Exploring New Forms

OLGA LIVSHIN

This year, Vancouver New Forms Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary. The festival welcomes visitors to Gastown’s W2 Storyeum with two interconnected art forms – music and visual arts – in their modern, computer-generated incarnations.

The festival’s motto of exploring new forms of media art reflects one of the most popular directions of artistic development in the world today. From cutting- edge electronic beats and digital sound sculptures to a funky gramophone on rails and computer-enhanced video projections, 18 artists and 23 musicians from Canada and abroad are bringing media arts to the forefront of Vancouver’s local culture.

The festival was founded in 2000 by two young talents: musician and poet Jarrett Martineau and photo artist and filmmaker Malcolm Levy, who has been with the festival ever since. This year, Levy serves as the curator of the festival’s visual arts exhibition: Traversing Electronic Narratives.

“It’s the largest local media arts exhibition of its kind in the history of Vancouver,” he told the Independent. “The festival attracts thousands of people each year.” Levy also pointed out that this year the festival moved into the newly renovated W2 Storyeum. “The vast space – 31,000 square feet – allows us to combine all the art forms. People can listen to the music and look at the art installations at the same time.”

One of the most curious installations is Gramorail, a pedal-powered blend of kinetic sculpture, a vehicle and a gramophone. Created by Vancouver Design Nerds and eatArt, Gramorail is a whimsical two-cart party train that could travel along the unused rail corridors of Vancouver. Although this fascinating and interactive piece has already enchanted guests of three other media arts festivals, the New Forms Festival is going to be its official première.

Since New Forms’ inception, the demographics of its visitors has expanded steadily in numbers and diversity. Levy said that most of the festival’s visitors are in the 18 to 40 age group. Among them are designers and art school students, artists and filmmakers, and a sprinkling of the general public.

“There is a huge need for this kind of a festival,” Levy explained. “Similar festivals are growing all around the world: in Montreal, New York, Berlin, Shanghai and other cities.” In the last few years, Levy visited many of them, and he curated the visual arts segments of similar shows in China and Australia.

Levy started working in the media arts field when he was 19, when he was a student at McGill University in Montreal. After university, he moved to Vancouver. “I love the weather here and the community. I love nature,” he explained.

Arts might be viewed as Levy’s hereditary occupation. His uncle was a filmmaker and his mother was a curator, too. They, as well as other members of his family involved in the arts, served as role models for Levy.

An artist himself, Levy focuses his work on the realms of photography and documentary not normally exposed on camera. Fascinated by the abstract and experimental, he employs light, motion and focus to sharpen his perception and to meditate on the unusual.

Besides creating his own pieces and exhibiting at the Grace Gallery on Main Street, Levy has worked as a curator for more than 20 projects of media arts, spoken and directed documentaries at festivals in Australia, India, New Zealand, China, Hungary, Germany and Canada. Levy never exhibits his own pieces in the shows he curates, though. “It’s a question of ethics,” he said. “The only exception might be if I’m invited to exhibit a piece first and later offered the position of the curator in the same show.”

One of his recent projects was CODE Live, a part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver. “It was the largest new media exhibition in Canada,” he said.

Lately, despite his relatively young years – he’s in his early thirties – such intensive work has started to take its toll.

“I’m learning to manage my time better now,” he said. “I’m trying to keep a balance. I hike in the morning with my beautiful wife. I do yoga. I love sports and spend time with friends.”

He also reads widely, both professional and recreational literature. And, if that is not enough, he is currently working on a master’s degree online with the New School for Social Research in New York. “I need to challenge myself and to learn more in my field,” he said.

New Forms Festival is on until Sept. 18. For more information, visit newformsfestival.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She is available for contract work. Contact her at [email protected].

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