Fragmented/Fused

Well the chroma keying certainly isn't perfect, but we're off and running with the third video series for Freed the Puppet, Fragmented/Fused. I'll be working with footage shot in Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Montreal next week to explore the concept further at The Pink Table, our newly re-set-up Halifax production office (formerly Behind the Couch). Some big news...we're producing a dance film for Freed! It's called Overland : A Journey of Limits, scheduled for shooting in Montreal and Halifax at the end of February, 2010. Details to come!

Imprudanse/Moe Clark - Montreal part 2

Before leaving Montreal I had to check out Les Impurdanses, a dance improv event modeled after Quebec-style theatre improv. Two teams (in this case Blue vs. Yellow), a ref everyone hates, and a number or "rounds" in two "periods" a la a hockey match. It was great, all professional dancers, and the place was packed! In comparative and mixed situations the eight dancers displayed and played with Blue edging out Yellow 7 to 5 at the final whistle. A big Vas Chier! to the ref for giving penalties for infractions that cost the offending team votes anyway....BOOOOOOO. They love their dance in Montreal as much as they love their particular style of improv games, and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get a first hand look. Bienvenue! Later that night, I found myself at the Green Room up in Mile End for night of readings (in English) by local poets, including my new friend and Montreal hostess extraordinaire Moe Clark. Moe's lyrical style and potent poetry backed by a looping station and delay pedal made for a powerful and affecting performance. Check out her myspace...www.myspace.com/moeclarkspokenword 

Stand Up/Strip Down - Montreal Part 1

Every minute I spend in Montreal I wonder why it is I ever leave. With so much happening both on the streets and in the clubs it really is an artist's dream city. If one isn't inspired around every corner to create from the everyday, one is soaking up another's latest work or project or idea. I've been couch surfing at a Mile End apartment full of artist types, a dancer, a poet, an arts administrator. We shot some footage for Freed in the kitchen this afternoon, more body fragments on greenscreen, a gros merci to Manou and Cora for lending their limbs to the project! On Friday I popped in to check out Parcours Dance 2009 in the Outremont area, a conference hosted by dance advocacy group La Danse Sur Les Routes (ladansesurlesroutes.com). I didn't attend the conference, but went to check out a "process showcase" of Devorer Le Ciel, the latest work from Daniele Desnoyers and her company Le Carre des Lombes (lecarredeslombes.com), running January 14-16 at Centre Pierre-Peladeau. On Thursday I was lucky enough to stumble into Les Katacombs and caught Stand Up/Strip Down, the comedy/burlesque hybrid conceived by Montreal comic DeAnne Smith (deannesmith.com). Featuring some hilarious stand up and poignant, sexy burlesque this event is a sure winner, with plenty of laughs and nipples to keep the crowd delighted. And it's still only Saturday! 

DeAnne Smith

STRUTTing it in St. Catharine's

The Niagara Arts Centre, based in St. Catharine's, mounted their decade old annual fundraiser STRUTT last night, a wearable art extravaganza. Around 50 artists created pieces for the show which was half fashion and half performance art. Stand outs on the fashion front included a dress made from playing cards, and one made from bike tubes. The NAC has been around for more than 40 years, "serving the working artists and the community of Niagara". (nac.org) Based on last night's spectacle, the NAC serves them well, as the event was both well run and well attended. 

Plasticine Pet Chase

figurines by Traci Cluff

set by Bill Beso

video by Travis Macloud

Hanging with collaborator Bill Beso in Winnipeg this weekend. Audio before lunch, video after dinner. We're being productive. Freed shoot today.

Spinning Wheel

spinning wheel by Bill Beso

background image by Juanita Williams

video by Travis Macloud

Jamming in Saskatoon

After a long and crampy train ride from Vancouver, I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I stepped out of the station onto the wide open Saskatoon prairie. Despite feeling like I just performed teleportation, I had a productive day, first meeting with David Lariviere, artistic director of PAVED arts, a non-profit community-based organization for the promotion and exhibition of the photographic, audio, video, electronic, and digital arts. (pavedarts.ca) Then I wandered not far up the street to meet Kyle from Free Flow Dance for the second installment of the Freed the Puppet Video 3 shoot. Kyle is a wonderful dancer, and captured the essence of the project instantly. Free Flow is throwing a Black Light dance party on Saturday at their space, with DJs and performances and of course, white outfits eerily aglow. (freeflowdance.com). Later on I returned to both spots for some jamming, first to Free Flow for a open contact jam and then to PAVED for their Thursday noise jam. They are, as you'd expect, technical wizards and stream their jams live through their website. Check it out!

PAVED arts noise jam with David, Todd, Laura, Ian, and Travis

Freed the Puppet - Video 3

Freed the Puppet - Video 3

We've begun work on a third video for the Freed the Puppet project with a shoot at SFU in Vancouver with dancer Karissa Fyrrar. Using collective choreography and image animation, Video 3 explores the nature of fragmentation and fusion, and continues the journey of limits through sound, image, and movement. The next shoot is Saskatoon with the help of Free Flow Dance, followed by Winnipeg with longtime Freed contributor Alexandra Elliott. 

Copyright/Copyleft

The New Music Festival, tagged A Festival of Sonic Collagism and the Art of Sampled and Repurposed Sounds + Images, hosted a panel discussion yesterday about copyright, intellectual property rights and art. Featuring Peter Hatch - composer and organizer of the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound (openears.ca), Doug Horne - founding member and host of Frequent Mutilations radio art show on CKHS FM in Waterloo, Mark Hosler - sound artist with Negativland (negativland.com), Martha Rans - copyright lawyer working with Artists' Legal Outreach in Vancouver (allianceforarts.com/artists-legal-outreach), and Vancovuer artist DJ Tapes aka Aja Rose Bond. The panel discussed various topics including but not limited to the differences between fair use/dealing, copyright, copyleft, and the differences between perceptions and laws in the US and Canada. The reader may recall that in 2008 Bill C-61, which proposed major changes to Canada's copyright act, was tabled by the Conservative and died when Parliament was dissolved in September 08 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_C-61). Peter Hatch situated copyright in history by pointing out that since the 9th century musical tradition has including the use of other artists work in the creative process. According to him, and generally accepted by the room, it wasn't until the 19th century and the commodification of culture that copyright became a legal and economic issue. The audience was interested to know what the panel thought about the ethics of copyright, but Hark Hosler pointed out that "good or bad doesn't matter because [appropriation of work is] happening". The group debated the line that defines infringement and appropriation, and the ethical and legal elements of the topic, but the most poignant comment in my opinion was from DJ Tapes who asserted that for her, the only economic issue is one of subsistence of the artist, and whether or not they have the tools and time to continue to create, while the only ethical issue is one of exploitation, as when an artist's vision is rendered moot by the use of their material by out of context. An engaging discussion to say the least! 

New (and Old) work by Bill Beso (and Travis Macloud)

The Critique of Kant

Bill Beso

The above is a new drawing from Bill Beso, and below is a Beso/Macloud slideshow first created for our website launch party of last February. I reworked the sound in the early summer, and recorded it, but could never put it up what for the sllllooowwww internet in the woods. Enjoy!

Speaking of Dance

Last night I joined a small but enthusiastic crowd of dance supporters at the Vancouver Public Library downtown for Speaking of Dance, a lecture series presented by Dance House (dancehouse.ca). According to producer Jim Smith, Dance House hopes to not only promote dance events, but to encourage "conversations" in the Vancouver community about dance. The lecture opened with a survey of the upcoming dance season by Janet Smith, dance critic and arts editor for the Georgia Straight (straight.com). Smith observed that "...dance in Vancouver constantly leaves [us] with an impression", and she proved it by running clips from a few of the many diverse works being mounted here in the near future. The sheer volume locally produced, choreographed, and danced works demonstrates that Vancouver is teeming with talent. Emerging groups such as the 605 collective (605collective.com) and the Plastic Orchid Factory (plasticorchidfactory.com), established companies like Joe Ink (joeink.ca) and Kidd Pivot (kiddpivot.org), and dance supporters and promoters like Dance House fuel a rich west coast contemporary dance culture. This week is packed with dance events as The Dance Centre (thedancecentre.ca) presents its biannual series Dance In Vancouver. Add to a 4 night showcase featuring 11 dance companies a double bill of choreographer Serge Bennathan's The Strange Adventures of Myself and Joe Laughlin's (In)habitat (firehallartscentre.ca Oct 15-17), and top it off with Unbound from Wen Wei Dance (wenweidance.ca) at the Kay Meek Centre on Friday, and the week really is jam packed with dance!

SUBMERGED and Freed in Vancouver

SUBMERGED is the newest offering from The Contingency Plan, an emerging Vancouver based dance collective composed of Vanessa Goodman, Jane Osborne, and Leigha Wald. Their two-night program of various works by visiting and local choreographers was both exciting and inspiring to behold. For me, it kicks off a run of dance events, and I'm not sure if it's always like this in Vancouver or simply the season. Last year, October was as filled with contemporary and urban dance events as well.

I'm working steadily on the vids for Freed. I bought pegboard today, for the Freed vid1 stop mo shoot, and I'll begin shooting after Thanksgiving. Lien Cayer, a sonic producer from Halifax and new contributor, has taken the reins on vid2, and I'm making steady progress on the newest vid, trying to connect with dancers and greenscreens across the country to make Humanination.

Tonight we're out for comedy at The Kingston, and then this open mic I heard about at ANZA club....peace

 

sweet home manitoba

Goodbye woods and hello jungle.  Back to the concrete trails and sounds of city life, the buzzing and beeping of the urban hive.   Goodbye bunkhouse studios and hello road.  After a night of sushi in the city, I took the greyhound from the new terminal at Winnipeg International Airport up to Onanole, MB for the closeout jam from the "Sonics and Sojourns" art and ecology festival. On stage were Murray D. Evans from the Dust Poets, Kelwood native Alana Levandoski, and the Manitoba band The Farmers, trading stories and songs.  It's a beautiful time of year in Manitoba, the golds of the newly harvested fields, the yellows and reds  of turning poplar, birch and maple, the deep blue of the vast prairie sky.  

Back in Winnipeg last night for a jam session with contributor Dan Simpson.  Dan is currently playing mandolin with the Bluegrass ensemble Pepper Laing & the Lonestar killers, and brewing up batches of wonderfully well balanced craft beer.  We ran his mando through a delay and jammed out some tracks for the Freed the Puppet project.  Later we hooked up with the crew at the 1 year anniversary hoe down at The Lift, a warehouse art space set up for rehearsal or performance.  With comfy couches and room to dance, pool and fusball tables and a functional 2nd floor garage door, The Lift makes for a hip place to throw a party.        

The footage is from a farm in Riding Mountain.  The music is from a jam with Dan Simpson 09/09.

Bunkhouse Studio Update

Life is soooo sweet in the Bunkhouse Studio, I finally found out where the mosquitos were infiltrating and stopped them in their flight path.  Now I can actually work with a light on after dark!  Which is good because I just finished hosting a new collective contributor, Juanita Williams, from Melbourne Australia, and have much new material to work with.  Juanita takes photos, and despite some rain and more or less continuous high winds we were able to get some shots that fit our theme, Reflection.  Thanks so much to Juanita for her time and energy!  I've also been recording, and just uploaded two Viable Humin tracks to the project's myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/theviablehuminexistenceresearchproject  

Also, Bill Beso has a new video called Suffering...check it out on You Tube 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spQ8NrG6iRw

And stay tuned for info on this fall's tour!

Bunkhouse Studio Tour

Website Launch Party - February 27

We'll be finally and happily launching v3.0 of www.jamusement.net in Halifax on Friday, February 27 at Alter Egos, 2193 Gottingen St. The event, Catch and Release, features a local, hook and line harvested haddock supper by the amazing folks at the cafe, a slideshow of the work of Bill Beso (see below for a sample), a video with sound performance by Macloud, and of course, goodies and xtras for all. Dinner is at 7pm and space is limited, please RSVP to 902-719-0083, or stop by at 8pm for free fare and fun from the J'amusement crew!

The Fight - Bill Beso

Happy 2009!

We certainly had a wonderful 2008 at Companie J’amusement, with jams and shows from Winnipeg to Victoria in the spring and fall, new contributors and equipment, and exciting sound, dance, and video emerging from the Freed the Puppet project.  Search ’Freed the Puppet’ on YouTube to view a full performance from April 2008, complete with original sound! 

We plan to kick it up a notch in 2009, starting with this blog, and the launching of www.jamusement.net v3.0 at the end of the month.  We have a little J’amusement creation space set up in Halifax’s north end this winter, and I am very excited to see, feel, and hear all the exciting art that will flow from the Behind the Couch studio before we head west this spring.  Just yesterday, a new contributor, Eloise Kirk of Tazmania, Australia, was in the studio sketching a background for the Freed the Puppet stop motion set.  We’re about ready to start shooting!  Also this winter we’re hosting open jams on Thursdays at a space here in Halifax, and instead of planning and promoting performances on tour this spring, we’ll attempt to host public jams in small gallery/dance spaces from Halifax to Thunder Bay.  On tour!

A giant thank-you to everyone who contributed time and talent in 2008, happy new year!

t.mac 

Freed the Puppet Year in Review