Peer to Peer Drive-In: Art Videos in Vancouver

This Friday night, July 27th, in Vancouver, in connection with Upgrade! Vancouver and Upgrade! International, I'm presenting an outdoor screening of short art videos from Vancouver and Scotland. The event is designed to appropriate the functional model of online videosharing sites such as Youtube in order to translate social videosharing into the analogue environment of the urban street.

The event is part of a larger series where Upgrade nodes in different cities curate and then circulate reels to be screened locally and internationally. This is the inaugural event in Vancouver, but earlier this week there was a screening in Belgrade, and before that, in Boston. Screenings in various cities are upcoming throughout the summer and into the fall.

Upgrade! International is an international network of autonomous nodes united by art and technology. It began in New York City in 1999 and now includes nodes in 27 cities, the newest members being Tijuana, Mexico and Warsaw, Poland. The first satellite node in the network, Upgrade! Vancouver has been running under my direction since 2003.

The social software aspect of these events is explored through a deliberately low-tech model in which flyers containing contact information for participating artists will be circulated at the screenings, with the intention of encouraging people in these cities to develop individual connections. The first Vancouver screening will take place July 27, 2007 in Vancouver, at Open Studios (252 East 1st Avenue. Off main, go around back).

At this screening we will show a programme of art videos from Scotland , and one from Vancouver. The Scotland reel was produced by New Media Scotland and features work by Jane Frazer, Alex Hetherington, Angela Bartram, and Jaygo Bloom, among others. The Vancouver programme features work by Sean Arden, Miriam Needoba, Jesse Scott, Victoria Stanton, and Henry Gwiazda, and others.

The free event will be approximately 1 hour in duration. Spread the word, and bring popcorn...