LAUNCH >>> TRANSMEDIA 2002 - FIFTEEN SECONDS OF FAME

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10.24.02 - 11.15.02, 24/7 broadcast
RoadSide TV video billboard - Yonge/Isabella, Toronto
opening launch: October 24 @7pm - Brownstone Bar, 603 Yonge Street
programmed by Year Zero One

"In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" - Andy Warhol

Fame is elusive, transitory, expensive and always in your face. In our
expedient and saturated media culture, is Warhols 15 minutes too long?
Year Zero One, a Toronto based on-line artist run network, presents
TRANSMEDIA 2002 - FIFTEEN SECONDS OF FAME, a three week site-specific
exhibition of 12 media artists from Canada, Mexico, USA and England. The
bi-annual exhibition will debut October 24 @7 pm on RoadSide TV's large
video billboard at Yonge and Isabella in downtown Toronto. During the
course of the show, which runs from October 24 to November 15th, fifteen
second media artworks will appear every 2 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. Featured in this year's exhibition are works that range
from an ad for "Celibritoy" to an allegorical bio tech nano-opera.

Art on Video Billboards

Year Zero One first introduced video art to a public audience by
utilising a large advertising billboard in Toronto in an event called
Transmedia 2000. It was the first of its kind in Canada and set a new
standard by which public art, in the age of outdoor digital technology
could be viewed. Like conventional advertising, which loops endlessly in
compressed time slots, the artists in TRANSMEDIA 2002 were faced with
the challenge of expressing their vision in a standard 15 second ad
segment. The works in TRANSMEDIA 2002 hyphenate our daily experience,
momentarily transporting viewers from their usual activities to consider
art as part of daily life. The video billboard displaying this year's
TRANSMEDIA 2002 was generously donated by RoadSideTV.

The Art

AMBER - Ricardo Rendon, Mexico
The idea of a virtual body - the perfect commodity of the
post-industrial age. Like any other electronic information, this body
guarantees your complete satisfaction. Thousands of pornographic images
represents any kind of body; cheaply produced and easily distributed.
The virtual pornography is free of infection, without any kind of
physical and emotional risk. No possibility of physical contact other
than the keyboard or the mouse click. Virtual pornography is an intimate
exercise of fantastic imagination and introspection. All that we save on
our hard drives surely represents an image of ourselves.

BUS STOP - Maris Mezulis, Canada
How long will this salaryman wait for the bus?

CELEBRITOY - Alistair Gentry, UK
Celebritoy represents the advertising industryis logical (or illogical)
next step. Itis an advertisement for a product that exists but is not
directly purchasable.

15 SECOND BLOWJOB - Michael Alstad, Canada
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). For Transmedia 2002 I had to speed
things up a bit, the 35 minute Blow Job has been condensed into 15
seconds - the duration of a standard video billboard ad slot.

THE HUB - Jason Bader, USA
The Hub is a metaphorical video artwork relating to the idea of how a
hub works in a networking environment to how an intersection works in a
physical environment. This is the second version of this work, reducing
the original 3 minutes to 15 seconds. The image captured within this
work is one of the busiest intersections in Los Angeles and America. The
video shows the activity (or absence thereof) of Los Angeles at 4:15 AM.
The viewer then gets a glimpse into 5 different times during the day to
see the massive contrast of activity at that intersection.

LIVE IN INFAMY - Jillian McDonald, Canada
One year after the WTC was attacked, there has been a spotlight on
official memorials: TV network executives have promised to exercise
caution in their use of alarming images, already burned into the
collective memory. This detail of the falling buildings I saw without
leaving my Brooklyn doorstep is covered with poppies - living memorials
at once fragile, ephemeral, and alive.

LIPSERVICE - David Jhave Johnston, Canada
All human life arises from a mysterious ocean of swirling energy,
immersed in time so vast it's beyond comprehension while our multiplexed
identities frolic onward, demanding immediate gratification, requited
love and reciprocated desire. Lipservice is dedicated to the coexistent
paradoxes of fame and famine in one flesh

MISS CANADIANA - Camille Turner, Canada
This video encapsulates highlights of the prestigious "Miss Canadiana
Pageant" which earns an "all Canadian girl" the opportunity to make
appearances across Canada and internationally to promote Canadian
culture. Who will she be?

NOTE TO SELF - Michelle Kasprzak, Canada
Note to Self is an fantastic illustration of inserting private thoughts
into a public space. Imagine having the ability to transmit warnings,
messages, and reminders to yourself via the landscape of the city. If
the city were a "programmable" space in such a way, this customization
of the public environment would be both utilitarian and playful at the
same time.

PARTHENOGENESIS - Marina Zurkow, USA
Rumi asked, "What is the heart? It is not human, and it is not
imaginary." Parthenogenesis is an animated, allegorical nano-opera. It
uses a vocabulary of mutated, pictographic icons to tell the story of
loneliness, heartbreak, and renewal. This piece was made in the
aftermath of Sept. 11th with the hope that out of heartbreak, compassion
can come.

PLAISANCE - Isabelle Hayeur, Canada
Time appears suspended above this peaceful district of the city of
Chicoutimi (Quebec) In this quiet world, everyone has its place under
the sun and its sightseeing on the waterfall. Plaisance proposes a
critical view on a rather widespread type of rural development. This
short animation raises the question of responsibility - for our planning
of space and for our imaginative powers. The media promotes our common
taste for the grandiose and the landscape spectacle. When we see things
in close-up, we can only have one point of view on them. That's why I
wanted to show this postcard off-screen.

SWEET OR SALTY (Madonna's Poor Days) - Ana Rewakowicz, Canada
Sweet or Salty (Madonna's Poor Days) refers to the construction of
cultural identity in the context of stardom. In this piece, coming from
personal experiences of being compared to Madonna, I impersonate her to
examine how the image of a star creates a longing and a sense of endless
possibilities. The title of the video references Madonna's line from her
interview, in which she describes her poor days in New York when she was
eating popcorn for dinner while watching films. She once said, "the only
thing that I keep in the fridge is popcorn". I use this line as a
pertinent example of the American Dream with its promotion of becoming
anyone you want (a star) from 'nothing'.

The works exhibited in TRANSMEDIA 2002, along with artist statements
and bios, are available for viewing on-line at:
http://www.year01.com/transmedia2002

Year Zero One gratefully acknowledges their supporters who made
TRANSMEDIA 2002 possible:
The Canada Counci for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts
Council and RoadSide TV.


Pubicist: Dara Rowland
Dara Rowland & Associates
675 King Street West, Suite 206
Toronto ON Canada
M5V 1M9
Telephone: 416-916-7377
Fax: 416-916-7375
[email protected]


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YEAR ZERO ONE is an on-line artist run centre which operates as a
network for the dissemination of digital culture and new media through
web based exhibitions, an extensive media arts directory, and the
YEAR01 Forum - an electronic art journal.

http://www.year01.com
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