The other day, someone emailed me to say, "Hey, looks like you're in Vancouver, hope you're enjoying it!"
Sadly or happily, I am not in Vancouver, just enjoying various net manifestations of it. Here's two items on that theme that caught my eye today.
1) On the sad Vancouver front: Vancouver Olympics one of most challenging ever for journalists from J-source.ca. This blog post looks at what happens when media "sponsor" an event--Are they obliged to be positive about it? How do readers think the influence is working? Writes BC Civil Liberties Association Director David Eby,
As ugly as it is out there for a journalist who wants to write critical stories [about the Games], what is less apparent is that the current environment in Vancouver is also bad news for those who want to write an honest to goodness positive story about the Games. Nobody will believe them.
It’s hard to blame the public for being skeptical about anything published by the corporate entities that control all of our local news but also have a major business stake in the Games. Even if, as it often is, the story published is of the highest quality either positive or negative, our journalists have been forced to become the story, and as a result, they have had to give up their cherished observer status.
More than anything, journalists should rue this loss.
One wonders how these types of ethical questions might relate to media sponsoring art events... it ain't a crime, and is far less dramatic, but questions of credibility still often arise for the reader, perhaps?
2) On the happy Vancouver front: If only there were gold medals for pin collecting from the Tacoma News-Tribune. This article offers a fascinating/absurd look into a truly obscure collecting subculture--almost as obscure as art!?--the "pinheads". As staff writer Craig Hill reports,
Today, pin collecting is such a popular part of the games that Vancouver2010.com sells more than 300 types of pins and even a bag designed for carrying them.
Media, sponsors and even activist groups promote their organizations by circulating pins at the games.
In Vancouver, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will distribute a pin depicting the games’ mascot bludgeoning a seal. The group hopes to encourage Olympic organizers to take a stance against Canada’s sealing industry.
The epicenter of pin collecting in Vancouver is a large trading zone packed with licensed sellers and areas where collectors can wheel and deal. Regardless of whether you’re interested in pins, [Tacoma pin collector Greg] Murphy says, it’s worth dropping by to take in the spectacle.
“It is a frenzy,” he said. “You might not expect it if you haven’t seen it before, but it will blow you away.”
Murphy says it’s not uncommon for him to be surrounded by so many people that he can’t move.
“I come out of their sweating like a competitor in the Olympics,” he said.
Pin collectors are easy to spot at the winter games. They typically wear a scarf covered with pins. Murphy puts up to 300 on his.
“It’s so heavy it gives me a headache,” said Murphy’s girlfriend, Cindy Berg.
...
The hobby isn’t all fun and games. It has a dark side.
“I’ve seen fistfights when a couple people want the same pin,” Murphy said.
He was nearly arrested at the 2004 Summer Games in Greece when he was accused of selling pins without a permit. He’s also had pins stolen off his scarf. Some people deal in counterfeit pins.
A 40-year-old Vancouver trader agreed to talk to The News Tribune only if identified by his online pin-trading handle, Rabbit-Horse.
“There is massive gossip and drama in pin trading,” Rabbit-Horse said. “It’s worse than high school.”
Somehow I think it's the quotes in this story that are gold. Sweat! Fistfights! Worse than high school! Dark sides! Sore necks! Bludgeoned seal activism! Made my day, I tell you. And on top of that, it just makes me happy to think about pin-demonium. I have no clue why.
Image of the official Vancouver 2010 pin album from 2010VanFan
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Not in Vancouver, but Still Lovin' Vancouver Links
Monday, February 15, 2010
Olympic Flames: Vid of Isabelle Hayeur's Fire with Fire in Vancouver
Was looking at Vancouver writer Peter Darbyshire's Cancult.ca blog this morning and came across this great video of Isabelle Hayeur's Olympic installation, Fire with Fire:
The video was originally posted by Youtuber Kris Krug, and gives a great sense of how the installation works in person (prior to this, I had only seen stills and concept sketches). For more information about the work, which was commissioned by the Olympics but attempts to be critical about its impacts and intentions, visit Hayeur's website.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Online Olympiad - Best and Worst of Vancouver's Digital Culture Offerings
Earlier this week, I noted ways in which some artists were refusing to participate in cultural activities at the Vancouver Olympics.
However, another thing that's also kind of interesting about these Olympics is the way in which arts and culture have been put online for a wider Canadian and international audience to enjoy. (Apparently, it's the first time the Olympics has taken this tack.)
Today, the National Post published a condensed version of my picks and pans for the Games' web-art component. Full reviews are below. Happy clicking! (If only that was an Olympic sport, I'd be a medallist, I tell ya.)
1. Vectorial Elevation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
vectorialvancouver.net
Over the past 15 years, Montreal artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has won international acclaim for his wonderful interactive light installations. But while some of his artworks—like Pulse Front, the heartbeat-driven spotlights that lit up Luminato 2007—rely on bodily interaction, Lozano-Hemmer’s Vancouver Olympics artwork, called Vectorial Elevation, can be programmed by Internet users worldwide. At www.vectorialvancouver.net, everyone is invited to create a design for 20 high-powered spotlights arrayed around English Bay. And every night to February 24th, the site streams video of the spotlights, which shine each design into Vancity’s skies for 8 to 12 seconds. There’s just one snag—the Google Earth plugin needed to submit designs can be tricky. Nonetheless, Vectorial Elevation is a surprisingly lovely thing to view and to think about. As with all of Lozano-Hemmer’s art, individuals can make themselves visible in a different, expansive way, even if only for a few seconds. It’s also cute to see how participants dedicate their designs (“JJ in Vancouver for Theo,” for example) so that the project shines a light not only on individuals, but also on the importance of their relationships—things that loom large in personal life, but not always in public space.
2. CODE Screen
http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/cultural-festivals-and-events/code-connect-create-collaborate/code-screen-2010/
Taking a more traditional approach to the Internet as art venue is CODE Screen. (CODE is short for Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition.) Since it its September launch, CODE Screen has posted slideshow-style exhibitions of contemporary Canadian art every few weeks. Though its intentions—to promote Canadian art to international audiences—are worthy, CODE Screen’s results are often awkward and disappointing. First, the interface for viewing these “shows” (which can be downloaded to one’s desktop) takes some getting used to and never feels quite user-friendly enough. Second, many of these shows seem like mere sketches for bricks-and-mortar exhibitions—with all the art scaled to 1024 pixels (or similar) it can be really hard to understand artworks whose impact depends on physical space, like Kristi Malakoff’s 5-centimetre Fairy Ring and Brandon Vickerd’s 18-metre Northern Satellite. Videos are represented by still images, which only make sense to viewers who’ve seen related screenings. Granted, there are some revelations here—lesser-known works by famous Canuck artists, for instance, or particularly successful sequencing efforts in the exhibits “Group Show,” “Corporatization,” “Test Pattern,” and “When the Night Comes.” But more work is needed to truly rival a real-space gallery experience.
3. HorizonZero: Bridge
www.horizonzero.ca
Since 2002, the online journal HorizonZero has aimed to explore the changes our digital realm has wrought. Nowadays, in iPhone-besotted 2010, HorizonZero’s take on the idea of “new media” (which is no longer all that new, frankly) can seem a bit quaint. Nonetheless, HorizonZero’s special bridge-themed edition, published in conjunction with the Cultural Olympiad, has some fun surprises. Just ignore the tired, Eraserhead-era drone and click through to Augmented Bridge, Champagne Valentine and Aaron Myers’ playful web project. The setup’s a bit of a hurdle, including some application downloading. But once everything’s installed, you can hold an animated-bridge-cum-virtual-Slinky in your hands, at least via webcam. Not perfect, but nifty. (Bridge Jumping by Mere Phantoms, which provides paper-model blueprints for five iconic Canuck bridges, is less doable and less impressive—but still kinda sweet.)
Concept sketch of Rafael Lozano Hemmer's Vectorial Elevation from Canadianart.ca
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Expo 86 Meets Olympics 2010: Q&A on Jeremy Shaw's Vancouver Poster Projects
When I was in grade 7 in ye olde Calgary, Alberta, our class took a one-day field trip to Expo 86 in Vancouver. In retrospect, it sounds like a migraine waiting to happen: 70 12- and 13-year-olds up ultraearly for a flight, then running around in the rain and soggy plastic ponchos for 10 hours, then back on the plane for a flight home. (I really do not know how they talk parents into this stuff, I have to say.)
My main memories of Expo are of the Alberta pavilion, which featured toy dump trucks and styrofoam versions of tar sands pellets (I think) for the edumacation of the youngsters. I did not really notice much else at all, or at least not much that sticks in my memory.
So what was that big world-class event all about anyway? What does it teach us about others of its kind? These are the types of memories and questions artist Jeremy Shaw was trying to raise when he developed a yearlong Expo-86-themed public-art poster project for Vancouver's downtown. My Q&A with him, as well as some install shots, are in today's National Post. Here's an excerpt:
Q It's 2010 ... why do a poster project on Expo 86?
A It connects to the Olympics, and wanting to recognize that there was another major global event in Vancouver 24 years ago. That's actually a pretty short time [in the] past, but sometimes it seems there's very little that remains of it. The point is also to make you do a double take, to revive those memories and bring them into the discussion. Like, what will Vancouver be like 24 years on from the Olympics? I wanted to prompt conversations on those kinds of history-and-future issues.
Q How did it begin?
A Initially, I was photographing a sort of legendary piece of architecture from Expo -- the McBarge, a floating McDonald's restaurant. There was a debate about what was to become of it after the fair; now it's just moored in Burrard Inlet. The original poster idea was just a photo of that, but it turned into a broader idea to remind the public of this other major-event moment.
BTW, I went to find images of that McBarge online, and it is not a pretty sight:
Yes, the Expo 86 logos and robot mascots are actually a much prettier choice, I'd say. But you can check it out for yourself: a good assortment of additional Shaw-poster installation shots are available on the website of Presentation House Gallery, which coproduced the project. And the project will run through the Olympics to March 1, with some of the posters hanging on hoardings near the Olympic Village.
