I've been lucky to be part of many different communities in my life. At the time you don't necessarily think of them as communities as they just seem to be the cool people that you are hang out with. One of the first communities that I was involved with (and I'm still connected to) was the NB Filmmakers' Co-operative in Fredericton. I was born and grew up in Fredericton and when I found the coop I felt like I belonged. There wasn't a lot that I had to explain why I was there and we shared a lot in common. We also made films and that becomes addictive. Filmmaking and community are closely connected.
Technology has seemed to also play a role in the communities that I've been involved with. Film is built around cameras and tape recorders and it is filled with specialized terminology like the NPR, the Bolex, the Nagra, and the Steenbeck. I love those things and for members of the filmmaking community they mean something. But filmmaking isn't (or shouldn't be) about the equipment. It's about the stories and the people. That's what keeps you there.
With my use of email via the universities where I studied I was able to connect with other communities thanks to that technology. As with many new communication media a lot of time and space was taken up with discussions of the technology itself and what it meant. Email was more complex then and numbers played a far bigger part in what you did online. I still have the black notebook where I wrote down the addresses that I used to connect to other systems. But what was amazing and fun and addictive were the connections that I could make with other people. I could be in touch with people from all over the world and we could discuss things and share our interests. Another place where I didn't have to explain why I thought that this was so amazing.
But as a new technology becomes more widely dispersed we grow accustomed to it and take it for granted. I don't have to think about using email now, I just use it. That's how I stay in touch with people and keep track of things. This blog is one extension of that. With bitdepth I try to keep it fairly original and think a bit more and not just post collections of links. I'm part of the blogging community, but I like reading and watching others more than putting a lot of stuff out. So while I've been part of this blogging thing for a while (bitdepth has been up for 2 1/2 years now!) and with the new Screen Arts site I'm over 100 posts, which is quite amazing.
One of the things that has prompted this more reflective post is the recent US election and the IRC chats that I've participated in with some bloggers that I've been reading for a while. Kevin Marks combined the log of one of the chats that David Weinberger set up with QuickTime and an MP3 of the debate and then I felt a bit more connected. Then on election night I was able to chat again and it was still snarky, but not as much fun (most of us in there would tend to the left side of the political spectrum) since things weren't going the way that we had hoped. During that chat Halley mentioned about posting that day and I checked out her posts and they changed my perspective a bit as a bit more of the personal side started in to my consciousness. She had a health scare which is the big shift, but a smaller thing is that I realized that we both do the same yoga routine. It made me realize again that it wasn't just technology or topics, but humanity that connected us. More cool people who were human and good and sharing part of themselves.
So we commiserated and the evening got a bit more depressing and many people had colds and everyone started drifting away. But even though I wasn't in the best mood I was happy that I shared the experience with other people and I felt that I was part of a community and that made me feel pretty good.
Yesterday was a great day at work as well. I get to work with a very talented and committed person every day in teaching a group of very cool people who share our interest in film so I love going in every day. What made yesterday great was that I was able to have two guests in to speak about filmmaking. One of them was one of my oldest friends and the other was one of my newest friends. But both love making films and the day reminded me of why I love this stuff and why I do it. It's about people and stories.
The other thing that prompted this is my latest obsession, which is Flickr! and how my use of that has meant that I haven't been doing much in this space. I noticed today that I've uploaded 500 pictures since I've started, which I didn't think that I'd do. The reason I've been there so much is the sense of community that is there. It's not sharing the photos, but it's a way to communicate visually and get another perspective as you get to see how people see the world and the people around them. So it was appropriate that some of the first images that I uploaded to Flickr! were from a workshop that I took at the Film Coop in NB recently. The more recent pictures are from where I'm working now in Halifax. I was wondering if there were many other people taking pictures in Halifax and then one of those strange connections happened as I found through the tags that AKMA, who I occasionally read and who was in the election chats had been in Halifax a few months ago and had taken pictures there. So my communities had connected again and that made me think about how great it is that we can connect and share no matter what is happening in the world. We're part of a virtual community, but there are real, live humans at the other end of these electronic connections. It's about people and sharing and that's why I love making films and why I'm glad that I have this space to share this.
I think that I've made up for the lack of recent posts... thanks for sticking with me!
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Sometimes I'm amazed at how the world seems so small. I'm in Yarmouth now, which is the left side of the map of Nova Scotia. I drove 300 kms West from Halifax earlier today to come here for a followup session to the NSCC Faculty Orientation that I attended in Truro in the summer. It was a great drive down along the southern shore of NS and I'm also looking forward to the drive home up and along the top side of the province. By Monday I'll have gone from Wolfville this morning all around the province and back to Halifax...kind of neat when I look at the map. But a 700 km round trip isn't the small world part. I checked in to the motel and then wandered over to the mall to get some air and a snack. A minute into the mall I see one of my former students from Fredericton, Bill McBride. I recognize him, but I suddenly get confused as he's supposed to be in Fredericton and I'm... where am I now? It turns out that he's just in Yarmouth for the day, but what are the odds of seeing someone in a place where I've never been before? Pretty good, I guess and a very pleasant surprise. To top it off I went online and I received an email from a neat person I met at the Atlantic Film Festival who I was thinking had maybe lost my address. A small and wonderful world indeed!
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What ultimately convinced me to go to Moncton for the conference was finding out that Brigitte was the facilitator of the e-lounge. I first met Brigitte a few years ago when I was teaching a Digital Media course in Fredericton. She wanted to start in a program that had already been underway for a few months. At first I wasn't sure as there was a lot that had been covered -- the foundation of the courses. She convinced me that she could catch up and she did and then kept going and ended up at the top of the class. Both creative and technically solid, she's an amazing person and I love any chance to work with her or see her. The other half of the support team in the e-lounge was Rodrigo who solved the problems and kept things running smoothly smiling all the time. All this while his very pregnant wife was within weeks of giving birth. Talk about managing pressure and stress well! The comments that I heard from the other artists were all positive about the amazing support that Rodrigo and Brigitte provided and they gave a welcome sense of comfort, stability and fun to the e-lounge. Hats off for a job well done!
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One of the briefest meetings that I had in Moncton was with Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas. They arrived near the end of the conference as they were working on a project called "We are getting closer" that is all about location, location, location. With a grueling travel schedule they went across the country from Alberta to New Brunswick with a wireless webcam connecting people in different regions as they went. Using wireless technology they would connect to the internet somewhere inside a building and then be able to wander around outside with camera and microphone and send the video and sound across the country and around the world. On the site you can see archived stuff, but there is something very cool about a live connection. A great use of technology and a tiring learning experience, it's the type of project that will hopefully happen more and more as we connect and share stories and experiences. The thing that stands out with this project is how generous and helpful people can be and that art doesn't just exist inside and in galleries...let's use the Web to get closer!
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I met Jan at conference in Moncton as she was on the panel hosted by Zenon and also featuring Valérie and myself. The embarrassing part is that she lives and works in Wolfville a few blocks away from me and although I've lived here for two years I've yet to meet most of the cool people in my own neighbourhood. The picture (with Jan on the far right) is from the panel which was entitled, "Curatorial and Archival Processes: Art and the Web" and initially I wasn't sure if we'd all fit together, but it ended up working wonderfully. Jan, who's in the Sociology department at Acadia, talked about preserving art created in variable media...how do you save something when the technologies are changing so quickly. The time seemed to go quite quickly and it felt more like the beginning of a discussion.
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One of the last persons that I met at the Moncton conference was Gair Dunlop from Scotland (and now I'm back to where are your from, etc, etc, etc, but place is significant with Gair and his work). Gair presented a range of his work that featured filmmaking, text, photographs and QuickTime VR. I have to spend some more time going through his stuff, but the Gagarin project was particularly interesting to me. I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Gair after the conference as he had a whirlwind tour around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He gave workshops at Struts Gallery in Sackville, the NB Filmmakers' Co-operative in Fredericton, and (thanks to the work of Jan Marontate) at Acadia University. I had a lot of fun and hopefully Gair with be back over for future projects or maybe I can get over to Scotland...
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Arnfinnur is the last of the Icelandic artists who came to the Atlantic Cultural Space conference in Moncton that I'll talk about. We were roommates at the residence of Johanne LeBreton who graciously accommodated us during the conference. A tall, quiet man, Arnfinnur showed a range of work, but the most amazing things to me were his beautiful video works "Trace Music" which use the video camera almost like a brush. Almost hypnotic, they are like dances that combine the music with the motion of the camera...beautiful. Another one of those things that makes me think about creating images in different ways.
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Dawn is an artist from New Brunswick who I met at the conference in Moncton. She presented and talked about an installation recently exhibited at UNB called "Cyborgasm." For the presentation she had a camera focussed on her mouth with that image projected onto the two large screens of the e-lounge. It created a strangely intimate, but mediated experience as she described the installation and the thinking behind it. On another day (the days start to blend together after a while) she showed her electronic portfolio featuring her photography (along with some harrowing stories of going into abandoned buildings) and a Flash-based version of "Cyborgasm" that was enhanced by allowing a number of people to interact with it on the iBooks in the e-lounge. Friday night Dawn is part of an opening at Gallery Connexion in Fredericton where "Works in Progress" will be shown.
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David Johnston, also known as Jhave, is a very neat guy who thinks in amazing ways. Part of the Year Zero One online artist-run centre, his presentation at the Atlantic Cultural Space Conference in Moncton was one of those perspective-changing experiences that make you look at the world and the tools that you use to create work in a different way. A poet with a strong neurobiological theoretical approach (it's hard to describe something that's truly original) he has created great work that I have to spend more time exploring and absorbing. Nomad Lingo, (Flash required to view) "an experimental poetic playground" is a great combination of poetry and Flash to create something more. With a firm grounding in (but not limited by) text. It's all about the content. Lots to explore and absorb.
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Randy and Ron were presented some of their work at the Moncton conference. Two amazingly talented and nice guys who were based in Halifax, but were moving to London, Ontario as the conference was going on. Masters of Flash, they are exploring the possibilities of storytelling using that tool in amazing ways. With a great combination of sound and image, interactivity and a refreshing linearity at times they know the difference between Flash for Flash's sake and exploring a medium. I had a great chat with Ron about aspect ratios and the Coen brothers in a bar in Moncton as "The Big Lebowski" played on the tv in the bar. Doesn't everyone love the Coen brothers and a wide, letterboxed aspect ratio? Ron and Randy have an online art gallery called iamstatic that is filled with thought-provoking and solid work.
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One of the cool artists who came over from Iceland for the Moncton conference was Páll. He's doing some very cool stuff with sound and images that evolve and interact with people over time. At the conference he showed "Choirpiece for Four Computers." Using some iBooks and an Airport base station one iBook lead the "choir" of 4 networked computers by sending notes for them to sing. The notes have to fit within a certain scale and when they are sent the image of a mouth on the screen of the computer opens and the note is played. Very neat. The coolest thing was "Intercontinental Spontaneous Jam Session" which allows multiple people to change the parameters of sound and images that play from a server and are sent out to whoever is connected to the site. The photo has the interface for the ISJS and Páll's silhouette It's a very cool combination of a server where sounds are generated using PureData along with PHP and Javascript to do some processing and Flash for the visuals. I can't wait for it to launch so more people can see and experience this.
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I've known about Valérie's work before, but I met her for the first time in person at the conference in Moncton and we were on a panel together. She's one of those multiplying hats people where she's an artist and a curator. Not just any curator (not to disparage curators as I haven't known very many), but one of the very few curators of net.art in Canada. As an artist she's responsible for the neat and useful Advice Bunny.
Curatorially she also was a major part of Location/Dislocation which is just amazing. On the panel she talked about location and space and seeing the work and MobileGaze which presents and contextualizes work online. Based on talking with her and listening to her on the panel I figure I have a couple of books to read and a ton of stuff to check out online. To see the latest thing she's involved with as a curator you should experience Matter + Memory which is launching tonight at Oboro in Montréal. If I was in Montréal now I'd be going, but I'll have to be content with exploring things here at home in Wolfville.
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The first person that I met on my way to the ACS Conference in Moncton was Mathieu. He was driving the van to the airport in Halifax to pick up me along with 3 artists from Iceland, one from Newfoundland and one from Ireland, who happens to be Saoirse. Mathieu's a cool interdisciplinary artist based in Moncton and Saoirse is a cool new mediator from Ireland but currently living in Scotland. (Again with the where were you born, where are you living, where have you lived...) They had a joint performance piece that unfolded over 3 days at the conference. It was based on the works of Samuel Beckett and combined live performance with recorded video. The pictures show Mathieu performing and Saoirse editing. A very neat combination of old media (the human voice and body) with new media.
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On the first night of the Atlantic Cultural Space conference in Moncton Andrea Cooper wrapped up the "Nymphs of the Night" show with a great presentation about her real-world and virtual project "Starring". It's a great intervention in St. John's that featured a huge billboard with a picture and the URL of the site. Postcards and a television commercial also sent people to the site to see the work. The picture beside this article is Andrea before her presentation, trying to get her site to show up... it dropped off the Web just before she started. She remained cool and calm and the site went back up just in time so she could show it off. The video "Starring: Part 2" shows off more of the world of the 50 foot women in and around St. John's. "Starring: Part 2" is showing at Eastern Edge in St. John's as part of "Private Constructs" until June 8, so if you're there and you haven't seen it...go now. Andrea is not 50 feet tall.
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The second person I met on my way to the Atlantic Cultural Space Conference was Birgitta. She's an artist from Iceland (location seems to determine so much...at least when you meet people... "Hi, where are you from?" starts off the conversation so often at conferences... it usually implies where were you born, where did you live, where are you living... but I digress) and she read some poetry, showed some of her printed work and work online. She talked about a project she's involved with that is producing two books "The Book of Hope" and "The World Healing Book." It's a way to foster a dialogue and positive response to the violence and sorrow in the world. Her site, seen in the picture along with her showing it off, is called Womb of Creation. She was fighting a cold at the time but has the great quality of being unable to tell a lie. It was neat to see and talk with someone who does a similar thing with moving away from more complex and flashy sites and focussing on the content.
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