Deux artistes acadiens en Floride (2015)

Acadie Nouvelle
25 février 2015

AnthropoScene workshop (2015)

AnthropoScene – color keying workshop
Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas, University of Miami, FL – March 2015

MOVING IN THE LANDSCAPE: VISIBLE / INVISIBLE
This exercise in visual composition offers opportunities to discuss evidence of human passage in the natural landscape. During the editing process, each person will have access to the workshop footage. This will enable Students to further collaborate on the end result, or to compose individual works. Through voiceover, text over, and added music or sound compositions, the finished works will potentially convey a variety of messages related to the AnthropoScene Conference objectives.

The group will set up a tripod and camera in a fixed position facing a lush green area. (1) An establishing view of the scene will be recorded. (2) Volunteer(s) wearing the blue or white suit(s) will stand still in the green area. Once an image of the person(s) is recorded, recording will continue and the person(s) will move out of position. Volunteers will be encouraged to try out various ways of moving slowly through the scene.

In the editing process, the footage will be layered and color keying will be used to minimize the visibility of the figure(s). The desired effect in this DIY exercise will be an imperfect removal of the figure. (i.e. the keying effect sometimes leaves edge traces and this will reveal the movement of the figure.) Overall, the finished footage should reveal the outline of a (nearly invisible) figure moving in the landscape. During the editing process, Students will make decisions on what the final work will actually convey to the viewer.

AnthropoScene Schedule (2015)

Exhibition March 4 – 24
CAS Gallery. 1210 Stanford Drive. Coral Gables, FL

Panel Discussion March 4 9am-12pm
Ungar Building 230 C/D. 1365 Memorial Drive

Lunch/Gallery Tour March 4 12:30-1:30 pm
CAS Gallery. 1210 Stanford Drive. Coral Gables, FL

Workshops March 4 2-5 pm
CAS Gallery. 1210 Stanford Drive. Coral Gables, FL

Opening Reception March 4 5:30-7:30 pm
CAS Gallery. 1210 Stanford Drive. Coral Gables, FL

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
MARCH 4

PANEL DISCUSSION
UNGAR 230 C/D. 1365 MEMORIAL DRIVE. CORAL GABLES. FL
with artists
Daniel Dugas
Felice Grodin
Valerie LeBlanc
Lucinda Linderman
Deborah Mitchell
Skip Snow
Keith Waddington

8:30 am – 9:00 am Registration/Coffee Service
9:00 am – 9:15 am Welcome and plan for day: Gina Maranto and Keith Waddington
9:15-9:45 am Opening remarks: Skip Snow
9:45-10:00 Keith Waddington
10:00-10:30 Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas
10:30-10:45 Skip Snow
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-11:30 Deborah Mitchell
11:30-12:00 Discussion with all artists moderated by Felice Grodin and Lucinda Linderman

WORKSHOPS AND EXHIBITION OPENING
CAS GALLERY. 1210 STANFORD DRIVE. CORAL GABLES. FL
with artists
Daniel Dugas
Felice Grodin
Valerie LeBlanc
Lucinda Linderman
Susan Silas
Skip Snow
Keith Waddington

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Buffet Lunch and Tour
(Tour at 1 p.m.)
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm Concurrent workshop sessions
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm Opening reception: anthropoScene exhibition

anthropoScene is a semester-long exploration of this new era sponsored by the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy and the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Miami with participation by Artists in Residence in the Everglades.

Subtropics XXIII (2015)

Very excited to be part of this!

SUBTROPICS XXIII
SUBTROPICS XXIII MARATHON
SAT MAR 7 | 3PM (until it ends)
audiotheque marathon concert
924 lincoln road studio 201, miami beach

SUBTROPICS XXIII MARATHON
featuring AISLINN QUINN + BLACKSHIFTRED | ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ | CHEN-HUI JEN | DAN DICKINSON | DANIEL DUGAS + VALERIE LeBLANC | DAVID BRISKE | EDWARD BOBB + THE INERTIALS | ERIC GOTTLIEB | JACOB SUDOL | JORGE GOMEZ ABRANTE | KERRY WARE | LADONNA SMITH | LAWRENCE MOORE | LIZA SEIGIDO | PAULA MATTHUSEN | RENE BARGE | RANDY NUTT | ROBERT BLATT | and more …
SAT MAR 7 | 3PM (until it ends)

http://subtropics.org/2014/10/02/subtropics-xxiii-marathon/

Space at AUDIOTHEQUE is limited, please RSVP through Facebook

NSCAD TALKS (2015)

Transcripts of presentations given during Michael McCormack’s Class ‘The Ready Made Institution’ – Monday, Jan 19, 2015 at the A208 Theatre, Academy Building, Halifax, NS

Invisible / Visible
Valerie LeBlanc

Thank you all for being here this evening. We would like to thank the Media Arts Division of NSCAD University, Bruce Barber and Michael McCormack for inviting us today in the context of The Readymade Institution: Portable and Alternative Galleries. Special thanks to: Sarah Hicken, Enterprise Car Rental, Amanda Fauteux and Joanne Reynolds-Farmer, NSCAD.

In trying to define the broader category of what I do as an artist, working with the invisible and the visible probably covers it.

We are here to talk about the MediaPackBoard (MPB) but it is not all of what we do and we will talk about our current and ongoing collaboration: FLOW: BIG WATERS, Everglades project at the end of this presentation.

Amid other life activities and use of various artists’ media, I have been working with video for a long time. During my Foundation studies at NSCAD, Pat Kelly, one of my Instructors, had us work through a video exercise of ‘filling the screen.’ When I created MPB Was There Then, I was remembering back to what I hold in memory as the ‘heyday of conceptual art – when Andy Warhol was GOD’ – and I enjoyed reaching back to the ideas surrounding the image within an image otherwise known as the Droste effect.

And so, as I talk, I will move slightly back and forward in time. Although the MPB has been set up on a mannequin today, it is not yet purely a museum object as yet. Ten years of programming has included not only the playback of new works but active involvement with random audience/participants.

The MediaPackBoard had its public debut at NSCAD during Daniel’s Free Market Karaoke presentation (2005), in the Boardroom. Daniel presented and I tagged along, trying out the MPB on the trip. We also brought along and screened the Alberta Prairie Tales 7 film and video program.

A lot has already been said about the MPB so when I looked at points to bring today, I could not decide what to add to the discourse. Then I realized that which we must always remind ourselves of: THE NOW. I never brought anything HERE to YOU before, and then I got over my block.

The value of creation is commodifiable. It starts out with an idea, moves through a process and finds a place in the world. Some might say that the value of that creative power is known to the artist, and its aggregate value is arrived at when-and-after a work is taken out to the test market. Others might argue for the time factor, the process of permitting the creation to age like a fine wine or cheese. Meanwhile from the creation point of view, back at the studio, if the ideas do not get out, artists can become discouraged with working through all of the processes involved with problem solving; i.e. the how and the why that are needed to create a work, to complete a project.

I think that not getting the work ‘out’ might be what has happened when artists give up creating and move away from the art world. Arguably, it could be the result of individuals deciding that they will apply the problem solving skills honed in the art process to another field with more immediate payback.

Because it can sometimes take a while for the world to catch up with the wonder of your creations, you might be considering the portable gallery option; of taking ideas out to find the audience that is ready for what you can bring to them. And that relates to cultural change, to expanding the parameters and expectations of works that are not of the same stuff as those commodities previously recognized as having value.

In fact, value itself is undergoing new definitions in contemporary culture. While monetary value is still the bottom line, artists are finding that there is interest in their works that fall outside of the lines imposed by traditional gallery structures.

MPB Earth was a hands on science experiment: The Angle of Incidence is Equal to the Angle of Reflection, Calgary, 2008. A spy-cam was attached to a helium balloon. Audience / Participants could direct the gaze of the camera using a mirror and by adjusting the ‘kite strings’. The image picked up by the eye of the camera was projected onto the MPB monitor.

Swedish Director Roy Anderson, in the fortuneteller scene, Songs from the Second Floor, offers a poignant and rather timeless look at the demands of world based politics and economies. There can be multiple interpretations of any movie scene and here is one: Those in charge of the economy and future survival are assembled around a boardroom table in the presence of a fortuneteller. Suddenly, they all notice that the building next door is moving, panicking, they rush out of the room; they bail out. The fortuneteller calmly steps away from her crystal ball, moving slowly toward the window and the shifting view. We could interpret that those gathered around the table were not comfortable with the idea of change, of shifting baselines. Conversely, we could think that the fortuneteller, if a gypsy, or an immigrant was used to embracing change, and the need to move. Staying anchored while moving, changing, growing, maybe that has always been the challenge of living, and of working in the arts.

In the face of events well covered in the media, it seems that going anywhere is becoming more and more difficult. I am imagining that each of you who is taking Michael’s course, has ideas for putting your work out there, for finding your audience, and having your ideas gain more visibility. Within that line of thought, we must all ask ourselves, ‘what is the place of portable and alternative galleries / public performances in today’s world culture?’. This was a question that needed to be addressed in 2005 when first stepping out with the MediaPackBoard. For sure, it is more pressing now.

I had moved into a twin tower in Calgary’s downtown core in the fall of 2000. Taking a camera out on the street changed immediately after 911. ‘I’ as the ‘eye’ behind the camera became a more self-conscious act. After that, the ease or lack of ease and comfort level at both ends of the lens vacillated, as everyone had to become alternately more comfortable and / or more vigilant of recorded scenes.

The 28th G8 Summit was held in Kananaskis, Alberta, June 26-27, 2002.

Living in full view of the Rockies, I saw the military training exercises and other preparations carried out in advance of that world event. Aside from news coverage, I witnessed the comings and goings, and the hovering of military helicopters. It was reminiscent of DirectorJohn Badham’s 1983 Blue Thunder, a movie that pre-told the future of today’s surveillance monitoring.

On Sunday June 23rd, I stepped out to gather some city scenes for the video I was working on. Downtown Calgary on Sundays, at that time, could be pretty quiet. In fact, the streets were deserted and that was no surprise. On that day however, I crossed the street and a police car sped out from around the block, screamed toward me and stopped in the middle of the crosswalk. As I spoke with the driver, answering questions of who I was and where I was going with the camera, the co-pilot searched through the onboard computer. And that was new for me as a videographer. Later, I thought about it and realized that by way of completing an exercise in readiness, anyone with a camera would probably have been stopped on that day. At the time, as a video artist out with a consumer grade camera, it was a first. And so it continues; after each destructive incident, there is some softening of acceptance followed by more stringent agendas. We have to be careful not only to react but to also move proactively in the landscape. It can be a somewhat difficult task.

The idea of creating a portable gallery or a device to get out and work with public audiences relates to transforming creative energies to satisfy the instinct to be visible, for our work to be seen, experienced, and eventually judged by an expanded peer group. While the actual street level meeting might not last longer than the face-to-face encounter, there is the chance that those people who become involved an whatever level they desire will be affected by the experience, and somehow changed. At the very least, the happening has a chance of standing out in memory more than the flow of daily routines. Or as otherwise stated by Nicolas Bourriaud in his 1998 Relational Aesthetics, “It seems more pressing to invent possible relations with our neighbors in the present than to bet on happier tomorrows.”[1]

The MPB was put together to embrace the adventure of showing up to perform unexpectedly, sometimes within another event, and to screen works. While performing and inviting audience participation, being able to screen works was an immediate payback. Sometimes people hung around or followed the MPB carrier to experience the videos. MPB CURATES 2007 involved screening the work of artists: Amalie Atkins, Terry Billings, Linda Rae Dornan, Jim Goertz and Jeffrey John Jackson. The works were screened on the streets, on four separate occasions in Calgary, Edmonton and Drumheller, Alberta, with Guest Carriers interacting with public audiences.

In 2012, Daniel and I brought the MPB Street / Screen Encounter to Eyelevel Gallery’s World Portable Gallery Convention here in Halifax. At that time, Michael was the Director of Eye Level. For that adventure, we went fishing, offering others the chance to direct the gaze of a spy-cam. That was when we first met Michael and started to exchange ideas on portables.

The MPB Curates 2007 booklet was published in (2008) and in 2014, the MPB-X – a critical discourse surrounding ideas of portability in art and art dissemination was launched to celebrate 10 years of MPB. It is available free online. Essays are by: Michael McCormack, Renato Vitic, Daniel H Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc, with a foreword by Diana Sherlock.

MPB-X
MPB History
MPB CURATES 2007

I would like to pass along a few thoughts for consideration in setting out to create a portable and / or alternative gallery:

• Keep it simple. This seems to become easier with each technological breakthrough that becomes accessible to artists as consumers.

• Use mass media tools to give your audience more than they get through mass media.

• Treat your audience on an equal level. Exercises in frustrating an already over traumatized audience should be thrown out, maintain an attitude of offering your projects in the spirit of playful generosity.

• Keep in mind that some work is more complex and cannot be seen on the street.

• Be as clear as possible of what you hope to accomplish through your portable and alternative presentations – and be ready to address all of the questions.

Valerie LeBlanc
Halifax, Jan 19, 2014

[1]Bourriaud, Nicolas, Relational Aesthetics (Dijon: Les presses du reel, 2002), 45. Translated by Simon Pleasance & Fronza Woods with the participation of Mathieu Copeland.

Existing, Being Seen and Taking Risks
Daniel H Dugas

The need to show your work, of setting up structures, of going out there and creating something new is a very dangerous thing to do, whether it is a gallery in a car, in a coat, in a fridge, in a wall, in a pocket, even a wallet; independence means that there is no safety net. It means that you are on your own, that there are no curatorial teams, no museum funding, that there might not be anybody to back you up. But in this loneliness, you are not alone. On your side, you have energy and History. Energy obviously, but History as well, the History of Art to be more precise. Art history is one of the contexts in which your work is situated and whether you embrace this History of Art or you challenge it, it is one of the foundations for what you are doing. Context is a device of imagination.

People say that everything has been done, that there is nothing new under the sky. Nothing could be more false. Anything in our present, anything in our future has never been done. The conditions are always evolving making our NOW unique. There is freshness in everything if you are ready to explore it.

Weegee a New York based photographer and photojournalist, known for his black and white street photography said this, and I think it speaks to one approach, one attitude towards life and people that might relate to the mobile gallery entrepreneurs. He says:

“Here’s my formula – dealing as I do with human beings, and I find them wonderful: I leave them alone and let them be themselves – holding hands with love-light in their eyes – sleeping – or merely walking down the street. The trick is to be where the people are. One doesn’t need a scenario or shooting script, all one needs to do is to be on the spot, alert and human. One never knows what will happen…. I am often asked what kind of Candid Camera I use – there really is no such thing – it’s the photographer who must be candid.”

So, after completing our MFA’s in Chicago, and working in Alberta, we moved back to the Maritimes. We had been away for 7 years and somehow found ourselves with no place to show. Instead of waiting out that long period of time between the application and the opening night, we created our own art centre in the trunk of our 1981 Chevrolet Citation. It was a beautiful car, an RCMP blue hatchback. It had everything going for it. The reaction was immediately positive. People liked it.

I remember the first time we drove in town with our sign; taxi drivers seemed to think that we were another taxi company arriving in town to compete. They looked puzzled. Our slogan was ‘exhibiting near you / expositions près de chez vous.’ We took a chance and we felt empowered.

Newpapers and television stations started to talk about the project. In just a few months, we were talking to Peter Gzowski on CBC radio. We started to get emails from people as far away as BC, invitations us to show up at their place.

Sister Annie Forest, who was 90 at the time, called us to ask if she could show her paintings in the trunk! She had studied at OCAD in the 1940’s. We said yes, booking her for an early summer show. She was doing paintings of the cosmos at the time and the idea of having a galaxy in the trunk was really nice. Unfortunately we had to close the TRUNK in March. After a series of storms, it all became too difficult.

The gallery came back to life in 1999 with Gold / Rush. We travelled to Saint John’s, Newfoundland and to Hamilton, Ontario offering a series of presentations that summer.

There was a third and final TRUNK when the Alberta College of Art + Design celebrated its 75^th anniversary. TRUNK75 was a festival of trunks in the College’s parkade. It took place on September 29 and 30^th, 2001. There was a lot of planning for the event over the summer months that dissolved or became reshaped. In those times that followed so closely to the events of 911, something strange floated above us all.

Our next mobile project was in 2002. It was a roaming wireless webcam expedition called Location Location Location: We are getting closer.

This project was part of the E-lounge presentations at the Atlantic Cultural Space in Moncton and EMMEDIA in Calgary. We travelled across the country, starting in Calgary. We then stopped down in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Moncton to ask people about cultural characteristics and the benefits of living in their particular urban locations. The interviews were streamed to all the touchdown locations. In 2002 the technology was definitely more cumbersome than it is today. The portable was a lot more difficult to manage. The rapport that most people had with technology then was very different than it is now.

A few years later, in 2005, Valerie launched the MPB: a screen on a backpack; a mobile screen to take into crowds; an artist going for a walk; a world mediated. But this world has changed immensely since 2005. We were, and are more and more living in a world of screens. They surround us; cameras are pointing in every direction.

Although the first smartphone (IBM Simon Personal Communicator – 1993 cell phone with a touchscreen) existed before the iPhone, it was the launch of the first iPhone on June 29, 2007 that changed everything. Developments are so rapid that we have hard time keeping up with the changes. For example, when we did the MPB WPGC in 2012, we used a bamboo stick to extend the reach of the camera, to view the world but also ourselves. That same stick is no longer known as a bamboo stick, it is known as a ‘Selfie Stick’. The BBC had an interesting post on the advent of the tool and pointed out that the first selfie stick might be 90 years old!

When Valerie asked me to write something about the MPB for MPB-X project, I was interested in doing something on the Modes of Operation.

• The first mode is about Participation

It is about going out there and asking people to participate in something. A good example of that is the MPB EARTH. For the occasion, the MPB was linked to a weather balloon filled with helium. A small camera attached near the base of the balloon transmitted a continuous live feed of its point of view to the backpack monitor. Using a mirror and strings the participants were able to direct the eye of the camera to pick up what they wanted.

• The second mode is about Exploration

These projects are often part of a process resulting in the production of photographs, videos and/or texts. MPB End of Signal, was an attempt to access over-the-air TV broadcast signals before digital conversion was imposed by the CRTC. The experiments were carried out in Sackville, New Brunswick and Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. The old Trans-Canada Highway in Sackville provided better reception than in our home in Moncton, even with a homemade antenna.

• The third mode is about Diffusion

This is probably the most evident mode of operation for the MPB. The apparatus is an obvious platform for screening works and was used in a variety of earlier projects in Fredericton, Calgary, Edmonton, Antibes, Cannes, and Vallauris.

• The fourth mode is a hybrid category: Participation/Diffusion

These projects are a blend of showing works and meeting people. It includes many projects; FICFA, Dieppe and Edmonton (2005), La Dauphine, France (2006) and MPB Curates (2007).

I would like to conclude my talk with the last paragraph of my essay in the MPB-X 2014 publication.

“The very first slogan of the MPB, “Mediated World on the Street,” is interesting on many levels. Mediated means to act through, to depend on; in this case, both phrases relate to technology, but it also means to settle a dispute, to reconcile, and these definitions define interactions between people, between participants. The creation of the MPB was motivated by a desire to act, to play, to say something without waiting for nods of approval from galleries and curators. It was an empowerment, a way for the artist to merge public space and art, to reconcile the world of possibilities with the world of realities, and in this regard, the MPB is still relevant.”

Daniel and I often collaborate but we do individual projects as well.

Last July we were Artists in Residence in the Everglades. Invited there by the AIRIE Program and the U.S. National Park Service, we carried out research for our FLOW: BIG WATERS project. Upon returning to Canada, we began by polishing poetry and prose texts that we had started writing while on site. From that we have produced a series of videos, and continue to work on developing soundwalks for specific locations within the Everglades National Park. We will be printing photographs from some of the material we brought back and when complete, the work will be shown in installation.

We were invited to Miami in November to screen some of these videos at the Miami Book Fair International. We also participated in a panel discussion on links between art and science, as well as the transformative experience of spending time in the Everglades.

In connection with the University of Miami’s AnthropoScene: Art and Nature in a Manufactured Era, we will be going back to Miami in March to screen videos in an exhibition on campus. During our visit, we will be giving a workshop.

Miami Report – Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas (2014)

Report from a visit to Miami and the Everglades National Park – Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas, November 2014

Our visit to South Florida to screen video poetry at the Miami Book Fair International and a visit to the Everglades National Park was short.  Aside from the two days of air travel, we were there for just three days, really full days! To begin, on November 18, we screened several videos and took part in a panel discussion on the transformative effects that the July 2014 AIRIE (Artist In Residence In Everglades) residency had on our work.  While our FLOW: BIG WATERS everglades-based project is ongoing and will eventually include an installation with soundwalks and photographs, we were happy to screen a selection of the video works that we have completed to this date.

The panel discussion was co-moderated by Artist and AIRIE Executive President, Deborah Mitchell and Biologist Skip Snow.  The five AIRIE Artists who presented and took part in the discussion were: Gustavo Matamoros, Reed van Brunschot, Author Anne McCrary Sullivan, and ourselves. After brief introductions by Deborah Mitchell, Miami historian Dr. Paul George opened the conversation with details about the current and recent landmarks that stand and stood close to the Book Fair venue we were sitting within. Downtown Miami is undergoing many physical changes as new buildings replace older structures. Dr. George’s comments brought some of these changes to light. The evening took place at the SWAMP; the pop-up lounge utilized for showcasing social and cultural events during the Miami Book Fair International on the Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus.

After the AIRIE presentation, Gustavo Matamoros and his partner, Miami-based Graphic Artist Claudia Ariano invited us to drive over to Little Havana’s El Cristo Restaurant to experience Cuban cuisine. The conversations continued in a range of topics that ran from contemporary art through a variety of cultural markers.

During two of our days, we walked around the Wolfson Campus and Miami’s downtown to become somewhat oriented with the city. We found our way over to the Miami Beach Mall for the opening of an umbrella of exhibitions at the ArtCenter of South Florida. The open studios and exhibitions for the 30 Years on the Road show spread out from 924 Lincoln Road, along the block to transform the experience from indoor venues to vitrines for sidewalk viewing. It is an ambitious undertaking that showcases retrospective and contemporary artworks embodying many genres.  Outside of 924 Lincoln, the Listening Gallery, in partnership with Subtropics.org is presenting the collaborative work: Walk-Run. On opposite sides of the entrance doors, Walk-Run features face to face moving images by Charles Recher. Combined with a soundscape by Rene Barge and Gustavo Matamoros, Walk-Run can be experienced differently depending on if you are up-close to it, on the sidewalk in front of the building, or at distance. Turning the corner to view other artworks presented in vitrines also permits variable exposure to the audio as the sound waves bend around the architecture of the cityscape. Owing to the nature of showing so many artists at one time, the opening reception moved along the block with conversations continuing inside in and outside of the studios. Walking this stretch of the Mall with Gustavo, we met and talked with many artists. We also took time to view examples of art deco along the Lincoln Road Mall.

On November 20, the final day of our visit, Deborah Mitchell invited us to drive out to the AIRIE lab to visit November’s resident artist Regina Jestrow.  Regina had generously organized an open studio reception in the lab where she laid out a sampling of the research she carried out during the month. It was a chance to talk informally with Regina, the other artists and scientists who dropped by, and several of the Park Staff that we had the pleasure of working with during July. We saw the beginning stages of Regina’s artworks utilizing imprinted rubbings and look forward to seeing the next stage of this new textile based work.

Back in Miami the same evening, we visited the Locust Project.  Showing in the Main Space is Daniel Arsham’s Welcome to the Future. In the project room,Salvadorian artist Simón Vega’s exhibition Sub-Tropical Social Sculptures is ongoing.We arrived in time for the Art on the Move presentation with Curator Dominic Molon in conversation with Vancouver-based artist Ron Terada. The subject of the discussion was Terada’s Soundtrack for an Exhibition.

Our on-the-ground introduction to the Miami art scene gave us the chance to scratch the surface of this diverse, multicultural city where Spanish is the predominantly spoken second language. Staying in downtown Miami gave us the chance to see the last days of the old Miami Herald Building as it underwent demolition. It will be interesting to go back and see what new masterpiece rises to replace it on Biscayne Bay. If one word could be used to describe the face and evolving culture of Miami, vibrant would fit!

This activity was supported by the New Brunswick Arts Board

And the MBFI / The Swamp

Moncton Man Loves Every Minute Of His Busy Life (2014)

Spem reduxit / Hope restored (2014)

Key Words: New Brunswick, debt, marijuana, traffic code, zombies, marketing

“Time to rebound is running out”, it’s a “financial disaster”[1], it’s “very concerning”[2], “our regional economy is flat-lining and we are depopulating… it’s a death spiral”[3], it’s a “perfect fiscal storm”[4] and so on. We’ve all heard the song. It’s terrible and it seems that there isn’t much we can do. We are doomed, but are we really?

Here are a few ideas, of what we might be able to do.

P as in POT
The first idea is a simple one: New Brunswick could legalize marijuana (medical and recreational). Our province has vast fields of uncultivated land, which always makes me wonder where have the farmers gone? In addition, our climate is mainly humid continental with warm summers, which is excellent for growing stuff. By decriminalizing marijuana, our province would be the first in the country, and this alone would be an incredible business opportunity.This prospect that has already created waves: in the aim of defining target markets and customers, market research professionals have begun asking Canadians what they think of marijuana. When the questions start flying, you can assume that the product is on its way. Even the Globe and Mail is writing about the future of cannabis in Canada.[5]

I like this idea because it has a two-fold potential: to generate tax revenues, and to become a fountain of youth. Legalize it and they will come. They, the young people from all over the country might consider New Brunswick as a place to live and to settle. This could be the true golden age of New Brunswick. For those who might say that marijuana falls into federal legislation (Controlled Drugs and Substances Act), I would point out that it is the provinces that control the “administration of justice.”[6] Moreover I would invoke the right to economic dignity. I believe that every province has a right to create an environment where its citizens can flourish and to deny New Brunswick the possibility of improved economic revenue would be criminal.

T as in TRAFFIC
The second idea concerns the drivers and the police departments of all towns and cities in New Brunswick. As a pedestrian I can attest to the danger of walking on our streets. There are many factors that make walking a dangerous activity: car culture, changing weather, darkness in winter, cultural misunderstanding on the meaning of yellow lights, etc. The fact is that there is a potential gold mine at every corner and maybe we should be exploiting these open pit deposits. A officer could monitor a crosswalk and give as many fines as necessary to drivers who see the flashing lights, see the pedestrians but don’t think they should slow down.

Z as in ZOMBIES
They are currently hot on TV with; Z Nation, The Returned, The Walking Dead, and of course, there are zombie walks all over the world. We are fascinated by their relentless stamina and as Angela Becerra Vidergar pointed out in a recent article “Zombies are important as a reflection of ourselves.”[7]

The question here is what can these tireless workers do for us? The motto for the city of Moncton is Resurgo, Latin for “To rise up again.” That is zombie speak and is awesome. The province should quickly seize Moncton’s motto, make it its own and market itself as a global hub for anything zombies. Here again, two birds with one stone, during the zombie walks, police could dispense tickets to zombie drivers.

Daniel Dugas
November 27 2014

[1] Richard Saillant, director general of the Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy and Public Administration in “New Brunswick barrelling toward bankruptcy, analyst warns”, CBC News, April 29, 2014.

[2] Auditor General Kim MacPherson in “Auditor General troubled by debt growth”, CBC NEWS, Dec 05, 2013.

[3] Frank McKenna in, ‘Good governments do not allow mob rule”, The Chronicle Herald, November 4, 2014.

[4] Donald Savoie in “Paying the piper”, Atlantic Business Magazine, February 23, 2012

[5] Jeffrey Simpson, ‘Should Canada do a Uruguay on pot?’ Dec 3 2014.

See also, Jeffrey Simpson, ‘A marijuana measure worth watching‘. Dec 5, 2014.

[6] Sensible BC, Canada’s largest marijuana reform group in Frequently Asked Questions.

[7] Angela Becerra Vidergar in “Stanford scholar explains why zombie fascination is very much alive“, Stanford Report, February 20, 2013.

Zombie Silhouettes by SymbiopticStudios

Spem reduxit / Hope restored is New Brunswick ‘s motto

Click here to read part 1: Home of the New Balance: Nota bene published on August 26 2014.

International Film Poetry Festival (2014)

International Film
Poetry Festival 2014
friday 28/11/2014 / starts 20.00

Video artists:

D.H Dugas CAN | M. Dickes USA | D. Wotton FR
M. Piatek POL | J. Solomko UKR | I. Shevchenko UKR
S. Wiegner GER. |
J. Brok & A.Marseille HOL 
T. Bentley UK | Visto Desde el Zaguán IRE
K. Polischuk UKR | MAI ΙT | Κ. Καρβέλη GR
A. Anderfuren HUNG | Γ.Πατεράκης GR | S. San GER
V. LeBlanc CAN | E.Tsymbalyuk UKR | E.Στάμου GR
M. Craven AUSTR | P. Gialis GR | L. Kalyadin RUS
N.Κωστόπουλος GR | M. Mullins USA
T. Granot ISR | Orquesta de Poetas SP
E. Al-Ansari UK | D. Dirgela LTH |V. Giourousis USA
P. Müller GER | M. Lland UK | Bobye FR
K. Sargent UK | D. Fiori & O. Pohankova AUS
I. Andreevski HOL | Θ. Σπυριδάκη GR | G. Pryor USA
Didi SUD | E. Vinogradova UKR | Θ. Πάνου GR
Aγγ. Φραντζής, Ν. Πάστρας GR | S. Brova, P. Lypa RUM
J. D. Scott USA | I. Oravin FNL | S. Samyi GER

programme: http://issuu.com/sissydoutsiou/docs/artists_2014/6?e=0%2F10281417


Performance:

Whitney Sparks (USA) | Iωάννα Λιούτσια


Live Concerts:

AΓΓΕΛΟΣ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ

PAN PAN

KTIΡΙΑ ΤΗ ΝΥΧΤΑ


Μulti Media Poetry Show:

T. Σαγρής | Σ. Δουτσίου | Γ. Ραουζαίος | 
Ο. Μπατάκης | Κ. Ζησάκη

Fr. Avenbach | Στ. Καλογήρου | 
I. Γαϊτανάρου | MattaBee

Πηνελόπη Δ. + TripmakerYoung | 
Δ. Αναλυτής | Xρ. Συριοπούλου

Soundtrack: 
Junior X . War

Visual Art: 
Void Optical Art Laboratory


Produced by
Void Network-Κενο Δίκτυο
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/ and
+the Institute [for Experimental Arts]
http://theinstituteinfo.blogspot.com/


Occupied theatre
EMBROS
R.Palimidou 2 Psiri.
athens. greece
FREE ADMISSION / EIΣΟΔΟΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΗ

The yearly International Film Poetry Festival will be held for third time in Greece on Friday 28/11/2014 2014 in Athens. Approximately 1000 people attended the festival last year.

There will be two different zones of the festival. The first zone will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second zone will include cross-platform collaborations of sound producers and music groups with poets and visual artists in live improvisations.

The International Film Poetry Festival 2014 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.

It is very important to notice that this festival is a part of the counter-culture activities of Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be non-sponsored, free entrance, non commercial and non profit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment e.t.c.) from the incomes of the bar of the festival.

All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate voluntary to the festival.

Void Network started organizing multi media poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multi media Poetry Nights and Video Poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of Metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists, create high quality self organized exhibition areas and show rooms, we work with professional technicians and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.

AIRIE Panel @ MBFI (2014)