Winter Streams feature II

Cinematheque at MediaCentre
Le Musee di-visioniste
http://www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre/

is currently showcasing "WINTER STREAMS",
streaming video works.

This is the second feature within a series
focussing on indiviual artists presented in this show.
This time are featured >>>>>>>
>>
Michael Alstad (Canada)
Jody Zellen (USA)
Alvin Soon (Singapore)

all works can be accessed via
Cinematheque site
http://www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre/
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Artist:
*name Michael Alstad (Canada)
*work:
*title 15 SECOND BLOW JOB
*year 2002
*about the work:
Andy Warhol created the seminal film Blow Job in 1964, the year I was born.
He extended the duration of his early silent works by having them projected
at a slower rate than what it was originally shot at (16 frames per second
instead of 24). 15 SECOND BLOW JOB was originally launched at the Transmedia
2002 festival in Toronto where each artist had a 15 second time limit for
their works to be screened on a public video billboard. Commenting on the
ephemeral nature of media and celebrity culture, I had to speed things up a
bit - the 35 minute Blow Job was condensed into 15 seconds - the duration of
a standard video billboard ad slot.

*about the artist:
MICHAEL ALSTAD is a Toronto based artist, curator and graphic designer.
Michael is a founding member of YEAR ZERO ONE, a net.art gallery and
electronic art forum, and the Symbiosis Collective, a group of
multidisciplinary artists whose 4 site specific occupations took place in
vacant buildings in Toronto from 1992 - 1997. His work has been featured in
exhibitions and festivals in Toronto, New York, London, Berlin and Graz,
Austria. Michael is dedicated to autonomous methods of direct
artist/audience communication via electronic networks, site-specific
installations and public art interventions.
**************************************

Artist:
*name: Jody Zellen (USA)
work:
*title: Buildings
*year 2002
*about the work:
"My work draws from media sources. I use images from historical archives as
well as from the newspaper to explore the relationship between the recorded,
the observed, and the imagined city."

*about the artist:
Jody Zellen is an artist living in Santa Monica, California. She works in
many media simultaneously making photographs, installations, net art, public
art, as well as artists' books that explore the subject of the urban
environment.

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Artist:
*Alvin Soon (Singapore)

*work
*title: Virtual Identity
*year: 2002
*about the work:
Contemporary social theory points to the modern identity as fragmented and
being in a permanent state of flux, with different parts coming together to
form a whole. Likewise in everyday life, we are all familiar with our
multiple identities as father, son, husband, worker, friend, etc. This
notion of human identity as a multiple, simultaneous occurring phenomena
forms the basis of this video short.

In it, the protaganist awakes from his slumber to peel off his different
faces, taking out several masks that depict his multiple identities. This is
not only a throwback to the Latin concept of masks as identities but also to
the uniquely Chinese idea of faces as the basis of man's identity.

Later scenes show the protaganist holding his different faces/identities
with numerous hands, outlining the concept of modern man's simultaneous
multiple identities as well as posing the question of man's own divinity by
depicting a deity-like image. The question is answered by the fact that
modern man is able to achieve a virtual god-like status of having
simultaneous multiple identities only through the use of technology, which
the video tries to depict by using black and white images.

The final scene shows the protaganist going back to his slumber, lapsing
back into human form, summing up the notion that one needs to "wake up" in
order to see the reality of modern man's multiple identities.

*about the artist:
Alvin is 27-year-old who resides and works in Singapore. A self-taught video
artist, he is currently pursuing a course in multimedia art in an art
college.

.
all works can be accessed via
Cinematheque site
http://www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre/

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Cinematheque at MediaCentre
Le Musee di-visioniste
http://www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre/
contacts:
[email protected]

Cinematheque is designed and optimized for
DSL Internet connection
fast computer Pentium III 800 Mhz or better
or comparable MAC
VGA resolution 1024x768
following players/plug-ins are required
Flash6, Quicktime, Real, Shockwave
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