Pan-Pacific Rim Experience and Art Patronage Interview with Deepchild (Rick Bull) of Sydney, Australia

ArtConverge attended the Midforms Festival 2009 (MFF), a 3-day Digital Culture Festival co-produced by the New Forms Media Society and the Cultural Olympiad. It was an incredible exposé of large-scale and interactive digital installations. The program guide describes the MFF as:

The concept to explore our constantly morphing relationship with technology and culture. The MFF encourages artists and participants to engage and discover the main exhibition entitled Shell Exhibition, as well as the Sound and Visual Series over three evenings.

The new Centre for Digital Media is at the Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC), 577 Great Northern Way, near Science World in Vancouver. It is a unique and collaborative campus founded by four leading academic partners – UBC (University of British Columbia), SFU (Simon Fraser University), ECIAD (Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design) and BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology). GNWC is an anchor for a high-technology precinct that will attract academics, who interact with the digital media and film industries.

State and Church as Art Patrons for Deepchild (Rick Bull) as New Media Artist

At the media reception, followed by Mosaic Sounds, I met with internationally-acclaimed DJ/producer Deepchild (Rick Bull) from Sydney, Australia. Deepchild has a delightful sense of humour as a serious and well-known digital visual artist. We talked about how artists need to constantly find funding that may or may not be related to our work, in order to enable us to produce our art. He said that his support for his art comes from corporate, state and church sponsors. We talked about the age-old role of the art patron, who commission an artwork that would not otherwise be produced and, as a result, the artwork’s patron may have a direct influence on the content and creative process itself. For example, in my own artwork, I am researching digital characters in “Second-Life” as performance photomedia art. Deepchild acknowledged the following:

Whether it’s been me doing Levi’s stuff (modeling) or recently a tour sponsored by Becks Bier (Becks “Berlin Sessions”), I’m constantly reminded that there’s no ‘art’ that’s ‘pure’, no process that can exist in isolation.

If that’s the mythology being sold, we’re better off joining the Catholic church!. Actually, I worked for the church for a couple of years as an ‘artist in residence’, and was given free reign and commissioned to develop random animation and responses to political and spiritually relevant conceptual content. Actually, it was one of the best jobs of my life. As “artist-dude”- in-residence, I was recently commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery of the state of Victoria. (See video below.)

Humorous Pictures of Birds and Animals

Deepchild (Rick Bull) is likely to be familiar with Japanese “manga”, which means “whimsical pictures” and at MFF, he happened to have a handbill in his pocket, which he handed to me, with details of a recent book release event, the Graffiti Japan Tokyo Launch Party (www.graffitijapan.com), where he was invited as a guest artist.

Japanese manga is portrayed in his new media art “Self-Portrait” (above video) through a series of cartoon birds and animals, the strict use of red, white and black colours, along with character text, set against the rising sun. The imagery alludes to the original manga, which dates back to 12th century “Chojugiga (the Animal Scrolls)”, which literally translates as “humorous pictures of birds and animals” depicted by an artist-priest Kakuyu, or Toba (1053-1140). He is likely to relate to the artist-priest as he was once the ‘artist in residence at a church’ for this commissioned piece.

The plot of the “Self-Portrait” animation enjoys a sudden twist of fate, a “deus ex machina”, where Deepchild as the central figure, is literally plucked by the hand of god. This is a reflection of Rick Bull’s own rise to recognition in the visual arts, as he claims that he was “randomly selected” as a commissioned artist by the National Portrait Gallery of Victoria, established in Melbourne in 1861. (www.ngv.vic.gov.au).

Deepchild Self-Portrait for National Portrait Gallery of Victoria

Deepchild (RickBull) DJ/Producer for Techforms, Midforms 2009

As the guest DJ for Techforms, Deepchild is a stalwart of the Australian deep-house/minimal-tech community and long-time radio presence on the airwaves of Fbi 94.5FM radio in Sydney. He has toured with top billing DJ sets: Richie Hawtin and Green Velvet (at the massive EXIT Festival, Serbia) Jeff Mills (Tribal Sessions in Leeds), Jesse Rose, Dixon and Sebo K (for Jesse’s “Made to Play” monthly at Berlin’s legendary Panorama Bar), M.A.N.D.Y (Watergate, Berlin), Ewan Pearson and Will Saul (SONAR, Barcelona) to remix work from New Order to techno superstars: Booka Shade (voted best act and best record label, Get Physical, in dance bible IDJ 2008). www.deepchild.com

Deepchild produced a video documentary of his Pan Pacific Rim experience at MFF in Vancouver, which includes an interview with Sven Torpedo (Mario Glavacic), curator of New Forms Media Society and his performance at Techforms, Midforms 2009.

Deepchild (Rick Bull) visit to Vancouver for Midforms 2009

Synopsis of MidForms Cultural Olympiad 2009

Shell Exhibition
The MFF Shell Exhibition features custom-built Perl installations showcasing New Media Art, from a diversity of local and international artists, along with Visual Sound Lounge and roaming performance artists. The Canadian splinter of the Graffiti Research Lab utilizes the latest techniques in the creation of digital art from emerging local and international artists in formats including traditional digital print, interactive audio art, augmented reality and live digital painting.

Artists:
Even Oldridge (Vancouver)
Andre Sier (Portugal)
Zoe and Athen Ananda (Vancouver)
Matt Elfmaster (Vancouver)
George Atherton (Seattle)
Ze Frank (San Francisco)

Sound and Visual Series
The Sound and Visual Series is a diversity and fusion of New Media Art that explores the edges of visual and audio design. Acclaimed electronic music producers and visual artists showcase the cutting edge in an underground dance environment. The 3-night line up includes Mosaic Sounds, TechForms and BREAKFORMS.

Mosaic Sounds @ Midforms 09: March 5, 2009 from 9 pm till late

Beats Without Borders is back with its first global fusion show for 2009!

Entertainment line up:

DJ/Producer Nickodemus (NYC) – God in the World Fusion genre and his “Turntables on the Hudson” nights are the stuff of legends: http://www.nickodemus.com/about.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMtGAiZcw54
Performance by Afro-Fusion Group Zimbamoto: http://www.myspace.com/ZimbaMoto
Dancer Kesseke Yeo: http://www.myspace.com/kessekeyeo
Shamik the Human Beat Box: http://www.myspace.com/teamshamik
VJ Electrabelle: http://www.electrabelle.com
BWB Residents: T-Spoon, Lady Ra, and Nils http://www.beatswithoutborders.com and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzBMKKqeYw

TechForms @ Midforms 09: March 6, 2009 from 9 pm till late

TechForms (minimal tech) is an interactive New Media Art convergence experience through live screen fibre optic cables at S.A.T. and at the Great Northern Way campus in Vancouver with VJs mixing new and archival footage tracing these common themes to blend and mix together to create a tableau of Canada’s past and future of these inner-city neighbourhoods.

Music:

Deepchild (Australia) – Freerange, OM www.deepchild.com
Akufen (Canada) – Musique Risquée www.akufen.ca
Scott W. (Canada) – Open Studios

Visuals:
Vj Electrabelle: http://www.electrabelle.com
Brady Marks (furiousgreencloud): blog.furiousgreencloud.com

BREAKFORMS @ Midforms 09: March 7, 2009 from 9 pm till late

BREAKFORMS is the new addition to this annual festival on the third night of the festival. It will focus its attention on the sounds of Breaks, Funk, Electro and Hip Hop.

DJ line up:

Soul of Man (UK) – http://www.fingerlickin.co.uk and http://www.myspace.com/thesoulofman
Myagi – http://www.myagimusic.com and http://www.myspace.com/myagisoleclaw
Neighbour (Calgary AB) – performing LIVE: http://www.homebreakinrecords.com and http://www.myspace.com/homebreakin
MC Think Tank (Calgary AB) – http://www.myspace.com/thinktankishomebreakin / Funk Weapons / Homebreakin Records
Precise & Kraig – Twisted / AGROculture
VJ Bentmatter (Vancouver)

Advance tickets are $25 (Highlife, Zulu, Beat Street and clubzone.com) or $30 at the door. For more information, visit http://midforms.wordpress.com/.

The Centre for Digital Media is located near Vancouver main attractions for the arts.

ENDNOTES and REFERENCE LINKS:

http://secondlife.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
http://www.umich.edu/~anime/info_animehistory.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/

Liza J. Lee is the Co-founder and Blogger for Artistrun ArtConverge.

© 2009 ArtConverge (ISSN 1918-9273‏)

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