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

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!

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/

Robert Hengeveld's "Staging the Gap"

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

We’ve reached the end… or have we?

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"

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!

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

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!!

Fantastic coverage to kick off a fantastic celebration

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.

A little reminder...

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...

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

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.

Video Pool Celebrates 25 Years with Six New Commissions

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

Coming Soon: Camera-Free Film and Video

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

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

VJ in Residence =-)

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]

A year to remember

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 ;-)

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

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

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:

1. Artist/curator CV including current contact information (mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address)
2. A short description of the proposed project or video(s), including an outline of the critical and/or curatorial objectives of the work submitted
3. Names of all participating artists
4. Titles of all proposed projects/videos, as well as year of completion and city of origin
5. Exhibition history of each project, including a description of contexts within which the work will be presented in the coming year
6. 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
7. 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
8. Complete list of all audio, video, and images submitted
9. 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

More Info About Art's Birthday...

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!

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