We would like to invite you to the Surrey Seen Opening Reception and Celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Surrey Art Gallery on Sunday October 23, from 2 to 5pm. The exhibit will be open from October 22 to December 18. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the Surrey Art Gallery has proposed a series of projects that invite artists to consider the City of Surrey as their theme. The collective title of all of these exhibitions is Surrey Seen.
Address: 13750 - 88 Avenue (in Bear Creek Park), Surrey, BC, Canada
Information: 1-604-501-5566
As a part of this exhibit we will present One River (running), a media installation commissioned by Liane Davison from the Surrey Art Gallery and supported by SSHRC. For this we work developed a media diffusion system for multichannel video across 32 screens and 360 degree projections on four walls of the gallery room, 16 channel audio, electronic puppetry and interactive, real time animation. One River (running) features surrey citizens taking about their experience of Surrey. Below is a brief description of the work.
Best Regards,
Aleksandra Dulic
Surrey Art gallery website: http://www.city.surrey.bc.ca/Living+in+Surrey/Arts/Surrey+Art+Gallery/Exhibition+Programs.htm
One River (running)
October 23 - December 18, 2005-08-22
Artist team: Alexsandra Dulic, Kenneth Newby, Martin
Gotfrit and Dinka Pignon
Production Team:
So-Young Park animation
Layda Gongora animation assistant
Alex Mateesco sound recording and editing
Phil Thomson sound editing and design
Milena Droumeva sound recording and editing,
Derek Robinson sensors design
Introduction
One River (running) is an image of community, both social and ecological and is centred around a metaphor of river and flow. The river forms the backbone of the Fraser Valley from which a rich and complex ecology is nourished and provides the gateway for the great salmon runs that are increasingly imperiled in this region.
The river also defines territory of the St:olo nation — the original “people of the river”. From this beginning of the social world there is the ever-intensifying river of people, cultures and languages that have flowed through this region from all parts of the planet over the past century.
The creation of this work involved a simple documentary process in which a team of recordists went out into the Surrey community for several days and recorded a series of reflections about this place by members of the community. The voices are of those who desired to be heard in this context: families, individuals, members of the community — from home owners to the homeless — people with interest — people with care.
The creative problem confronting the artists in the face of the large amount of material gathered was one of selecting what would be heard in the final artwork. The impulse to editorialize and emphasize was resisted as there could clearly be no objective approach to making these choices that would honour every voice that had contributed to the “river”. The decision was then made to allow all of the voices to sound themselves all the time — forming the river of reflections on place that flow through the community. Individual voices regularly emerge from the river and combine with both previous voices and those not yet heard in a complex web of associations that begin to form a kind of conversation.
- Kenneth Newby
One River (running) is an interactive, immersive audio environment. The installation was designed to create both a visual and audio experience of rivers - using a complex system of moving sound, moving images, and a physical structure also designed to echo the river’s undulating geographic form. The artwork is both an expression of rivers using technology, and, at the same time, serves as a metaphor for culture and history - tributaries that form a contemporary Canadian multi-cultural community such as Surrey.
Upon entering the gallery, visitors will face videos projected on the walls and 32 ceiling hung, oval screens. Small speakers, hidden in the ceiling, broadcast a symphony of voices and other sounds. Discretely placed under the thick carpet are eight pressure sensors. A web cam is barely visible, mounted in the ceiling. Both the sensors and the camera detect the location of people in the room and initiate either visual or audio content. Depending where visitors move within the exhibit, they will activate the sound and images they hear and see. For example, as visitors approach the screens they may emphasise one of eight simultaneous stories being spoken - so it will be heard above other voices.
The talking voices narrate stories about Surrey - its past, present and imagined future. Visitors will see images of people’s mouths speaking these words. Although the stories are mostly told in English, one may also hear many of the languages spoken by Surrey’s citizens. Stories may be told from various cultural perspectives and narrated by children or elders.
Other sounds in the exhibit include those recorded from Surrey’s natural environment - frogs, birds, a mosquito, water running, as well as sounds of the urban environment - the Skytrain, traffic, children playing, construction sounds and sounds within a shopping mall. This audio is broadcast from speakers at the corners of the room, creating both an ambient sound environment, and contrast and mix both urban and natural experiences. Visitors can explore the sound as they walk through the exhibit - it will change as they travel.
The artwork’s images originate from digital photographs of people’s mouths whom the team interviewed. These still images were then computer animated - algorithmically programmed as though they are puppets. The mouths recognize the voices, and move as though they are speaking the words they hear. The artists created a voice recognition software program to do this synchronization. It is interesting to note that this animation is occurring in real time - the video is listening and responding to the audio. Occasionally, other imagery of the natural environment replaces the speaking lips. Close up images of water with spawning salmon, when projected over the numerous screens, also provide a sense of a living river.
Acknowledgements:
The team would like to thank the many volunteers who contributed their voices to this project including:
Joanie Doyle
Zahra Gawhari
Eric Kailly
Daniel Kailly
Aylson Kailly
Julia Kailly
Linda Kailly
Lyn Lay
Elizabeth Lay
Rebekah Lay
Sarah Lay
Joanne MacLennan
Ian McKinnon
Donna Lee Rubletz
Anne Savenye
Tara Isabel Savoie
Shawna Savoie
Ling D Savoie
Gilbert J. Savoie
Ali Shafaat
Carol Williams
About the artists:
Aleksandra Dulic is a media artist, researcher and experimental film director. Her research centers on algorithmic cinema and animation, software art, the ontology of the open work, and multi-modal scenography for theatre. Aleksandra has participated in a number of exhibitions with her interactive and mixed media installations. She has done public art work, and directed documentary films, short videos and animations produced for television broadcast and film festival screenings in Europe and North America.
As a composer Martin Gotfrit's work includes electroacoustic and acoustic scores for feature and documentary film, video, theatre, dance and the concert stage. As a sound designer he has worked as a practitioner, consultant and teacher. He has been on faculty at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University since 1981 where he currently holds the position of Director.
Kenneth Newby is a media artist and an assistant professor in the School for Interactive Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University. His media art consists of works for responsive kinetic materials, sound sculpture, interactive audiovisual performance works, compact disc editions of music and spoken word, and DVD editions of music and experimental animation.
Dinka Pignon is an interdisciplinary artist working in video installation and performance art. Dealing with 'mixed realities', her work is characterized by a strong
affinity for the phenomenal, conceptual and liminal. She has shown throughout Europe, in the U.S.A., Canada and Asia.
One River (running)
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Type: event
- Starts: Oct 23 2005 at 12:00AM
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