Intern Researcher
VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver BC Sep-Dec 2017
As the end of the term is approaching, today was the last day of my work at the library. I had a meeting with Karen to share my experiences of working in VIVO. It has been really great time working there, and the project that I have done with those amazing artists was something more than I expected to engage with out of this learning experience. Karen gave me a positive feedback, saying how this kind of research project is important for the organization because it usually takes a lot of time to do that and certainly is not easy to get done. We also discussed ‘now what’ part; now I have the recordings of the interviews with six different artists, so what do I want to do with them? Karen suggested that my project could be up on a page under the research project on VIVO’s website. I thought that was a good idea to put my project up in the online archive so that the ideas and voices of the artists in my semi-personal research project could reach to wider audiences. I also thought that I needed to think more through how and what I want to present the project, so I told that to Karen and we decided to have another meeting for that (and also to wrap up everything) sometime in December.
After the meeting, I was editing the recordings of the interviews of Brady and Crista. Listening to the artists talking with my headphones feels very intimate, and I feel like this phase of editing after the actual conversations with the artists is another layer of learning because I understand the ideas discussed in deeper level by chewing word by word that came out of the artists. Then I started taking notes of the words that resonated me or stood out in some ways, like things that I thought maybe it was important for understanding the development of the media art.
When Karen asked me what I was going to do for the creative response, I didn’t have a concrete image of it, but I knew I wanted to use the materials I have -that is the voices of the artists from the interview. I also wanted to make something speaks directly to the library and archive and the importance of the prints in there, so I asked Karen if there was extra archive box that I could use for the response, and she generously spared me a box and a plastic bag to cover that to protect it from rain on my way home! I’m still thinking, but basically, my idea so far is that stuffing the archival box with the artists’ words.
Now that I got great materials to remix and make something with, I’m ready to get my hands on and actually start making!
Photo: stacks of archival boxes
I have been traveling around Vancouver in order to visit the artists and do the interviews, so today was the first day of on-site work in a while. It was nice to see people in VIVO again, I found out a few changes though; for instance, Audrey, whom I worked with at the archive and library, has left VIVO recently after finishing her project. I usually sit in the corner of the office area and work on my laptop, however, today I stayed in the archive area where Audrey used to work. I had some recordings to edit, the artist research for my next interview with Crista Dahl, and I was also expecting ‘a meeting’ (this was rather a casual conversation) with Karen regarding my project’s next step -creating an audio archive which is really exciting!
It was easier for me to talk to Karen because her workspace is around the archive shelves in the library and I was sitting right behind the shelf and then her desk. When I came in, Karen was busy making phone calls. She told me that the person she was going to talk with was very chatty and she had another phone call after that so had to get done everything in time. She seemed a bit stressed while she was waiting for a call (I relate that to myself when I had to call artists that I never met in person to explain my project and set up a meeting time). Before I start editing audios, even hearing how Karen speaks and communicates on the phone was very interesting to me and I learned a lot by that. So, I think that physically being close, working in the same space, is important! This little lesson also reminded me Pascal Gielen’s article on immaterial labour and his discussion around communication at a workplace. Being able to have a chat/informal conversation with my supervisor may have little to do with my productivity, but this is an essential skill to develop trusts between us that might allow me to speak up those undeveloped ideas, in my opinion. I don’t actually know what exactly Karen is working on (I only know that she has lots of projects going on), but from what I observed during my hours, her work is much in the form of communication (emails, phone calls, talking with other VIVO people).
I shared five audio files of the interviews with Karen. In order to support the material (the interview recordings), I was told to provide my short bio and information of the project (location, date, and the project description). I worked on the writing and that made me think through what I have been doing for the past weeks, reflecting my initial goals for the project and what it looks like to me after the interviews. Writing and summarizing also helped me to think about the project as a whole -while I didn’t have any fixed or standard questions, and I interviewed different generations of artists and they gave it different perspectives, I think that that gave it an interesting insight to Media art – its development and the divergence. As I mentioned, I haven’t done the interview with Crista yet, so it’s missing the last piece, but I’m surprised at looking at how each interview made the project somehow coherent under the theme of video art. After I’ve done the writing and added to the file, I did more research on the last interview subject, Crista Dahl. I have been researching on her since October, however, because she has a long career and many stories, especially about the Video Inn, it was hard to choose what to ask. I was reading the book that Karen gave it to me, where Crista was interviewed about the development and history of VIVO, and that was very helpful for me to understand about Crista as well as the foundation of the artist-run-centre. I spoke to Crista over the phone last week to set up a time for an interview, and she suggested me to take a look at the Video Guide magazine, which was published in 1978-1992 by the Satellite Video Exchange Society. I went through VIVO’s online archive of the Video Guide. Then I started listing up interview questions to her, mostly focusing on what ideas were discussed at that time, and what the motivation was and the people’s lifestyles looked like at the start when there was very limited amount of money for the labors.
photo of my workspace in the archive library
My project through VIVO, interviewing media artists in Vancouver, has got even more exciting when it finally comes to meet with the artists after somewhat stressful processes of writing emails, waiting for the replies, and getting confirmation to schedule 6 interviews within my limited time for the partnership as well as their limited time (the artists I’m working with often travel internationally, so I am very lucky to have this opportunity!) I managed to set up a time for all the interviews by the end of October, and I have done three interviews so far.
Today’s blog is a reflection of an interview with Paul Wong. I went to visit Paul at his primary studio on Main street. His studio has a wide window through which you can see what’s going on the street on one side and on the other side is an archive of televisions, recorders, monitors, and cameras that work just fine according to the artist. Being in his studio is like being in the different world, another time and space, perhaps because of the aura of objects in the room and Paul himself. I was able to begin the interview in a relaxed atmosphere. I asked him about how he started making art in the medium of video and the development of the satellite video exchange society as a founding member. He said he was experimenting portapack that was available to him at that time. The way he described how the portable television at that time was radical and shift what one makes, distributes and receives sounds applicable to our situation today – how smartphones and the internet shift the form of our communication and dissemination of information. What has struck me is, by making works by and for audiences outside mainstream televisions, what the artist and his colleagues were doing was radical because they were challenging traditions, conventions, stereotypes, big money, and the very forms of art and trying to create something beyond and outside that. He emphasized how it was very exciting and interesting to experiment, make and show something new to the world. Then Paul talked about the development of the artist society, VIVO. When he said that the artist collective had a serious discussion on the new medium on every Wednesday at 6 pm at the dinner table and they treated everyone equally, I thought the fundamental philosophy of artist-run centre was there, and hearing the experience of how they made it happen from Paul was 10 times convincing than reading its history. We also talked what he thinks about the image-saturated reality of today’s world around us in relation to one of his work called “Flash memory.” It is interesting and inspiring that he thinks we are in the first generation of digital technology and the technology is still being “clumsy”, which he means it’s not developed enough (it still has Wi-Fi problems, glitches etc. to be more sophisticated.) Then we talked about Instagram and creativity, how sharing creative and cool stuff with people influences each other. I like his approach because it is based on his everyday lives and subjectivity to speak something beyond that. What I learned from the conversation with Paul is that by “talking and doing/making” we are learning and trying to understand what it is just like he was experimenting with portapack and talking with the people back then.
It was a really fun interview and gave me insight into the development of media art that is one of my goals throughout the project. As an interviewer, I guess my strategy to refine interview questions to the very simple ones after artist research and list up them so that the interview can be less structured and more flexible worked well this time. One thing I’ll have to rethink is that to what extent I should address specific works of the artist because now I feel like I should have asked Paul more about his artworks in detail. Fortunately, I have a chance to try that out for the next interview with Matilda Aslizadeh this week, so I’ll see how it goes!
photo: the media archive in Paul’s studio
Paul Wong, (born November 20, 1954, in Prince Rupert, British Columbia) is a Canadian multimedia artist. An award-winning artist, curator, and organizer of public interventions since the mid-1970s, Wong is known for his engagement with issues of race, sex, and death. His work varies from conceptual performances to narratives, meshing video, photography, installation, and performance with Chinese-Canadian cultural perspectives.
website: http://paulwongprojects.com/
VIVO Media Arts Centre (Video In Studios/ Video Out Distribution), governed by the Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES), is Vancouver’s first media arts access centre, and one of the oldest artist-run centres in Western Canada. The society was incorporated in 1973, following the Matrix International Video Exchange Conference and Festival.
Today, the thriving artist-run centre operates a multi-purpose facility immersed in the production, exhibition, education, distribution and archives, providing a supportive environment for artists to experiment and rich resources to Vancouver art community.
VIVO’s mission is to directly support artists and independent community-based producers to develop, exchange, and disseminate their skills in a supportive environment through accessible services and programs.
VIVO’s vision is a robust, diverse, and vibrant media arts sector: a catalyst for critical and innovative engagement with the material forms and cultural meanings of media and technology.
VIVO’s mandate is to offer a broad range of services and opportunities to artists and the public, including affordable rental of equipment and facilities, public programmings such as events, exhibitions, residencies and more, international distribution and work exchange, and Western Canada’s largest public reference library and archive of media art.
VIVO accepts submissions on an ongoing basis. Submissions are reviewed by the Events+Exhibitions curator with input from the Events and Exhibitions Committee, looking for projects that critically engage with their medium and the context in which they are produced.
VIVO’s supporting partners are the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, Human Resources Development Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, Metro Vancouver, and individual donors. t is also supported by the labour and effort of individual artists, activists and cultural workers.
Today I had an interview with Brady Marks, which was the first of the five artist interviews for my project. Before I went to her place, I dropped by VIVO to pick up a box of electronic for Brady as she requested. At VIVO, everyone seemed busier than usual preparing for the live performance shows starting tonight. I briefly chatted with Audrey about New Forms Festival; I went to see the shows on Saturday night, and the performance by Juliana Huxtable at Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre (at SFU Woodward) was particularly inspirational to me. The combination of her voice/words and musical instruments such as piano, harp, and drums created the strong harmony of the sounds. Then I checked with Karen my interview questions for Brady. The questions I came up with based on my research were good, Karen said, and she suggested me to add one question that asks the artist about the positioning of media art in art historical context. Karen showed me a 3D animated sculpture that Brady built in collaboration with VIVO, and now it is stored in the equipment room. I was already impressed by the work in the video that I watched during my research on Brady, but it was great to see that in person and before the interview where I was going to ask her more about the work. After that, I headed out to Brady’s place with the box.
The meeting time with Brady was scheduled at 3 pm at her place, but she wasn’t at home when I arrived there. I started worrying and called Brady twice, texted her that I was there because she didn’t pick up her phone. After 15 minutes of waiting, Brady showed up and I learned that she was at a bakery to grab some treats for me. I felt embarrassed and surprised at the same time, realizing how I was so stressed from being off schedule and worried when I couldn’t reach her through a phone. Anyway, Brady was very welcoming and generous. As we got into her room, she gave me a little tour of her room/studio. Being in such a private space of an artist, my eyes were wide open, trying to observe every detail. I knew that she worked mostly in digital media, but in her studio, I saw there were some works in progress in physical form and very low tech such as a cardboard box and some strings. I could see ideas of her art making are generated through playing with accessible materials, and she enjoys making things from a simple idea, for instance, making her own “Stranger Things’ light” which flickers a few times and then certain colour of light turns on according to alphabet/word with her computer programming skills. At her studio, I found many things that resonate what Fortnum said in her article: “The artist may ‘suspend’ their conscious deliberations, creating a sense for then that the medium has its own volition and that the work ‘talks back’ to them.” “Artists enjoy the challenge of potential, and the pleasure of surprising themselves and so create spaces for not knowing, both physical and intellectual.”
Brady is an incredibly generous artist, and she even let me go through her book shelve in the living room while she was making coffee for us.
Before the interview, I explained her about my project and about myself in order to inform her the objective of my project. The interview with her went well. She gave it an insightful talk and I learned a lot by listening to her words carefully describing her artistic practice. What had struck me the most was when she talked about how artists’ experimentation of technology as a medium without constraints of commercial businesses allows us to develop the meaning of the medium before companies such as MTV, Disney or Sony show them to mass audiences. That reminds me of our class discussion when we talk about how artists are feeding the commercial world. I think my understanding of artists’ role in society has been expanded by interviewing with Brady.
As an interviewer, I learned that the structure of the interview could be looser. For this interview, I structured the questions that I wanted to ask her in my way of thinking, but I realized in the conversation with Brady that I should be more flexible and responsive to what has been said during the interview. In addition to that, I think I should narrow the interview question down to more specific ones because some of my questions were already answered when she was answering another question. I will try these lessons for next interview session and would like to see how it goes. This time I was helped a lot by Brady with her friendly personality and her generosity. After the interview, I stayed at her place for a while, having some pastry and talking about cool artworks with Brady and her cat. She showed me a book of Jim Campbell and a video called “The Clock” by Christian Marclay. Overall, it was such a great time and a good start for my project (:
Brady Marks is a Vancouver-based digital media artist and DJ. Marks’ works explore in sound, light, and video.
Photo of Brady with her lovely cat.
*Artists info from the web:
Juliana Huxtable is an American artist, DJ, and model who works in photography, video, performance, poetry, and music. After gaining visibility in the New York club scene, Huxtable came to prominence in the art world with her inclusion in the 2015 New Museum Triennial, Surround Audience. In her work, Huxtable uses her own body as a primary subject to archive and abstract representations of art history, the Internet, and the intersection of identity and technology. She draws from a broad range of references, including the Nuwaubian movement. Huxtable is a co-founder of the nightclub Shock Value and is a member of the New York City-based collective House of Ladosha. She currently lives and works in New York City.
Jim Campbell is a contemporary San Francisco based artist who is known for his LED light works. Campbell began his artistic career in filmmaking but switched to electronic sculpture in 1990 and started making his iconic LED matrix works in 2000. His current work combines film, sound, and LED light installations.
Christian Ernest Marclayis an American/Swiss visual artist and composer. Marclay’s work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records and turntables as musical instruments to create sound collages, Marclay is, in the words of critic Thom Jurek, perhaps the “unwitting inventor of turntablism.” His own use of turntables and records, beginning in the late 1970s, was developed independently of but roughly parallel to hip hop’s use of the instrument.
My partnership at VIVO Media Arts Centre consists of me conducting interviews with media artists spanning the history of media art in Vancouver, which will be a permanent addition to the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives. I’m working closely with Karen and Audrey at the library and archive. Karen has connected me with five media artists (Crista Dahl, Brady Marks, Jayce Salloum, Gabriela Aceves Sepulveda, and Matilda Aslizadeh) through emails. My major task before the interviews is to research on my interview subjects as much as possible by utilizing my research skills that I have gained throughout my academic experience at UBC. I’m currently contacting the artists through emails to set up a time for an interview, and so far the interview with Jayce is confirmed on Oct. 25th at his studio. As much as I’m excited to meet and talk with those artists, I feel some pressure for the need to connect well with the artists in order to make the project meaningful for the library archive, for the artists, and for myself. I believe preparation and more research are essential for the achievement of the project’s goal. I hope to gain diverse perspectives from different media artists about the history of media art development and their artistic practices as well as to gain interpersonal skills out of this interview experience. I’m planning to do audio recording alone.
Before the initial meeting with Karen and Audrey, I expected the partnership would look something different than what I’m doing now. I was expecting that my supervisors would decide and assign work for me. However, our first meeting was more like discussing my interests and knowledge that I hope to gain through the partnership and then coming up with a project that would be useful for me and their library archive at the same time. Although I’m happy that I can conduct my own project independently, that also means I’m expected to be responsible for the whole process, and that is much more commitment than I expected. Sitting in the corner and doing my own research at VIVO for a couple of days, I familiarized myself with the quiet workspace where everyone is focusing on their own project, yet they are nice and relaxed. I’m at VIVO on Wednesdays and I usually have a conversation with Karen and Audrey regarding my progress of the project, related events’ information, etc. Karen has provided me useful sources about VIVO and the artists, especially Crista. Other than physical sources from the archive for me to look at, such as Vimeo link, Karen, Audrey and I are communicating via email.
Part of my project involves looking at VIVO’s past Signal + Noise programming to explore where this form of media art has evolved and the divergence of working in video and media art, which will be useful for me to understand the history of media art development.