EVENT: RAPIDFIRE.001 Montreal. March 15, 2007, StudioXX, Montreal

PRESENTERS : (in order)

Angela Dorrer(germany) – program angels and alternative formats for cultural sharing.

Pascale Gustin (france) – Algorismus travelling sound poetry work with Pure Data.

Darsha Hewitt (canada) – Tin Can Telecom + Cantennas.

Laef Anderson (usa) – Cheyenne Story Map.

The FORMAT:

The RAPIDFIRE Session was a ‘first come, first serve’ “sign-up and present” formula, in which individuals were asked to put forward short presentations lasting 15 minutes each. The concept was proposed by Kyd Campbell and Angela Dorrer with the aim of providing a highly responsive environment for presentation, for dialogue about works in progress. This exchange structure stems directly from open formats such as what has been organised by program angels(munich), Upgrade! Munich and Upgrade! Salvador and the Pecha Kucha Network

The local community was invited to expect socializing and cheap beer, to come and milk the public brainwaves. The first !Rapid!Fire! session was presented by frontierlab.org and StudioXX with help from the
Upgrade! International network on March 15, 2007 at StudioXX in Montreal. The event was a success, with some amazingly animated presentations with a small audience, the tension and curiosity was high at then end of each presentation. Following the 4 presentations the dialog continued casually and many contacts were shared. The format provided a two way exchange, artists could ask questions and get critique from the audience and the audience had the opportunity to view some new works and techniques.

Commentary on experiences in Montreal : by Pascale Gustin, visiting the city from March 10-22nd, 2007

I am very impressed by the number of events which take place here (Montreal), I have the idea that each person can have their own event. This is more than the famed “celebrity quarter hour” proposed by Andy Warhol. It’s the possibility to be Andy Warhol for 15 minutes and to place the focus on?.!!! With all that this implies?

There are really so many things happening and yet not very many people attend each one. It’s a sort of ‘sprinkling’ of events and exchanges. Why not !!! What I notice, as a stranger, is that it is full of ‘democracy’, this feast of ‘democracies’ in which things finally seem to be lost in their own meaning. In some way it is the image of a woven fabric ; a canvas but in ‘real’ life ; and language etc, is used only through the tool of a screen or a keyboard.

Here, everything is always possible ; THE WORLD IS A VASTE TERRAIN OF GAMES ; and it’s exactly here that everything seems possible and thus, becomes possible. ‘We can do what we want in our lives’, seems to be the motto of North America, of ‘North Americans’. It is undoubtedly this manner of thinking and acting that effectively makes all things possible ; the ‘virtual’ becomes real. The ‘virtual’ is concretely living ; it exists, it is here, we can touch it with our fingers. Is this the reason for which digital technologies, ‘media arts’ (specific term used here, to define arts which can include analog video and other practices, television and new and digital technologies) have been developed with such ease, a sort of ease which is influenced by these technologies which have permitted this process, this manner of being to be amplified, really concretized ? Who, from the chicken or from the egg ? in essence!!!

I also think that violence in North America is not directly linked to violent images, linked to these images certainly, but in an indirect way. It is equally this possibility, all the possibilities, which make the violence possible. The sentence : ‘THE WORLD IS A VASTE TERRAIN OF GAMES’, seems to be to be much more violent than certain images that are given as forcefully violent. I think that this sentence would be shocking in Europe, at least it would be in France.

Rapid Fire was a superb meeting. I loved taking part in this event organized by Kyd Campbell. I alas was not able to understand all of the items and issues of the works presented. I don’t speak English well enough.

“For the performance at StudioXX on Thursday night, I used two puredata programs to open my patches. One patch was open with the first puredata program and ran the visual component. The second patch (and even a 3rd) was open with the second puredata program for the audio component. This allows me to avoid the having memory management problems.”

[excerpts from the Pascale Gustin’s blog, translated with permission by Kyd Campbell]

photo credits:

1. rapidfire_pascalegustin.jpg
photo by Edith Bories. March 15, 2007
‘Pascale Gustin performing Algorismus at RapidFire.001, StudioXX, Montreal’

2. rapidfire_flyer.jpg
image by Kyd Campbell, 2007
flyer from RapidFire.001 event, Montreal

Photos from the event on flickr