Bio-Genica is pleased to announce an official demo launch for the Genpets Series 01 pet line!

Iodine & Arsenic (867 Queen street West, Toronto) will be the first of what we hope to be many retail stores to carry the Genpets.

The fun begins on September 11th when Genpets goes up into Iodine’s store window facing out onto Queen street as well as in store. The Genpets will be placed in a newly designed display unit to showcase them to the public and will be up and running in the store until September 29th.

When asked for a comment Bio-Genica CEO Adam Brandejs had this to say; "Obviously we are very pleased here at Bio-Genica. This will be a strong launch for the Genpets as they will be placed in a high traffic commercial shopping area. To place fully bioengineered animals on public display and sale in such a heavy traffic area is a bold move sure to turn heads. We're very excited to broaden our market and strengthen our position as leaders in this industry".

Of course none of this would have been possible without the hard work of our marketing chief and executive Crystal Pallister. When asked for comment she had this to add; " I fully believe the people of Toronto are going to love what we at Bio-Genica have to offer. It's been a hit with the kids, especially teens. What better way to show them how to care for life and have responsibility than to give them a pet, a friend, who bonds to them immediately and loves them unconditionally. We are pleased to be able to launch Genpets in a store such as Iodine and as the official correspondent, I am very excited to see everyone's reactions and I hope they will love the Genpets as much as we do".

Genpets will be in Dose Magazine Tomorrow (Tuesday August 9).
If you’re in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, or Ottawa, be sure to pick one up! If you’re not in one of those cities, no worries, you can download DOSE in PDF format off Dose.ca ,

so you have no excuse to not check it out.
Lova Me!

The opening went great and thank you for coming out for all those that did! I touched you in special ways as I promised. I could not be more happy, it was what… at least 300 people? Great people, great turnout, and beer. I don’t do the shindig thing well though. I just make things. So I spent a lot of time outside getting air, but I hear people loved the work or something. (And NO, I don’t think my unwillingness to sip drinks and chat it up will make me non-art worthy. I prefer to talk about programming, electronics, SFX stuff, sculpture, not the post modern human condition. I talk about those sorts of issues visually, hence being an artist, not a writer. The gallery is great, but I can push my art further than a white wall box. The gallery just doesn't seem to be about art anymore, it's about ego's, and I'm here to make things, not dress up and pretend to be important. I don't need a car, or a gallery to do that.)

Genpets Series 01 will be at Interaccess Gallery! From July 8 – August 6, 2005. That’s right kiddies almost a month!

Another year goes by and the Interaccess emerging artist show is on it’s way. I’m not a gallery type, but my understanding is that it’s a somewhat big event, that people notice.

Genpets was accepted for it and will be in the space, along with 5 other top notch emerging artists including; Pearl Chen, Rob King, Amy Learmonth, Ryan Pierce, and Brendan Wypich. The show is entitled “PULSE” and is curated by Angella Mackey.

Get those digicams charged up, because the Genpets are getting a sprucing. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

For those that missed, and want to see the Genpets moving and breathing and bleeping, ocad is having an Open house for graduate work from Friday, May 6 to Sunday, may 8, 2005, and my Genpets will be in room 358 on the 3rd floor.

As part of the juried selection, my “Genpets series 01” will be on display at this years “go west” show. For those of you that have never experienced it, it’s an annual student event, when Queen west goes crazy with gallery shows.

If you can make it out, and want to see why I’ve spent the year ignoring just about everyone, I’ll be at gallery 61, at 61 Ossington (directions later) April 22nd – 24th . opening night only till 9pm as then the after party happens.

And my thesis defence, for any that want to watch, is Friday April 15th 4:20pm.

So who’d of guessed? Plastic part #2 went smooth without a hitch! No shattered moulds this time (learning I am) and the plastics lab has a new gauge so I can actually measure the tank pressure, which made a huge difference.

Process. Clay sculpture-> silicon mould -> hydrocal plaster casting (positive) then loads of sanding (loads. The clear plastic pics up even DUST! So it better be a flawless sculpture, which is was, people were touching it and smiling) then vacuum forming x19.
P.S. Sweat. Hot room. Drenched head in water, but the plastic fumes still killed me. ( 6 hours to make 19).

Angela shot her film (not video) this weekend. I got there Sunday morning 11:20, left Monday night. 40 hours no sleep. Inanity. But so fun! And the film will look SO great! Everyone was so inspiring. Such talent.

I did the prosthetic neck wound, which was my first time doing prosthetics and would have been happier with a budget and specially fitting it to the actor, but crap happens, and it worked out anyways. Learned a lot. The tube still wasn’t wide enough, but we got blood and a great shot of it bleeding anyways. Spent the entire weekend playing with fake blood. Simple stuff was most fun. Making Kyle’s head pool blood ruled (he got his head smashed into the door. Crystal and Kyle made it so freaking believable…).

March 26
-Because when a can of compressed air leaks, covering the insanely cold liquid spraying out with your hands might be the first reaction, however, it’s also the wrong one.
My hand hurts. I think the skin is dead.

-Cast and airbrushed prosthetic for Angela’s thesis.

March 25
Programming
-Got the heart monitor programmed. Some problems with the reset to the sequencer, but that’s all cleared up now. Evened out the power, and used a different pin from the microchip.

-Sculpted and moulded the slit neck prosthetic for Angela’s thesis. It also hides a tube, so that blood will pump out of the neck.

March 22 -24
-Finished sculpting / moulding /casting the second mould for the second piece of plastic.
-2 days of sanding it down ahead to get it smooth, then I’ll vacuum form clear plastic over it. Fell behind schedual…
-Registered genpets.com

March 20
Finished text and layout for thesis paper. It’s a product catalogue for the genpets. I’ll have it up on this site for download as a PDF later; it still needs photos and misc graphics.

For the genpets project I printed 36 circuits, fully etched copper, all from my apartment.

March 15 -Circuit drilling
Drilled holes for all 36 circuits. Which was insane. The main overkill circuit had 96 holes (x19) =1824 /// The heart rate circuit had 32 (x19) =608

For a grand total of 2432 holes drilled. Glad I have a drill press.
(also modified my drill press so it has a light on it now)

March 10
Too busy to write in journal. Work work work work thesis. What I’ve done in the last 10 days
-Made 4 part silicon/plaster genpet creature mould
-Bought/received supplies: Servos, 300 ultra bright Led’s, Circuit Etching tank, Digital scale
-Printed circuits/ ironed/etched/ cut/drilled holes.
-Completed rough draft of thesis paper.

March 9 -Circuit etching
I needed a plank of wood or something similar to do my ironing for circuit boards. The iron on pattern
Melted my Macintosh ironing board. Apparently it just couldn’t take the heat.

Oh well. I have 2 more.