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Art Mixed Media

DAMP

Contemporary Vancouver Media Arts

edited by Oliver Hockenhull & Alex MacKenzie

Publisher
Anvil Press
Initial publish date
May 2008
Category
Mixed Media
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781895636895
    Publish Date
    May 2008
    List Price
    $40

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 15
  • Grade: 10

Description

'DAMP: Contemporary Vancouver Media Arts', is a singular effort, a visually exuberant work that is also on the vanguard of theoretical engagement, a symbiosis of form and content, in full-colour throughout, inclusive of extensive imagery, graphic intrigues and typographical accent-a rare and desirable art-infused statement of the city's media art scene-now. 'DAMP' is a long overdue critical engagement regarding the specificities of contemporary Vancouver media arts. The editors' effortis not so much to look to the past, nor to confine themselves within the borders of a collective of one sort or another. Their intent is to examine and speak to the now and the future of practice in Vancouver, its relationship to world art-media, and to the strategies of artists in this particular region. Origins of thought-from First Nations source code onwards-create a framework and starting point from which to study this mediacity. By re-focussing on the relative unknowns of this scene-the hidden and supressed histories, the city's internal and external mythologies and imaginary futures-they are revealing a plainly visible but unacknowledged praxis. 'DAMP' will act as a catalyst for discussion that stretches well beyond this locale, as it creates response and reaction from points east, internal, and beyond nation borders. 'DAMP' includes over 25 contributions from such artists as Laiwan, Fiona Bowie, Ann Marie Fleming, David Rimmer, Warren Arcan, and Yum Lam Li, and critical essays by such well respected Vancouver theorists as Clint Burnham, Jayce Salloum, and Randy Lee Cutler.

About the authors

Oliver Hockenhull has had critical essays published in many art magazines in Canada—such as C, POV, and Fuse. He is also a noted filmmaker and media artist whose works screen around the globe—from numerous Vancouver International Film Festival screenings to screenings at MOMA, Melbourne, Kerala, Rotterdam, Chicago, Amsterdam, Paris, etc.

Oliver Hockenhull's profile page

Alex Mackenzie was founder and curator of both the Blinding Light Cinema and the Vancouver Underground Film Festival. He is past editor of Workprint, 250W and contributed to a variety of publications including Take One Magazine and various gallery and festival catalogues and imprints. His media work has screened throughout Europe and North America. He is also an accomplished graphic designer, having worked with, among others, Infinity Features, the National Film Board of Canada, Tabata Productions, Omni Film, and a broad range of film publicity and music CD packaging concerns.

Alex MacKenzie's profile page

Librarian Reviews

Damp: Contemporary Vancouver Media Art

This singular art book captures the variegated and elusive nature of film from the margins of Vancouver specifically and from popular media in general. It provides an entrance to an elaborate world that most have little or no access to. The particular confluence of Vancouver’s immigrant populations, West Coast affluence, and artistic critical mass of visible institutions and underground media has served to create fertile ground for the filmmakers in this collection. Using a collage of visual images and offering the filmmakers the chance to write about the origins and personal experience of making their films, the reader is given an introductory glimpse into their world.

Caution: Includes some coarse language and frank discussions of sexuality.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2008-2009.

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