A conversation with Roy Ascott and Tom Sherman, tea and a live hook-up with composer Marc Patch and friends at the Banff Centre.

The following text is taken from Front Magazine, vol. IV, no. 3, p. 13, January/February 1993:

Roy Ascott is recognized as a pioneer and leading figure in the field of art and telematics. Involved with cybernetics in art since the early 1960s, He has initiated and participated in many communications events involving the Western Front but, in true telematic form, he has never been here! He created La Plissure du Texte, a worldwide email project for Electra, Paris, in 1983. He was International Commissioner (with Tom Sherman) for the Venice Biennale in 1986, for which he organized Planetary Network. His multi-media installation Aspects of Gaia was presented at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria in 1989. In 1991, as a protest against the invasion of Iraq, he proposed Text, Bombs and Videotape.

Tom Sherman has been to Vancouver several times. He first performed text-based pieces and produced three videotapes as artist-in-residence at the Western Front in 1978. He was recognized early as one of Canada’s for most video artists and moved to the Canada Council where he successfully created the Media Arts Section. Honoured by a solo exhibition at the National Gallery and several solo exhibitions at the Galerie Rene Blouin in Montreal, Sherman is now director of the oldest art school in America (and one of the largest), the Syracuse School of Art.

Both our guests are articulate philosophers with provocative and sometimes disturbing things to say about the effects of technology on culture.

Tea will be served. As a special event we will host a telematic tea party with composer Marc Patch and friends at the Banff Center.

Digitized video documentation of this event is available through the Western Front Archives upon research request.