Working with my friend Paul Plimley is always a lot of fun!

This concert was part of the 2011 TD International Jazz Festival in Vancouver.

String Stories band members: Phil Emerson, guitar; Tommy Babin, bass and Paul Plimley, piano.

Taking the video was complicated by the fact that a camera person from a local television station had taken the spot that I had planned to set up in.

The back of the room was the next best and my new wide angle video lens really helped capture the whole stage.

The video is unedited, with audio from the camera, just title, render and upload!

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I have visited the site a few times and always witnessed peaceful, busy people building their homes. Food Not Bombs has been serving meals and many of Vancouver’s homeless population are better cared for than they have ever been. Remember that many people are living pay cheque to pay cheque and an interruption in their income can quickly lead to loosing their home. Homeless people are not always drug users or anti-social deviants, many are impoverished individuals who cannot find work.

A young woman died at the Occupy site — “a drug overdose victim”, reported the mainstream press. I don’t know if that is true, but I was saddened by this event. However, it it is not a justification to move against the protesters. I know that in Vancouver, most drug related deaths are not even reported, especially not as important news. There are too many of the hopeless people who turn to chemical comfort and find a final rest.

The atmosphere of the Occupy site reminds me of the “sit-ins”, “Be-ins” and other passive protests of my youth. One difference is the diversity of the protesters, as they range from babes to elders. I shudder to remember how those events usually ended with the authorities violently displacing the unarmed, peaceful crowd. I fear for the safety of the protesters. Once an injunction is granted in Vancouver, the politicians will move swiftly to remove the protesters before the upcoming election.

In my opinion, the Occupy Movement is not inciting revolution. It is representing a social evolution.

In North America, the population is literate and has access to the internet.

Although the attempts to “dumb down” the mainstream with television and pop tunes have generally met with success, the economic crisis has brought a sharper focus to society. More and more individuals who have suffered financial hardship because of the economic conditions imposed by corporate greed are reacting.

Members of the middle class, usually afraid to loose a comfortable lifestyle, usually in favour of maintaining the status quo that  supports them — now speak out.

In support of the Occupy Movement, I wrote and performed this poem, The Evolution is Being Televised.

The Evolution Is Being Televised – Victoria Gibson Nov3-2011

You can stay home people,
You can lock your doors, your windows, and your mind
But you will not be able to loose yourself cocooned in your media devices,
You will not be able to ignore the movement occupying our streets
A social evolution that is taking the temperature of our times
Because the evolution is being televised

The evolution is being televised
Brought to you on the eleven o’clock news
by those who would dismiss the dissatisfaction of the population.
The evolution is being televised
Brought to you on the internet from cameras and phones
by those who would insist on the message getting through.
Social evolution on a screen near you
The evolution is being televised

Work to find solutions on the scale of our problems,
Direct democracy with a human microphone amplifying the message,
Dare to join the general assembly of citizens,
Raise your hand
Against an economic system built on colonialism.
Raise your hand
Against inequality and corporate greed.
Raise your hand
Here your vote will be counted.
Raise your hand in agreement
and hear “we have consensus”.
The evolution is being televised

There can be no democracy when politicians are in the pockets of the corporations,
Using fear to perpetuate all forms of oppression,
Rejecting responsibility for the destruction of the environment.
The spin doctors use damage control on the crisis of the day.
Political pundits seek individual representatives of a movement that is run on consensus.
The evolution is being televised

When those who vote have no control over our nations,
Those who vote assemble in the streets.
When those who vote seek action on their problems,
Those who vote assemble in the streets.
The diversity of our population young and old together,
All have been cheated of economic security and opportunity,
All have witnessed the continued degradation of our environment,
All seekers of freedom live in fear of brutal suppression,
While assembling bravely in the street looking for a brighter day.

The evolution is being televised, being televised, being televised
The evolution requires your imagination
The evolution is streaming live.

Contact: Victoria Gibson

See my song: Government of the Canadian People written before the last Canadian election.

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Videos include my newest work: Kensington Mystery Man

Kensington Mystery Man from victoria gibson on Vimeo.

There is a film clip of the title sequence for Rise Up, Fallen Angel

Rise Up, Fallen Angel — Opening title sequence from victoria gibson on Vimeo.

Lisle Ellis said this one of his favourite visual parts of the show! That is quite a compliment considering the quality of art from the contributors around the world and Lisle’s dedication to his own visual art. This clip is really a display of my work in the visual and audio realms. I will be creating a documentary video of the event and my projection artist collaborator, Christina deRoos has posted a clip to her Vimeo account here.

Rise Up Fallen Angel from Christina deRoos on Vimeo.

The final public clip is a documentary of the work I did at EMPAC in 2010 — it is a work-in-progress showing of my Integrated Media Arts piece, Bandwidth. The video was edited by Julia Alsarraf, a colleague who also participated in the Media Lab at EMPAC.

Bandwidth at EMPAC 2010 from victoria gibson on Vimeo.

The EMPAC experience was very important to me in many ways, but meeting the other artists was a great inspiration. I am still collaborating with one of my other colleagues, Suzon Fuks, an Australian artist. She is launching her Waterwheel project on August 22nd! I have contributed some of my water video and will be uploading more photos and other material to the collection. If you would like to be part of my crew in the “Tap” section, please contact me. I would like to be a more involved participant in the project.

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If you are not able to come to the show Rise Up, Fallen Angel — Please watch on the Center for Performance Research UStream channel.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cprnyc

This is a big night — we have had many technical challenges setting up 3 screens of projection and surround sound, then streaming it all on to the internet.

Tonight is our open rehearsal, see you there.

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Rise Up Fallen Angel – Thurs 5/26-Sat 5/28 – www.cprnyc.org – Brooklyn, NY from Christina deRoos on Vimeo.

I am in NYC working hard on the show with my collaborators.

Christina deRoos, my collaborator in the visual projection aspect of the show, made a video yesterday and posted it on Vimeo as a demo.

I hope you like it.

Click here to View on Vimeo.

Tickets available on Brown Paper Tickets Here — only $12.

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Rise Up, Fallen Angel

The ephemeral strands that connect us; a gesture, a sound, a touch – may trigger cascades of meaning.
A glimpse of something peripheral to the main event, catches attention, and is gone — slipping into the crowd. “Play the Moment Composers’ Collective” weaves together strands of light and sound to form a tapestry of improvised narrative. The integrated media exhibition, Rise Up, Fallen Angel, brings together a diverse collection of visual creators from many countries who have sent their angels through the internet. We invite you to a primal, emotional experience designed to create an organically resonant, sensory immersion. Satisfy the need for spiritual renewal and tribal ritual in a contemporary context; myth and symbolism invoked using the latest in modern technology. We seek to reinforce the resilience of the human spirit: rise up and overcome the problems we all recognize in our lives, our communities and our planet.

Download RUFA-blurb-final-150wd

The show will be awesome because of the wonderful artworks that have been submitted and the artistry of the Play the Moment Composers’ Collective.

Play the Moment consists of:

Paul Plimley – Lisle Ellis – Christina deRoos – Victoria Gibson

More information will be posted soon as I am working on producing a short demo of the show.

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Here is may song — sorry about the ad — I will record it again and post ad free on Sunday. I have had to do this really quickly due to the work involved in my New York show next month.

If the video above doesn’t work try this link http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13939494

I will also fix the justification of the chords over the words.

Government of the Canadian People
C                G               C        F                G          C
I don’t want to tell you how to vote, but I know what my choice will be
C                    G        C       F     G        C
Conservatives must loose the day for Canada to stay free!

F                        G             F                     G
Contempt for Parliament cannot win, that’s what makes me sing,
F                                   G                        F                  G
Canada has our royal queen, we don’t need a self-made king!

C                         G                        C           F            G     C
Steven Harper’s Government of Canada, please don’t let it be
C                             G            C            F             G             C
Yoko stood for her right to Imagine, Canadians, so should we

F                       G                                     C
This is the government of the Canadian people
F               G                C
Steven Harper has to go
This is the government of the Canadian people
Steven Harper has to go

F                                              G        F                    G
Precious rights and freedoms restore, Court challenges and so much more
Peroguing Parliament, secret government — we will take no more

C                    G                       C                    F          G                           C
The cuts to Arts, Status of Women and our made in US Environmental Plan,
C                G                        C             F             G                         C
Threats to CBC and Health Act, Canada can be destroyed by one man.

So many dirty decisions — a long list I would like to add,
I noticed all of the changes Canadians, it makes me mad!

This is the government of the Canadian people
Steven Harper has to go
This is the government of the Canadian people
Steven Harper has to go

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Rise Up, Fallen Angel will be exhibited at the Centre for Performance Research on Thursday, May 26 through Saturday, May 28th. There will be an artist’s talk by curator, Victoria Gibson on Saturday afternoon.

The exhibit will consist of three screens with projected images placed in a non-linear improvised narrative and music from Play the Moment Composers’ Collective.

IMPORTANT: There is no text or language in the images or audio content.

361 Manhattan Avenue
NY 11211

Please sign up to submit your work. You will receive a confirmation e-mail letting you know we have received the form. If your image or video is not on a site where it may be downloaded, then please e-mail a small copy of the image or a description of the video to vixmedia01 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you have a problem with the form on this web page, please try this link.

Thank you for participating in the show,

Please read the full Call to Artists before submitting — by submitting this form you understand and agree to the terms and conditions in the Rise Up, Fallen Angel International Call to Artists — please click on this link to view or download a pdf copy  RiseUP-FallenAngel_Call-to_Artists3

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The video shows some of the work in progress and the techniques that we used to develop the pieces.

I have been a member of Dance-Tech for about a year and I enjoy the great dance and technology videos and interviews. I was quite surprised to meet Marlon at EMPAC, but I was happy to be able to thank him in person for providing lots of interesting content.

Marlon also provided a link to a video documentary about Mark Coniglio’s work with Troika Ranch on their latest production, “Loop Diver”. I was touched by the devotion of the company to perfecting the production and the message of breaking free from our familiar loop patterns resonates with me.

Watch the video here

It was great to see the documentary, but it makes me want to see the full production. I hope is is presented again so I can see it!

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My first week in New York city has been so busy that I have not had much time to do a retrospective of my eventful week, from August 15th to 22nd at EMPAC in Troy, NY.

I am happy to report that I was successful in creating a “visual music” presentation on 3 screens with one of the aspects controlled in real time using gesture control.

Adafruit shipped my Arduino boards to EMPAC and I was able to research on the internet and receive help from others in the workshop to understand how to make the system work. I chose the infra-red distance sensor and used information from the Adafruit website to help me program the board. My trusty Ubuntu computer handled all of the Arduino code uploading while I ran the Isadora program on the Macbook.

My performance was thrilling for me, but I was inspired and informed by the work that everyone else in the class showed on Saturday, August 21, 2010.

The first work we saw was by Joff, a theatre instructor who has a company that puts on plays in Second Life. The work included a grassy field with images of human figures that were short videos. The figures would fade in, seem to be sleeping, then move in some way, then fade out. We were invited to interact with the figures, but I found it fascinating just to watch them.

It was eerie and engaging as an installation and Joff might develop it further as a performance or to be more interactive.

There were two other installations, one by Ian (pronounced Ion) that consisted of a table and two chairs with a set of seemingly random objects on the table. The screen that faced the participants in the chair included a delayed video of individuals who had visited in the past mixed and overlaid with video of the present visitors. The more people that participated the more interesting the exhibit became as the past visitors would show up on the screen seeming to sit opposite the live participants.

Ian also staged an interactive performance and he was very generous in assisting with coding other people’s projects.

I hope to have more time to process the photos I took and I hope that Johannes (pictured here enjoying interacting with Ian’s installation) will be able to produce some video excerpts from the documentation of the Saturday events.

It was a full schedule and everyone worked very hard to create interesting and innovative work.

One of the largest collaborations was Sarah’s (shown activating one of the messages left) project. This was a complex installation that interacted with the visitor. As the person moved on the lighted squares the text and the audio would respond by changing. This process required complex programming, audio and text preparation and a lot of testing. The final showing was a great demonstration of the power of collaboration and the strong idea that Sarah realized.

Victor contributed to many projects as a programmer, electronic music composer and performer and finally, he revealed his own powerful statement.

Victor is a karate master who tracked his movement with a light controlled with infra-red tracking. It was a surprise to everyone who had watched all of the other projects evolve during the week with Victor seen as a helpful computer coder and audio designer. Victor amazed everyone with his grace and intensity as he put on a very effective performance.

More information about the activities of the busy week can be found on the workshop blog titled, EMPAC Live. Media+Performance Lab.

I do have more material, but no time at present. When I return home and I am shut in during the rainy season, memories of this wonderful week will pull me back to share more with you.

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