Devising Performance for Immersive Webspace: Volumetric Performance Toolbox

How can movement artists still create and perform from their living spaces during the COVID pandemic?

Volumetric Performance Toolbox is the collaborative project of Valencia James, Glowbox and Sorob Louie, which envisions live online volumetric dance performance as a new way for artists to create and perform from their own living spaces and audiences to communally experience art using minimal equipment, during this time of pandemic. The project is currently being developed through Eyebeam NYC’s Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future Fellowship. After a successful first creation phase during Summer 2020, we are now hosting an artist residency program in order to make our tools and findings accessible to all artists so they can create their own volumetric performances.

Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm CST

Cost: FREE

Limit: 100

To register, please click HERE.

Instructor: Valencia James

About Valencia:

Valencia James is a Barbadian freelance performer, maker and researcher interested in the intersection between dance, theatre, technology and activism. She believes in the power of the arts to inspire change. In 2013 Valencia co-founded the AI_am project, which explores the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in dance. The project has been presented at several international forums such as the 2015 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires and premiered their first evening-length work in Budapest and Gothenburg in 2017. Valencia also creates solo works which explore stereotypes and post-colonial narratives. She has performed extensively in Hungary, Romania, Poland, France, Israel, Sweden, Argentina, and Canada.  Valencia is currently a 2020 Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future Fellow at Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism.

This YLDE workshop is in collaboration with Video Pool Media Arts Centre (VP). VP is Manitoba’s only artist-run centre dedicated to the exploration of technology-based art.

YLDE’s programming is made possible with the generous support from the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.

Title Motion Capture With Your Webcam

Dance with a virtual body through your webcam and the RADiCAL AI-powered motion capture software.

Designed with contemporary artists and dancers in mind; the workshop will begin with an overview of motion capture techniques available today. The virtual hands-on component of the workshop will explore RADiCAL, an AI-powered motion capture tool, to generate data files from web camera recordings and apply the data to animate readymade avatars or 3D objects in Unity (free software).  Workshop open to all skill levels, no previous experience is necessary.

Date: January 25, 2021

Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm CST

Cost: FREE

Limit: 100

To register for the workshop, please click HERE.

Note about RADiCAL software: https://getrad.co/core-free-trial/ for free you can use the trail for a month which automatically converts into a monthly plan (when you download your files). So participants will need to unsubscribe after the workshop if they don’t want to keep their access to the application. The time length recording limit is a one-minute long video exported per week.

Instructor(s): Freya Björg Olafson

About Freya:

Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR,  painting, and performance. Olafson’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally at the Bauhaus Archiv (Berlin), SECCA – SouthEastern Center for Contemporary Art (North Carolina), and the LUDWIG museum (Budapest). Olafson has benefitted from residencies, most notably through EMPAC – Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (New York), and Counterpulse (San Francisco). Olafson holds an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute / Danube University and joined the Dance Department at York University as an Assistant Professor in screendance in July 2017.

This YLDE workshop is in collaboration with Video Pool Media Arts Centre. Video Pool Media Arts Centre is Manitoba’s only artist-run centre dedicated to the exploration of technology-based art.

YLDE’s programming is made possible with the generous support from the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.

Building Skill and Awareness for Dismantling Racism: A Workshop with Jackie Hogue for Artists in the Performing Arts

This workshop takes place over two half days

When: Saturday, Jan. 16th, 2021 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

+ 

Sunday, Jan. 17th, 2021 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Where: Online through Zoom

Cost: $50 per person to register 

24 participant max. 

To register email: younglungs.wpg@gmail.com (participants must be available for both days).

The cost of this workshop has been subsidised by: Young Lungs Dance Exchange, Art Holm, Company Link and J. Hogue & Associates.

About the Workshop:

During our time together we will deepen our understanding around how systemic racism operates and how it is supported. From there we will explore skills for dismantling racism that utilize our mind, body, spirit and heart. The focus of the session will be on awareness, skill and practice for you as individuals, with some time to explore how this work relates to your art and the institutions you interact with. The sessions will include reflection and interactive activities.

About Jackie Hogue:

Jackie is committed to community building and at the same time passionate about solving hard problems.  Jackie has been involved in community building and social change for 20 years, 12 of which spent in non-profit management or leadership roles where she grew and shaped organizations. As a trained, skilled facilitator, Jackie enjoys catering to a variety of learning styles to ensure meetings, community consultations or trainings are engaging and successful.

Jackie is Metis with Polish Settler ancestors.  Her life experiences, both locally and internationally, have informed her desire to use her skills to dismantle racism and oppression.  With years of experience in conflict resolution training, Jackie enjoys finding opportunity among challenging situations, particularly as they relate to organizational strengthening and dismantling oppression.

Jackie has collaborated with several skilled and thoughtful people to design and deliver training and support to organizations.  Additionally, she co-designed and co-teaches a course called “Confronting Racism in the Inner City” at the University of Winnipeg.

“Jackie’s gentle and encouraging manner facilitated a group of skeptical participants through a process that ended with action plans and accolades.” — Robin Eriksson, CKUW Radio, University of Winnipeg

“We have been very fortunate and are grateful that we had Jackie facilitating our highly sensitive theme of systemic oppression. Her expertise, coupled with a gentle delivery, allowed the participants to feel encouraged to be vulnerable and to actively participate in a very difficult conversation. Thank you for walking with us on this difficult, yet, rewarding journey of self-awareness!” — Training Participant

For more information on Jackie and her work visit: www.jhogue.ca

YLDE 2019/2020 Annual General Meeting with a presentation by Ian S. Mozdzen

When: Sunday, December 13th, 2020 @ 2:00 – 3:30 pm 

Where: Online over Zoom

Email younglungs.wpg@gmail.com to RSVP and for Zoom link.

This event is FREE, all are welcome to attend.

In this presentation, Ian will sketch out recent jaunts into “Asia” and how they seem to have shaped current practicing and sensibility.

About Ian:

Ian S. Mozdzen grew up on a farm in rural Manitoba and has gained experience and practice in a range of forms — from anti-art to ritual to performance art to classical to experimental. Performance and creation has seen numerous collaborations and travel across Canada as well as into Greece, USA, Netherlands, India, Sri Lanka and Mexico. Since August 2016, Ian had been living in Kerala, India to study, practice and perform classical Indian dance and theatre. Officially, Ian had been studying Kathakali and Nangiar Koothu at the Kerala Kalamandalam within the context of an International training program. Additionally, Ian was acquiring Mohiniyattam and Theyyam within private settings. In 2019 & 2020, Ian ventured to Japan to study and learn Odori and Butoh under various dancers and teachers. Ian also located to the India states of Himachal Pradesh & Goa to practice Butoh.

The pandemic cut short Ian’s study and practice abroad. As a result, Ian has rejoined the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg as a student and is pursuing Covid-permitting artistic activities. Halloween 2020 saw Ian independently present a “koothu” (play) of the famous “Jekyll & Hyde” story synthesising numerous Indian aesthetics and other influences.

Photo: drawing of Ian as “Sir Dalnvert Copperfield” by Doug Melnyk (co-founder of ace art) for 2012’s “The Wretched Coincidences, Overt Folly, and Sentimental Exuberance of DALNAVERT COPPERFIELD (Knight Bachelor of 61 Carlton Street): An Astonishing Conflation with Skits (Which Neither Sir John A. Macdonald nor Charles Dickens Meant to be Presented on Any Account).”

YLDE’s 2020-2021 programming is made possible with the generous support from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts.

POSTPONED: Agreement Making for Creative Practice with Alexandra Elliott and Ali Robson

When: Friday, December 4th, 2020 @ 1:00 -4:00 pm (CST)

Where: Online over Zoom

To register, please email younglungs.wpg@gmail.com

This workshop is FREE, all are welcome to register.

For over a year Alexandra and Ali have been having conversations about the agreements that we make when we engage in creative work in a studio together and how those agreements can contribute to safer and braver creative spaces. This workshop will share their considerations and engage participants in dialogue about writing letters of agreement and contracts. 

The workshop will be geared towards independent artists, collectives and groups. 

Participants will be invited to read/write/share their own ideas and experiences with agreement making. The workshop will be recorded for future reference.

Alexandra and Ali have a shared history as students, performers, artists, travellers and studio mates. They bring many years of experience, as independent dancers, choreographers, dance company members, teachers, producers and presenters in both dance and theatre, to the task of writing letters of agreement and to the thoughtful inquiry of how we make safer and braver creative spaces.

YLDE’s programming is made possible with the generous support from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts.

Photo credit: Alex Elliott