Hello, my name is Rina, and it is nice to meet you!

By now, you have seen me with my message on live stream CCTV. Will we date? 604 722 1264. More to come later.

Rina

So things have a way of working themselves out, n'est pas?

Giving up on the Libra Room happened a long time ago, it feels. And in hind sight, I am not all together disappointed for two very separate reasons. First: when I was introduced to a certain person, he immediately grab his chest, pushed whatever flesh he had in reference to my bust, which in all honesty is a bit on the ample size, and says to Davide "I love artists". Naturally, I ignored the lewd gesture and made my face of disapproval, accompanied by a very large eye ball rolling. And then we were back onto business. The second reason is purely practical. If the venue closes at 11, and daylight disappears around 10, then really, this project is not going to be as fab as it will if mounted in the fall or winter.

Project #2 is officially shelved and a new venue is in the works.

So how to write about a collaborative practice when there are no projects on the go you ask? Well, one of Davide's amazing qualities is that he is very social, and therefore, he has many friends and acquaintances, so many so that art opportunities just fly into his inbox, which simultaneously impresses and annoys me, specifically because neither does he have to try very hard to get great gigs, and nor does he bother with them in a timely fashion. And even after a proposal is 4 days late, or everyone else has confirmed a meeting schedule promptly, he still gets the gig. People generally wait, and for some reason, they are happy to do so. In this case, I make my I-can't-bloody-believe-this-guy-face, throw my arms in the air and tag along for the ride =)

Project #3 is also in the works, another collaboration as described by the forementioned dynamics, specifically my tagging along, that will be later revealed, as we are under a gag order, but it could be very exciting for many participatory artist in the Vancouver area...stay tuned!

And last but not least...

Project #1 a.k.a Working with What is Left

There has been so much going on that there has been a lack of time to sufficiently blog every workshop, but I will sit down and do that hopefully tonight for the simple reason that I do not know most of the people that I personally invited tonight, nor did I the other night, and the result is that the workshop was quite quiet, so I might have some time to write. Which brings me to the next important fact:

It is too much to have 2 workshops per week when you work than full-time. And what has suffered is my marketing efforts to get participants, no! say it isn't so, and whatever you do, don't tell my clients, although their marketing is going just fine ;-)

But in usual fashion, Heidi and I have come up with a brilliant plan that will help me continue my research on this project and get me out of Heidi's way so she can make room for Natalie Doonan and the collaborating team of Kristina Lee Podesva and Joni Low.

Here is The Plan......The Hammock goes offsite, as hammocks often do! We are both very excited to plan the first mobile residency. In July I will hold 3-4 more workshops with various groups, all unconfirmed, and in August, the build and public installation will take place -more on that later- and the open house / celebration, will be in early September, most likely the weekend after Labour Day. Heidi has also assigned a volunteer assistant, Lauren, who has just joined the Hammock, to help me carry out my plans. Yay Lauren!

Now off I go to see what's transpiring in the Tin Can!

What Was Once the Libra Room is Now ?

Boys, boys, boys . Now I am not going to say that my boy was completely at fault, but I am not witness to the fact that he was not. Anyhow, long story short, we will not be showing at the Libra Room. And my advice to artists, make sure you don't piss the one in charge off, no matter who started it. At least it wasn't me this time. My mother always warned me not to get involved with Italians, although she was swept away with the kindness of this one just last night at my Dad's birthday party...but that's another story. Anyway, there will be lots of this from both sides I expect on account that we are both firey Italians.

Am I disappointed? You bet. Am I expecting that another venue will be found? Indeed I am. Will it be I who finds a venue and coordinates with the bar owner? Not a chance in hell.

So here we are at our first block in the collaborative process, and because I would still like to get laid tonight, I am forced to reconcile my own annoyance and pick the most tender words for a person who has had a difficult time lately. But I am not fixing it. And I wonder what he will think of this post.

Call For Researchers, a.k.a, Join Me in the Hammock

Working with What is Left speaks to the detritus of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively, the promised addition of social housing and arts programming, two of the benefits pitched by the City of Vancouver prior to the referendum, that were considered left wing, were reneged while the developers were bailed out of their financial losses. And literally, the detritus, the blue visa sponsorship posters that were distributed and displayed in many downtown retail and restaurant windows. These plastic laminated, stiff cardboard posters are a perfect building material, and will be fashioned into individual, portable housing structures / pods that will simultaneously solve the problem created by the lack of funding for artist projects and low-income housing.

Researchers are asked to participate in one or many of the workshops outlined below. Find a category that appeals to you, and please join us in the Hammock between 6pm - 10pm on the following nights.

Researchers are asked to participate in one or many of the workshops outlined below. Find a category that appeals to you, and please join us in the Hammock between 6pm - 10pm on the following nights.

June 1st: Artist's Friends and Balcone Reading Group - Making It Critical

June 10th: Art Students - Making It Exciting

June 15th: Suburban Ladies Over 60 - Making It Palatable

June 17th: Geographers and Urban Planners - Making It Functional

June 22nd: Landscape Architects - Making It Pretty

June 24th: No Fixed Address, Alternative Spaces + Off-the-Grid - Making It Practical

June 27th: Open House, 4pm to 8pm

Find the Hammock at: 1923 Graveley Street.

Enquiries can be made by contacting the artist at: liddlethought at gmail dot com.

Kind Regards,

Heidi and Rina


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Basic Logistics

So now I have two projects on the go, and Blogspot is not really great for threading through multiple projects in a linear fashion, nor in clusters, as I am able to see. Any organizational tips would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the info:

Project I -- Title: Working with What is Left

Place: Hammock Residency

Synopsis: Taking the remnants of the Olympics and using them as both the subject matter and the material stuff with which the project will be built. The "remnants" include the condition of life in Vancouver as a direct effect brought about through hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Details: In case you have, for whatever reason, not been following my seriously entertaining Blog posts, I will fill you in, as this is a project that follows out of a particular trajectory of work that looks at the way we look, including: surveillance, sousveillance and other controls of public space.
See: We Are Watching

Project II -- Title: Untitled Collaboration
with Davide Pan

Place: The Libra Room

Synopsis: Working with the frustrating City of Vancouver by-laws that serve to regulate the many small neighbourhood music venues, such as the Libra Room, Davide and I will play with what we can and cannot do, poke a little fun and have a little party. The Libra Room will be magically transformed in ways formerly unimagined by the proprietors of the art-hanging cafes, bars and restaurants. Issues of private and public are visited from the proprietor's perspective. What are the rules that serve to govern behaviour? What are the consequences for such transgressions?

Details: Davide and I are new lovers. And this tenuous relationship makes this project the perfect first try at de-sanitizing the participatory and collaborative practice, which, as mentioned in my last post, lives on as an after fact, by photography or other means of documentations, with all the messy bits edited out. There you have it, I said it publicly, and yes, it could go either way, and you get to decide what "it" is (and yes, I have asked his permission to blog about our process).

Incremental Time and my practice

Process-based art-making is traditionally disseminated through displaying the remnants, detritus, tracings, photographs and other forms of documentation. But if the process is the emphasis, or the point of art-making, then doesn't it stand to reason that the process should be made explicit in the moment? Of course, writing is a reflective practice, and therefore cannot be considered within the parameters of what constitutes real time. As a way of undoing the tidy package of documentational exhibition that often, through circumnavigating a particular aspect or editing out the things that don't make sense, I am less interested in providing a nice sum-up, like I thought I started documenting this is public art. Now that I look back, the Alternative Methodologies class I was taking at the time, had already seeped into my psyche, and in the ever important re-read, I see already my interest in blogging in the moment, not editing out the difficulties in case they should make me look bad.

Instead, this blog, at this point is defined by me as a space for communal reflection on the process as it happens, not in real-time, but in incremental time. It is my hypothesis that if the process is the focus because its parameters ultimately determine how the work manifests (its material form), then the incremental time needs to be in the forefront, not just assumed within the methods; the messy bits, the moments when decisions are made in response to those messy bits, are integral to the process because they are ways reacting to the life of the work.

Revamping and Moving On...

We Are Watching came to an end in Vancouver with the closing of the Paralympic games. All in all, I was pleased with my work and the audience response. Enough said about that. At this very moment, Danna, Kristina and I are creating the content for the second half of the book. I will keep you updated on its progress, specifically, when you can expect your copy, if you have already bought the first one.

If you are still interested in buying the catalogue/archive, there are still a few copies left, and I would be happy to mail you your very own for the small cost of $20. Please email me your request at weRwatching2010 [at] gmail.com. And yes, I am still accepting video submissions at the same address.



Since the last time I have posted, We Are Watching has gone to and left Finland as part of an exhibit curated by Anna Ruth. Originally from Vancouver, Anna has been living in Europe for the last fifteen years curating and art-making. She also showed work during the Olympics. To read about her mapping/drawing project, called Sensory Maps, click here. Anna also runs the gallery project called Äkkigalleria, that usurps spaces not in use and turns them into a temporary gallery. And this is where We Are Watching ended up along with my other project...

Working with What is Left is a participatory sculpture project that provides some musings through the detritus of the Olympic Games. The following letter of instructions/explanation was provided with a desk for the viewer to work at while they added and responded to the research. In an attempt to draw on "Finnish" design expertise, the viewer becomes the researcher/designer of homeless shelters made of the Olympic Visa sponsorship posters that were on display in many of the retail businesses during the games.



Dear Researcher:

The grumbling of the city started as soon as the Vancouver Olympic Committee first assembled for the intention of proposing to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. At first glance the proposal was rosy, with extra money to be spent funding a large number of arts programming in addition to the current civic and provincial funded art programs. There was also a promise that the Olympic Village, an area slotted for development (a.k.a. Concord Pacific style condo development) situated along the south shore of False Creek and which for the most part has served as Vancouver’s industrial district, would include mixed-market residencies after the Olympics were done. Specifically, there were to be a substantial number of units set aside for low-income housing. On this platform, the city passed a referendum by 51% in favour of hosting the events.

Of course (in my opinion), the extremely conservative provincial government under the head of Gordon Campbell and the vast number of profiting developing corporations sighed a breath of relief at the economic downturn as it provided the perfect excuse to back out of the social commitments made, and in fact, the City of Vancouver passed legislation allowing it to borrow more than it is usually allowed (and increase property taxes to cover the added expenses) to “bail out” the developers and consequently the developers and City reneged on the housing and cut the Arts funding by 92%.

This project speaks to the detritus of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, namely the worsened social conditions to be faced by Vancouverites and British Columbians and the physical waste, in particular the Royal Bank Visa sponsorship posters. The plasticized corrugated posters are perfect building and art material. Therefore, Working with What is Left will work with these conditions and detritus to provide an Olympic critique by fashioning the posters into life-sized homeless shelters, thereby solving the problems created by a lack of funding for artist materials and low income housing.

The research you see before you has been started by the artist. Please add notes directly on the pages, comments, highlight what you perceive as important, comment on the comments, add pages, make drawings, and literally contribute Finnish design solutions for these problems in Vancouver.

The notes will be synthesized into one design solution, and units will be built and put out in the streets of Vancouver this summer and documented for gallery presentation later this year.

Thank you in advance for your contribution!

Kind regards,


Rina Liddle

The Paralympics are coming, get your cameras ready!

Well, the Paralympic Games are almost here, and I am looking forward to the added video footage! Also, if you missed my "Change in Plan" section above, The project will NOT be up until tomorrow. So sorry if you came by this week. Apparently, I was not in the loop regarding scheduling. I have had a few perplexed callers, and one insisting that our invitation card "implied that it would be running" which I tend to agree with. Apologies all around! Please let me know if you were one of the unfortunate people who made a special trip to the DTES.

I did not receive any footage of the Paralympic Torch Relay yet, if you are in possession of some clips, please send them my way.

We still have a few books left, if you are interested in reading about the project through the ideas of Danna Vadja and Kristina Podesva, please come by the gallery.

And for my good news!

We Are Watching will be travelling to Finland for exhibition, yay!

Tonight's the night

Tonight is the last evening that I will be keeping gallery hours between 6-10pm, so if you are interested in seeing my project while I am around, drop by and I will make tea. Otherwise, the project is still viewable from public space, and alternatively, I will make myself available by appointment only. Of course, the gallery is open regular hours during the day, if you are interested in purchasing the book, but the projections start at dusk. To make an appointment, please email your request to weRwatching2010 [at] gmail.com.

...and in the Georgia Straight

read it here

Juho Jäppinen, book designer & photographer

For about 2 weeks prior to the show, I completely ignored my dear and lovely friend Anna in favour of her husband, Juho (a very Finnish name pronounced "youhoe"). "Hello, is Juho there"? "Can I please talk to Juho"? "I have a few changes for Juho" had replaced my usual girly and arty banter with Anna. I almost felt like I was having an affair, not because I was spending time with my friend's husband, rather, because my usual time and energy allotted for art-speak and collaboration with Anna, was now being spent talking art-speak and collaborating with Juho. I felt a bit dirty. However, the book part of the We Are Watching project is now available (and well received, thank goodness!). There are limited numbers, so please come by the Jeffrey Boone Gallery and take a look. The video contributors for the first half of the project are listed. All the others will be credited in the second book (which incidentally, is covered in the cost of the first book, $20). We will arrange pick-up or drop-off for the second part when you come into the gallery.

Three days in a row without a technical glitch, whew!

So, friend, collaborator, friend's husband, curator, and as previously mentioned, book designer and photographer is hereby credited with the following photographs taken at the opening.

Smooth sailing and enjoying the ride :-)

It seems that Nathan has worked around the bugs on the player version we are working with. Even though I know first-hand, and have heard from others that technology is just plain finicky and can act up at any moment, I am going to say that all is well. The project is loading as it should and there haven't been any crashes as of late. On the down side, we have had to give up on the sound component. If I had this to do all over, I would have updated the OSX right from the get go, alas, hindsight...

It pleases me to spend time in the gallery during the evenings when people are Bright-lighting their evening away. I am an unexpected gallery component, but really, I have met the most interesting people, and it is really worthwhile for me to see how the audience interaction works. One observation that I find predominates, yet is not surprising, is the fact that almost all the walking traffic approaches from the west and impacts on the viewers' experience by making them work harder to tie the installation together. With the Vancouver Sun in hand, they know that there is a projection in the courtyard, but unfamiliar with the area, it takes a search to find, followed by a doubling back to the gallery to put it all together. I am intrigued by this doubling back aspect, although I am not sure why quite yet...

As I mentioned in the previous post, submissions were slower than I expected, yet there will be about 20 new clips added today. Come by to see the new footage, it is not like the rest ;-)

We Are Watching in the Vancouver Sun

Here is a nice little ditty

Opening night and ensuing saga...

The opening reception was lovely. Of course my parents were there, and look how happy they look! They don't get what I do, but amazingly, they are the first to buy memberships, donate cash and show up with flowers. They even come to Balcone Art Society General Meetings, go figure. I am lucky. But we can't talk about art, because, as my mum says, "It's just not my thing". Which makes me crazy because how can that be?! When I was learning welding at school and doing math for cantilever tables, my dad couldn't understand why I didn't get my Engineer's ticket, as both he and my brother did.

Anyway, I was a 1/2 hour late for my own opening, for reasons that will be stated under the "saga" part of this entry, but the silver lining was that I had completely avoided waiting on the first guests, and man, do I hate that part. I was shocked that there was a steady stream of people, and that I didn't know at least 1/2 of them, which is always a good sign because you can always count on your posse to show up, but people who come out of genuine interest are special. I had so much fun. Nathan and I let loose and apparently really needed to, on account of the "saga", and a small, yet lovely group accompanied me to the greedy pig for a late sup.

The pics you see here are of the gallery installation, for some reason, a.k.a. the rain, no one took pics of the exterior projection, even though it is clear that people went for a look. Perhaps some will show up.

These two photos absolutely amuse me.



The Saga...Well, the exterior projection has not been without glitches, and it has been, if I didn't take my work so seriously, a comedy of errors, first starting with only 1.7 GB hard drive space and a project that was to begin at 6.7 GB. Of course, this most irritating surprise was not discovered until the hour before opening, and required poor Nathan to re-write the code that was designed to automatically add new material, protecting the hard drive from crashing. Thank goodness Nathan is able to work such magic and we were only 1/2 hour late for our own opening. Not bad considering we were prevented from running the final tests remotely during the previous week. And, because, we were unable to run the final tests remotely in the final week before the opening, has, not surprisingly, led to a number of evenings of mishaps. So far, Friday went well, except the the project was not interactive, Saturday we were down, Sunday, and Monday --spot on. However, on Tuesday, everything came to a halt. Sadly, Tuesday was also a day of personal drama, and isn't that always that way, a major thing goes to shit when you are least able to deal. Thankfully, I have amazing friends and Nola ran me around town during the day in my little red Jetta on account that I was falling over with dizzy spells, and Alan, drove me down in the evening to a failed attempt to preform a fix. At 9:30, defeated, I took a cab home.

Today was fantastic. Nathan and I had a tranquil afternoon at Shawna's, where we were able to preform all sorts of tests to rule things out. There seemed to be one video clip that was initiating a bug in the player. Apparently, and frustratingly, this particular bug was eliminated in the next version of the player, but unfortunately, the old operating system on the mac we were given to use does not support this new software, so work around the bug we did, or rather, Nathan did. Then we discovered that when the projector turned off last night, it went into "stand by" mode. A tricky thing that happens after hours and hours of playing. Next we retested by sending a new video, and as we had no way of attributing exactly what was triggering the bug, Nathan decided to re-visit a remote access channel so that we can reboot from afar. However, Shaw doesn't allow for those ports to be open unless you pay for the "business" level of service. So, as a shot in the dark, we removed the sound clips, and that seemed to do the trick for tonight. After dinner at Hon's and driving Nathan home, I went back to Gastown to send one last file, crossed my fingers, held my breath, and the thing did NOT crash. So it is only a matter of checking it daily to make sure it runs. With that in mind, I will be sitting in the gallery, keeping vigil, should you wish to come by while I am there.

Oh ya, and the books are ready too. I will deliver them sometime in the afternoon.

Rina Liddle signing out.

Isn't Monique lovely?

Monique is my neighbour, and doesn't she have a swanky and intelligent blog! Oh, and look, she's posted a blurb on my project. And they say that no one knows their neighbours these days...what would Brent say, the crazy landlord who told me it was against the tenancy agreement to knock on my neighbours' doors!

Here is her blog.

This could be a media kit...

If democracy is to be a machine of hope, it must retain one strange characteristic –its wheels and cogs will need to be lubricated not with oil but with sand. ~Krzysztof Wodiczko

Rina Liddle is a visual artist, researcher and educator. At the core of her practice is the belief that art making is a polyvocal practice. Her work often takes the form of installations and interventions that deal with ideas regarding public space, and include digital media, photography, sculptural elements and collaborations. The material forms that she chooses are, for her, a means to renegotiate and make visible the conditions of the social body. Or something like that. Do you know what I mean? Subtle traces of the absurd in sociological methodologies are discernable in her work.

Part of the Bright Light program, We Are Watching is a participatory video exhibition that continues her trajectory of working with ideas focused on public space, surveillance, public art policy and representational power. There are two components: a large-scale projection in public space, and an interior projection within the gallery fed by a live surveillance camera. By using participants’ video clips documenting the Vancouver 2010 Olympic, Paralympic and related events, viewers are asked to consider the ways in which the City of Vancouver is represented officially, and the alternative views that are largely dismissed, or written over, by the spectacle machine, which serves to homogenize the Canadian subjectivity. Issues explored are surveillance versus sousveillance, the ways in which we watch events, the ways in which we watch each other and the ways in which we are being watched.

There is a two-part archival book project that accompanies the work. The first part has been printed and includes texts by Kristina Lee Podesva and Danna Vajda images of the Torch Relay. The second part of the book will be available after the show closes. It will function as an archive of the event as it unfolds over the time of the Olympic and Paralympic games. This book project will not only document the work, it will also function as a vehicle for the dissemination of the representations collected that provide an alternate view of the “official” versions sanctioned and circulated by VANOC and the City of Vancouver. Multiple subjectivities will add complexity to this overarching image of Vancouver. The book will be donated to select public libraries.

Liddle has a BFA from Emily Carr University and a MA from Goldsmiths College University of London. She has shown internationally in London, Los Angeles, Posnan (Poland) and Jyvaskyla (Finland) and currently resides in Vancouver.

Things of Desire

Everybody wants to be desired. Now We Are Watching, an offspring of mine, has been blogged about (assuming "blogging" is a real verb) by Jen Simaitis on the Canadian art blog called Things of Desire. Check out the article here.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe...

Pick a map, any map, check the time here
and take your video camera on a date. Only two days left to participate in Torch Relay documentation. Then I will be hounding you on documenting the Events proper.

Celebratory Sushi with Nathan

Yesterday's install and test went better than I expected, not because I am a downer, but I have found technology unpredictable on the first go. So we now have the large projector installed in Shawna's apartment. Is it serendipity that Jeffrey knew Shawna before this project, and that she just happened to live in a loft facing the exact same wall that we would need to project on? Some days make me quiver with excitement...Shawna's apartment is fab,
I am almost hoping for some kind of laptop crash just so I can get in there again...hold on, I did say almost! Okay that is projector one, up and ready after many hours of fidgeting (see Jeffrey fidget-->) and the results are quite amazing. You can see here the cute little projection that lands on the glass window, where Shawna
can view the whole event from the comfort of her own home, glass of wine in hand.
(That is Nathan on the floor and Jeffrey standing standing behind him).
And this is an image of the reflection from the window on her couch. It's amazing how clear everything is, even the crappiest file quality shows well with this super-projector! So don't be afraid to send in your cell phone vids, it's all good.And lastly, the two images below are the sneak preview of what you can expect in the gallery. Notice the infrared technology looking like a bad case of pink eye.
Hope you can make it to see all the components together. The opening is this Friday, February 12th at 7-10 pm at 1 Cordova Street in Vancouver. See www.jefreyboonegallery.com for details.

Oh my goodness!

Life has been a crazy lately, mind-blowing crazy. Crazy, like I'm going to throw up, crazy like my head might explode and crazy like I am so excited I can hardly stand it. And busy. oh my goodness, busy. It has also been over one week since I have blogged, and I am afraid I can only offer up an abridged version of progress without musings or funny anecdotes --never mind clever ideas! I just have none at the moment. But probably at about 3 am, my thoughts will start and I will wonder if I should jot them down instead of moving my furniture around, which is what I have been doing at 3 am as of late. Yes folks, I have a bad case of the butterflies.

Having said that, Jeffrey found long range wireless outdoor speakers for me, the book has gone through a most thorough editing (thanks Kristina and Jeffrey!), the postcards and brochures are available and I keep getting more submissions (yay!).

And that is where I am at folks. I will leave you with a series of video stills that I am particularly fond of. Stay tuned for a report on the hopefully final install test that will take place Saturday night.

The Book is Almost Ready!

Lately, there has been quite the push to organize Book 1 of We Are Watching. As you might have heard, the We Are Watching project will have a book/exhibition catalogue accompanying the event/exhibition. The first book will be available at the gallery on opening day and will include some texts about the project, information on those people who have helped me get here and images selected from the video submissions of the 2010 Torch Relay. We have collected all the texts and I have selected all of the images, and Juho, my Finnish book designer (not only do I love having my own technician, I also lay claim to my Finnish book designer), is putting the whole thing together, and we will send it to the printer tomorrow. Yay! So if you have been missing my posts, or tweets, I am now back.

Other news includes:

I have a new ftp site, for those who have taken large files, or many files and would like to send them easily. I find this method better than downloading from Youtube on account that VANOC is now pulling the video down, even from my blog boo! And downloading results in a loss of quality. So, please feel free to contact me for the ftp site details.

As we have all heard, because we all pay attention to CBC radio ;-), the torch has reached British Columbia, and I am hoping to still collect Torch clips, so please help me get the word out. Other areas that are under representative are: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, P.E.I, our Territories, and most small towns. If you know someone in these areas, please send a request for video, it is out there, just needs to be found.

We have sound! Jeffrey, lovely Jeffery, has bought me a couple of wireless outdoor speakers. Yay Jeffery, I am so excited I can hardly stand it! It didn't take many submissions for me to realize that sound was so much part of the visual experience.

Mark your calendars, we open on Friday, February 12th at dusk. There will be many events and shows opening that night in the area, so bring your family and friends, leave your car at home, and come down for an evening of Olympic, but not Olympic, celebrations. See www.bright-light.ca for the program lineup.

Here is a lovely video that I think I will use in a future art project too! I am not sure if it is from Christina, or her brother. Either way, I can't wait to play with it.

Today was an exciting day.

Some of you may have noticed from my tweets that I spent this afternoon in the gallery with Nathan, my back-end programmer (I LOVE having a back-end programmer, by the way, mostly because I love saying it) and Jeffrey. This is the first time that Nathan and Jeffrey have met, and that was a conscious decision on my part, only because I am possessive, and indeed, I found myself reminding Jeffrey that I found Nathan first! Nathan is an extraordinary team member, both in my art practice and in my money-making endeavours. We met almost a year ago through my lovely neighbour, and we have been happily collaborating on projects ever since. His problem solving skills are remarkable and he is really reliable (more so than the artist-come-techs that I have been used to dealing with, no offense intended). Through our projects, I have become comfortable in taking on tons of work that I have no idea can be accomplished, and when I bring the problem to Nathan, he always finds a brilliant solution where I don't have to compromise, and that is just great as far as I am concerned. In fact, I have been so spoiled, that I don't even worry about technical aspects anymore. I think I am in love.

So back to the gallery. As mentioned in Tuesday's post, the part of the software that performed the function of taking the video clips out of my email inbox and opening them was up and running. Today we tested the section of code that functions to slot the open video into a lineup which feeds to the player, whilst hooked up to a projector. Of course there were a few glitches, mostly because the mac we will be installing runs on 10.4 and Nathan was programming on 10.5. But with a little tweeking, the program is officially up and running. Next Nathan will work out the line-up parameters and the moderation component. He says this will take only about 4 hours and we should have the whole thing ready to test in a few days. I need to take pictures, I just realized hmmmm...

I am going to try to share another video with you. Fingers crossed!

This is a video taken in Stratford, Ontario, a place I adore mostly because it brings back wonderful memories of a time when I worked at the Stratford Theatre as a Jewelry Designer....ahhhh Stratford...lazy weekends...hobbies...dinner parties...killer parties...rooftop garden growing tomatoes...with good people...sigh...Oh ya, this video was submitted by Michaela McMahon, who skillfully demonstrates panning.

I got -16 on a Georgia Straight comment I made earlier today

Okay, I want to address a common problem with participatory art practices. On the one hand, if an artist would like to really get a cross section of participants, s/he pretty much has to leave the academy behind, otherwise, through the use of critical and intimidating language, that artist may find s/he has inadvertently cut her/his audience and is now preaching to the converted. On the other hand, an artist can build a project that asks certain questions, while proposing that project with neutralized language. Everyone will inevitably make their own meaning in the end, but what that meaning is, will only reveal itself in the moment of engagement.

By no means am I saying that an artist, or a person in general, can't be critical. I firmly believe that critical people are the most positive people on the planet because they are hopeful for a better situation. They are intent on improving the status quo.

What the IOC and VANOC are asking the viewer to do is to experience the games and celebratory events in a very particular way. One that maintains the "official" visual packaging of the Olympics and Vancouver as a city.

What I am asking viewers to do is to consider what aspects of the games and celebratory events they think is important to engage with, and to present for others to see. My projection will be unedited, excepting things considered offensive, and I get to decide what is considered offensive, the clips will remain exactly as they are sent to me. So that takes care of the viewers of the games, now there are the viewers on Cordova Street, the people who are watching what the viewers attending the games are watching. Then there are the viewers inside the Jeffrey Boone Gallery who are watching, through surveillance, the viewers on Cordova Street, watching souveillence from the viewers at the Olympics watching the Olympics.

So, while I'd like to conclude that the negative ratings came from angry little f**ks who didn't take the time to read about my project, I am left wondering: Are my expectations too idealistic? And what are the limitations of participatory practice anyway.

Here is the link of the article that I responded to, with all the ensuing comments.

http://straight.com/article-280338/vancouver/antiolympic-paintings-appear-where-beatty-street-murals-once-dispalyed

Okay, I realize that the above is not a real link, but again, Blogspot is letting me down...


p.s. I had some trouble uploading my video on the last post, so either you saw a video that didn't match my clever description, or you didn't find one at all. For my lack of technical finesse, I apologize. I find it extremely hysterical that I insist on using technology in so many of my projects, hopefully you will too.

Phase one of the software building is complete and tested!

Yesterday, I had a fabulous meeting with my most excellent programmer, Nathan Dickerson. He demonstrated the section of HTML code that he has been writing for me. It's action is to automatically take the video files that are emailed to me (by you) out of my inbox and open them. The test for this section of code went off without a glitch and the the next section will place the clip into a line up that will open in a video player. The completed software is scheduled to be tested with the projector this Saturday. Stay tuned!

The video submissions continue to flow in, thanks so much! It amazes me how much more information is offered up with every new perspective. And what has really come to my attention is how important the sound is in giving the visuals meaning. This observation has sent me furiously searching for cheap ways to project the sound, so much to do, so little time!

And to return to my ongoing conversation regarding videography, please see Wade Fitzgerald's climax submission from Newfoundland.

"Scenography"

Scenography is the practice of making theatre including sets, costumes and texts from a theoretical and practical point of view. Scenographers work from the premise of a space that is constructed, updated, transformed and filled. The role of the scenographer is analogous to that of the dramaturg.

The word "scenography" is of Greek origin, coming from the words "skini" meaning "stage" and "grapho", meaning "to write" or "to describe". So the actual meaning of the word is "to describe something on stage". More recently, the word is also used for museography, the art of designing museum and exhibition sets.

It really only seems fitting that I use Wikipedia as reference, non?

As indicated in my previous post, please see the below example of a "scenographic" videography approach submitted by Kat Piraino, showing the celebration tent in Victoria on Day 1 of the Torch Relay:

Inspired By a Blog Comment

I have been thinking lately about the ways that people take video. Surveying the submissions thus far, there are a few distinct approaches that are clearly definable, and for which I have taken the liberty to name by appropriating film jargon: "the climax", "character development" and "scenography". They are all pretty much self-explanatory; the climax refers to the passing-of-the-torch-moment, character development is the following of one particular torch bearer, either through camera panning, or the jiggly-running-next-to-the-torch-bearer technique. Scenography documents the scene, whether it be the tension build-up, the crowd warmer-uppers, the protesters, the crowd dispersal, the secondary players, a.k.a.,  and the periphery players --those setting up, organizers or, as they say in the theatre, those who strike (take everything down). To illustrate the different genres of torch relay videography, over the next few days, I will post a few clips from the submissions for your viewing pleasure, and to encourage participation, as I am sure you will find a technique, or clip that you have already taken, that will match the examples in technical rigour and artistic merit ;-)

Thanks for reading, and keep the clips coming!