Instructor: Aaron Pollard Guest instructors: Daniel Barrow, Olivia McGilchrist, Erandy Vergara-Vargas and Katie Ward Transmission Arts
Aaron Pollard, 2022
With the financial support of Services Québec
The Transmission Arts workshop is inspired by the various consequences and opportunities resulting from COVID-19 for the arts community, artists and their practices. Venues, openings, performances and shows have moved online. While it may take years to understand the implications of the changes brought about by the pandemic, we know that a significant subset of artists with diverse practices have already been collaborating and innovating remotely for decades using a variety of tools, such as written correspondence, radio, cable television, video conferencing, and Second Life.
In terms of transmission technologies and artistic creation, the question is not whether it is possible to collaborate, create, In terms of transmission technologies and artistic creation, the question is not whether it is possible to collaborate, create, and disseminate culture at a distance, but rather how to work at a distance, when to embrace this approach, and when to resist it.
This workshop, a combination of theoretical readings and practical explorations, aims to address the unique qualities inherent to the experience of connecting and creating from a distance across a wide range of technologies and platforms. The lead instructor, Aaron Pollard, and guest instructors will address questions relating to available transmission technologies, practical skills for accessing and using online tools, as well as the development of a critical awareness of the economic, social, and cultural implications of these diverse methods.
The workshop will be offered in French and English.
Cost: 100$ plus taxes
To register or if you have any questions, contact the New Media Lab by phone at 514-844-3250, ext. 230 or at lab@oboro.net.
PREREQUISITES
• Be a professional artist, creator or cultural worker
• Having work experience with video installation is an asset
• Be a self-employed worker or a salaried employee*
• Attend every workshop session.
*Up to 2 spots are available for salaried employees of organisations whose salary mass is over 2 million $ and are subject to Quebec’s 1% Law for Workforce training. These participants must pay the unsubsidized cost of the training offered. Please contact us for more details.
RESERVATION / PAYMENT
Reservations can be made by phone or email. Full payment must be made for reservations to be valid. You can pay by credit card (Visa or MasterCard), cheque or cash. Registration for a workshop is non-transferable.
CANCELLATION / REFUND
OBORO does not refund registration fees except in case of illness (with a medical note) or of absolute necessity. In such cases, registration fees are transferable to another workshop or service offered by the New Media Lab.
WORKSHOP CANCELLATION
OBORO reserves the right to cancel workshops at any time and without advance notice. In this case, registration fees are completely refunded.
According to the Quebec government’s measures with respect to COVID, professional training can take place in person, with a tightening of certain sanitary measures. Wearing a mask is mandatory at all times. More information here.
Aaron Pollard, 2022
Aaron Pollard is a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal who has been producing and presenting video art and multimedia performances since the early 1990s. His works have been shown in Canada and abroad. He studied at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Concordia University, where he completed an MFA. He is the co-founder of 2boys.tv. He was researcher and head of OBORO’s multimedia sector for 20 years.
Over the last fifteen years, Daniel Barrow has used simple (often antiquated) technologies to present pictorial narratives by merging the methods of cinema, comics, animation, and magic lantern shows. Barrow is best known for adapting comic book narratives to “manual” forms of animation by manipulating drawings on an overhead projector.
Olivia Mc Gilchrist (she / her) is a white French-Jamaican multimedia artist and doctoral candidate exploring how colonial legacies extend their reach to Virtual Reality (VR) technology. She has exhibited in Canada, Jamaica, USA, Brazil, Germany, Norway, Austria, France, Switzerland, UK. Building on her experience as a white Euro-Caribbean and research in the portrayal of her hybrid identity within contemporary Jamaican culture, Olivia explores how this can be represented in VR. Working with Professors MJ Thompson, Lynn Hughes and Alice Ming Wai Jim at Concordia University, her Individualized PhD thesis project is entitled Virtual ISLANDs, postcolonial hybrid identities in Virtual Reality.
Erandy Vergara-Vargas (MX) is a Montreal-based curator and scholar. Her main research interests include global art histories, climate responsibility, curatorial studies, equity, internet cultures and widespread bias in algorithms. She earned a MA at Concordia University and a PhD in Art History at McGill University. Recent shows include ISEA2020: Why Sentience? (Mtl Connect, Montreal); Eva and Franco Mattes: What Has Been Seen (Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain, November 2019-March 2020); Speculative Cultures: A Virtual Reality Art Exhibition, curated with Tina Sauerländer (Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York, 2019). Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Sociability of Sleep Project and artistic director of Printemps numérique.
Katie Ward develops score-based imaginative practices for live performance that explore horizontal hierarchies and specific frameworks for self-directed expression with her collaborators. Katie Ward’s work examines the endless co-creation between imagination and reality. Her works invite performers and audiences to surrender to change, flow and spontaneity. Invention and imagination are central to these processes.
Aaron Pollard is a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal who has been producing and presenting video art and multimedia performances since the early 1990s. His works have been shown in Canada and abroad. He studied at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Concordia University, where he completed an MFA. He is the co-founder of 2boys.tv. He was researcher and head of OBORO’s multimedia sector for 20 years.
