, and responsibility to something beyond one’s self. The problem is that the measurement of what really matters has shifted to be more economic and quantifiable, and we have been too busy being info-numbed to recognize that the shift has happened. They call this “the problem that has no name”, referencing Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.

“Canadian art always embodies elements of <i>Active Adaptation</i>,” says Moose, “even if the artists themselves aren’t aware of it. It’s political, it’s people-oriented, it’s ugly, it’s pretty, it’s diverse, but most of all, it’s critical. Canadians are notoriously self critical, and our art reflects that. Despite the fact that Canadians may not be fully aware of ‘the problem with no name’, because it’s so hard to define, many of us have noticed at least one of the symptoms: increasing disillusionment with the Canadian identity.”


Artistic Influences

The Definition of Progress has been influenced artistically by acclaimed artists Noel Harding, Rod Strickland, Ian Baxter&, Montreal group Le Refus Global, as well as non-Canadians Banksy, Wassily Kandinsky, and the <i>Shrinking Cities</i> project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Other influences include James Kunstler, contemporary feminisms, and the philosophies of the Frankfurt School.


Recent

The group has collaborated in the past with the University of Windsor’s Green Corridor, which recently held an Artist Urban Plan Symposium at the Art Gallery of Windsor (AGW) and at the Lebel Art School on campus. The Green Corridor is a cross-disciplinary environmental activism project aiming to reclaim the 2 km area along Huron Church line that channels the cross-border truck traffic through Windsor . The symposium featured Vito Acconci, Catherine Bodmer, Oliver Kellhammer, Stephen Vogel, Buster Simpson and others. Definition of Progress has also collaborated with the University’s Environment Student Alliance, Smogfest 2007, Ten Thousand Villages, the Actiongirls, the Windsor chapter of OPIRG, the Windsor chapter of the Women in Black, and with faculty in the Communications Studies department.

The group is planning on doing a piece to honour the Noam Chomsky Conference in Windsor in May.



Excerpt:

“The Definition of Progress is both an answer and a question. We do art that tries to shake people up, to educate on several levels, not just the intellectual. Awareness is the first step to understanding why the current definition of Progress in Canada isn’t real Progress. Happiness and creativity can’t be measured by GDP. Blindly supporting the economic vision of Progress means that we destroy the future of our civilization. How can Progress be achieved by bankrupting our sense of community ethic, and utterly destroying the environment for future generations? These two concepts go hand in hand. A strong responsibility to a community means ensuring that it has a future. The environment is that future.”



For more information on urban critique, see Green Corridor, Shrinking Cities, New Urbanism.