Chris Dunnett

Born in New Brunswick in 1972, Chris Dunnett earned a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of New Brunswick. During his undergraduate years, he developed an interest in drawing and photography and in 1996 won second place in the uniiversity's visual art competition.

After earning a Master's Degree in Mathematics from the University of Toronto, Chris resettled in Vancouver where he began volunteering for several arts-based organizations. From 2002 to 2006, Chris was president and executive director of Basic Inquiry, Canada's largest independent life drawing studio. During this time, Chris spearheaded numerous public events including Drawing on the Street, the anual 24hr Draw-a-thon fundraiser, and numerous drawing exhibitions.

In addition to his volunteer work, Chris has exhibited as part of Artropolis 2003 and currently publishes the oon-line digest thedrawingroom.ca. He has recently relocated to Toronto.

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977 and continues to operate: sending signals back to earth from over 9.3 billion miles away, making it the most distant man-made object in the universe. It is predicted to continue operating until at least 2020, by which time it will have exited our solar system and entered interstellar space.

What drives our fascination with distance, exploration and the unknown? We do it in the name of science, but I believe it has an underlying emotional, perhaps spiritual, desire for perspective on ourselves. What if Voyager could talk? What well-traveled wisdom would it have for us? What would we ask of it? How would it see us?

With these questions in mind, I seek to question the iinterface between the search for 'ourselves' and our technology.

- Chris Dunnett, 2007.

Contact: chris@thedrawingroom.ca