Video Pool

"Hello, Winnipeg! Are you ready to rock?"

2008-08-12T16:44:00.003-05:00

Check out this great review by Stacey Abramson of Robert Hengeveld's Staging the Gap, which is on now in Video Pool's third floor studio.

* * *

"Hello, Winnipeg! Are you ready to rock?"
Exhibit shows how stagecraft changes concert experience
August 7th, 2008

Do you remember your very first major arena concert? Remember that unmistakable feeling of excitement when the band or artist you no doubt paid a large amount of money to see walked on stage amidst the flash of lights, booming speakers and, most importantly, that sweet, muggy scent of dry ice and smoke?

It's a pretty intense and thrilling feeling.

My real first encounter with this exhilaration (however embarrassing) was seeing Bon Jovi and Skid Row when I was only eight years old. I remember being blown away when the fireworks blasted simultaneously with key guitar chords and Jon bounced across the catwalk set up along the front section of the Winnipeg Arena.

This culture surrounding arena shows and large venue concerts has mesmerized audiences since that day when smoke first met spotlight and magic was made. Toronto-based artist Robert Hengeveld has attempted to capture everything that encompasses this in his interactive installation, Staging the Gap.

Winnipeg Square was to be the installation place, but due to concerns surrounding the tiny puffs of dry ice that jet out at timed intervals, the venue had to be shifted. The piece has now been installed on the third floor of Video Pool Media Arts Centre's production space in the blue screen room where patrons experience a unique concert.

Inside the unlit space sits a miniature white amphitheatre with a glowing red button. Once the viewer presses the button, the ride begins. The stage begins to glow with tiny sets of stage lights. It's pretty funny to see a baby stage be overcome with its own theatrics. The viewer must now choose a set of headphones to experience the work (although I suggest watching the work through as many soundtracks as you can).

Eight separate headphones stream different soundtracks, specifically created to co-ordinate with the light show. A woman scats and screams on one set, while Bohemian Rhapsody gets a Star Wars twist on another. Each soundtrack gives the stage a very different feeling. While piano chords creep through the spotlights on one set of headphones, a dramatic and synthetic soundtrack plays. Hengeveld lets the viewer choose multiple genres and emotions through which to experience the work.

While the work may seem like something of a novelty, Hengeveld is commenting on how different the concert and musical experience becomes with the addition of smoke and lights. The stage in Hengeveld's installation is where the viewer examines the connections between music and theatrics. When thinking of the lip-synching glamour girls and boys of popular music, this concept becomes clearer in a Marshall McLuhan-esque fashion -- the medium is the message.

By leaving nothing on stage except technical theatrical devices, the artist lets the viewer connect with the stage environment and become slightly detached from the music. The viewer gets to experience the smoke and mirrors separate from the live performance. The spectacle takes hold of the musical experience.

Though the premise behind the work may be a heavier look into the semiotics of live performances, the result is playful and engaging. It is also a great example of good, fun art, as it's an entertaining work that can be appreciated on many levels. And let's face it: everyone loves a good show.

freep.artreview@gmail.com

Art Review
Staging the Gap by Robert Hengeveld
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
300-100 Arthur St.
To Aug. 21

Participate in a New Media Workshop Led by Toronto Artist, Jessica Thompson

2008-08-12T13:34:00.004-05:00

Jessica Thompson's Freestyle SoundHack

Saturday, September 13 from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Video Pool Media Arts Centre and other Exchange District sites

Jessica Thompson will present Freestyle SoundHack, a collaborative performance in the form of a workshop. The performance/workshop involves building Freestyle SoundKits – wearable sound pieces prototyped by the artist – that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through the urban environment. During the performance, the artist will give her project to the public by teaching workshop participants how to make their own Freestyle SoundKits, which they can distribute as they wish, using whatever sounds they choose.

The workshop begins at Video Pool with a Freestyle SoundKits building session, followed by live sonic and movement-based interventions in the public spaces of the Exchange District. Thompson regards her transmission of open-source technological skill as the core component of the performance. She is interested in sharing technological knowledge so that the sonic transformation of public space becomes less of a specialized artistic activity and more of an ordinary occurrence.

The workshop/performance is open to any one 14 years and older. No previous electronics, hacking, coding or performance experience is needed – just a desire to experiment and play.

Enrollment is limited to 10 participants and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The fee for the workshop is $40, which will cover the cost of workshop materials. Participants should bring their own snacks/ lunch to the workshop.

This workshop is presented by Video Pool Media Arts Centre.

To register, or for more information contact Cam Woykin, Education Coordinator
tel: 204-949-9134 x 4 // email: vped@videopool.org

AND...

On Friday, September 12, join us in Video Pool's third floor studio from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. for an artist talk offered by Jessica Thompson during which time she'll talk about her past work, current projects, and future ideas.

The City Re-imagined, Re-invented!

2008-08-05T14:02:00.005-05:00

aceartinc., Urban Shaman Gallery, Video Pool Media Arts Centre, and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art are thrilled to present

(in)visible cities

– a performance art festival in Winnipeg’s Exchange District from September 6th to 13th, 2008.

Transforming, Shape-shifting Artists!

(in)visible cities will include live performance events by an array of internationally renowned artists including: Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Vancouver), Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Winnipeg), FASTWÜRMS (Creemore, ON), Jessica Thompson (Toronto), and Nhan Duc Nguyen (Vancouver). Cultural theorist Jeanne Randolph (Winnipeg) will act as (in)visible cities’ rapporteur/blogger, providing insightful commentary as festival events unfold.

You! Work it! Mix it up!

To further engage audiences as both participants in and witnesses of the work, (in)visible cities will present two performance workshops:

Performance and Activism in Everyday Life, led by Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, is a two-day workshop expanding ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism.

Freestyle SoundHack, led by Jessica Thompson, is a one-day workshop/performance involving the creation of wearable sound pieces that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through urban environments.

Meet the Artists! Exchange Ideas! Incite!

(in)visible cities will also include a round-table discussion on performance practice, identity, community, agency and place.

Morphing, Resonating Cities!

The city – our city – is network of living cultures with heterogeneous but intersecting communities, systems, flows and struggles. Through presenting performance works that play out a variety of modes of social interaction with audiences, (in)visible cities provides an arena in which to further animate the stories, histories and economies of the Exchange District.

You are invited to witness and participate in events that expand possibilities for performative agency while also speaking to the politics of place – of cultural visibility and invisibility, presence and absence, utopia and urban myth, renewal and resistance. Through (in)visible cities we offer new forms for imagining how urban dwelling, telling, exchange, site and history can be reinvented.

A full festival schedule with dates, times and venues will be available by mid-August.

For more information about (in)visible cities contact:

aceartinc. Tel: 204.944.9763 Email: program@aceart.org
Urban Shaman Gallery Tel: 204.942.2674 Email: program@urbanshaman.org

(in)visible cities gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Downtown Festival Grant Program, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Generous in-kind support is provided by Canadian Goodwill Industries Corporation, Little Saigon Restaurant, and Kensington Building Ltd.

Sincere thanks also to our donors, members and volunteers; and to our community, and friends and family.

* * *

PS: Visit the (in)visible cities blog! http://invisiblecitiesperformance.blogspot.com/

Change of Exhibition Venue!

2008-07-21T17:39:00.005-05:00

Robert Hengeveld's exhibition Staging the Gap will no longer be presented at Unit 3 - 300 Main Street. Instead the exhibition will presented at Video Pool's studio (3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street).

All are invited to enjoy the interactive audio and electronics of this detailed concert stage diorama daily from 12 - 5. The artist will be in attendance for the exhibition opening, Friday, July 25th; the exhibition will run until August 21.

An Uncomfortable Fascination

2008-07-03T12:20:00.001-05:00

This is not a video pool event, but a video event not to be missed! We hope you'll be able to attend...

-----

THE VIDEO WORKS OF ERICA EYRES:
An Uncomfortable Fascination

Curated By Stacy Abramson
Artist Present

FREE ADMISSION

Friday / July 4 / 7:00 PM
THE WFG'S CINEMATHEQUE,
100 ARTHUR STREET

Her work is dark, eerie and strangely human. She dons costumes to perform in all of her video work creating characters which pushes viewers to the edge. The work of former Winnipeg artist Erica Eyres, who moved to Glasgow in 2002 and received her masters degreee in art in 2004 has been picked up by the Rokeby Gallery in London, England, one of the most trend setting galleries in the UK. She has been developing a name for herself in the European art scene in the past six years. She showed with Bowieart - an exhibition of 16 emerging European artists selected by David Bowie in 2005.

Curator and writer Stacy Abramson said her work is uncomfortable, hilarious, sad and brilliant all at once. We want to laugh, and do, but feel sorry for the characters. We feel guilty about finding all of their misfortune humourous. But this is the reality of human emotions. She is able to shine the harshest light on the dark side of human nature with a strange face of humour. She makes us look at the strange and unsettling reality of these characteristics that we tend to push under the rug. Through each character that she plays in her works, Eyres lets us see that with a critical and brilliant eye. Her total control of the medium of both video and performance are what make her stand-out from so many artists working with the same ideas of humanity."

Robert Hengeveld's "Staging the Gap"

2008-07-02T16:08:00.006-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre presents
Robert Hengeveld's "Staging the Gap"

Robert Hengeveld's exhibition Staging the Gap will no longer be presented at Unit 3 - 300 Main Street. Instead the exhibition will presented at Video Pool's studio (3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street).

Winnipeg, MB (July 2, 2008) – Video Pool Media Arts Centre is very pleased to present Staging the Gap, a provocative media installation by Toronto-based artist, Robert Hengeveld.

Staging the Gap is a miniature model of a concert stage with silently animated lights and smoke. The work explores the relationship of fact and fiction in a technologically mediated world. Hengeveld critically reflects on the mechanisms used to deliver popular culture by focusing on how visual effects – stage lights, pyrotechnics, and dry ice – are used at concerts to shape our understanding of what we hear. Ignoring society’s desire for the spectacle of performance, the stage created by the artist remains empty while a precisely orchestrated light show plays out.

Accompanying the miniature stage is a series of headphone each playing a different audio track specifically composed in response to the orchestrated light show. This inverts the traditional relationship of audio and visual experience in concert settings and addresses the role of audio in shaping our understanding of the world.

Hengeveld's model stage measures 2.5m2 to establish a scale at which viewers are encompassed by the work, yet still feel slightly detached. Next, he coaxes audiences from their suspended disbelief into his alternate reality by offering a familiar space and encouraging them to relate in a familiar manner. This subtle slip from the norm creates a situation that challenges preconceptions while fostering a reevaluation of our spatial environments and our positions within them.

This exhibition runs from July 29 – August 21, 2008 and will be available weekdays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Video Pool's Studio (100 Arthur Street, 3rd Floor).

Exhibition Launch: Friday, July 25
Artist talk begins at 6:00 p.m. in Winnipeg Film Group's Studio; Reception will follow at Video Pool – both venues are on the 3rd floor at 100 Arthur Street.

ARTIST BIO -- Robert Hengeveld completed his MFA at the University of Victoria in 2005 and received a Fine Arts Diploma and Certificate from Georgian College, and an AOCAD from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally, and has participated in artist residencies in both Canada and Scotland. He is currently living and working in Toronto.

These exhibition is presented thanks to generous financial support from:

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact:
Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
#300-100 Arthur St., Winnipeg MB R3B 1H3
http://www.videopool.org
http://videopool.blogspot.com
204.949.9134 x 1

Uncovered!!

2008-06-26T14:36:00.005-05:00

It's like a time capsule cracked open online!

The following selection of images were taken at Art's Birthday 2008 by John Coutanche.

Enjoy!

Journal of Media Practice: Call for Papers

2008-06-26T14:26:00.001-05:00

Reposted from an email for all those who might be interested...

Special Issue: A Decade of Media Practice: Changes, Challenges and Choices

The Journal of Media Practice is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2009!

To mark this anniversary, the Journal is looking for contributions from colleagues involved in media practice around the world, whether as teachers or practitioners.

The current decade is witnessing vast changes in the production, consumption and forms of media. With digital technology, video art, documentary, film and other visual media are all going through interesting changes at the institutional, artistic and audience levels.
Web 2.0 is blurring the lines between the production and consumption of media, and is opening up new spaces of expression in societies where state censorship hinders freedom of speech in traditional media. It is also instigating changes in web design. Satellite television is consolidating itself as the primary medium in places like the Middle East. Digital radio is opening up new possibilities for broadcasting. More synergies are being created between different media forms, whether between the internet and television, the internet and documentary, or any number of other possibilities.

The Journal invites international contributions responding to the changes and challenges in the media practice landscape over the last decade, be it television, radio, video art, documentary, film, screenwriting, the internet, the press, or any other form of print, audio, visual or audiovisual media, and the choices that those changes and challenges have created for media practitioners, institutions and audiences.

In addition to academic articles, the Journal encourages the submission of:

- Interviews with key media personnel and artists

- Reflections by media practitioners on their own practice (whether within institutions or as independent practitioners)

- Reviews of exhibitions and other media events

- Critical pieces about changes in technology, content and delivery of media products and tools, or the work of media institutions around the world

Articles should be 5000 words, reviews 500-1000 words, and critical pieces and reflections between 1000-3000 words. The Editor is happy to discuss other possibilities with potential contributors prior to the deadline below.

All submissions are subject to peer review. Please send all completed submissions to jmp@rhul.ac.uk.

The deadline to receive all completed material (full articles, reviews etc.) is October 17, 2008.

Informal queries, speculative abstracts and proposals can be sent to the Editor Lina Khatib: lina.khatib@rhul.ac.uk in advance of the October deadline.

Dr Lina Khatib
Department of Media Arts
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Media-Arts/staff/khatib.htm
Editor: Journal of Media Practice
Co-Editor: Middle East Journal of Culture & Communication

We’ve reached the end… or have we?

2008-05-20T13:25:00.003-05:00

Wow! The past 5 weeks has just been a whirlwind of excitement!

We have:

Successfully launched six new commissions
Witnessed four performances (one of which is ongoing and will continue until May 23)
Enjoyed three receptions
Welcomed a TON of visitors, some of whom experienced Video Pool programming for the very first time.

… And that was just for our 25th Anniversary programming! We also hosted a performance lecture by Jeanne Randolph on May 8, which involved an enjoyable reception.

Everything has worked out wonderfully and, in about a month, we'll have a ton of photos, and maybe even some video documentation to share.

Thanks are owed to…

The artists: Sharon Alward, Daniel Barrow, Peter Courtemanche & Lori Weidenhammer, Richard Dyck, Jeanne Randolph, Steven Loft, and Victoria Prince.

The curators: Sigrid Dahle and Grant Guy.

Our presentation partners: aceartinc., ADHERE+DENY, The Duke of Kent Legion, PLATFORM, Plug in ICA, the Rachel Browne Theatre (formerly Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers Studio), and the Winnipeg Film Group.

Our technicians: Ian August, Daniel Ellingsen, Rick Fisher, Mike Germaine, and Ken Gregory.

Our hospitality sponsor: The Line Up

And most importantly, thank you to our generous funders: The Winnipeg Arts Council through the New Creations Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Foundation, On Screen Manitoba, and the W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation.

Thank you!

On that note, we want to let you know that it’s not over yet!

Through a very generous contribution of the Manitoba Arts Council, beginning in the fall, we will host a series of four artist talks that will give a history of media arts on the prairies in a setting that will, most importantly help to forge new connections between Video Pool’s senior members and our growing generation of new practitioners. Stay tuned for more information!

Coming up next… Robert Hengeveld’s media installation, Staging the Gap. More info coming soon!

Sharon Alward's "Bushi"

2008-05-08T15:03:00.005-05:00

A Newly Commissioned Work as Part of Video Pool's 25th Anniversary

Please join us on Friday, May 16 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. to witness the start of Sharon Alward's latest collaboration with Alex Poruchnyk, a performance-driven video installation titled Bushi.

Rachel Browne Theatre (formerly Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio)
211 Bannatyne Ave

Exhibition hours beginning May 17
Tues - Sat: 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
(Closed Sun - Mon.)
Exhibition continues until May 24, 2008

As always, our exhibitions and performances are free for all.

++++++++++

Video Pool's 25th Anniversary Commissions have been made possible by the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council through the New Creations Fund. Further financial contributions have been kindly provided by The Canada Council for the Arts, The Manitoba Arts Council, the W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation, The Winnipeg Foundation, and On Screen Manitoba.

++++++++++

For more information about Sharon Alward and Bushi, please visit:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~alward/Bushi and http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~alward/Bushi2.htm

Reminder: Performance lecture tomorrow night!

2008-05-07T14:00:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Members of Video Pool,

Please be reminded of a very special evening planned for tomorrow night:

A spoken-word performance by Jeanne Randolph, who is well known as one of Canada’s foremost cultural theorists.

We originally anticipated presenting a performance lecture by Glen Johnson, as well, but we regret to announce that he will not be able to join us due to unforeseen circumstances. Video Pool looks forward to re-scheduling his performance at a later date and we will be sure to keep all of you informed!

Jeanne Randolph and Glen Johnson are both known for their creative, intelligent, and irreverent lectures.

Tomorrow evening, Randolph will address the myriad, ubiquitous, and often troubling ways technologies operate through contemporary art and everyday life. Using psychoanalytic methods and concepts, themselves amenable to productive misuse, Randolph will reveal the ways in which technological devices and/or their depictions are open to creative and critical interpretation.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday, May 8
Winnipeg Film Group's Studio
304-100 Arthur Street
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This provocative and humorous performance lecture is free for all! A reception will follow.

Video Pool Media Arts Centre is grateful for generous financial support from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Video Pool also extends thanks to the Winnipeg Film Group for their kind presentation support.

Upcoming Video Pool Events: May 5, 8, and 16

2008-05-01T15:26:00.003-05:00

Dear Members and Friends,

We are well underway with our 25th Anniversary celebrations! Peter Courtemanche & Lori Weidenhammer's new media sculpture is available for viewing at PLATFORM (100 Arthur St), and Richard Dyck's experimental computer-generated video project is available for viewing at aceartinc. (290 McDermot Ave).

Here's what's coming next:

Steve Loft "A History in Two Parts" -- May 5 – 17, 2008
Reception -- Monday, May 5 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The Duke of Kent Legion, 227 McDermot Ave.
Exhibition hours beginning May 6: Mon, Wed - Fri 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.; Tues 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Closed Sat - Sun.
This exhibition is presented in-part through the generosity of On Screen Manitoba

Sharon Alward "Bushi" -- May 16 - 24, 2008
Launch -- Friday, May 16 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Rachel Browne Theatre (Formerly the Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio), 211 Bannatyne Ave
Exhibition hours beginning May 17: Tues - Sat 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Closed Sun - Mon.
Performances each day except May 24

Video Pool's 25th Anniversary Commissions were made possible by the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council through the New Creations Fund. Further financial contributions have been kindly provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council, The W.H. & S. E. Loewen Foundation, the Winnipeg Foundation, and On Screen Manitoba.

* * *
During this very exciting time, we are also thrilled to be continue offering programming pertaining to our 2007/2007 thematic, Off the Grid: The Creative (Mis)use of Technology. We are very excited to present one-night only performance lectures by...

Jeanne Randolph and Glen Johnson
Thursday, May 8 beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Winnipeg Film Group Studio, 304-100 Arthur Street

The schedule for the evening is as follows: Performances will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m., we will have a brief intermission between each one, and we'll continue the evening with a reception.

For more information about these thoughtful, provocative, and humorous performances, please visit: http://videopool.blogspot.com/2008/04/planning-ahead-upcoming-performance.html

These performances are presented thanks to generous financial support from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Video Pool thanks the Winnipeg Film Group for their generous presentation support.

* * *
As always, our exhibitions and performances are free for all. Please note that owing to the venue, Steve Loft's exhibition is open to audiences aged 18 and older.

* * *

We look forward to seeing you!!

Video Pool marks 25 years with new works

2008-04-29T13:19:00.002-05:00

Thanks for this 25th Anniversary coverage, Stacey!!

Video Pool marks 25 years with new works
Stacey Abrahamson, Winnipeg Free Press, April 25, 2008

Video Pool Media Arts Centre has much to celebrate on its 25th birthday.

The organization has promoted, pushed and loved video art since the early days of the medium. Rooted in community art ideals, Video Pool has been one of the most welcoming homes of creativity in Canada -- it began as a way for artists interested in working in video to "pool" together their resources.

To celebrate its anniversary, Video Pool commissioned six new media art works by Prairie artists through local curators Grant Guy and Sigrid Dahle. Each of these works gets a one-week run at various locations in the Exchange District. Dahle commissioned Richard Dyck, Steven Loft and the collaborative artistic duo of Peter Courtemanche and Lori Weidenhammer through the curatorial concept of Temporarily out of order: downtime. Seen/Unseen is the curatorial vision of Guy through the work of Sharon Alward, Daniel Barrow and Victoria Prince.

Guy's curatorial intent has more to do with performance-based artists and their works, while Dahle's intent has more to do with the vulnerabilities that occur within both the technology surrounding video and the artists who make the works. Both concepts are true to the beginnings of Video Pool, where both performance and conceptual art came together to create a base for artists looking to explore the new medium of video art.

The works by Dyck and Prince are currently showing. Barrow's Trying to Love the Normal Amount was the first of the works to debut in the city on April 12. Barrow normally performs his animations by overlapping colourful transparencies onto one another to create movement and life on screen. In this case, he puts the role of performer onto the audience. Audience members are invited to perform the work through the directions on a screen that's set up like a karaoke prompter. They are asked to play out the sad tale of a woman looking for love and comfort.

Dyck's work always has a feeling of home and history. His video The day we cut Nettie's curls, she was 7 years old is no different. Taking the story behind a 1947 photograph, Dyck creates a 3-D environment that explores the twists and turns of its tale. The environment is a series of black and white hills and gorges that the viewer travels through with the assistance of a glowing tonal orb. The sadness and strength of the story that is told through text on the screen is heightened by the silence in the room and the 3-D space. Dyck invites the viewers to ponder the scene and story that is given to them through the serenity of the created artificial hush of its backdrop.

Walking up the stairs to Prince's installation, the viewer is pummelled with the powerful fragrance of incense. When the viewer reaches the top of the stairs and the entrance to the installation room, the scent becomes almost unbearable. The candle-lit room holds Light and Alter, Prince's glistening watery installation. Two Plexiglas waterfalls stand on either side of a stone- and salt-laden path leading into a video projection and light. Viewers are invited to walk through the path to what Prince calls a "tabernacle."

She creates a new media metaphor of spirituality that is not only witnessed but experienced, and is unlike any work she has done before.

Still to come are works by Alward, Loft and the duo of Courtemanche and Weidenhammer, details of which can be found on the Video Pool website.

The six commissions and artists represent a sampling of the best artists working in new media in Canada. It is a fabulous way to celebrate the organization's achievements and is indicative of the creative and conceptual past it has had and the potential of its future.

Into the Light

2008-04-25T16:40:00.004-05:00

Check out this fantastic 25th Anniversary coverage by Whitney Light that appeared in the latest edition of Uptown.

Click on the image to read the full article...

Thanks, Whitney!

Tonight's the night we party!

2008-04-25T14:59:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone!!

We've been celebrating our 25th Anniversary since January, and we plan to celebrate all year long, but tonight's the night we party!

Join us at at PLATFORM centre for photographic and digital arts (100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg MB) and share in the cheer ... and beer, and food, and fun, and friends, and art, and talk, and everything else wonderful!!

Love,
Video Pool

ps. We're accepting presents... rather, photos of presents ;-) If you have something funny, quirky, strange, unexpected, sentimental, or otherwise "big 2-5" appropriate, bring it along! We'll take a photo and post it on our blog.

Bday wishes are also welcome from those far, far away... we'll announce them on your behalf, just like they do at weddings n' stuff. Accepted by email, fax, telephone, telegram, SMS, or semaphore =-)

Silver Screens -- Preview written by Walter Forsberg

2008-04-18T16:40:00.003-05:00

We were very happy to discover Walter Forsberg's preview of our 25th Anniversary programming in Uptown Magazine. We're sure this will mean an even bigger party tonight!

Click on the image for a larger version...

Thanks Walter!

Fantastic coverage to kick off a fantastic celebration

2008-04-18T16:13:00.003-05:00

Wow! We're pretty excited to receive such detailed and enthusiastic coverage about our 25th Anniversary from Walrus Magazine. Thanks to Mike Landry for a great interview, which has turned into a great blog post!

25 Years of Video Pool
Mike Landry, walrusmagazine.com/blogs, April 16th, 2008

To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, Winnipeg’s Video Pool media art centre made a poster detailing its history. But the twenty-five year history of an artist-run centre is as harried as they come. Rather than a straight timeline, Video Pool’s history looks more like a brainstorming session gone wrong. In the aptly titled The Incomplete, Contested, Anecdotal, Unedited, Messy, Nostalgic, Faulty, Controversial History of Video Pool So Far…,bubbles of people, places, moments in time, and minor scandals are connected with AV cables.

But Video Pool isn’t just celebrating their milestone with a poster. For the next month Video Pool takes Winnipeg by storm with six commissioned works from the centre at spaces around town.

The works are from two big names in Winnipeg: Sigrid Dahle, and Grant Guy. Dahle has been living and working as a risk-taking independent curator in Winnipeg about as long as Video Pool has been around. Guy, who comes from a background in theatre, has been involved with the centre from the very beginning.

Video Pool’s initial idea was to have the curators explore media art’s past, present, and future. But both Dahle and Guy took that theme in their own direction, and commissioned artists at different stages in their career who all have ties to Video Pool. Having a diverse representation is always important to Video Pool, says programming coordinator Milena Placentile.

“It’s really about keeping the dialogue going between different generations and making sure everyone has access to what they need at all points in their career.”

Dahle commissioned Steven Loft, Richard Dyck, and Lori Weidenhammer and Peter Courtemanche to explore “the implications of an artwork in which vulnerability, failure, requirements for regular maintenance and a reliance on (unstable) shared networks are foregrounded?” Loft tackles the question with a video installation tackling the racism, violence, and filth of an average Manitoba video lottery terminal-cursed bar. Weidenhammer and Courtemanche combine performance and sound art with a dress laden with speakers. But it’s Dyck who takes the cake for the most mind-altering reaction to Dahle’s question, “How might [a] piece’s ‘malfunctioning’ serve to create a time and space for quiet contemplation and memory.” He does this with a computer program simulating a camera moving through a 3D rendering of a photograph from 1947 according to mathematical algorithms that result in a new video each time. Yowzah.

Guy combined his theatrical background with the performance aspects of media art. He did this by asking Daniel Barrow, Victoria Prince, and Sharon Alward to address the concept of light as material or metaphor. Barrow does this a do-it-yourself version of his famed overhead projection performance. Alward brings a healthy dose of insanity with her not-quite-in-performance piece featuring martial arts and one-on-one tea ceremonies. And Prince used her commission as an opportunity to branch out from her single-channel work, presenting a video-based sculptural installation that includes water and salt, among other things.

For those familiar with Video Pool from the beginning, it should be no surprise they used this celebration to commission new work. That’s exactly why Video Pool was founded in the first place. Well, that and to pool video resources.

“That it is something designed with a celebration in mind and also designed specifically for our programming as opposed to just supporting production in principle makes it quite original for what we normally undertake,” says Placentile.

Because Video Pool doesn’t have its own programming space, it has partnered with several Winnipeg galleries and theatres to exhibit the new works. With such a tight-knit community though it wasn’t a problem getting collaborators for Video Pool’s celebration. For Placentile, who moved to Winnipeg from Toronto recently, it’s exactly this atmosphere that attracted her.

“Whether it’s something as simple as loaning equipment and then even sharing space, it can just happen in a flash. Everyone realizes how important it is to do that to be here and be successful”

For a little film collective that blossomed into a non-profit artist-run centre, Video Pool certainly has grown up. Rightly, this celebration marks its most ambitious year yet. Increased planning has led to more generous grants, which in turn has led to more programming. There’s even talk of trying to tour the six new works. With their artists becoming more and more recognized, Video Pool is starting to receive replies to their emails from around the world.

In Winnipeg though, people just appreciate that Video Pool exists. With new and expensive technologies like high-definition media, the centre is the only place where many artists can dream of accessing these high-end materials.

“It’s hard for people to enter, and they have ideas of what they want to make and do, and being part of a larger community makes it all possible,” says Placentile. “This is what drew me to Winnipeg, and Video Pool really embodies it.

Festivities kicked off April 12 with Daniel Barrow’s show at Plug In ICA. Head to videopool.org for a complete schedule.

We almost forgot to post this one!

2008-04-18T11:35:00.003-05:00

If there was ever an interesting and valuable side-effect of grant writing, it's going through old files and reflecting on past activities.

We forgot to mention the great news of Stacey Abramson's review of Rockstars and Wannabes in Uptown back in November. So, here it is! Click on the pic to read the text in full size.

Thanks Stacey!

Share your anecdotes with us!

2008-04-17T14:03:00.005-05:00

Twenty-five years is a long time. It's a quarter of a century. It's a big deal!

Video Pool is honoured to have stood this test of time and is pleased to have such a dynamic, colourful, and community-building history.

How long have you been a part of our history? What stories do you have to tell?

No matter how long you’ve been involved with Video Pool – 25 years, or 25 days – we’d love to read your experience, impressions, and thoughts concerning what helped Video Pool become what it is today, and how Video Pool has helped you.

Please take a moment to offer your anecdotes in the comment section of this blog entry. We’d love to start a conversation, and maybe share a few laughs, too!

You’re welcome to leave an anonymous comment, if you wish, but if you at least leave a code name and enter your email address, you can take advantage of the option to subscribe to this conversation. When someone posts after you, you’ll be notified by email, so you can come back and reply.

We’re looking forward to reading all the great information and story telling that we hope will take place here…

Thanks for helping us celebrate 25 wonderful years!

A little reminder...

2008-04-17T12:31:00.002-05:00

In honour of our 25th Anniversary, Video Pool Media Arts Centre welcomes you to join us on Friday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. at acerartinc. as we launch three new commissions by Daniel Barrow, Richard Dyck, and Victoria Prince.

Barrow's multi-channel interactive media installation, Trying to Love the Normal Amount, opened at Plug In ICA's satellite space (290 McDermot Ave) on Saturday, April 12, and will be available until Saturday, April 19. Barrow will direct a performance beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Dyck's new media installation, The day we cut Nettie's curls, she was 7 years old, will be presented at aceartinc (290 McDermot Ave) and will run until May 2.

Prince's sculptural video installation, Light and Alter, will be presented at the ADHERE AND DENY Pocket Theatre (315-70 Albert Street) and will run until April 25.

And, please mark your calendars for the launch of a fourth commission by Lori Weidenhammer and Peter Courtemanche. This project will involve two performances -- one on April 24 and one on April 25 -- at PLATFORM Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts at 7:00 p.m.

Following the performance and Q&A session at PLATFORM on April 25, we will celebrate Video Pool's Anniversary with a reception to which all are invited.

For more information about these events and our events upcoming in May, please visit: http://videopool.blogspot.com/2008/04/ton-of-25th-annivesary-programming-to.html

Congratulations! And, Launching Soon...

2008-04-15T12:57:00.002-05:00

Video Pool is thrilled to share the exciting news that Daniel Barrow has returned home to Winnipeg with an illustrious honour from the Toronto Images Festival (April 3 - 13, 2008).

The Images Festival Award Winners were announced at the 2008 awards ceremony and closing party, where Daniel was presented with the Images Prize for Best Canadian Media Artwork for his performance project, Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry.

We're very excited for Daniel and we are pleased to be present his newly commissioned work, Trying to Love the Normal Amount at Plug In ICA's satellite space. This exhibition opened on Saturday, April 12 and runs until Saturday April 19.

Please join us on Friday, April 18 for the launch partying celebrating this project as well as new commissions by Victoria Prince and Richard Dyck. Victoria's sculptural video installation, Light and Alter, will be presented at the Adhere and Deny Pocket Theatre (70 Albert Street) and Richard Dyck's new media installation will be presented at aceartinc (290 McDermot Ave).

We look forward to your attendance!

Planning ahead... Upcoming Performance Lectures

2008-04-09T17:12:00.007-05:00

Mark Thursday, May 8 down in your calendars right away to be sure you don't miss a night of very serious (and seriously hilarious) lectures about art, technology, philosophy, psychology, and maybe even the meaning of life.

Winnipeg, MB (April 16, 2008) – Video Pool Media Arts Centre is proud to present an evening of performative lectures on creativity and technology by Jeanne Randolph and Glen Johnson.

On Thursday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. at the Winnipeg Film Group's Studio (304-100 Arthur Street), Video Pool will present two live, spoken-word performances by Jeanne Randolph and Glen Johnson, both known for their creative, intelligent, and irreverent lectures. Randolph and Johnson will each address the myriad, ubiquitous, and often troubling ways technologies operate through contemporary art and everyday life.

Psychiatrist and cultural theorist Randolph will use psychoanalytic methods and concepts, themselves amenable to productive misuse, to reveal the ways in which technological devices and/or their depictions are open to creative and critical interpretation. Johnson projects digital slides in a manner reminiscent of corporate culture and middle management to support his thesis that technology has ruined art, while Randolph uses a technology associated with yesterday’s middle-school science teachers and art historians – the conventional slide projector – to comment on mass media culture. Through a hilarious presentation based on classical scholarship, Johnson will take his audience back to scenes of Lascaux, urging artists to abandon “all this technological nonsense” and to “go back to crushing berries and burning sticks.”

ARTIST BIOS

Jeanne Randolph is one of Canada’s foremost cultural theorists. A practicing psychiatrist, Randolph is also known as a performance artist whose extemporaneous soliloquies (on topics varying from cat curating to boxing to Barbie dolls to Wittgenstein) have been performed in galleries and universities across Canada as well as in England, Australia, and Spain.

Glen Johnson is a performance and installation artist whose work invariably involves text. He has delivered faux-lectures to stunned audiences in at least two provinces. He has hung a bed on one wall and nailed tiny words to another. He has performed at aceartinc, The Annex, Gallery 803, Platform Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University, the University of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He is largely responsible for the website www.persiflage.ca. He received a Bachelors Degree in Classics from the University of Winnipeg in 1993 and expects that some day they will ask for it back.

Join us for these provocative and humorous lectures; free admission - all are welcome! A reception will follow.

These performances are presented thanks to generous financial support from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Video Pool thanks the Winnipeg Film Group for their generous presentation support.

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution, and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue, and advocacy in media arts.

A Ton of 25th Anniversary Programming to Enjoy!

2008-04-09T16:58:00.011-05:00

Remember we said we had a ton of 25th Anniversary programming in store? Well, we weren't kidding!

The following list covers everything planned, so far. We have a few more ideas in mind... and we look forward to announcing those details as soon as possible.

Daniel Barrow's presentation of Trying to Love the Normal Amount opens on Saturday, April 12 @ 11:00 a.m.

The reception -- which will also celebrate the launch of projects by Richard Dyck and Victoria Prince -- will take place on Friday, April 18 beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Catering will be provided, most generously, by The Line Up (98 Albert Street). We are grateful for their support!

Exhibitions

Daniel Barrow April 12 – 19
Plug In ICA's Satellite Gallery, 290 McDermot Ave. (Ground Floor) (Map)
Tues - Sat 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m; Closed Sun - Mon.

Victoria Prince April 18 – 25
ADHERE AND DENY's Pocket Theatre, 315-70 Albert St. (Map)
Tues - Sat 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Closed Sun - Mon.

Richard Dyck April 18 – May 2
aceartinc., 290 McDermot Ave. (2nd Floor) (Map)
Tues - Sat 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Closed Sun - Mon.

Peter Courtemanche and Lori Weidenhammer April 24 – May 10
PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, 100 Arthur St. (Map)
Tues - Sat 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Thurs 12:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.; Closed Sun - Mon.

Steve Loft May 5 – 17
The Duke of Kent Legion, 227 McDermot Ave. (Map)
Mon, Wed - Fri 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.; Tues 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Closed Sat - Sun.

Sharon Alward May 16 – 24
Rachel Browne Theatre (Formerly the Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio), 211 Bannatyne Ave. (Map)
Tues - Sat 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Closed Sun - Mon.

Performances

Daniel Barrow April 18 – Begins at 7:30 p.m.
Plug In ICA's Satellite Gallery, 290 McDermot Ave. (Ground Floor) (Map)

Peter Courtemanche + Lori Weidenhammer April 24 & 25 – Begins at 7:00 p.m.
(Question and answer session begins approximately 7:45)
PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, 100 Arthur St. (Map)

Sharon Alward May 16 – 23 – At intervals throughout the duration of the exhibition except for Saturday, May 24.
Rachel Browne Theatre (Formerly the Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio), 211 Bannatyne Ave. (Map)

Openings

Daniel Barrow, Victoria Prince, and Richard Dyck April 18 – Begins at 7:00 p.m.
aceartinc., 290 McDermot Ave. (2nd Floor) (Map)

Peter Courtemanche + Lori Weidenhammer and 25th Anniversary Reception April 25 – Begins at 8:00 p.m.
PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, 100 Arthur St. (Map)

Steven Loft May 5 – 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
The Duke of Kent Legion, 227 McDermot Ave. (Map)

Sharon Alward May 16 - Begins at 7:00 p.m.
Rachel Browne Theatre (Formerly the Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio), 211 Bannatyne Ave. (Map)

Action Alert to Protect Internet Neutrality

2008-04-02T21:40:00.003-05:00

Hey Media Artists!!

Do we really want internet companies to be able to tell us what we can and cannot view and do on the Internet? This includes uploading, as well...

The Internet has, to date, been the most democratic and effective means of sharing critical and creative information. If anything, efforts should be made to expand access and availability! Independent and public content MUST remain as widely circulated as that spewed out by corporations with commercial interests.

Stand up for freedom of speech, expression, information, community, and content!!

The following is reposted from an email sent by Campaign for Democratic Media. An action request contained within...

STOP THE THROTTLERS!

The Campaign for Democratic Media is leading the call to stop the throttling of the Internet and the strangling of our choice.

Bell and Rogers are changing fundamentally how the Internet works by dictating how Web surfers access content.

As of April 7, Bell is going to put limits on downloads by Sympatico subscribers. Internet hosting companies that buy wholesale services from Bell have already been feeling the pinch since mid-March. Meanwhile, Rogers, in addition to its own traffic-shaping activities, has announced it will charge subscribers more for Internet activities that use more bandwidth.

The companies argue they are trying to limit activities that use up a lot of bandwidth in order to maintain speed for all users.

But there is a dangerous reality hidden beneath the companies' apparent concern for subscribers.

Using the same "traffic shaping" principle, the companies can steer subscribers to their own content, or content produced by affiliated companies, and away from that offered by competitors
-- including the public broadcaster. For example, some Internet users who recently tried to download CBC's The Next Greatest Prime Minister on Bittorrent were told it would take hours to do so.

For more than a decade, the Internet was a neutral resource for people around the world to share information with each other.

Do we really want Bell and Rogers to be able to tell us what we can and cannot view and do on the Internet?

You can take action on this alert via the web at:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/internet_control/88eg8uk4q7nttw6d?

We encourage you to take action by April 15, 2008

Say NO to internet control by Bell, Rogers

Video Pool Celebrates 25 Years with Six New Commissions

2008-03-26T12:49:00.027-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre Celebrates
25 Exciting Years with
Six Newly Commissioned Media Arts Projects

Winnipeg, MB (March 26, 2008) – Video Pool Media Arts Centre is proud to celebrate 25 years of support to Manitoban artists through the commission of six projects by seven artists who have made dynamic contributions to Video Pool's history and to media arts in Canada.

Daniel Barrow. Still from "Trying to Love the Normal Amount", 2008

Temporarily Out of Order: Downtime, curated by Sigrid Dahle, and Seen/Unseen: Light Play, curated by Grant Guy, embrace themes emphasizing key notions and material qualities particular to media arts practices. The themes befit the occasion of Video Pool’s anniversary by simultaneously harkening back to media art’s primal scene of light first being captured as image, and anticipating the future of new media art as a form being assimilated rapidly into larger cultural discourses while outmoded technologies decay. At times, media art is approached as a problem: what is the importance of new technologies to new media works, and what happens when the technologies don’t work?

The curators have noticed a curious shift in media arts practices – as technology-based arts have matured, artists appear to be using electronic media to replicate the past rather than to speculate on the future. They describe an aesthetic attitude particularly suited to Winnipeg as a city equally haunted and inspired by the past. It is a view of technology as something mythical and broken, as opposed to clean and slick.

The commissioned works purposefully introduce a ghost into the machine of media art. Daniel Barrow works with outdated technologies, such as an ‘80s era Amiga editing station and an overhead projector to re-imagine early animation techniques. The work of Peter Courtemanche and Lori Weidenhammer evokes Dr. Frankenstein through the haunting of clothing with circuitry to electronically revive mythological creatures. Richard Dyck encourages us to scrutinize the surface of a mysteriously ominous vintage photograph.

Steven Loft explores societal rather than technological disintegration by drawing attention to the racism exhibited by the broken down and the down and out. Injecting manipulated images of the natural world into constructed environments, Sharon Alward and Victoria Prince escape the hustle of our technology-obsessed society to achieve time and space for meditative contemplation. Most significantly, each of the featured projects focus on creating an active media arts experience.

Join us for six weeks of exhibitions, performances, and receptions; all are welcome!

Daniel Barrow April 12 – 19
*** Plug In ICA's Satellite Gallery, 290 McDermot Ave.
*** Performance on April 18

Victoria Prince April 18 – 25
*** Adhere and Deny's Pocket Theatre, 315-70 Albert St.

Richard Dyck April 18 – May 2
*** aceartinc., 290 McDermot Ave.

Peter Courtemanche and Lori Weidenhammer April 24 – May 10
*** PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, 100 Arthur St.
*** Performances on April 24 and 25

Steve Loft May 5 – 17
*** The Duke of Kent Legion, 227 McDermot Ave.

Sharon Alward May 16 – 24
*** Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers Studio, 211 Bannatyne Ave.
*** Performances begin on May 16

Our first reception in this series will celebrate the launch of work by Barrow, Dyck, and Prince and will take place on April 18 at aceartinc. beginning at 7:00 p.m.

For further details about each exhibition, performance, and related receptions, please visit videopool.org.

Video Pool's 25th Anniversary Commissions were made possible by the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council through the New Creations Fund. Further financial contributions have been kindly provided by:

Video Pool is also pleased to acknowledge contributions from numerous local organizations; we are deeply grateful for their partnership and assistance:

ADHERE + DENY

The Duke of Kent Legion

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution, and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue, and advocacy in media arts.

Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
204.949.9134 ext 1
vpprogramming [at] videopool [dot] org
videopool.org // videopool.blogspot.com

Late, but not forgotten... Camera-Free Film and Video

2008-03-26T10:12:00.002-05:00

Back in February, Video Pool hosted a single channel screening that presented short works by various local, national, and international artists, each of whom had produced film and/or video without the use of a camera. Despite spectacularly bone-chilling Winnipeg weather conditions, we were thrilled to welcome almost a full house to The Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque theatre.

The diverse selection of work proved quite substantial and between laughter, solemnity, and awe, attendees were presented with a great deal to mull over. Dynamic conversation, along with food and drink, were shared across the hallway at PLATFORM.

Thank you to all everyone who joined us! We look forward to presenting another equally intriguing thematic single channel screening next year!

Reminder: 2008 / 2009 Call for Submissions

2008-02-14T13:02:00.000-06:00

... just a reminder that our deadline is fast approaching

Video Pool Media Arts Centre
2008 / 2009 Call for Submissions

Theme: Resistance
Deadline: Friday, March 21, 2008

Resistance is a movement, a position, an attitude, and a measure. It is an individual or collective response. It can be political, or it can relate to physical properties of the known universe. It concerns citizens. It concerns artists. It concerns that which is local as well as that which is global. It is about forces, agency, strategy, play, and subversion. It is an argument. It seeks change, or it fights to stay the same. It mobilizes. It is unconscious. It is a side effect. It is intentional and affirmative.

Video Pool invites submissions pertaining to the theme Resistance for the 2008/09 programming season. We encourage projects involving:

• New media
• Experimental electronics
• Installation (with media components)
• Audio art
• Curatorial packages (with media components)

Video Pool is particularly interested in projects that intervene in public space or otherwise make use of non-traditional exhibition settings.

Video Pool’s 2008/09 programming season will include two programs specifically focused on new media performance and single channel film and video that resist conventional thinking and/or assumptions about what constitute video and new media art practices, and possibly the environs within which they take are expected to place.

Submission Requirements:

Please note that due to funding requirements, primary consideration will be given to Canadian citizens.

All Submissions Must Include:

Artist/curator CV including current contact information (mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address)
A short description of the proposed project or video(s), including an outline of the critical and/or curatorial objectives of the work submitted
Names of all participating artists
Titles of all proposed projects/videos, as well as year of completion and city of origin
Exhibition history of each project, including a description of contexts within which the work will be presented in the coming year
A statement indicating if the artist(s)/curator(s) plan to be in attendance with the work and, if so, in what capacity they would expect to participate in the screening/exhibition
Support material: Please do not send originals as Video Pool will not accept responsibility for the loss of, or damage to, any support material
- Still images should be submitted on CD (maximum 20 images, .jpg preferred, please do not exceed 72 dpi or a resolution of 1024 X 768 pixels)
- Video support material should be NTSC and submitted on VHS, DVD, or Mini DV
- Audio support material should be submitted on CD
Complete list of all audio, video, and images submitted
Please include a SASE if you would like your support material returned

Video Pool is committed to reflecting cultural diversity in it’s programming and thereby encourages applications from artists and curators from all communities.

Video Pool encourages the submissions of projects that are already complete or near completion.

Fees are paid in accordance with the CARFAC rate scale.

Please Direct Enquiries to:

Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
vpprogramming at videopool dot org
204.949.9134 ext.1

Please Send Submissions to:

Programming Committee
c/o Video Pool Media Arts Centre
#300 – 100 Arthur St.
Winnipeg, MB R3B 1H3 Canada

All submissions must be received by the deadline: March 21, 2008

Tomorrow night only... a FREE screening of Camera-Free Film and Video!

2008-02-12T13:58:00.000-06:00

It's only going to be -22 degrees tomorrow, so I know that you can venture out of doors and join us for a cozy screening of astoundingly original films and videos.

Camera-Free Film and Video features the work of international and nationally-renowned artists, as well as local luminaries. These artists don't take the camera for granted in their image-making process, but rather break it, bend it or toss it out altogether. Images are created and manipulated using low-tech (scratch animation) and very high-tech (custom-made algorithms) techniques.

Freed of camera work, these artists discover new creative territory and advance experimental film and video practice.

Join us!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 stating @ 7:30 p.m.
The Winnipeg Film Group's Cinematheque Theatre, 100 Arthur St.
Admission is free of charge
A reception at Platform Gallery will follow the screening

The line-up of fantastic work will include...

"Five Cents a Copy" Ed Ackerman & Gregory Zbitnew (Winnipeg)
"The Death of Natural Language" Clint Enns (Winnipeg)
"Turku Goes Oukkidoukki" Gun Holström (Helsinki)
"American Singles" Ian Robert MacTilstra (Vancouver)
"Asleep at the Wheel" Mike Maryniuk (Winnipeg)
"Pants!" Divya Mehra (Winnipeg/New York)
"Traffiic" Robert Pasternak (Winnipeg)
"Rectangular World" Andrew James Patterson (Toronto)
"Isolating Landscapes" Heidi Phillips (Winnipeg)
"Winged Victory" Victoria Prince (Winnipeg)
"Telephone and Distant Conversation" Nicole Shimonek (Winnipeg/London, UK)
"Malfunction 2.0" Murray Toews (Winnipeg)
"Tilted" Kai Ling Xue (Vancouver)
"Niverville, MB, 08.04" Collin Zipp (Winnipeg)

Coming Soon: Camera-Free Film and Video

2008-01-29T19:12:00.000-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre presents
Camera-Free Film and Video
Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Winnipeg, MB (January 23, 2008) – We can always trust artists to challenge assumptions and to seek creative alternatives to conventional practices. In the case of film and video, this is also true.

This screening features experimental techniques for moving image creation and manipulation including: machinima (film and video made using avatars and/or video game environments), computer-based image manipulation, well-established filmmaking techniques such as hand processing, optical printing, and scratch animation, as well as work employing modified cameras or found footage.

Curated through an open call for submissions, Camera-Free Film and Video showcases provocative non-traditional film and video produced by artists from diverse cultural backgrounds and communities. We are pleased to present the work of a number of local artists, underscoring Winnipeg's rich contribution to experimental film and video making in this country.

Featured artists include: Ed Ackerman & Gregory Zbitnew (Winnipeg), Clint Enns (Winnipeg), Gun Holström (Helsinki), Ian Robert MacTilstra (Vancouver), Mike Maryniuk (Winnipeg), Divya Mehra (Winnipeg/New York), Robert Pasternak (Winnipeg), Andrew James Patterson (Toronto), Heidi Phillips (Winnipeg), Victoria Prince (Winnipeg), Nicole Shimonek (Winnipeg/London, UK), Murray Toews (Winnipeg), Kai Ling Xue (Vancouver), and Collin Zipp (Winnipeg).

Join us!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Cinematheque Theatre, 100 Arthur St.
Admission is free of charge

This one-night only screening begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a Q&A session, and then a reception at Platform Gallery

Video Pool thanks the Winnipeg Film Group's Cinematheque and Platform Gallery for their generous presentation support.

Image: Clint Enns, The Death of Natural Language, 2007 (video still)

* * *

We wish to acknowledge the generosity of our funders: The Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact: Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
#300-100 Arthur St., Winnipeg, MB R3B 1H3
http://www.videopool.org +++ http://videopool.blogspot.com +++ 204.949.9134 x1

Coming soon: Video Pool Media Arts Centre celebrates 25 years with a series of exhibitions featuring six newly commissioned works curated by Sigrid Dahle and Grant Guy. Featured artists include: Sharon Alward, Daniel Barrow, Peter Courtemanche + Lori Weidenhammer, Richard Dyck, Steven Loft, and Victoria Prince.

The Portage and Main Story Line

2008-01-29T19:07:00.000-06:00

1 (204) 943-1423
... the Portage and Main story line

It has been 32 years since Winnipeg’s fabled intersection, Portage and Main, was barricaded to pedestrian traffic.

Do you still remember crossing Portage and Main?
If so, I am interested in your story.

Please call, 1.204.943.1423 and tell me about it.

It is a voice mail box that will record your story that I will then reassemble into a new work made with all of the other stories I am told. Anyone with memories of actually crossing the streets are invited to call, but other Portage and Main recollections would be welcome too. If your story is particularly long, either leave several messages, or if you prefer, email me, jake moore, at mjake@videotron.ca, to set up a direct connection.

Why?
I am collecting these stories for the construction of an audio sculpture to be included in an exhibition called SUBCONSCIOUS CITY, curated by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan for the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

According to the curators:
“Inspiration for the title of the exhibition comes from American cultural theorist and art critic Rebecca Solnit. In her recent book, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”, (Viking, 2005), she posits that, “A city is built to resemble a conscious mind, a network that can calculate, administrate, manufacture. Ruins become the unconscious of a city, its memory, unknown, darkness, lost lands, and in this truly bring it to life.”

If we accept the mind as a model for Winnipeg, the unconscious (the lesser seen or ignored) makes its presence felt in unexpected ways. It burbles to the surface in ways that inform and enrich us, as well as revealing injustices and neglect. Similarly, the conscious (the affluent, the celebrated, the new) can reveal paucity (of community, of vision, of spiritual connection with each other and our past) as well as promise.”

In many ways I am beginning a conversation; an oral history of the ruins of the public site that Portage and Main once was, and the monument to the automobile and civic politics that it has become. Collective memory, or memories collected, can be the promise referred to Dempsey/Millan.

There will be a public opening on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2008.
Remember, “Love me, Love my Winnipeg”

for further information on this project, please contact jake moore

NB. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of Video Pool Media Arts Centre in the production of this work.

SUBCONSCIOUS CITY
February 8 to May 11, 2008
the Winnipeg Art Gallery
300 Memorial Boulevard

Public opening 7:30 p.m., Thursday, February 14, 2008
with performances by John K. Samson, Christine Fellows, and Freya Olafson.

Curated by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Adjunct Curators.

For the complete list of artists please visit http://www.wag.mb.ca/upcoming.asp

Art's Bday Photos - Round 2

2008-01-25T19:37:00.001-06:00

The following selection of photos were taken by Michael Talastas and Charles Venzon of incidencephotography.com. Please visit their site for more fantastic shots!

Thank you, once again, to Michael and Charles for documenting the night and sharing the pics with us!

[Art's Birthday 2008]

Art's Bday Photos - Round 1

2008-01-25T18:43:00.002-06:00

[Art's Birthday 2008]

Special Thanks to Our Very Generous Local Supporters

2008-01-22T16:46:00.001-06:00

Video Pool is extremely grateful to have received such generous support from so many local friends including merchants, arts organizations, an art collective, and a band.

Enormous thanks are owed to:

Advance Electronics
American Flamewhip
L’Atelier national du Manitoba
Aqua Books
Bikram Yoga Winnipeg
Blue Earth Organics
BorderCrossings Magazine
Cinematheque
The Fyxx
Hooper’s Bazaar
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Manitoba
Into the Music
Kustom Kulture
The Line Up
Mac Helper
MAWA
Mondragon
Mother’s Music/The Drum Store
Olympia Ski and Cycle
Orange Poppy
Out of the Blue
Pastry Castle
Platform Gallery
Plug In ICA
Prairie Fire
Pure Essence Spa Salon
Red River Books
Urban Shaman
Winnipeg Folk Festival + King's Head Pub

The contributions of these organizations truly helped to make Art's Birthday a success! Thank you!

[Art's Birthday 2008]

VJ in Residence =-)

2008-01-18T16:11:00.001-06:00

During the days leading up to Art's Birthday, Ryan Stec spent a few days working on-site, preparing footage and planning his performance. Here's a pic...

[Art's Birthday 2008]

Happy Day After Art's Birthday!

2008-01-18T12:26:00.001-06:00

Hello and Happy [day after] Art’s Bday!!

We enjoyed a wonderful night of celebrations in honour of Art’s Birthday, and we hope that you did, too!! Ryan Stec’s remix of video works by Stacey Abramson, Clint Enns, Simon Hughes, and Dominique Rey offered a tantalizing audiovisual experience, and his eye candy tricks and treats also factored deliciously well into the sets of our other performers. We’re still breathless over Venetian Snares’ paying of IDM puppet master to our dancing bodies and breakcore minstrel to our minds, and we’re still floating over Mama Cutsworth’s soulful delivery of vinyl delights that transported us through time and space! Thank you to these incredible talents for helping us set the pace for a fantastic night!

We are also grateful to John Kendle, Tracey Koga, and Morley Walker for their expertise and good humor participating in our real and surreal cake competition. Because, well, what’s a birthday party without cake? And, further to that very important thought, thank you to Pastry Castle for contributing a beautiful, creamy, chocolatey-goodness, icing smothered treat that was shared among many!

Thanks are also due to Shawna Dempsey for her role as an MC, the many video makers who contributed work to our reel, and the many volunteers who worked tech, decorated, worked the door and sold raffle tickets. Special thanks are also due to Jaymez and Big Mama for their “tasty” contribution to the evening. Also, thank you very much to Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium for setting up a fabulous costume rental depot... awesome!

We are also extremely grateful to the many local merchants and galleries who contributed sensational items to our raffle! We will soon be posting a special thank you mentioning all of them. Thank you!!

Thanks also to the staff at Club Desire for giving us a place to party and for helping the night run so smoothly.

We also want to thank Charles, Michael and Thor for capturing the night in still and moving image... those pics and vids will be coming soon! We can’t wait to share them. Oh, and that reminds us... if YOU have pics, please send them to us!! We’ll post them, with credit, of course!

So, until then... we hope you enjoy another wonderful year of art!

[Art's Birthday 2008]

More VP on TV =-)

2008-01-15T10:52:00.002-06:00

Did you catch VP on Breakfast Television this morning? Heather and our Programming Coordinator talked about the history of Art's Birthday and about all the exciting things going on at Club Desire on Thursday night, which is now only TWO days away!!

Have you started on your costume yet?

;-)

[Art's Birthday 2008]

VP on TV

2008-01-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

Art's birthday is now just a few short days away!

Thank you to Tracy Koga from Shaw TV for taking the time to interview us earlier last week about this amazing upcoming event, and thank you in advance to CityTV for welcoming us onto Breakfast Television... we'll be in the studio on Tuesday, January 15, so keep an eye on yer tube for us!

Above: John, a Shaw TV Cameraperson, with an Art's Bday postcard in hand

[Art's Birthday 2008]

A year to remember

2008-01-08T19:04:00.001-06:00

While reading the latest issue of Uptown Magazine, VP staff were delighted to discover that our presentation of work by Lynne Marsh was recognized as part of Stacey Abramson's Top 10 exhibitions of 2007.

Click to read Stacey's complete article...

Marsh's Ballroom was presented in partnership with Gallery 1C03 (University of Winnipeg) from May 24 to June 29, 2007. It was indeed a stunning new media work that presented a woman -- athletic and glamorous -- suspended upside down in the centre of a dance hall and wearing a glittering sequined costume that reflects light like a mirror ball.

Marsh’s virtually constructed ballroom is based on the existing Rivoli ballroom in south London. The spinning woman at the centre of the projection appears small in comparison to her virtual surroundings. Viewers are overwhelmed by the scale of the virtual environment while, possibly, finding themselves underwhelmed by the limited actions of the virtual performer. Nevertheless, as the central figure spins, projecting spots of light around the vast ballroom, viewers are drawn into the virtual world created.

Video Pool is pleased to receive this recognition and looks forward to presenting another year of fantastic programming! We're quite excited about what we have planned, and we anticipate making it onto your Top 10 lists, too ;-)

Media Gift Exchange

2008-01-08T17:08:00.001-06:00

Art's Birthday is just a few days away and, in the in the midst of planning your costume and making your cake for the real and surreal cake making competition, you're probably asking yourself: "What is the media gift exchange, and how can I participate?"

Well, it's a good thing you ask, because we'd love to tell you!

Even though January 17 is Art's birthday, it's an opportunity for all of us to revel in the gifts that art brings ;-) Since Video Pool is all about spreading love and appreciation for media arts, we thought it would be great fun to collect bits of media -- wrapped up nice n' pretty -- and facilitate an anonymous exchange.

To participate, all you need to do is bring a wrapped media item. Feel free to get creative on what this might mean. Maybe a quirky 8-track or vinyl record you uncovered at a garage sale, a VHS tape you found in your basement, a clip of found video that you've captured onto DVD, or a selection of strange audio samples burned onto CD.

Individuals who bring gifts will place them on our gift exchange display when they arrive at the beginning of the night and will be eligible to select a gift from the display later on that evening. Who knows what will be made available! Maybe something provocative enough to inspire new work, or at least something to have a good laugh over ;-)

[Art's Birthday 2008]

More about the Art's Birthday Real and Surreal Cake Comeptition

2008-01-02T16:57:00.001-06:00

Here's the scoop:

Everyone is welcome to arrive at the party with a cake. It can take any form -- 2D or 3D (or 4D!) -- and can be made out of anything! The only thing we ask is that entrants provide a list of ingredients so we can determine if the cake is actually edible ;-)

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

The Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod Body Break Award – for the cake most likely to contain vitamins or beneficial nutrients
The Stanley Cup – for the cake with the ‘smoothest’ icing
The Bell Canada Titanium Timbit – for the cake project most likely to receive Canada Council funding
The Darwin Award – for the most primordial cake reflecting art’s humble origins 100,000,045 years ago.
The Blizzard Award – for the cake most likely to have been purchased at a St. Vital Dairy Queen
The Istvan Kantor Li’l Debbie Log d’Or – for the cake that provokes the most intense reaction in the genital region

The cakes will be judged by a panel of experts. This year's judges will be Morley Walker (Winnipeg Free Press), John Kendle (Uptown Magazine) and Tracy Koga (Shaw TV).

Judging will take place between 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. and prizes will be awarded at 10:30 p.m., so please make sure you arrive with your cake before 9:00 p.m. =-)

For more information, please send an email to vpprogramming@videopool.org

[Art's Birthday 2008]

The "Official" Art's Bday Press Release ;-)

2008-01-02T16:26:00.000-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Join Video Pool Media Arts Centre in Celebrating
Art’s 1,000,045th Birthday on January 17, 2008
– The party starts at 8:00 p.m. at Club Desire (441 Main St.) –

Winnipeg, MB (January 2, 2008) – At Video Pool, we love art, and we love parties. It is in this spirit that we are thrilled to continue our tradition of bringing international Art's Birthday celebrations to Winnipeg!

In 1963, French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou declared that on January 17, one million years ago, art was born when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. A deliberate yet playful act left open to chance… who knew art would evolve to become something so culturally significant?

To recognize the worldwide appreciation of art, Video Pool is pleased to host an evening of performances, contests, interactive fun, and other goodies. We’ll begin the night with a VJ-style new media performance by Ryan Stec (Winnipeg/Ottawa). This will be followed by an experimental electronic music set by internationally renowned Venetian Snares (Budapest/Winnipeg). Local favourite, Mama Cutsworth, will take over the stage next, and she’ll keep the party going by spinning funky vinyl into the wee hours.

Art’s Birthday is also a chance to get involved!

COSTUMES: Everyone is welcome to be creative and party in costume. The theme selected by the International Art’s Birthday Committee for 2008 is “Forever Young”… unique interpretations of this are encouraged!
CAKE: What is a party without cake? Bring your real or surreal cake to the party and enter it to be judged by our panel of “experts”. Please click here for more information.
MEDIA GIFT EXCHANGE: Bring a wrapped gift such as a video clip on DVD, an old 8-track cassette, or a sequence of ambient sounds on a CD and take another mystery media gift home with you at the end of the night. Please click here for more information.
RAFFLES: Try your luck at our draws for great items from fantastic local merchants!

Art’s Birthday is a chance for one and all to come together and have a wonderful time in the name of Art. It is an event that gets bigger and bigger each year, and it is not to be missed, so join us and be a part of the action!

Thursday, January 17, 2008
Club Desire - 441 Main St., Winnipeg

Admission is $15 or $5 for those arriving in costume
Doors open at 8:00 p.m.

* * *

Art’s Birthday is also a time to say thank you to organizations that help make art possible. Video Pool Media Arts Centre is grateful for ongoing support from:

Video Pool is also thrilled to have the support of local merchants including Pastry Castle, which has generously donated a birthday cake for us to share!

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact:
Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
#300-100 Arthur St., Winnipeg MB R3B 1H3
http://www.videopool.org
http://videopool.blogspot.com
204.949.9134 x 1

2008 / 2009 Call for Submissions

2007-12-19T12:19:00.000-06:00

Artist/curator CV including current contact information (mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address)
A short description of the proposed project or video(s), including an outline of the critical and/or curatorial objectives of the work submitted
Names of all participating artists
Titles of all proposed projects/videos, as well as year of completion and city of origin
Exhibition history of each project, including a description of contexts within which the work will be presented in the coming year
A statement indicating if the artist(s)/curator(s) plan to be in attendance with the work and, if so, in what capacity they would expect to participate in the screening/exhibition
Support material: Please do not send originals as Video Pool will not accept responsibility for the loss of, or damage to, any support material
- Still images should be submitted on CD (maximum 20 images, .jpg preferred, please do not exceed 72 dpi or a resolution of 1024 X 768 pixels)
- Video support material should be NTSC and submitted on VHS, DVD, or Mini DV
- Audio support material should be submitted on CD
Complete list of all audio, video, and images submitted
Please include a SASE if you would like your support material returned

Pool Cue III

2007-12-16T18:06:00.000-06:00

Thank you to everyone who joined us for a wonderful time at our Winter Member’s Screening, Pool Cue III! The program offered a truly diverse selection of work by local video makers and gave all in attendance a chance to discover what friends and colleagues have been up to this past year. The energy and enthusiasm evident throughout the evening was fantastic!

Special thanks are due to the King’s Head Pub, not only for providing us with great space within which to hold our event, but for treating us to gigantic trays of awesome appetizers, too!

Here are some pics from the night... If anyone has more, please do pass ‘em along!!

PS: As a reminder to anyone who shared a video: if you would like to have your work distributed by VP, please contact vpdist@videopool.org.

More Photos from the Rockstars & Wannabes Launch Party

2007-12-16T18:00:00.000-06:00

All pics courtesy of Scott Stephens...

More Info About Art's Birthday...

2007-12-13T16:08:00.003-06:00

Hot off the interwebs, we've got some more info for you about the stellar performances lined up to take place at Art's Birthday 2008...

Wikipedia offers a wealth of information about Venetian Snares, namely that he is from Winnipeg and is known for making experimental electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures. He is an unusually prolific artist, having released records on the History of the Future, Isolate/DySLeXiC ResPonSe, Addict, Zod, Distort, Sublight, Low-Res, Planet Mu and Hymen record labels.

Read more at http://www.venetiansnares.com. Take a listen at http://www.myspace.com/venetiansnares. That's where the pics came from. Click on 'em for the full effect!

Ryan Stec is a Winnipeg born/Ottawa based media artist and curator working in documentary and experimental forms. As a curator Stec has produced five editions of the media art commissioning program Remix (2002-2006), presented by SAW Video, the Available Light Screening Collective, and Art Star, Galerie SAW Gallery's Video Art Biennial.

Work from his very broad practice, ranging from live performance to traditional documentary, has been presented at a variety of venues from The New Forms Festival in Vancouver to Platform Gallery in Vaasa, Finland and the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa. He is currently the Artistic Director of Artengine, and can be seen performing regularly as a VJ at both art and club venues in Ottawa.

Using strictly vinyl, Mama Cutsworth is no stranger to making folks flip on the old school funk, soul, hip hop and latin music.

Voted Winnipeg's #3 DJ in Uptown Magazine (after the impermeable DJ duo Hunnicutt and Co-op), Mama C. has played at music festivals and art galleries, roller rinks and warehouses... anywhere there's enough space to dance. Over the years, she's thrown her own dance parties, won the title at the Clash of Titans DJ battle, has hosted CKUW's Stylus Radio for over
6 years, and recently performed at the St. John's International Women's Film Festival in Newfoundland.

With the dusty funk staying permanently in her record crates, you can bet your neighbour's kid that by the end of the night you'll be freaking out to the hot horn sections, flute solos and slammin' percussion.

PLUS there is more information on its way concerning the art cake contest, costumes, and the silent auction, so stay tuned!

Join us at Pool Cue Three... Tomorrow Night!

2007-12-11T13:47:00.001-06:00

Just a quick reminder...

It’s Pool Cue III!

This year’s screening will feature work by:

Thor Aitkenhead, Gwen Armstrong, Jake Chénier, Lancelot Coar and Paul Lukeman, Karen Cornelius, John Coutanche, Clint Enns, Elvira Finnegan, Rick Fisher and Don Rice, Susan P. Gibson, Val Klassen, Sandee Moore, Carole O’Brien, Heidi Phillips, Quidam, Lansing Bruce Roberston, Rachel Wells, and Cameron Woykin

We look forward to treating you to your first refreshment of the evening. Plus, extra treats will be served courtesy of the King's Head Pub!

We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
King’s Head Pub, 120 King Street, Winnipeg
Beginning at 8:00 p.m.

Art's Birthday 2008 is just one month and a little wee bit away!

2007-12-09T14:25:00.002-06:00

Support Balanced Copyright Reform... important news and action alerts below

2007-12-09T12:29:00.001-06:00

Media artists are likely to be the hardest hit of all...

From Online Rights Canada:

During the last Parliament, Bill C-60 provided some sensible approaches to copyright reform in Canada, but it also left room for improvement. Tell your MP that any new legislation should be an improvement on Bill C-60, not the retreat being urged by big copyright holders.

From Appropriation Art, A Coalition of Arts Professionals:

The Canadian minority Conservative Government made it clear in their Throne speech earlier this fall that Copyright Reform was a priority. Recent media reports indicate that a Copyright Reform bill will be tabled within the next couple of weeks and people close to the process have revealed that this bill will go beyond way beyond the US counterpart’s DMCA law. It appears that this new legislation will come with very stringent anti-circumvention provisions that prohibit the use of tools or techniques that open files with digital locks, even when the files in question belong to you.

Here are some suggestions for those involved in the Arts.

Members of CARFAC / RAAV: Demand that CARFAC / RAAV publicly support artists who use appropriation. They are mandated to support all artists. Demand that CARFAC / RAAV publicly denounce DMCA style legislation.

Media Artists: Media artists are likely to be the hardest hit of all. The new legislation will all but eliminate media arts which use appropriation. Media artists have both the skill and technology to produce films and audio work. Make a protest piece and get on youtube, myspace etc.

Educators: Get your students involved. Students are the future of Canadian Culture and have in many ways the most to lose from this legislation.

Links: Here are links to sites with action templates, information and further links. Most of these are repeats of the other posts on this page but here they are anyway.

Cory Doctorow - Prentice open house
Copyright for Canadians
Console Source - Action Page
CBC Search Engine - 250 questions for Jim Prentice
Michael Geist - 10 questions for Jim Prentice
Michael Geist - 30 Things You Can Do
Digital Copyright Canada - Send a Letter to Your MP

Here are two petitions to print and sign...

http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/petition_en.pdf
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/ict_owners_en.pdf

VP's 25th Anniversary: Call for Anecdotes

2007-12-05T16:41:00.001-06:00

It's Video Pool Media Art Centre's 25th Anniversary, and we're thinking back on the great times we've had together...

Dear Members,

2008 marks 25 years since Video Pool Media Arts Centre came into being. As part of a month-long celebration that involves the commission of six intriguing new media art projects, we are creating a commemorative poster, and we invite all of you to contribute.

In point form, tell us something you remember about Video Pool that stands out in your mind as being an important part of it's history or your history as a member.

Did Video Pool resources help make it possible for you to finish work for a significant screening or exhibition?
Do you remember the day an exciting new piece of equipment was taken out of its box and plugged in?
Do you have fond memories about a particular exhibition, screening, lecture, or party?

Your contributions will be assembled into a creative, organic, unofficial, speculative, events-oriented, and of course, anecdotal picture of Video Pool's quarter century.

Please send in your memories and ideas to Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator via e-mail: vpprogramming [at] videopool [dot] org.

The deadline for participation is January 11, 2008.

We appreciate the time taken to submit an anecdote, story, or interesting fact and we will aim to include as many as possible. Please note that it may be necessary for us to edit submissions for length.

Thank you in advance; we look forward to your contributions!

It's Pool Cue III!

2007-12-04T15:17:00.001-06:00

As another great year draws to a close, Video Pool is eager to gather with friends and neighbors to share in a good time and to look back on an exciting year of video productions by our members.

We welcome you to join us for our Winter Member’s Screening,
Pool Cue Three!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
King’s Head Pub, 120 King Street, Winnipeg
Beginning at 8:00 p.m.

This year’s screening will feature work by:

Thor Aitkenhead, Gwen Armstrong, Jake Chénier, Lancelot Coar and Paul Lukeman, Karen Cornelius, John Coutanche, Clint Enns, Elvira Finnegan, Rick Fisher and Don Rice, Susan P. Gibson, Val Klassen, Sandee Moore, Carole O’Brien, Heidi Phillips, Quidam, Lansing Bruce Roberston, Rachel Wells, and Cameron Woykin

We hope you’ll be able to join us and we look forward to treating you to your first refreshment of the evening!

All the best,
Milena

More great local media coverage

2007-11-26T18:52:00.001-06:00

In the latest issue of Uptown Magazine, local arts reporter, Stacey Abramson, shares her impressions of Germaine Koh's interactive new-media interventions, Call and Relay. It appears that Stacey enjoyed these projects as much as we did, and it appears that we've both noticed how popular they have been with the many, many participants who helped make the projects come alive.

For the whole story, please visit: http://www.uptownmag.com/2007-11-22/page1263.aspx

We were also very pleased to discover Sean Manson's coverage of Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay's two projects, Jimmy and Audition Tape in Outwordsinc. These works were both part of the exhibition Rockstars & Wannabes, which Video Pool co-presented with Urban Shaman Gallery from Sept 29 - Nov 10, 2007.

To download the issue containing this story, please visit: http://www.outwords.ca/issues/OutWordsOnline146.pdf

Speaking of birthdays...

2007-11-26T18:28:00.001-06:00

Did you know that Video Pool will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2008?

Yes! It's true! Video Pool has been supporting artists, stimulating audiences, and cheerleading for media arts for a whole quarter century!

To acknowledge this collective achievement, Video Pool has commissioned six new works by Winnipeg artists, each of whom have been involved with Video Pool at various points over the years.

Thanks to support from various other arts organizations in the city, we will be presenting these projects in a festival-like format in April/May. It’s going to be a bustling schedule of exhibitions, talks, performance, and openings. Naturally, we're all very excited about this, and so we wanted to start sharing the news. Stay tuned for more details!

Save the Date! Art is going to be 1,000,045 on January 17, 2008!

2007-11-22T12:30:00.001-06:00

At Video Pool, we love art. And we love parties, so it makes sense that we'd wanna keep up our fantastic tradition of joining international celebrations in honour of Art's Birthday!

Art is going to be one million and forty-four years old this year, and we have all kinds of awesome things brewing to mark this very special occasion!

So far, we've lined up a VJ-style new media performance by Ryan Stec (Winnipeg/Ottawa) and an experimental electronic performance by Venetian Snares (Budapest/Winnipeg). We're also on the look out for the perfect DJ... someone highly capable of making you wanna shake your booty! Sounds like fun, huh?

But that's not all... we're gonna have a costume contest, and an art cake contest, and a new media gift exchange, and colouring stations, irrational quantities of candy, and then some!

It’s going to be a blast, and we want YOU to join us!!

So, save the date: Thursday, January 17 2008 beginning around 8:00 p.m. @ Club Desire (441 Main St)

Be prepared to get creative, get crazy, enjoy performances, and maybe even perform a little yourself ;-)

Art’s Birthday is a chance for everyone to come together and have a great time in the name of Art. We’re looking forward to this event we and hope to see you there!

UPDATE: Are you looking for the latest info? Check out our "official" Art's Birthday 2008 press release =-)

Thanks for singing along!

2007-11-14T23:06:00.000-06:00

Last week Wednesday we had the pleasure of hosting Cathy Matte's fabulous curators' talk about her fabulous exhibition, Rockstars & Wannabes.

Aiming to shake up the conventions of traditionally-formatted talks, Mattes' presentation was inter-textual, multi-disciplinary, performative, and participatory. Furthermore, it functioned in the spirit of a happening. Mattes opened and closed the talk with a selection of karaoke songs, and they were performed enthusiastically (and creatively) by members of the audience. The talk also involved clips of video work presented in the exhibition.

We're thrilled that so many people were able to attend this event, and we are especially grateful to professors from the University of Manitoba for bringing their students down. It's not every day undergrads get to hold class in a bar!

On that note, thank you once again to Club 200 for hosting us... it was a blast!

Ps. Below are some snapshots taken during the talk. If you, or someone you know, happened to take photos during the karaoke party afterwards, please do pass 'em on... we'd love to post them here!

And now for a little "behind the scene stuff"... troubleshooting tech compatibility in the VP office just before heading down to Club 200. Because, well, this stuff is just fascinating, isn't it? ;-)

Great news! Now you can "Call" and "Relay" for a little longer ;-)

2007-11-14T13:12:00.000-06:00

*Ha ha* Sounds a little like an ad for telecom services ;-)

But really, this is great news!

Thanks to the generosity of artist Germaine Koh, volunteers participating in Call, and Artspace, Video Pool is happy to announce that Call and Relay will now be available until Tuesday, November 27, 2007. So, if you've not yet had a chance to chat with a stranger, or to send an SMS message to the whole city via roof-top lights flashing Morse code, now is your chance =-).

To participate in Call, visit the Artspace lobby and pick up the telephone receiver. To participate in Relay, send a text message to 204.951.1929.

Goldenshit is da shit! ;-)

2007-11-08T12:42:00.000-06:00

Now that VP's blog has a hit counter, we can stalk our visitors ;-)

I noticed a few people "surfing" in from http://blog.goo.ne.jp/goldenshit, so I went to check it out, and what d'ya know, it's Katsuyuki's blog!

Check out the great pic of him and Yusuke in the Winnipeg Film Group studio...

Naturally, his blog is written in Japanese, but if you can read it, or if you can find a decent online translator, be sure to visit for his thoughts on his VP International AIR experience!

Call for Submissions: Video Pool’s Winter 2007 Members’ Screening

2007-11-07T13:16:00.001-06:00

It's Pool Cue III!

Deadline: December 1, 2007

Video Pool is seeking submissions of new single-channel videos produced by Video Pool members to be included in a members’ screening at the King's Head Pub on December 12, 2007.

Submissions will not be juried; however the screening will be limited to 90 mins, and places will be reserved for Video Pool fund recipients from the past year. Works that are not included in this screening, will be bumped to the top of the list for Video Pool’s next members’ screening in August 2008.

As a non-juried members’ screening, artist fees will not be paid. Video Pool reserves the right to not screen work deemed to be offensive (i.e.: overtly racist, sexist, homophobic or hateful).

Submission requirements:
***** Works must have been completed after January 1, 2007
***** Videos submitted should be no longer than 10 minutes
***** Videos must be submitted on MiniDV or BetaSP
***** Submissions must be produced by Video Pool members
***** One submission per member

Inquiries may be directed to:
Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
204.949.9134 x 1 /// vpprogramming@videopool.org

Please submit your videos to:
Winter 2007 Members’ Screening
Video Pool Media Arts Centre
c/o Technical Department Office
#300 – 100 Arthur St.
Winnipeg MB R3B 1H3

Exchange: A lecture by Reva Stone

2007-11-07T12:57:00.000-06:00

Video Pool's current Artist in Residence, Reva Stone

COST: Free to Video Pool members
# PARTICIPANTS: limited to 20
PRE-REQUISITE: none
DATE: Tuesday, November 13 from 7pm to 8:30pm

For most of her art practice, Reva Stone has been developing computer-assisted installations that explore the ways in which biotechnology, genetic engineering and autonomous robots are radically altering the ways in which we imagine living matter.

In her Artist Residency at Video Pool, she has been working on Exchange, an interactive entity whose consciousness appears to reside in a computer. The work uses still images, video, video capture, text, recorded audio, voice recognition and face recognition. They function together as a window into the entity’s mind and read as memory and presence. She will be talking about the ideas she is working with, presenting the work in progress, and looking for feedback.

Jeff Erbach
Education and Outreach Coordinator - Video Pool Media Art Centre
(204) 949-9134 ext. 4
www.videopool.org

More images of the spectacular audio visual performances headlined by Katsuyuki Hattori

2007-11-07T12:31:00.000-06:00

Local photographer Charles Romero Venzon attended the audio visual performances headlined by VP's International Artist in Residence, Katsuyuki Hattori, back in October. He had a really awesome camera with him, and when we noticed him taking photos, we couldn't help but ask to see them. Charles was very generous to share these fantastic images with us, and now we'd like to share them with you. Enjoy! =-)

We video recorded both performances and are in the process of compressing the files to a web-friendly format. That, together with an interview with Katsuyuki, will be available online soon. Stay tuned!

VP Programming Highlighted in Akimblog

2007-11-06T19:25:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Cliff Eyland, Akimblog readers across the country recently got a chance to see what VP has been up to these days. Thanks for the coverage!

To read Cliff's notes (*har har har*) visit: http://www.akimbo.biz/akimblog/index.php?id=145

We're all stars...

2007-10-31T10:13:00.001-05:00

Video Pool and Urban Shaman Gallery are delighted to announce an evening of intimate conversation and rock shenanigans.

Curator Cathy Mattes will deliver a talk about her latest exhibition, Rockstars & Wannabes, in a venue certain to pull even the shyest of art lovers out of their shells and onto the stage! The significance of rock music on the construction of personal identity, and as a creative form of escapism, are just two of the relevant themes that Mattes will discuss. The capacity for rock to help us tap into our inner rock star personas is another. To draw attention to the energizing nature of such experiences, Mattes offers her talk with a night of karaoke, and all are welcome to participate.

So please join us!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 beginning at 7:30 p.m. sharp
Club 200 (120 Garry Street, just South of St. Mary Ave)

No cover! We're going late!

Rockstars & Wannabes launched on September 29 with all the appropriate fanfare. This exhibition, which features work by Warren Arcand, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest, Skawennati Fragnito, and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, is on now and is available for viewing until Saturday, November 10 at Urban Shaman Gallery (203-290 McDermot Ave). For more information, please visit: http://www.urbanshaman.org or http://www.videopool.org

"Help! I'm trapped on the roof! Bring coffee. Add soy."

2007-10-24T15:18:00.000-05:00

That's just one of the many messages that has been conveyed across the Exchange, and beyond.

What else has been communicated? What have you communicated?

Relay is back up and running, and it's available until November 16. Send your message to 204.951.1929 and experience the experience of your ideas flashing their way to others!

Save the Date! Rockstars & Wannabes Curator's talk comin' soon!

2007-10-23T10:29:00.000-05:00

The rock star vibe at Video Pool and Urban Shaman ain't over yet!

On Wednesday, November 7, beginning at 7:00 p.m., Rockstars & Wannbes curator, Cathy Mattes, will give a talk about the exhibition.

More details are coming soon, but we're telling you now so you can plan your attendance =-)

Sound+Vision...

2007-10-23T00:38:00.000-05:00

Saturday evening’s performances were nothing short of stunning! The deft manipulations of audio and video feedback signals into captivating imagery in both presentations were tremendously absorbing.

Hattori’s first performance – a collaboration with Curtis Walker (blunderspublik) and Bryan Besant – featured a dynamic selection of local imagery captured from photos and videos, and harnessed as audio. The second performance, Abarekoinobori, with Yusuke Shinmura presented waves of abstract colours and sounds that filled and resonated within the room.

Video Pool is very pleased to have presented these compelling performances! Thank you to the artists, and to a wonderful audience for joining us!

Please click on each image for a slightly larger version...

No, still images sure aren’t the same as seeing –and– hearing these performances live, but hopefully they offer a hint. That being said, we did video record the performances. Maybe we can load a couple of clips up onto this blog, or onto YouTube.

What do all you people out there on the interwebs think? Should we go for it?

Stunning analog video effects and signal-generated noise this Saturday night!

2007-10-18T19:55:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

Video Pool is very excited about two upcoming live video concerts headlined by our International Artist in Residence, Katsuyuki Hattori (Japan).

First, a collaboration with local artists Curtis Walker and Bryan Besant.
Next, the performance of Abarekoinobori with collaborator Yusuke Shinmura (Japan)

These performances will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20 in the Winnipeg Film Group Studio, 3rd Floor, 100 Arthur Street.

For more information, scroll down... the press release is posted below =-)

These exciting, immersive visual and audio spectacles will captivate you! We hope you'll be able to join us!

As always, Video Pool is grateful for generous support received from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Winnipeg Arts Council and the Manitoba Arts Council. Thank you!!

Germaine Koh’s Exhibition Launch and Artist Talk

2007-10-17T22:36:00.000-05:00

Last night, beginning at 6:00 p.m., Germaine Koh delivered a fantastic talk about her work, which surveyed her dynamic and varied conceptual practice encompassing performance, intervention, installation, new media, painting, and even knitting.

Following a lively Q & A session, attendees proceeded to try Call. The unique and satisfying experience of participating encouraged at least three more individuals came forward to join the list of volunteers. Owing to sudden unexpected technical difficulties, Relay was unavailable for use during the opening reception, but we anticipate that it will be up and running again very soon.

Thank you to Platform Gallery for welcoming Video Pool to host this event in its space, and thank you to everyone who attended!

Join us for Germaine Koh's Artist Talk Tomorrow @ Platform Gallery

2007-10-15T21:01:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!!

Video Pool here, writing to remind you about a two great events we’ve planned for you, both of which will take place tomorrow evening, Tuesday, October 16...

To launch her latest exhibition at Artspace, Germaine Koh will deliver a talk about her work beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Platform Gallery (1st floor, 100 Arthur Street). This will precede a reception beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Join us tomorrow and be the first group of lucky people to talk to strangers through Call, and to broadcast messages via Relay!

We look forward to seeing you!!

More information about Germaine Koh's project, "Relay"

2007-10-12T15:26:00.000-05:00

Now that those handy lil' Morse code "decoder cards" have started to circulate around the city, the telephone number temporarily designated for Relay has been receiving calls. Potential participants are seeking more information, so we've updated the voice message to direct them here.

Things you might like to know about Relay, and how to get involved:

Participation is open to anyone with access to a cellular phone capable of sending text messages (aka SMS). Regular message charges, as per your cell phone plan, apply.
Relay accepts any text message sent to the designated telephone number (204.951.9129) as per the character-length maximums established between wireless carriers.
Your message can be personal, or public in nature. That said, please be aware that it is visible in Morse code format to anyone who can see the light flashing from the roof of Artspace. Open access public broadcast is one goal of the project, after all.
Neither the artist nor staff of Video Pool intervene physically -- we don't approve or reject messages.

Relay will be available from October 16 - November 16, 2007, so feel free to share your thoughts with the city as often as you wish.

Don't have a decoder card yet? Now you do! Click on each of the two images below in order to access and print them in full-size...

If you have any questions, post them as a comment, and we'll update this post accordingly =-)

Details for Germaine Koh's Artist Talk Announced

2007-10-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

We now have all the details you need to plan on attending Germaine Koh's artist talk.

Thanks to the awesomeness of Platform Gallery, we are very happy to announce that Germaine will give a presentation about her work on Tuesday, October 16 from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

The talk will be followed by an reception to launch Call and Relay, which will continue until 9:00 p.m.

Platform Gallery is located on the first floor of Artspace @ 100 Arthur Street. This event is free of charge and open to everyone so we really hope to see you there!

PS. If you haven't already had a chance to take in Platform's current exhibition, Soft Ground curated by Lisa Stinner and featuring work by Elaine Stocki and Sarah Small, then you're in for a bonus because it will still be up =-)

Coming soon! Three events headlined by International Artist in Residence, Katsuyuki Hattori

2007-10-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre proudly presents
three events headlined by
International Artist in Residence, Katsuyuki Hattori

Winnipeg, MB (October 10, 2007) – Video Pool is pleased to announce two audio and video performances, and one artist talk, headlined by International Artist in Residence, Katsuyuki Hattori (Japan). Hattori is known for his skill using outmoded analogue technology to produce stunning audio and video landscapes in a live performance environment. Only occasionally using source footage, Hattori skillfully manipulates feedback loops to generate the source content for his immersive performances. Referring to his medium as abstract video-concert, Hattori will present a new work created in collaboration with two local artists – Bryan Basant and Curtis Walker (blunderspublik) – over the course of his residency at Video Pool. This live audio and multi-channel video piece is evocative of Dada artist Kurt Schwitters’ (1887 - 1948) notion of the colour organ and resonates with Schwitters’ concept of “merz”, which refers to the appropriation of found or refuse materials.

Following the presentation of this new, collaborative work, Hattori will perform a piece titled Abarekoinobori with long-time collaborator and video artist Yusuke Shinmura (Japan) who will sweeten Hattori's audioscape with playful bits and pixels. Together Hattori and Shinmura bring authentic experimental electronic art from Tokyo to Winnipeg audiences.

These performances will take place on Saturday, October 20 beginning at 8:00 p.m. in Winnipeg Film Group's 3rd Floor Studio, 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg. All welcome.

Related Event – Artist Talk: On October 21 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., Hattori will give a presentation on his ‘video concert’ technique. In his practice, Hattori allows for many artists to contribute to a live work, each controlling a particular aspect of image or sound from the feedback. Working with aesthetic qualities of image feedback, Hattori’s work challenges notions of beauty in image making, the role of the artist in image creation, and the contemporary roles of ‘performers’.

For more information about Hattori’s artist talk, or to register, please contact Jeff Erbach at 204.949.9134 ext. 4, or email: vped@videopool.org.

Video Pool is grateful for generous financial support provided by:

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact:
Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
204.949.9134 ext 1 vpprogramming@videopool.org
videopool.org // videopool.blogspot.com

"Call" and "Relay" Launch on October 16!

2007-10-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video Pool Media Arts Centre
in conjunction with Artspace is proud to present

Call and Relay

two projects by internationally renowned Canadian artist Germaine Koh

Winnipeg, MB (October 4, 2007) – Video Pool welcomes residents of Winnipeg to talk to strangers via two intriguing new media projects by Germaine Koh.

Call is an interactive installation involving a hacked vintage rotary-dial telephone that connects immediately to one of several volunteers as soon as the receiver is lifted. Participants are invited to experience the unique opportunity of striking up a conversation about anything or everything with an anonymous individual at the other end of the line. Interpersonal exchange with other inhabitants of our city has never been easier, and when was the last time any of us took the time to hold a random and potentially meaningful conversation with someone new?

To connect with someone through Call, just visit the Artspace lobby. You don’t even have to dial!

Relay is a subtle intervention that combines the lonely signal of a flashing navigation beacon, city electrical systems, and the invisible communications networks that surround us. A utilitarian light fixture enigmatically flashes – in Morse code – short text messages (SMS) received on a designated mobile phone number. Locally, the light will operate as a sort of bulletin board conveying news from near and far, and providing opportunities for sociability and local messaging in the immediate area and across the city. The beacon merges early technologies for communication and navigation with some of the more contemporary methods by which information and desire flow today.

Share an exciting scoop, or just say hello, by sending a text message to 204.951.1929. From the roof of Artspace, your message will be conveyed to all.

Call and Relay will be available at Artspace, 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, from October 16 – November 16, 2007.

Related events – All welcome

Artist talk on Tuesday, October 16 at 6:00 pm, followed by an opening reception from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Platform Gallery, 1st floor, 100 Arthur Street.

Call and Relay are presented thanks to generous support provided by:

VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTRE is a non-profit artist run centre dedicated to advancing the discipline of media art by providing media artists, non-profit organizations and community groups with access to professional video and media equipment, training, distribution and programming. Video Pool strives to be a national leader fostering innovation, experimentation, critical dialogue and advocacy in media arts.

Contact: Milena Placentile, Programming Coordinator
204.949.9134 ext 1
vpprogramming@videopool.org
videopool.org // videopool.blogspot.org

Thanks for rockin' out with us!

2007-10-02T17:04:00.001-05:00

Wow! What a night!

If you had the chance to join us on Saturday, you know just what I'm talking about!

The evening started at 7 p.m. with a pre-reception for special guests including family, funders, and members of the media. At about 7:30 p.m., Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay burst into the gallery concluding the last stage of his performance, Jimmy, which involved him running through downtown Winnipeg carrying a flag designed to honour his hero, Scottish pop star, Jimmy Somerville. He placed the flag into a mount on the gallery wall, affixing additional ribbons in what created a moving ceremony.

At 8:00 pm, the gallery doors were opened to welcome rock stars, wannabes, and art lovers of all stripes. However, the party really got started when the the art stars of the evening (and their groupies) arrived by stretch limo!

Following words of thanks by the Directors of both Urban Shaman Gallery and Video Pool, curator, Cathy Mattes, added further acknowledgments. Applause filled the gallery.

The dynamic range of performance video works by Skawennati Fragnito, Warren Arcand, Kevin deForest and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, captured the attention and imagination of all in attendance. Some attendees were even inspired to launch into impromptu performances – thank you David Byrne, Slash, and Annie Lennox for adding your special touches to a night of fabulous art, music, conversation, and dancing.

Video Pool and Urban Shaman Gallery are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts, The Manitoba Arts Council, The Winnipeg Arts Council, the Winnipeg Foundation, Culture.ca, and Canadian Heritage for their generous support.

Remember! Saturday, September 29 is the night to party like a rock star!

2007-09-27T17:15:00.000-05:00

Dear people on the internets, especially those in Winnipeg on Saturday night...

The hype is building and we can hardly contain ourselves!

On Saturday, September 29, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Video Pool and Urban Shaman are proud to unleash the hot new exhibition Rockstars and Wannabes!

Get in the mood by dressing like an 80s rock star and join us at Urban Shaman Gallery (203-290 McDermot Ave) for a night of video, performance, music, and fun. Costumes aren't mandatory, but you'll feel more like a star with one on as you strut the red carpet and schmooze with the other luminaries ;-)

This exhibition is curated by Cathy Mattes and features work by Warren Arcand, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest, Skawennati Fragnito, and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay. You're going to love it!

Volunteers are invited to participate in a new performance video by Warren Arcand

2007-09-21T19:10:00.000-05:00

Can't wait for Hallowe'en? A bloody exciting opportunity has just presented itself!

Volunteers are invited to participate in a new performance video by Warren Arcand. Warren promises that the video shoot will be an "sticky, orgiastic activity!" So bring your towel and wear clothes that can get dirty.

The resulting video work will be featured in the forthcoming exhibition, Rockstars &Wannabes (Sept 29 - Nov 10 @ Urban Shaman Gallery)

When: Sunday, September 23, 2007 from 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm.
Place: Video Pool's 3rd floor studio.
Where: Volunteers are requested to wallow in some fake blood and act out a very straight-forward scenario as directed by Warren.

Please wait in the Artspace Lobby for someone to escort you to the third floor; if you have a swipe card, feel free to come on up.

Bring some friends and enjoy a blood and beverage-filled day with Warren. You'll love it, and we'll love you!

RSVP by e-mail or just show up.

Do you enjoy conversation?

2007-09-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

Do you enjoy conversation? Volunteers needed for art project.

"My name is Germaine Koh and I am an artist looking for volunteer participants for an art project running at Video Pool in Winnipeg from 17 October to 16 November.

The project “Call” makes telephone connections between strangers, as a sort of open-ended experiment in how anonymous individuals interact, and a means of making unexpected connections between real people, without pre-determined goals. It uses a telephone that I have modified so that it each time the handset is lifted, the phone randomly dials one of the project participants. The phone will be physically located in the lobby of Artspace at 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg.

I am looking for volunteer participants in the Winnipeg area who are willing to receive phone calls on your own telephone during the exhibition, and (attempt to) have phone conversations with the stranger on the other end of the line. No particular skills, background or cultural knowledge are required – just a willingness to talk. You may speak whatever languages you can. Your conversations will not be monitored in any way, and your identity will be kept completely anonymous.

The phone will be in operation during gallery hours. Over the course of the exhibition, you will likely encounter a variety of people and personalities. Based on previous presentations and the number of volunteers involved, you will likely receive no more than a few phone calls per day. The amount of time you end up devoting to any conversation depends completely upon your own schedule and inclination, and if sometimes you are unavailable, you should not feel obligated to answer the phone.

The project has been presented a number of times: in 2006 at ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts) in San Jose and in a solo exhibition of my work at the Ottawa Art Gallery; and in 2007 at MKG127 Gallery in Toronto. You can read more about the project and those previous presentation on my website at www.germainekoh.com/call.html.)

To participate or if you have further questions, please email me at website@germainekoh.com or call Video Pool at (204) 949-9134. For more about my work in general you can visit my website, www.germainekoh.com.

-------------

Please post or pass on to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks, Germaine

Rockstars & Wannabes

2007-09-20T14:32:00.000-05:00

For Immediate Release…
September 20, 2007

Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery and Video Pool Media Arts Centre are proud to present the exhibition

Rockstars & Wannabes

Curated by Cathy Mattes, this exhibition features: Warren Arcand, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest, Skawennati Fragnito, and Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay.

Dates: September 29 – November 10, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 29, 2007 @ 8 PM
Location: Urban Shaman Gallery – 203-290 McDermot Ave
Mediums: Video and Installation

With the emergence of MTV and Much Music in the early 1980s, a new form of escapism, and role play surfaced for young people. How youth connected with popular singers and bands changed drastically thanks to vee-jays spinning flashy music videos that provided visual narratives to follow along with popular music. In basements and bedrooms across the land, youth held brushes as microphones, envisioned themselves in music videos, and mimicked the music stars they admired…

Rockstars & Wannabes locates artists who examine the impact of the music industry on identity, using music videos, karaoke, and popular TV talent searches as catalysts. Music as an aid in escaping cross-cultural boundaries, the longing for validation or substance in one’s life, and the lengths some will go to locate and express their inner rock star is investigated.

Warren Arcand’s contribution to Rockstars & Wannabes is a video installation that explores “how youth turn to Rock music as a form of magical thinking, or who alternatively may be used by Rock to refresh and revitalize its own iconography. Within this exchange there are many hazards and casualties, not the least of which is boundary control.” – Warren Arcand.

Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest uses Karaoke to out existing stereotypes within popular music and explores the struggle to culturally fit in for those of mixed ancestry. By presenting imagery of Japanese music icons, cityscapes, and the impact of American pop-culture on Japanese youth, his video works expose how cultural perceptions are internalized, while simultaneously reminding viewers about the potential of music to bridge existing gaps.

Skawennati Fragnito locates like-minded adults who grew up in the '80s, and dreamt of being in music videos like those seen on Much Music and MTV. Her video work 80 Minutes,80 Movies, 80s Music, is an ongoing digital-video project which invites Generation X-ers from diverse cultural backgrounds, professions, and locations to live out their 80s rock star dreams in 80 second music videos created by Fragnito. New additions to 80 Minutes, 80 Movies, 80s Music will be featured in the exhibition.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay’s video and installation work provide a glimpse of his intimate relationship with certain pop music icons. History, sexuality and identity collide in Audition Tape, a musical monologue inspired by outtakes from American idol competitions. In Jimmy, a heraldic flag and documentation of a performative marathon honours Scottish gay pop hero Jimmy Somerville. Referencing a fan's obsessive sensibility, Jimmy explores the rewriting of narratives about who gets canonized and honoured in popular culture.

Rockstars & Wannabes Highlights:

* Join us at the free public opening reception on Saturday, September 29, 2007, which will include an '80s dance party after 10pm.
* Come to the curatorial talk/karaoke night at Urban Shaman – date TBA

With special thanks to our generous funders:

We wish to express additional gratitude to our friends, volunteers, community, and All Our Relations.

For more information please contact Milena Placentile at Video Pool @ (204) 949-9134 ext.1

- 30 -

Sample Images - Click for larger versions. More coming soon!

Warren Arcand. Flamingo Killers.

Kevin Ei-ichi deForest. Foxy Lady, 2006.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay. Audition Tape.

Biographies

Warren Arcand lives and works in Vancouver, where his artistic output includes performance art, film and video, theatre and text based work. His past performance pieces include “Six Gun Sufi” (cowboy ballads and sexdeath mysticism); “Surgery” (hermaphrodism as a metaphor for Abo identity); and most recently “Superchannel” (audience members received wireless headsets giving them access to 7 channels of selectable audio with which they could mix their own ‘soundtrack’ for Warren’s simple performance task of ‘making eye contact’). He is currently teaching performance art at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Kevin Ei-ichi deForest is an internationally recognized visual artist whose practice focuses on the representation of cultural hybridity, specifically with reference to his Eurasian background. Born in Winnipeg, he was part of the fledgling punk rock scene there in the late 70s. In the spirit of his hybrid outlook, his multimedia practice includes painting, installation, video, sound art, and critical writing. He has exhibited nationally as well as in USA, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Italy and Japan. He recently returned to Manitoba as Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art at Brandon University, Brandon Manitoba.

Skawennati Fragnito is an artist, independent curator, and occasional writer. In 1994, Skawennati co-founded Nation to Nation, a First Nations artist collective, whose exhibitions have included TattoNation and the very popular Native Love, which toured Canada. From 1996 to 2005, Skawennati was the director and primary curator for CyberPowWow, the pioneering Aboriginally-determined on-line gallery and chat space. Her most recent curatorial project is an on-line exhibition entitled Grrls, Chicks, Sisters & Squaws: Les citoyennes du cyberspace.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay is a Montréal-born artist working predominantly in video, text and sound. Since 2000 his work has brought together song, self-reflexive performance and lyrics from pop music as vehicles for examining the singing voice, the untranslatability of emotions into language and the ways in which emotional expression changes shape when mediated by technology and popular culture. Nemerofsky Ramsay's work has screened in festivals and galleries across Canada, Europe and East Asia and has won prizes at the Hamburg Short Film Festival, the Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest and the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (all in Germany), the Toronto Inside Out Film and Video Festival as well as First Prize at the Globalica Media Arts Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland. He currently divides his time between Canada and Europe.

Welcome to our new blog!

2007-09-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

As always, Video Pool is up to a number of very fantastic things! We want you to have easy access to all the information you could possibly want, so we’ve decided to start this blog.

Beginning later today, you'll find news about upcoming exhibitions, events, talks, performances, opportunities, and even social occasions, since getting together, sharing ideas, and celebrating contemporary media art is an important part of what we do. On that note, we will soon begin posting images and other documentation relating to our programming, so even if you’re not in Winnipeg, you’ll still be able to access the excitement. Of course, developing an ongoing archive of activities is always a great idea, as well.

So come back soon, and be sure to visit often! We’ll be burning this feed as soon as possible, but another way to keep in the loop conveniently is to subscribe to this blog through an interface such as Google Reader. Just add http://videpool.blogspot.com and our news will come to you.

And don’t forget: this blog is intended to be completely interactive, so if you have something you want to say to us, and everyone else, please feel free to comment. We’ve set up this blog so you don’t need to be registered with Blogger -- just select anonymous, fill your comment into the field provided, and you’re done!

Coming up next, details about our next exhibition, Rockstars & Wannabes!