The trip to see Guy Maddin’s film on Thursday evening was well worth while. It’s a personal account of the film-maker’s relationship with the place he grew up in (Winnipeg- a City in Eastern Canada, known for extreme cold winters). The event was marked by Guy himself, performing his personal melodramatic narration to the film live, followed by a Q & A. Shot almost entirely in black and white, this film, is an homage to the nostalgia of film itself, and to ‘film noir’, with the live voice-over reminiscent of early film police thrillers or silent movies. The only criticisms are that I thought it was a little long and a little (unnecessarily) repetitive in parts. I would like to see some of this film-maker’s other work. Because of its personal connection to a Canadian city, this film is going to mean more to a Canadian audience. I wonder how it would be seen abroad.
Friday was a studio day. Good to get a bit of consolidated time, but still need to crack the technical thing. Had to go into town to get some materials from the hardware store and graphics shop. I’m surprised that there isn’t better provision for art-materials here. Stopped by the liquor store to stock up on wine and beer. The wine here is very expensive- you can’t get anything for less than $8.00 (£4.00), for some very mediocre Canadian wine.
Arrived a little late for the organised thematic discussion on the question of Audience. This turned out to be a little frustrating and disappointing. I had hoped for a more critical and philosophical discussion around this. Instead, the agenda was much more market-driven and very narrowly considered around the specifics of ‘New Media’. I mentioned that I was concerned that there seemed to be this separation between what was ‘New Media’ and what was other Art, which was not very helpful. Shouldn’t we be talking about our work as art more holistically, rather than by using narrow definitions like New Media? I deliberately do not define myself in this way and feel very uncomfortable about considering myself like this as I see myself as an artist who uses different media to make work. My work is not defined by the media I use, but by the ideas.
Later, I finally managed to get a more in depth chat with Robert about trying to make some headway with the live thing. This was more useful, but he still needs to do a bit more work. I also talked to Kenny, who is a lead programmer and who will help me specifically to figure out some things using mobile networks in the first instance. I’ll have a more in depth meeting with him on Monday.
The evening ended with a screening of the excellent Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica film ‘Videograms of a Revolution’, showing the Rumanian revolution of December 1989 in Bucharest in a new media-based form of historiography.
