My new Flikr account holds some photos from my 2010 trip to NYC. The series reflects my continuing interest in contrasting the remnants of a previous use for a space that contrasts with the present.

VIXMEDIA on Flikr

Yes, I am a bit behind in developing and posting . . .

This old sugar factory on the edge of the river in Brooklyn is one of my favourites.

Prints of these images will be one of my Indiegogo prizes.

You can donate directly to help me with my first trip to Europe here.

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Why are women still being forced to fight for control of our own bodies, reproductive rights, equal pay for equivalent work and other gender related issues.

In my opinion, these rights are so obvious, there should be no room for argument.

Now I am writing for a feminist blog based in NYC, you can read my first post here.

I wrote about the Femen protests as the political protest actions of young women, including Pussy Riot, have started to gain media attention.

I plan to write regularly in support of gender related issues.

International Womens’ Day inspired me to write a song.

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This is a rare opportunity to experience a network music performance with a live band member in attendance.

I will be playing computer and singing on-site and I will be available to answer questions about our show and my other projects.

In addition to the confirmed Play the Moment performance, I am working on also presenting Angels Among Us, an interactive installation featuring my collaboration with visual artist Joanna Gabler as Zest Continuum.

More information on exact dates and times will be announced soon.

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Play the Moment, an improvising ensemble will perform for the Birmingham Network Festival on Sat. Feb 23rd on the internet. Please point your browser in our direction.

London (United Kingdom – England) Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 3:35:00 PM GMT UTC
Vancouver (Canada – British Columbia) Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 7:35:00 AM PST UTC-8 hours
Montreal (Canada – Quebec) Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 10:35:00 AM EST UTC-5 hours

Go to this URL to see the show.
http://water-wheel.net/taps/view/235

More information and guest list on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/events/302066193252470/

All performances improvised using live audio and drawing with video and audio samples.

Christina de Roos – projection artist – visual coordination and video
Sonia Paço-Rocchia – live drawing, improvised bassoon and electronics,
Jude Abrams – piano, percussion, vocals – contributed video
Victoria Gibson – guitar, percussion, vocals – contributed video

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The retrospective section of the program “Walking Backwards into the Future” is already underway.

Schedule for these events here.

The portion that I am involved in is the new experimental works, Testing 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 . Play the Moment – Shakti meets for a networked internet performance on the Waterwheel Tap.

I am working with Play the Moment – Shakti, a group of four women located in different cities.  This pioneering effort in experimental media arts includes Victoria Gibson (Vancouver, Canada), Jude Abrams (Toronto) and Sonia Paço-Rocchia (Montreal) creating music with Christina deRoos (Detroit, USA) manipulating the visuals.

We will be performing a piece called ‘excavating desire/fouilles pour le désire‘

Our stage is located on a website in Australia called Waterwheel and will be viewed through either this link or a link through the festival site Scroll down to find our show.

About the Show

Excavating Desire – Fouilles pour le Désire

Play The Moment Shakti (Canada, USA)

11 December 10.30pm EST / 12 December 4.30pm New Zealand (find your local time)
12 December 1pm EST / 13 December 7.30am New Zealand (find your local time)

Excavating Desire is a free improvised audio and visual work in four movements:

1. On the Surface – exploring constraints imposed on female desire by society and ourselves
2. Digging Deep – recognizing our wants and needs
3. Gathering Courage – risking societal censure, economic loss or emotional pain requires resolve and strength
4. Flowering of Passion – acceptance and expression of our own inner identity

Four women going through the same risk and hardship of “Excavating Desire”.

Desires are often hidden underneath layers so we do not even recognize them ourselves. It is a risk to reveal our true self, particularly in personal and intimate situations, but also when revealing oneself as an artist. “Excavating Desire” provides a structure to peel away the layers of constraint and grant ourselves permission to express what we choose to see and hear as art.

Schedule and time zones

A handy time zone converter to find your viewing time can be found here.

These converter links can be found already programmed with the correct DST time under the title of the show in the spreadsheet.

For example the second  performance of our show is at 7:30am on Thursday, December 13th DST in New Zealand — the location of the 121212 festival, but it is Wednesday, December 12th at 10:30am PST, in Vancouver, Canada, where I live.

More information about the show can be foun by clicking the title of the show.

Facebook Event Page Here

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This is a cool CD of spoken word and music featuring Mark Weber. I recorded some of the tracks at Waterlou Studios in Vancouver, Canada. More information about the CD, titled ‘the dalai lama’s alarm clock’ by clicking here.

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zest-continuum-ruf angel from victoria gibson on Vimeo.

This video was shown in the Heritage Distillery District as part of the Toronto Nuit Blanche “DaDa Reboot” series curated by Thom Sokoloski on September 29, 2012.

This video was made to showcase my previous work with Joanna Gabler as part of “Rise Up, Fallen Angel”.

Joanna and I have a duo called “Zest Continuum” based on our collaboration of visuals and music.

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Water-wheel.net is a performance platform developed in Australia by Suzon Fuks.

My ensemble, Play the Moment – Shakti has been accepted to perform, using this platform as part of the 121212 Festival of performing cyber-arts.

PtM – Shakti members: Victoria Gibson, Jude Abrams, Sonia Paço-Rocchia and Christina deRoos.

The festival will occur on December 12, 2012 . . .

If the link above is faulty go to:
http://water-wheel.net/media_items/view/1599

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Here is the latest video I made to promote my campaign to raise funds. My lovely assistant and I explain the situation and ask for your donation on Indiegogo.

Go directly to my page on Indiegogo and donate — get fun perks too!

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My problem with crowdsourcing of funds must be shared by many artists who do not have a mailing list of fans to call on — all of my friends are also artists with limited incomes. The idea of continuously begging for money from those who I know are struggling to produce their own work is not appealing.

A recent e-mail from Indiegogo giving advice to those attempting to raise funds in this way read in part:

Reach out to your closest friends and family to ask for their support. Aim to raise 25% of funds from this inner circle. This will help your campaign reach a tipping point.

I know that this will not occur, but I do plan to make a new video with a direct request for funds rather than just an example of the work. I have to be more direct with why I need the funds. In the next paragraph the encouraging letter explains:

It takes 7 contacts with someone before they will take action. Don’t be afraid to keep reaching out to your community to ask for their support.

I have worked in marketing and I hold a certificate from SFU in Social Media Marketing — this is not always true. If your cause really strikes a chord, the donor will give right away. If you are not hitting those notes, change your tactics before you try again. You risk alienating your contacts if you continuously present the same message in the same way. How many of you have shared a clever ad? The idea is to create a message that is effective and get it to people who can act on the message.

Now, I am looking to larger internet communities than my humble group of facebook friends. I have contacted Technorati and now I have pasted this code: ZBCU5MH7UZ6H into my blog, they will accept that I am the author and add it to their list of verified blogs.

I will add more ideas here as the days progress, but I really have to work on the show and make a living too. In some ways, if I had paying work it would be easier to pay for the trip myself, which is what I have been doing so far. However, since I want to be available to travel to present my work, and to have more time to create new pieces, the free-lance jobs I get keep me at subsistence level or below.

If you can, please visit my Indiegogo site to donate here and send Bandwdith: Interactive Installation to Staten Island on June 23rd for the Lumen Festival.

For more information about Bandwidth visit my portfolio site

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