Last night, the Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA’s) announced their 2010 Nominees!
The CNMAs are the country’s only nationwide competition that clebrates the accomplishments of Canada’s most successful digital media companies. Now in its 10th year, the Canadian New Media Awards are a part of nextMEDIA Toronto, Canada’s leading forum for the convergence of all forms of digital media, taking place November 29th & 30th, 2010 at the Design Exchange in Toronto. The CNMA gala ceremony will be held December 1, 2010, on the Trading Floor of the Design Exchange. The event is a four-part affair comprised of a pre-awards showcase, cocktail reception, awards ceremony and the much-anticipated after-party.
“We received more entries than any other year from almost every province in Canada, and we’re thrilled to be recognizing such a diverse range of companies and individuals. Every year the bar is raised with innovative creativity, entrepreneurship, and pioneering technology.”
- Jory Groberman, Executive Director of nextMEDIA
I’m crossing my fingers for CFC Media Lab Alumnae, Victoria Ha (Stitch Media) for Producer of the Year!
On Thursday, September 29, 2010, CFC Media Lab launched the prototypes created by Residents from the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 sessions of the TELUS Interactive Art & Entertainment Program.
On Saturday, October 2, 2010, these prototypes were exhibited for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 at InterAccess Gallery.
CFC Media Lab Presents: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
A night of "Exploratory Play"...
"Exploratory Play"... IN 3D!
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 Exhibit: Zone C #19
Neighbourhoodie, Created By: Rose Bianchini, Kathleen Climie, David McCallum
Unit N-O14, Created By: Camille Betts, Justin Ferrato
DruMeBa, Created By: Dee Balkissoon, Cathy Chen, Orla Garriques, Conor Holler
Voicings, Created By: Dawn Buie, Liz Gallo, David Goorevitch
I Should Be Dreaming of Butterflies, Created By: Sharon Switzer, Featured Alumni Artist
A good-lookin' crowd being addressed by our fearless leaders...
Slawko Klymkiw, CFC Executive Director
Ana Serrano, CFC Media Lab Director
Jacqueline Nuwame, CFC Media Lab Senior Training Programs Manager
And what party is a party without decadent food!
A great big THANK YOU to everyone who made the night such a success!
I Should Be Dreaming of Butterflies – By: Sharon Switzer Voicings - By: Dawn Buie, Liz Gallo, David Goorevitch DruMeBa – By: Dee Balkissoon, Cathy Chen, Orla Garriques, Conor Holler Neighbourhoodie -By: Rose Bianchini, Kathleen Climie, David McCallum Unit N-O14 - By: Camille Betts, Justin Ferrato
nextMEDIA+Banff2010 will be chock-full of inspiring conversations and exciting keynotes!
Still trying to decide when to be where and where to be when? Check out the CFC Media Lab’s top picks!
This is a reminder for the CFC Media Lab’s Inaugural Vanguard Party @ Hot Docs celebrating 2010 Honoree: Pop Sandbox with their release of KENK, a 304-page journalistic comic book in bookstores this May. The entire creative team will be on hand to celebrate the release and do a special short presentation as well as display original artwork, animation and more.
WHEN: Thurs. May 6, 7pm ‘til late
WHERE: Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen St W)
ADMISSION: Free!
Presented by Pop Sandbox, TCAF, Hot Docs, The CFC Media Lab, TCHAD Magazine, NOW Magazine & Steam Whistle. KENK includes a robust interactive on-line component produced with the support of the CFC Media Lab and an animated film treatment in development.
Visit: www.kenk.ca.
The CFC Media Lab would like to invite you all to come out and support the CFC Media Lab’s Inaugural Vanguard Party @ Hot Docs celebrating 2010 Honoree: Pop Sandboxwith their release of KENK, a 304-page journalistic comic book in bookstores this May. The entire creative team will be on hand to celebrate the release and do a special short presentation as well as display original artwork, animation and more.
WHEN: Thurs. May 6, 7pm ‘til late
WHERE: Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen St W)
ADMISSION: Free!
Presented by Pop Sandbox, TCAF, Hot Docs, The CFC Media Lab, TCHAD Magazine, NOW Magazine & Steam Whistle. KENK includes a robust interactive on-line component produced with the support of the CFC Media Lab and an animated film treatment in development.
Visit: www.kenk.ca.
The CFC Media Lab in partnership with the Toronto Free Gallery is excited about presenting ‘together you and i are like a thousand languages…’ and exhibit about love and technology. Curated by Siobhan O’Flynn and Anthea Foyer this exhibit also showcases CFC Media Lab Faculty – Matt & Susan Gorbet as well as work by Alumni James Milward, Jonathan Resnick and Trevor Shaikin, and Alumni Tom Kuo will be DJing on opening night. We would love to see you there!
together you and I are like a thousand languages….
Curated by Anthea Foyer & Siobhan O’Flynn
Presented by: Toronto Free Gallery in partnership with CFC Media Lab
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Opening Reception: Thursday, July 2nd 8pm to 1am
together you and i are like a thousand languages…
technology + art + love = ? leads us into the spaces that explore what it is to love and to express love, longing, lust. New innovations in technology both enhance communication and some argue isolate us further, yet in the midst of our crazy, complicated, busy lives we still create room for communicating love and lust, for touching and being touched, for being present and together. The emotions that make us so strongly human drive the need for our connection and mutual recognition and new forms can amplify old emotions in surprising ways.
This is a love story….
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Opening Night:
DJ TOM KUO & LEE LEE MISHI
MY DOKI DOKI
James Milward, Jonathan Resnick and Trevor Shaikin
who will be asking:
Can you feel the beating of your heart? When was the last time you felt it pound, or skip a beat? Was it from excitement? Fear? Attraction? Can we interact with people on a deeper level by tuning in to a whole new channel of body language?
Exhibition runs from – July 2nd to July 31st
Toronto Free Gallery
1277 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON M6H 1N7
416-913-0461
Hours: Wed-Fri. 11-5 and Saturday12-6
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ARTISTS | ARTWORKS
SMOKs |SMOKs, an XS Labs project by Joanna Berzowska, with Marcelo Coelho, Ali Gorji, Vahid Giahi, Hanna Söder, Sarah-Anne Fork, Shirley Kwok-Choon, Marguerite Bromley, and Shermine Sawalha.
SMOKs are a pair of electronically enhanced suits that act as an experimental platform for constructing individual and collective memories, for creating and nurturing social networks, and for personal communication and intimacy. By capturing physical memories, representing traces of human touch, recording and playing sounds, and by providing hiding places for physical mementoes, the SMOKS use fashion and our interactions through clothing to accumulate and display traces of physical memory in personal and playful ways. We are particularly concerned with the exploration of simple interactions that emphasize natural expressive qualities of electronic circuits and of the body, spawning modes of interaction that are not normally associated with computing technologies.
XS Labs research is funded by Heritage Canada, the Hexagram Research Institute in Montreal, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, and Concordia University.
FROM ME TO YOU | Matt Gorbet > Susan Gorbet > Rob Gorbet
This retro-styled interactive work playfully explores the power of words
in a relationship, where individual characters are significant. From the
lyrical to the absurd, unexpected changes evoke suddenly powerful
imagery. The piece explores the ephemerality of our emotions as well as
the internal process of meaning-making that defines our evolving
relationships to the people we L-O-V-E.
(with custom cabinetry by Rex Lingwood)
WONDER BIKES | David McCallum
Bikes are, for many North Americans, a forgotten pleasure. They remind us of times when life was filled with a little more wonder. Remember being in a gang of bike-riding children when our spokes tinkled from rattling decorations and our bicycle frames buzzed with playing cards?
The Wonder Bikes turn riders into unwitting interventionists, unwitting sound artists, and unwitting playmates. The bikes are equipped with generators and lo-fi sound circuits, each rider controlling their companions’ sound with electronically modified bike bells. Collaboratively, they are pedal-powered lo-fi screaming machines.
MAPPING NATURAL AND UNNATURAL DISASTERS | The Notary Public (Erika Hennebury and Laura Nanni)
The Notary Public invite audiences to explore the secret emotional topography of our city. Our approach to psychogeography takes, from the participating viewers, a sampling of fragile and often hilarious incidents and physically imprints them on a map of the city where we are; highlighting a complex web of human interactions. Negotiating with a projected image, audiences are invited to physcially deposit their own personal memories and interactions on a living landscape of Toronto using a legend that indicates sites of mishap, phenomenas of love and landmarks of our everyday lives to create a new urban cartography.
Together You and I Are Like A Thousand Languages will feature both a performance/ installation version of this project on opening, and an ongoing installation that will build in the gallery over the course of the exhibition.
The Notary Public is a creative collaboration between interdisciplinary artist Laura Nanni and theatre artist/producer Erika Hennebury. The collaboration began in 2006 with Hub 14’s Pick 7 artist lecture/performance series. Laura and Erika collaborated on their first performance work for Pick 7 experimenting with psychogeography and public participatory performance/installation. Since Pick 7 The Notary Public have been engaged in series of public performance events under the banner: Mapping Natural and Unnatural Disasters. Mapping Natural and Unnatural Disasters has been presented in Toronto at Hub 14, as part of Pick 7, at the Manifesto Cabaret Series and as part of the Theatre Centre’s Block In One Spot.
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU… | Anthea Foyer > Rob King
I love it when you… sneak glances at me, get mustard all over your chin when you eat your favorite sloppy cheeseburger, let me dream of possibilities, when you read to me in bed, when you come to visit no matter how sick I am, remember to pick up your socks, are kind to my crazy aunt, etc.
Call in and let them know how you feel.
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Toronto Free Gallery is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the Trillium Foundation
init was lovely, interesting, engaging etc… but don’t just take my word for it:
Live cinema, epic theatre
I’ve meaning to get this blog written for a week, but my real job kept getting in the way. Last weekend I spend about 14 hours consuming art, or rather being consumed by it. I’m still blathering about the experience to whoever will listen, sounding like a crazy person. It’s hard to convey. Last Saturday night I went to a “live cinema” party in a warehouse down near the waterfront. Called Init—”an immersive audio visual experience”— was like the digital era’s version of a ’60s happening. It began outdoors with fire dancers twirling ropes of flame to a vast samba band. Then, in the warehouse, VJs at computer consoles live-mixed a wild array of video, projected around the white cinder-block walls from all angles, while a DJ laid down a heavy pulse of house music. Like the audio, the visuals were looped and overlaid in trance-like beats, images morphing in and out of each other in rhythmic respiration. But it wasn’t a blitz of fast-cutting. These were movies you could dance to, or dream to, and people did, until 4 a.m. The event was not part of Luminato, but it should have been.
The next day, Sunday, I spent almost nine hours immersed in Robert Lepage’s marathon play, Lipsynch, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which was part of Luminato. You tell people you’ve just spent nine hours watching a play conducted in four languages (with projected sur-titles) and they think you’ve undergone an endurance test, made a heroic sacrifice for art. On the contrary. There was no suffering. The time flew by. It was like taking your brain on a luxurious cruise. Or It spending the day in an art spa, basking in mind massages and sensory wraps. Maybe it was high art but the ascent was effortless: because Lepage did all the work for you, it was experienced as pure entertainment. The intermissions were generous, and you’d chat with friends, fellow travellers, while watching the strange tent city of Woofstock—a dog festival on Front St.—through the theatre’s glass front.
When the play was over, I came out of the theatre exhilarated and refreshed, I realized I’d been treated to one of most breathtaking theatrical events I’ve ever witnessed. I use the word “theatrical” with some hesitation, because it transcended theatre. With natural acting, miraculous staging, operatic arias and a soap-opera plot you could get lost in, Lipsynch was like watching TV or film in the flesh.
It was another kind of live cinema—and not just because Lepage used video projections. The staging had the epic complexity of a movie set that was constantly being erected and broken down. For some scenes it actually was a film set—as we watched the shooting of a movie that fictionalized the story that had just unfolded. Throughout the play, scenes cut and dissolved in and out of each other with cinematic sleight of hand. The transformations were executed with a modular triptych of large, rolling rectangular panels—like 3D movie screens deep enough to serve as rooms with live actors. These epic yet elegant constructions must have been converted into some 50 or 60 sets. A cross-section of a passenger jet stretched the width of the stage. We’d watch a scene unfold in a bookstore, not knowing To see them materialize out of each other was like seeing the mechanics of editing animated on a macroscopic scale. You watch characters having a series of conversations a bookstore, from outside the window, then Lepage turns the scene inside-out, and rolls the same scene from inside the store. One minute you’re in a living room, listening to the BBC, then you’re whisked down the rabbit hole into the BBC studio itself, and then into the soap-opera life of the announcer. And so on . . .
Despite the visual virtuosity, Lipsynch was really about sound. About voice. One of the central characters is an Austrian opera singer played by American soprano Rebecca Blankenship. And some of the key sequences involved a dubbing studio, created with utter realism, where actors synched dialogue to scenes projected on film. So three dimensions were being played out simultaneously on stage—the scene on film, the actor overdubbing the dialogue, and the characters in the control booth, who talk about him without him hearing. And did I mention that this play was often hysterically funny? Lepage may be one of theatre’s most avant-garde innovators, but he’s not too above building a farcical climax out of an extended fart gag. I won’t even begin to describe the plot, which was more expansive than Babel, or list the actors. This is not a review. I’m happy to say I was not on assignment last Sunday. I paid for the pair of $100 tickets out of my own pocket, and it was worth every dime.
The previous night’s semi-underground warehouse rave of live cinema was also an off-duty affair, and worth the $20 that bought me a wristband. The VJs included noted Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler (Gambling, Gods and LSD), German live cinema guru FaLk—and Brian T. Moore, the local live cinema enthusiast who organized the event. There was also a remarkable dance performance by Andrea Nann and two male partners (Brendan Wyatt and Yuichiro Inoue), a noir ménage-a-trois that was executed outside, on a dimly lit loading dock of the warehouse. That afternoon, just down the street at the Young Centre, I’d seen Andrea perform three of her Divination Duets with Wyatt. My favorite was Insomnia, which involved the two of them in pajamas, as a couple in bed, him asleep, her awake and trying to get comfortable under his dead weight as they half-rolled, half wrestled around the floor in contortions of unconscious desire and unvoiced frustration.
Sometimes the best movies are found outside the cinema.
Thursday, March 19 7-9pm MiST Theatre, CCT Building, University of Toronto Mississauga
a FREE bus departs from The Gladstone Hotel at 630pm returning at 930pm
ARTIST BIOS
SAMPRADAYA
Sampradaya Dance Creations is at the forefront of South Asian dance in Canada. It is a dynamic Canadian dance company, internationally recognized for forging new paradigms in Canada’s dance landscape. The company was founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Lata Pada, internationally acclaimed for her excellence in bharatanatyam, a traditional form of South Indian dance. Pada is the creative force behind the company and has carved out a unique niche for its work that spans a stunning range of solo and ensemble choreography. Sampradaya’s wide range of activities includes local performances, international touring, cross-cultural partnerships, and extensive education and outreach activities.
QUADRASONIC
The musical contribution for the workshop and festival will be created by Quadrasonic, a collaborative DJ crew that creates a visceral experience of movement and projected images. Founded by Alvaro Castellanos, Quadrasonic describes itself as producing “a way of transforming the art of deejaying.” This innovative act takes shape as four DJs simultaneously work on eight turntables, an idea that transforms turntable ingenuity into an art form. Though soulful house music is the lingua franca of the men at the decks, the sets incorporate everything from salsa to funk to old-school disco. Originally from El Salvador, three brothers are at the core of Quadrasonic; Ulysses, Alvaro and Boris Castellanos.
FAISAL ANWAR
Faisal Anwar is a digital media artist living in Toronto with diverse backgrounds in theatre, film, media, interactive art and graphic design. He is currently the director of an interactive art and design studio call DGDIP and is working as a new media director at Mammalian Diving Reflex. Anwar’s art practice explores fictional, sociopolitical and edutainment narratives. Anway is interested in creating multiple layers participatory experiences and challenges the conventions of viewing art and environment. His projects often bring together art and technology in an odd configuration to explore human perceptions towards architectural space, surveillance and social interactivity in modern urban cultures. He has shown and performed nationally and internationally.
Anwar is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Habitat-LAB, Interactive Arts and Entertainment Program 2004, Anwar did his Bachelors in graphic design from the National College of Arts Pakistan 1996, he is one of the pioneers of The Puppeteers theatre group in Pakistan and worked on many performances addressing social awareness in Pakistan. Faisal currently volunteers on the Programming Committee of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) and teaches part time at Centennial College.
STIR is presented by Blackwood Gallery
www.blackwoodgallery.ca
and is the official opening event for U of T Celebration of the Arts www.arts.utoronto.ca
Host: BLACKWOOD GALLERY
Type: Music/Arts – Performance
Network: Global
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: MiST Theatre, CCT Building, U of T Mississauga
Street: 3359 Mississauga Rd
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: On Thursday, September 29, 2010, CFC Media Lab launched the prototypes created by Residents from the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 sessions of the TELUS Interactive Art & Entertainment Program. On Saturday, October 2, 2010, these prototypes were exhibited for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 at InterAccess Gallery. A great big THANK YOU to [...]
THANK YOU to everyone who came out and made last night’s VIP Launch such a success! Make sure InterAccess Gallery (9 Ossington Ave.) is a stop on your route for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010! Here is a preview of what’s there to explore! I Should Be Dreaming of Butterflies – By: Sharon Switzer Voicings – [...]
nextMEDIA+Banff2010 will be chock-full of inspiring conversations and exciting keynotes! Still trying to decide when to be where and where to be when? Check out the CFC Media Lab’s top picks! SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010 ROOKIES IN THE ROCKIES WHEN: 3-4pm Location: Sir Edward Beatty In Partnership with: Calgary Economic Development To kick-off the Banff [...]
This is a reminder for the CFC Media Lab’s Inaugural Vanguard Party @ Hot Docs celebrating 2010 Honoree: Pop Sandbox with their release of KENK, a 304-page journalistic comic book in bookstores this May. The entire creative team will be on hand to celebrate the release and do a special short presentation as well as [...]
The CFC Media Lab would like to invite you all to come out and support the CFC Media Lab’s Inaugural Vanguard Party @ Hot Docs celebrating 2010 Honoree: Pop Sandbox with their release of KENK, a 304-page journalistic comic book in bookstores this May. The entire creative team will be on hand to celebrate the [...]
The CFC Media Lab in partnership with the Toronto Free Gallery is excited about presenting ‘together you and i are like a thousand languages…’ and exhibit about love and technology. Curated by Siobhan O’Flynn and Anthea Foyer this exhibit also showcases CFC Media Lab Faculty – Matt & Susan Gorbet as well as work by [...]
init was lovely, interesting, engaging etc… but don’t just take my word for it: Live cinema, epic theatre I’ve meaning to get this blog written for a week, but my real job kept getting in the way. Last weekend I spend about 14 hours consuming art, or rather being consumed by it. I’m still blathering [...]
Thursday, March 19 7-9pm MiST Theatre, CCT Building, University of Toronto Mississauga a FREE bus departs from The Gladstone Hotel at 630pm returning at 930pm ARTIST BIOS SAMPRADAYA Sampradaya Dance Creations is at the forefront of South Asian dance in Canada. It is a dynamic Canadian dance company, internationally recognized for forging new paradigms in [...]
RT @ajenkins: Thx to @cfcmedialab for having me on the industry panel 4 the OCADU DFI - CFC Prototyping Course. Lots of fun. Looking forwar… 6 days ago
