Smashers_Web01

Y2K Smasher's Bash!

Art Works and Synopsis

Tunnel
Steve Bates (2004), 2:49
tunnel is the first in a series of works using consumer-grade and customized audiovisual equipment to investigate the technical and emotional resonance between sound and visual information.

tunnel derives its soundtrack from a music box version of The Carpenter’s "We've Only Just Begun". The familiar is made unrecognizable here as both the melody and the image are altered temporally into an ever-present experience.

Lesbian National Parks and Services: A Force of Nature, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (2002),
23:00
"The Lesbian Ranger Corps is a fast growing and dynamic force of professionals dedicated to lesbian wildlife in all its forms.” Shawna and Lorri take us through the wilds and show us what it takes to become a Lesbian Ranger. Beautifully shot footage and upbeat humour make us want to sign on.

 

Rockstar
Nicole Shimonek (2002), 2:50
“Rockstar” addresses the rock star phenomenon. The video shows a scantily clad woman wearing underwear performing without much entertainment value. This is a risky work. Nicole uses low-budget, in-your-face approach to examine this aspect of our social culture.

 

 

 

High Altitude
Victoria Redsun (2018), 3:59
High Altitude explores what it means the be an Indigenous artist in the modern world. Being a youth in a fast paced digital arts scene, Redsun poetically explores the ideas of decolonization, racism, creativity, and life on lands of broken agreements. Though poetry they explore ways to go back to the land and heal.

 

Hoop Dancers
David Garneau (2013), 5:40
Hoop Dancers is a silent video featuring four young men in powwow regalia playing pick-up basketball. The video also shows young Indigenous men engaging the contemporary world while also enjoying traditional cultural practices. It is a celebration of athleticism, cultural continuity, adaptation and beauty.

 

 

Arcadia
Rick Fisher (2014), 4:48
Arcadia uncovers some unpleasant truths about idealized pastoral landscapes. A digitally augmented metaphorical response to an age-old question, namely, is there a dark side to the human endeavour to create the perfect habitation able to sustain the lifestyle of our own choosing within the natural limitations of the planet earth? One person’s notion of Utopia is another person’s nightmare.

 

Mr. Coffee,
Kelsey Braun (2013), 1:45
A meditation through coffee pot destruction on the irony of irrational intuition in a controlled setting.

 

 

 

 

 

Confused Rain, Clint Enns (2008)
Nam June Paik's Confused Rain No. 2, 1967, a chaotic distribution of the letters C-O-N-F-U-S-E on a sheet of paper.

Clint Enns' Confused Rain No. 1, 2008, is a post-mortem collaboration with Nam June Paik that expands Paik's work into a computer program that produces an animation of the letters C-O-N-F-U-S-E falling like rain drops.

 

A/S/L (age/sex/location),
Freya Björg Olafson (2009), 4:17
A/S/L (age/sex/location) 2009 is part of the AVATAR SERIES exploring methods of creating, validating and disseminating one’s identity through the use of technology and the Internet. The series is inspired by the mantra “I post therefore I am”, whereby Internet users legitimize their existence by documenting their lives and uploading this media to personal webpages and blogs. The work in this series facilitates an inquiry into our desire to share and publicize our lives.
The development of this series is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council. So far excerpts of this developing series have been performed in Toronto, Montreal, France, Ecuador, North Carolina and Iceland.

Pas Deux,
Scott Leroux (2013), 5:00
Created in collaboration with dancer Sasha Amaya Pas Deux is an exploration of movement and colour and how each can be manipulated and emphasized with digital means. The score is produced on an analog organ and a pallet of RGB Pas Deux acts as reference to the past and the technologies that have brought visual and music to where it is today. The piece was also inspired by Norman Mclaren's "Pas de Deux" and acts a direct homage to his experiments in film.

 

 

Home,
Colleen Simard (2000), 2:45
Home deals with the conflicting worlds of Aboriginal people, the view of the urban Aboriginal and the view of the rural Aboriginal. Often the urban side is seen as very negative, which it can be. But what brought us here? Our way of life, our strength disappeared like the buffalo that we depended on. Which is better? Rural or Urban? There is no better, of course, only the chance to change for the future. There is a resurgence of strength within our traditional culture, our songs, our artists and our children. We don't have to return to the country to find it; it is inside of us. Though a child's eyes, the world is somewhat more optimistic.