Faculty

Angela Iarocci, MArch, BID

Professor, Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Profile

Angela Iarocci is a Professor in the York/Sheridan Honours Bachelor of Design program where she teaches undergraduate courses in information design, design fundamentals and professional practice. Her research investigations are concentrated in information visualization, mapping, diagramming, art and design installations and collaborative practice. She has a Bachelor degree in industrial design and is a graduate of the University of Toronto Master of Architecture program. Her professional experience is concentrated in environmental graphic design, specifically wayfinding, exhibits, and interpretive installations. Currently she is engaged in developing art and design projects which combine craft, information design and education centered on the environmental and social themes.

Areas of Interest

Information design, diagramming, mapping, collaborative creative practice, built installations, design for advocacy

Courses Taught

  • YSDN1001 Visual Language
  • YSDN1002 Design and Image
  • YSDN1003 3D Design
  • YSDN1010 Communication in the Urban Environment
  • YSDN3007 Information Design 1
  • YSDN3008 Information Design 2
  • YSDN3102 Contemporary Problems in Design
  • YSDN4102 Design Management
  • YSDN4104 Professional Aspects in Design

Selected Projects

  • 2008 Beeline, installation at MADE cooler, Toronto, ON, with Claire Ironside
  • 2007 FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project, Harbourfront Centre, Fresh Ground new works, Toronto, ON (with Claire Ironside)
  • 2006 – 2008 Pomme de parterre, installation for the International Garden Festival, Jardin de Métis, Grand-Métis, Québec (with Claire Ironside, David Ross and Peter Flemming)
  • 2005 – present Foodshed: The Globalized Infrastructure of the Ontario Food Terminal, information visualization and mapping for publication and exhibition (with Pierre Bélanger)
  • 2006 – 2007 Lucky White Squirrels, Toronto, ON, exhibition and limited edition posters, (with Claire Ironside)
  • 2005 Vitrine. Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, Manchester, UK (with moimoi design)
  • 2005 Winter Wonder Wheel, Design for the Cold, Design Exchange, Toronto, ON (with moimoi design)

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Project Descriptions

  • Project title: FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project
  • Agency/Client: Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
  • Investigators: Angela Iarocci & Claire Ironside
  • Role/Position: Co-Investigator
  • Term: 2007 – 2008

  • FishNet is a two-part collaborative art project comprised of 'craft' and a 'release' phases, transforming textile fish into real fish. The heart of the 'crafting' phase involved Toronto-based elementary school children crafting a regionally specific school of textile fish, as well as researching and sharing information about their species on the FishNet project website. The 'release' phase occured at Harbourfront Centre's York Quay Gallery, acting (metaphorically) as a fish hatchery, sponsoring the 'release' of the crafted textile fish which was used to raise funds for Great Lakes charities dedicated to fish habitat regeneration and preservation. Approximately 2,000 participants brought the project to fruition.

    The combinations of manual and digital media, individual and collective processes of creation and emphasis on both local and global contexts form the conditions for a holistic, hybridized experience which can be accessed at various moments and at different levels of engagement.

    FishNet identifies absence or neglect as the creative basis for a subtle form of protest art—one that provokes an engaging solution while strengthening the ties that bind us as a community living within the Great Lakes bioregion and beyond.

    FishNet received grants from Harbourfront Centre, Fresh Ground new works and the Ontario Arts Council and was exhibited in the York Quay Gallery, Toronto, ON from May to June 2008.


  • Project title: Pomme de Parterre
  • Agency/Client: International Garden Festival, Jardin de Métis/Reford Gardens, Québec
  • Investigators: Angela Iarocci, Claire Ironside, David Ross, Peter Flemming
  • Role/Position: Co-Investigator
  • Term: 2006 – 2008

  • This landscape installation was selected for the International Garden Festival located in Grand-Métis, Québec. A juried competition is held annually and features gardens by international designers, architects, and landscape architects.

    Pomme de parterre transforms the ornamental structure of the formal garden or parterre into an off-grid potato power plant that generates its own sonic energy. The potential for a symbiotic relationship between technology and the environment is realized through the creation of an alternative energy source provided by the potato. The garden is a large-scale potato patch bisected by paths leading to a buried storage chamber housing the potato battery. Individual potatoes are wired to generate electricity as an invisible sonic signature of the potato's latent stored energy. The electricity is converted into a sound and broadcasted.

    This project was Installed from June to September in 2007 and 2008.

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Selected Publications

  • Iarocci, Angela & Pierre Bélanger. (2007) Foodshed: The Global Infrastructure of the Ontario Food Terminal. In John Knechtel (Ed.), Food: Alphabet City. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Iarocci, Angela & Rebecca Duclos. (2007) Pomme de parterre: The Potato Speaks for Itself. Seeds of Diversity/Semences du Patrimoine, No. 20, Vol.3.

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Selected Conference Presentations

  • Iarocci, Angela & Pierre Bélanger. Foodshed: The Global Infrastructure of the Ontario Food Terminal. Ourtopias Conference, Design Exchange, Toronto, ON, June 2007.
  • Iarocci, Angela & Angela Norwood. From Expert Users to Day Trippers: Campus Mapping as a Comprehensive Approach to Information Design Education. By Design Conference, Design Exchange, Toronto, ON. October 2005.

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Exhibitions

  • 2008 Beeline, installation at MADE cooler, Toronto, ON
  • 2008 FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project, Harbourfront Centre, York Quay Gallery, Toronto, ON
  • 2007 An Ethnographic Portrait of Canada. Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
  • 2006 Lucky White Squirrels. The Neighbourhood Group Show, Park Gallery, Toronto, ON
  • 2005 Winter Wonder Wheel. Design for the Cold, Design Exchange, Toronto, ON
  • 2005 Tumbleweed. Peep Show, ArtCity Festival, Calgary, AB
  • 2005 Vitrine,. Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition Exhibition, Corner House Gallery, Manchester UK

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Honours and Awards

  • 2007 FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project, Fresh Ground new works grant, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
    National juried competition (with Claire Ironside)
  • 2007 FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project, Ontario Arts Council grant (with Claire Ironside)
  • 2006 – 2008 Pomme de parterre, International Garden Festival, Jardin de Métis, Grand-Métis, Québec
    International juried competition (with Claire Ironside, David Ross and Peter Flemming)
  • 2007 Lucky White Squirrels, COUPE Magazine International Design and Image Annual, Toronto, ON
    Juried selection (with Claire Ironside)
  • 2005 Vitrine. Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, Manchester, UK
    Sir Henry Withecombe Prize for Design Innovation and Excellence, First Prize (with moimoi design)
  • 2005 Tumbleweed, Peep Show Competition. Art City Festival, Calgary, AL
    Honorable Mention (with moimoi design)
  • 2005 Winter Wonder Wheel. Design for the Cold, Design Exchange, Toronto, ON
    Juried selection (with moimoi design)

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Personal Website

www.moimoidesign.com