Let’s build a giant room-sized theremin with 16 antennas!

We would like to invite the tag-team of artist/engineers David Beaulieu and Christian Pelletier to this year’s Pop Montreal International Music Festival (September 30 - October 4) and see them build a Theremin room in our special Art Pop and POP Symposium headquarters.

The duo was last seen breaking musical boundaries with their loud-speaker suits worn by Patrick Watson and his musicians at this year’s Festival de Jazz de Montréal.

The installation of massive proportions we want them to build will invite festival-goers to participate (alone, or in groups!) in the creation of on-site, mind-blowing, improvised music as they interact in a room with 16 antennas suspended above and around them. As they are activated, the antennas trigger psychedelic sounds that are bound to excite and solicit interest from all sorts of human beings

It’s gonna be spontaneous, it’s gonna be an immediate and visceral experience, it’s gonna be communally created art instantly diffused, IT’S GONNA BE SO COOL! We’re asking all lovers of theremins, lovers of art, lovers of interactive experiences, lovers of electricity, lovers of music and lovers of the world everywhere to help us make this project happen. Your money will be used to pay for David & Christian’s hard work and the equipment they will need to make this happen.

Check out our kickstarter page, where you’ll see all the amazing REWARDS we’re offering to people that back this project. Among those, you’ll find:

• a limited edition DVD of animations made by local animators
• a DIY theremin kit
• a hand silk-screened limited edition t-shirt with a theremin on it
• an mp3 of an exclusive track from Gentleman Reg or Dishwasher
• a FULL PAGE photo of you in the Pop Montreal segment program
• a VIP Festival Pass to the Pop Montreal International Music Festival
• a personal festival friend and a cozy bed to sleep in
• a musical about you and 3 of your friends, written and performed by us. we will tape it in Montreal in front of a live audience, and send it to you.
• a custom-made Loudspeaker Suit built by Beaulieu and Pelletier

Get your MPD on tonight

If you want to see everything there is to see tonight, you better work your multiple personality disorder to your advantage:

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• The animations of Stefan Gruber at Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) tonight at 8pm. His work has fluid animation and a trippy aesthetic that echoes the nonchalant sophistication of comix artists like Ron Regé Jr.

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• Before that though, you should stop by right next door, over at Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent), for the vernissage of an exhibition featuring the costumes, props and photos from the in-progress short film, Smile Stealers. This is happening from 5pm to 7pm.

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• The second edition of the Montreal 60 Second Film Festival is having its (free) Registration Party down the street at La Sala Rossa (4848 boul. St-Laurent) from 8:30pm to 11:30pm. The idea is simple: the first 120 filmmakers to sign up each make a 60 second film that will be screened in september. Entertainment will include performances by Julie Lequin (of her “This American Life” submission), magician Sébastien Talbot, zoetrope workshop, screentests - not to mention doorprizes featuring original art created for M60! More info on this incredible project here.

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• For the 18th year in a row, Groupe Intervention Vidéo presents Vidéos de femmes dans le parc (VFP), showing 17 short video works by awesome ladies, including forever-mammoth-favorite Kim Kielhofner. This is happening at the Théâtre de Verdure in Parc Lafontaine, 9 pm.

FULL-ON ANIMATION FOR FULL-ON MONDAY

The Astronomer’s Dream (2009) from Animalcolm on Vimeo.

Malcolm Sutherland’s The Astronomer’s Dream, in full, right here. He’s this generation’s Norman McLaren, folks, so listen up. Or watch up or something….

creature of the day breaks down creatures in the night

The creature of the day being myself, as it IS 3pm-ish, and so I wouldn’t be considered a creature in the night currently. Rational aside, I still managed to go to the second half of the animation festival Creatures in the Night last night, which was the open call-for-submissions part of the evening.

I have to admit that I was pretty blown away especially because I honestly find animation a medium with SUCH potential that it often has folks doing pretty annoying stuff. Like performance art, minus the potential. No, no, I’m kidding, I actually think they have a lot in common. Ha ha. Yeah…

One of the night’s crowd pleasures as far as I could tell was this animation from Christophe Jordache entitled, Enola Gay: (Sorry about the shoddy and short quality of this little morcel)

I have been forced, at various times or others, to use toilet paper to draw on in lieu of having anything else that will remotely function as paper, and the results have often been interesting, but it’s a hard medium to tackle. That Jordache drew on it for this entire animation (it was 2 minutes long in duration in total) is pretty amazing, and that his movements are as interesting and convincing as they are is quite unbelievable.

There were other works of greatness as well: Rickie Lea Owens had several very short, irreverant and fun pieces. Joshua Bonnetta’s Parting was an absolutely gorgeous 2 minutes of what seemed like rotoscoped dancers with a haunting soundtrack. Pretty hard to describe unless you see it, which I did, but I was mesmerized in a way that made trying to document it all at the same time quite difficult.

Finally, Karl Lemieux ended the night with an 8 minute 16mm film entitled, Moveuvement de Lumiere/Motion of Light. It looked to me like what might happen if Vic Muniz did a stop motion animation with his chocolate sauce instead of painting the Mona Lisa. Lemieux, who co-founded the film collective Double Negative, is clearly in his element with this intensely meditative and process-based work that is rooted in the experimental.

The funny thing is, I usually hate long animations (and 8 minutes is long for this kind of a thing) and I don’t often like experiemental filmmaking. I was absolutely BLOWN away by this piece however. You should truly try to get your hands on a copy of the film. I kindof couldn’t believe it. My jaw was hanging. I was aghast. For a moment, I was nothing more than a little beastie, scouraging for food and water. I was a Creature In the Night.

Thanks to Elizabeth Belliveau and articule for putting on such an amazing event.

Creatures in the Night - Update

Attention everyone, the Creatures in the Night screening of animation films (the one I mentionned previously, i.e. the one happening tonight) will take place at Blue Sky Doors at 9pm, at 5403B St. Laurent. Enter the parking lot and find the door with blue lights. The entrance is free.

And just to make this post worthier, here’s Walk for Walk by Amy Lockhart, who will be screening some work tonight (not necessarily/probably not this one). If you’re into her work as much as I am, make sure you don’t miss her talk tomorrow (Sunday, 3pm at articule, 262 Fairmount O). And go to her show, before it ends tomorrow night too.

Creatures in the Night (Saturday June 20th)

This Saturday June 20th, at 9pm, articule presents Creatures in the Night, An Independant Animation Event. This free screening will happen as part of “Popolo in the Parc” at Parc Lahaie (corner St. Laurent / St. Joseph).

It will feature animations by twenty Canadian artists: Janice Tiefenbach, Chad Van Gaalen, Amy Lockhart, Brandon Blommaert, Logan Macdonald, Tara K Wells, Jay White, Malcolm Sutherland, Kate Crocker, Alain Lefebvre, Christophe Jordache, Jessica MacCormack, Jenny Lin, Nancy Belzile, Rickie Lea Owens, Karl Lemieux, Dominic Étienne Simard, Félix Dufour-Lapierre, Josh Bonnetta and Karin Zuppiger.

In case of rain, just call the hotline: 514 842 9686

At 3pm the next day (Sunday June 21st), articule will be having a panel discussion with artists Jon Davies, Amy Lockhart, Elisabeth Belliveau, Jessica MacCormack and Rae Spoon. It will be followed by a cocktail “5 à 7.”

(Illustration: Julie Doucet, 2009)

Amy Lockhart @ La Centrale

I’m as late as late can be on the Amy Lockhart promo-bandwagon, and the vernissage and artist talk were both happening over a week ago. But trivialities aside, you should still try to catch her show over at La Centrale (4296 St. Laurent) before it ends on June 21st.

Amy’s style is weird, grotesque and recognizable, with a je-ne-sais-quoi that sets her appart from the ever-expanding crowd of underground independant DIY-ers. Two thumbs up fto her or having a discernable and unique vibe without ever limiting herself to a specific format/medium/character.

Her exhibition features art that range sfrom papier-maché sculptures and installations, to drawings, paintings, zines and superbly fluid animation of Marc Bell doodles. She works with a ton of different mediums and styles while remaining ‘edgy’ and ‘relevant.’

You can find more of her work in the Nog-A-Dod anthology, edited by Marc Bell and published by Conundrum Press (available at the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, 211 Bernard O). The bookstore  also has a copy of the Ganzfeld 5: Japanada! anthology in stock, in which her work is also featured, among pages and pages of equally impressive artists.

Tadanori Yokoo Tripendicularness

I’ll just leave this here…

http://www.tadanoriyokoo.com

Tonight. Excitement before May in the name of Malcolm Sutherland….

Anyone who is interested in animation should perk their little ears up over their midday cappucinos and lift their hooded, weary lids to mine, like the man in this image is doing (courtesy of the pen of Malcolm Sutherland). For what I am to tell you will be of utmost importance in your life, and good enough to cancel whatever plans you might have for tonight (hot dates excepted. but only HOT dates!)

Anyone NOT interested in animation, please re-read the first paragraph and ignore the part about having to be interested in animation. This post is of equal importance for everyone. 

Tonight, at 7:30pm at the NFB (on the corner of St Denis and de Maisonneuve) animator, clown, sheep, illustrator, old-soul and dear heart Malcolm Sutherland will be presenting about his creative process and his body of work, including a peek at his latest delight, The Forming Game. 

This is going to be truly awesome folks, seriously. Sutherland is already an established artist in the realm of animation, and he is a PUPPY, people, a puppy. I do believe he will be remembered as this generation’s Normal McLaren, I kid you not. Which in and of itself is reason to go see a selection of his films, (they are all creations of a true genius) but why I am encouraging you to ditch your lukewarm dates and come to this instead is because he is a truly affable, engaging fellow who does a genuinely inspiring presentation. You will not be bored. And that date you were going on? You can’t really guarantee the same of that, can you….?

New York and Montreal, look out!

I am beyond the moon about the latest Pavilion Project, several evenings of animated work by Marina Roy, who is a Vancouver based artist you may or may not know.  SKOL here in Montreal, as well as several other Quebec organizations, have teamed up with Pavilion Projects and the Délégation du Québec à New-York to present 2 nights of her animations, one in New York, the other here in Montreal.

Um, her work is CRAZY, as in CRAZY AMAZING, and I am sheepishly, adamantly, adoringly in full-on-arts-love with her aesthetic. Roy’s own website hosts much info from many years of practice, and not alot of it new work, but I think it’s the newest stuff (interior views of elaborate and decadent rooms and hallways) that knock the socks clear off the feet.

All the info you will ever need to know about this night is here. The date to look out for in Montreal is the 28th of March at Le Pick Up, (7032 Waverly) more info (like when it starts) TBA. (Trust me, I will keep you in the loop about this one)

Please, please go in my place in New York, and report back if you can. It’s your responsibility. I am serious. Go. Stop reading this blog and get on it. I promise I will do the same for folks who can’t come to the Montreal version.