Townhall Sessions-lyfeboat-prototype

Contribute your ideas to the design of a new floating community space!

The Blackwood invites community input as we envision Lyfeboat prototype, a fully-functional boat and outdoor education platform designed by artist Sean Procyk.

Conceived as a gathering place for community education and place-based learning, a work of experimental architecture, and a self-sufficient floating sculpture, Lyfeboat prototype will launch for community use in Summer 2022, with programming led by local artists, researchers, community organizers, knowledge-keepers, and educators of various backgrounds.

In these townhall sessions, Procyk and Blackwood staff will discuss the project development, and invite feedback and ideas from community members on design and programming considerations. We invite participants to consider how waterways, land use, and ecology resonate with our livelihoods in Mississauga, Peel, and the GTHA. We hope to learn: What are your connections to waterbodies? What themes, places, or activities could this project prompt you to explore? How can we strengthen the impact and reach of Lyfeboat prototype?

This virtual townhall will be held on Zoom. Session will be recorded (for organizational use only).

RSVP required. Please register via Eventbrite.

ASL interpretation and live captions will be provided.

Stay tuned for future opportunities to participate in the design and creation of Lyfeboat prototype, in-person and online!

About the Project

Lyfeboat prototype is an artwork by land-based artist, architect, and playground-designer Sean Procyk that takes the form of a fully-operational boat. Informed by histories of land and water management surrounding Lake Ontario, legacies of settler-colonialism, innovations by off-grid communities, findings from critical citizen science, and realities of ecological resilience and adaptation, Lyfeboat prototype is not only intended to be an innovative sculptural structure, but a platform for expansive interdisciplinary inquiry—a space from which to explore the tensions and possibilities inherent in living collectively, autonomously, and equitably on a damaged planet.

Lyfeboat prototype was first envisioned as a fully-functional boat; see the main program page for updates on the project’s evolution, including its final form and design.

About the Lead Artist

Sean Procyk is a settler artist and playground designer. His practice focuses on creating immersive public engagements through site-specific installation, architecture, and community workshops. Each project responds to its regional context, with a particular focus on unsettling relationships between landscape, community, and ecology. Procyk’s work explores processes of ecological succession, land-based disturbance, human alienation, and collective action. He works primarily with found, reclaimed, and natural materials. Procyk’s works have been exhibited at Hamilton Artists Inc., Latitude 53, Stride Contemporary Art Gallery, Elemental Festival, Convergence Conference on Art and Technology in Banff, and Nuit Blanche Toronto.

See Connections ⤴

Contribute your ideas to the design of a new floating community space!

About the Project

About the Lead Artist

Townhall Sessions: Lyfeboat prototype