The following text is taken from Front Magazine, vol. VII, no. 4, p. 9, March/April 1996:
Performances: 8 pm dates: 18, 19
Lectures/Workshops: 12 pm – 6 pm dates: 19, 20, 21
Electronic Cabaret: 6pm date: 20
Symposium: 8 pm date: 21
The Electronic Arts Festival ‘Designing an Interactive Future’ is a four day festival encompassing electronic interactive media, communications and technology within the Visual and Performing Arts.
The Festival encourages discourse about the creative potential of the Arts using electronic media and technology within our local, national and international communities.
The festival’s daily performances, workshops and lectures, will take place at the Western Front and the Video In, April 18-21, 1996. Interactive installations will open in March and run through April at The Western Front Gallery and Artspeak Gallery. On April 20, there will be an electronic performance cabaret going on-line. Digital Earth will open an Internet Gallery featuring works and critical essays of Canadian artists. A public symposium on the Arts in electronic culture will be held on April 21.
Performances, presentations and lectures will be given by: Diana Burgoyne, Hank Bull, Daniel Dion, Martin Gotfrit, Ken Gregory, Robert Kozinuk, Oliver Hockenhull, Paul Perchel, Matt Rogalsky, Thecla Schiphorst, Cornelia Wyngaarden … and many more TBA.
The 1996 Electronic Arts Festival is a cooperative initiative of the Western Front, The Video In, Artspeak Gallery and Digital Earth. Stay posted for an upcoming brochure.
Lectures/Workshops/Discussions:
– Santiago Bose: 04/19/96
Lecture by Santiago Bose [at Video In Studios] as part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Kay Stockholder: Censorship on the Internet 04/19/96
Lecture by Kay Stockholder about censorship and the internet.
– Artist Technician Collaboration Panel: 04/19/96
Robert Kozinuk, the director of WF Media Arts at the time, moderates a panel discussion at Video In Studios about artist and technician collaboration. Panelists include in this order: Nelson Gray, Elizabeth Fischer, and Ken Gregory. Topics include the difference between technicians and artist, “rules” for collaboration, and challenges of collaboration, to name a few.
– Hank Bull: 04/20/96
Talk at Video In Studios by Hank Bull about his work: Hypernation, What is a Nation in Hyperspace?. This took place as part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Copyright on the Infohighway: 04/20/96
Talk at Video In Studios about copyright and censorship on the internet. Part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Digital Identities Panel: 04/20/96
Panel discussion at Video In Studios. Topics include the potentials of digital technology and the use and accessibility of technology by marginalized communities. Panelists all have a turn to speak beginning with two women speakers that the archivist is unable to identify (works mentioned are an essay entitled, “Paradise Lost: Nostalgia for the Future” and an artwork “Body Still Matters”, followed by Paul Perchal. Followed by questions from the audience. Part of Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Monster Central: 04/20/96
Technically mediated video panel discussion [previously recorded] by Monster Central, the audience has remotes and are able to pause and play the video. Topics addressed include women, monsters, machines, and gender, sexuality, access, and agency on the internet. Discussion at Video In Studios as part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Sylvia Scott: 04/20/96
Talk by Sylvia Scott [then Intermedia instructor/director at Emily Carr] talks about educational MOOs (a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users (players) are connected at the same time). Part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996, the talk took place at Video In Studios.
– Ken Gregory: 04/20/96
Talk by Ken Gregory at the Western Front on his work Cranking out Paradigms. Talk was a part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Body Machine; Who’s Body: 04/21/96
Panel discussion focussing on the body and the internet. Thecla Schiphorst moderates. Speakers appear in the following order: Diana Gromala, Scott Morrison, Diana Burgoyne. Presentations are followed by audience questions. Part of Electronic Art’s Festival 1996. Panel took place at Video In Studios.
– Panel Discussion by Members of Western Front Multimedia Group: 04/21/96
Panel discussion by four members of the “Western Front Multimedia Crew” (from tape) including Elizabeth Vander Zaag, [Steve Zuur], [Margaret Callahan], and [unidentified man]. Hosted by Robert Kozinuk. Panelists discuss and demonstrate a CD-ROM that they developed utiizing voice recognition software. Part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996.
– Wende Bartley: Narrowing the Gap Between Self, Body, and Machine 04/21/96
Wende Bartley delivers a talk discussing sound, the body, and technology. She also encourages audience participation by demonstrating exercises that deal with the breath and body, and the voice and body. Part of the Electronic Arts Festival 1996. Talk takes place at Video In Studios.
– Personal in Electronic Media: 04/21/96
Panelist discussion that took place at Video In Studios as part of the Electronic Arts Festival. Panelists each deliver a talk in the following order: Susan Frykberg, Cornelia Wyngaarden, Paul Wong, Matt Rogalsky, and Wende Bartley. Audience question and answer followed the talks.