LIFE & TIMES Page 28 The Sunday Independent, Nov 23, 2003 Global performance Live-streamed performance art links St Johns with a world of artists Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent echnology has provided the world with many opportunities. With the likes of digital media, cell phones can transmit photos across the world in moments and the Internet provides instant access to information that before would have taken weeks to travel. It is technology, too, that is taking the art world on a very special adventure. This weekend was the debut of Chiasma, a live streaming performance art show with performers from all around the globe. The show was the result of the combined efforts of artists from Australia, Canada and the UK, and was displayed, in three separate showings, at Pope Productions on Water Street. Liz Pickard, of Lizband fame, became interested in the idea while visiting Vancouver last year for one of her own projects. She came across the Grunt Gallery and was intrigued by their array of photographs from a similar project. Just one year later she has, with the help of Pope Productions and Edge Intermedia, brought the project to life in Newfoundland. While there is no Newfoundland performer this year, Pickard hopes to put something together for next year. Chiasma, she says, is an interactive meeting of artists from everywhere. Participants are located in Lancaster, England, Vancouver, Canada, Sydney, Australia, Venice, Italy and China. The three performers that were involved in the St. John's shows are Lea Donnan (Australia), Rebecca Belmore (Vancouver) and Hester Reeve (UK). Each performer had made special requests for each location including setting up tents, showing the piece on the ceiling, and painting walls. The performers were also interactive T with their worldly audience in some form or another. As Pickard says enthusiastically, "interaction is something (the artists) would really like." While she stresses there was very little cost to the production, all the funding came from Aliant Telecom, who donated funding to the Arts Council to support projects involving digital technology. Chiasma was the result. Pickard feels that people will be interested in the showings, but is unsure of the number of people who will show up because of the time differences. The pieces were shown at 5:30 and 11:30 p.m. Newfoundland time. Lori Clarke, one of the founding members of Edge Intermedia, was worried about technical problems that, no doubt, would arise. She says the only streaming performance she has ever seen had 300 people waiting over 45 minutes for the connection to go through. She does say, however, that, "getting to see someone's work that's happening 'now' somewhere else in another country is very exciting." The web site, www.livevancouver.bc.ca /chaisma, has a live chat feature was used to interact with other viewers from around the world. "The three artists are completely different," says Clarke. "The only thing they have in common is the technology." Pickard says the pieces were interesting to see because, "The performance will only exist in the temporal reality of the projection." Pickard says the allure of an art show such as Chiasma is that it will be a meeting of cultures. "What's really fabulous," she says, "is interaction with other artists all over the world. That instant connection." Liz Pickard, organizer of St. John's first production of Chaisma, a live interactive performance feed featuring artists around the globe. Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent Labrador b u l l Land Claim* k^mtmrk Chief negotiators from the Labrador Inuit Association, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Government of Canada will be holding meetings to answer questions about the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement. These sessions are designed to give the public an opportunity to understand the content of the Agreement. All presentations will begin at 7PM, The schedule for the information sessions is: North West River November 24 Community Centre November 25 Happy Valley-Goo November 26 Labrador West Carol Inn Gartwright December 2 December 3 Muiti-PurpQse Room Friends hip Centre Parish Hall Nain Hopedale Irfflep^ndent The WaterWarebouse Book an-Hoe and fake OUT mm-stop 5:Wpm service from St John's to Goose Say. k tj S Aifrt Jkt Calf your travel agent, jn _jr_ ~m---*&*!" a r t All t-SCQ~56 3 a a 13 o® Coupon #2 of 2 ore phone AJttiys the BEST Suleetitwi & 8§ST BeaM Op«n Nightly Until 9PM S 2A %A 40 5A • A 7F t W » A 1k t ft P R A W N I Iftl A G I I f I R E 1 A T I L T l f l b D O R l l i v E R EtnirA D O ^ Y L I E U S S >^Dashing! HBOYP $LM»^IJECT10NiCs55 1 To save $64.00 on a new water cooler! #1 is c o n t a i n e d in this paper. Collect both coupons and save! 4 U PWk 1 l/l 3A h S S » f t I T HftTW6 N E t w o NBIITM M O H H "1 E N | 1 E M S AfefPtjI1 V I 11 |V O L K R A U C E t U L T I | £ A S E I Wk I L L S ft E E D | | 7 6 R E w | | 7 £ C L A T Puzzle on page 22