Transmedia 2009
Growing
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Growing/58350543664
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Saturday, 7pm – 8pm
Michael Snow w/ Jesse Stewart
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Friday, 7:15pm – 8pm
Artist Biography
Michael Snow is considered one of Canada’s most important living artists, and one of the world’s leading experimental filmmakers. His wide-ranging and multidisciplinary oeuvre explores the possibilities inherent in different mediums and genres, and encompasses film and video, painting, sculpture, photography, writing, and music. Snow’s practice comprises a thorough investigation into the nature of perception.
Michael Snow was born in Toronto, Canada in 1929. He studied at Ontario College of Art. Among his many awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Order of Canada, and two Los Angeles Film Critics Awards. Snow has had solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; XXV Venice Biennale; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Luzern, Switzerland; List Gallery, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Power Plant, Toronto; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal; and Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, among others.
Thinkbox
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Saturday, 5pm – 6pm
THINKBOX MANDATE
Thinkbox is a self-curating media collective, created to explore technological works and contemporary media in relation to both gallery and commercial distribution networks. Thinkbox reflects the varied interests of its members. As an enterprise, it is centred on the exploration and innovative use of material and technique to produce works that develop complex questions to simplified answers about art, technology, and the nature of multi-media creation.
Many of the strategies employed by the artists involved question preconceived notions of the categorical limitations of music, audio, noise and sound, often in relation to video, film and the moving image. The primary aim of Thinkbox is to promote and advance the new media artist as content provider / cultural producer in the changing art landscape of the new century. The members of the collective are dedicated to the production and dissemination of non-categorical contemporary art creations.
Through the initiative of member artists, Thinkbox intersects with mass culture through gallery installations, performances, festivals, and the release of audio/video products.
Artist Biography
Thinkbox is a loosely structured Windsor based sound and visual art collective.
Current members include:
Christopher Bissonnette, a sound artist and graphic designer whose installations have been exhibited in both Canada and the U.S. Since 1996, Bissonnette’s audio performances have been programmed into many festivals and events, and he has performed live alongside experimentalists such as Scanner (UK) and Thomas Brinkmann (Germany). In September 2002, he participated in The Digidome Festival, in Saskatoon SK. Two full-length CDs of his work have been released by Kranky.
Mark Laliberte, an independent curator, project-based artist and experimental poet currently based in Toronto. Primarily an exhibiting artist, Laliberte’s complex installation works & independent objects have been shown in exhibitions throughout Canada and the U.S. Laliberte is the Managing Editor and Designer of Carousel Magazine.
Christopher McNamara, a Windsor-based video artist, writer and DJ, who teaches new media at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He and collaborator, artist Dermot Wilson have worked collaboratively under the corporate art moniker Machyderm Inc since 1994, and together they have shown extensively in both Canada and the U.S. (most recently at Mercer Union, Stride Gallery and The Western Front). In October 2002, McNamara exhibited at Stiftung BINZ 39, in Zürich, Switzerland.
Cailen Dye w/ Ed Matthews
http://www.myspace.com/cailendye
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Friday, 4:15pm – 5pm
Artist Statement
I have been composing and creating music with the use of computers for over 11 years. Though I am a multi-instrumentalist, the computer is my main instrument, one that allows me to gather, generate, organize, and structure the sounds, rhythms and melodies that become my compositions. One of the latent advantages of working in this way is that the resulting compositions can be heard immediately- without having to translate my ideas through notation. My fluency with my instrument and the immediacy of the compositional response allows me to also develop works in real time. During the past five years I have been developing a series of live performances with collaborating musicians. Often improvisatory, these live works have allowed me to develop new directions in my work as well as reach new audiences.
Leafcutter John
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Saturday, 3:30pm – 4:15pm
Artist Biography
Leafcutter John is a London based Songwriter, Electronic musician, and Artist. 2009 is my 9th year making music and releasing records.
Photo Credit: Vicki Chruchill | http://www.vickichurchill.com/
Tim Hecker
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Saturday, 9pm – 10pm
Artist Biography
Tim Hecker: is a musician and sound artist, born in Vancouver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Kranky, Alien8, Mille Plateaux, Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His Harmony in Ultraviolet received critical acclaim, including being recognized by Pitchfork as a top recording of 2006. Radio Amor was also recognized as a key recording of 2003 by Wire magazine. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, minimal techo works under the name ‘Jetone’, as well as various writings. Hecker, has presented his work in a live settings around the world, including performances at Sonar (Barcelona), Mutek (Montreal), Primavera Sound (Barcelona), Victoriaville (Quebec), Vancouver New Music Festival (Vancouver), and Transmediale (Berlin). He currently resides in Montreal.
Jesse Stewart
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Saturday, 2pm – 2:45pm
Artist Biography
Jesse Stewart is an award-winning artist, percussionist, composer, improviser, instrument builder, and writer dedicated to reimagining the boundaries between artistic disciplines.
As an artist, Stewart has exhibited audio-visual installation-based work in solo, group, and juried art exhibitions at a variety of private and public galleries. Two major solo exhibitions have resulted in the publication of catalogues about his work: Wheels of Time (2003) shown at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph and Waterworks (2005-6), shown at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, the Glenhyrst Gallery of Brant in Brantford, and the Thames Gallery in Chatham. In the summer of 2005, he contributed a performance and a sculptural work to a group show titled Demons Stole My Soul: the Rock and Roll Drum Set in Contemporary Art at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.
As a musician, he works primarily in the areas of jazz, new music, and free improvisation. He has performed with many internationally acclaimed musicians including Michael Snow, George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Joe Mcphee, Maggie Nicols, David Mott, Evan Ziporyn, and many others. He has performed at music festivals across the country and made numerous compact disc recordings.
Much of his creative work crosses disciplinary boundaries, exploring the links between the visual and the sonic arts. For example, in the year 2000, he was commissioned by the Guelph Jazz Festival to create a ‘jazz opera’ entitled Passages with celebrated Canadian jazz poet Paul Haines and Governor General’s award-winning video artist David Rokeby.
After majoring in both visual art and in music as an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, he went on to complete two Master of Arts degrees concurrently at York University in Toronto: one in ethnomusicology and another in music composition. His composition teachers included James Tenney and David Mott. In 2008, Stewart completed doctoral level studies at the University of Guelph where he was the first recipient of the Brock Doctoral Scholarship, the university’s most prestigious graduate award. He is now a professor in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture.
Nihilist Spasm Band
http://www3.sympatico.ca/pratten/NSB/
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Friday, 5:45pm – 6:15pm
Artist Biography
The Nihilist Spasm Band is a unique experimental collective generally known as “the first noise band.” Formed in 1965 in London, Ontario, the Canadian group has since improvised on a number of instruments, including homemade creations such as the violin created by bandmember Art Pratten, the “Pratt-a-various.” Bandmembers include John Boyle (artist) kazoo and drums, John Clement (MD) guitar and drums, Bill Exley (geezer/latinist) vocals, Murray Favro (artist) guitar and Pratten (pensioner/gentleman of leisure) Pratt-a-various and Waterpipe. Former members include: Greg Curnoe (deceased), Hugh McIntyre (deceased) and Archie Leitch (permanently retired) Their first concert took place in early 1966 and their debut recording, No Record, followed two years later. Another decade passed before their next album, Vol. 2, was released, but despite their sporadic recording, the band remained busy with live performances. For over 30 years, NSB has performed every Monday night at the Forest City Gallery in London. They have also performed at N.Y.C.’s Knitting Factory, the FIMAV music festival in Quebec and other creative music festivals, and toured Japan in 1997. Many of the Nihilist Spasm Band albums have been reissued on the Japanese label Alchemy Records by fan and noise artist Jojo Hiroshige (of Hijokaidan).
Gordon Monahan
Heineken TransMedia Stage: Friday, 9pm – 10pm
Artist Biography
Gordon Monahan’s works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.
Since 1978, Monahan has performed and exhibited at numerous performance spaces, galleries, and festivals. Recent activity includes: Bilbao International Film Festival ‘Zinebi 49′, Bilbao, Spain (performance with Txuspo Poyo, video)Western Front, Vancouver (installation)Royal Conservatory of Music and Open Space, Victoria, BC (installation and performance) Macdonald Stewart Art Gallery, Guelph (solo exhibition) Voxxx Galerie, Chemnitz (solo exhibition) Galerija Kapelica, Ljubliana, Slovenia (solo exhibition) Ars Electronica, Linz (performance) Taktlos Festival, Bern, Switzerland (performance), Klangraum Krems, Krems, Austria (performance)
