More great local media coverage

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...

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!

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!

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 ;-)

*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! ;-)

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

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

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

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

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