About the G8 Project

From June 25-27, 2010 the world will be watching the Blue Sky region of northern Ontario as politicians from all over the globe attend the G8 summit conference to be held at Deerhust Lodge in Huntsville. As the closest media access centre to the conference, the Near North Mobile Media Lab Collective decided (early in 2009) to develop an “artistic” presence at the site of the conference and in nearby North Bay where security forces for the event will be assembling and staying. The G8 Residency Project involves the Media Lab moving to a site just opposite the Deerhust facility, obtaining press passes for the residing artists and commissioning four media artworks FROM the events of the G8 summit. The Media Lab will also be transforming itself into a broadband media uplink site for the residing artists and for activist documentarists who are unofficially attending the summit.

The Objective of the G8 Project is to create an artist's residency at the G8 summit in Huntsville that will focus Media and Government attention upon contemporary media arts and on the political issue that are of interest to contemporary media artists.

The project will give residents and outsiders a broadcast voice for the event and will result in the creation of multiple media artworks.

We have invited four artists from across the country and the United States to join us for up to one week and to stay on the site of the summit. We will park the Media Lab across the street from Deerhurst Lodge (site of the conference) and then plug in all of our new satellite up-linking technologies.

Once installed at the site, the invited artists will: document their activities, create new in- situ performances, set up nomadic exhibitions and simply make their presences felt at the summit.

The project is also focused on streaming video live from the site of the summit. Using new technologies purchased for this project, we will be able to transmit the artists’ works immediately to the web. We will also become a centre for other independent media artists who are visiting the summit and for the grassroots activist groups who are “surrounding” the event.

Residency Dates

Residency Week One starts on June 21st and runs until just after the Conference, June 28th. We have not yet determined which artists will participate in this first week of actions, exhibits and events.

Residency Week One starts on June 25th and runs until a week after the Conference, July 2nd. We have not yet determined which artists will participate in this first week of actions, exhibits and events.

Partners and Participants

Our “international” arts partner, the Not an Alternative Arts Collective bills itself as a cultural production company. They have a gallery space in New York but are most effective when they reach out to various communities and sub-cultures to allow art to effect change. At a conference in Ottawa, Media Lab members met with Ms. Fung and first suggested the idea of involving the American group in this residency. Although Canada Council for the Arts would NOT be asked to fund this international component, we are certain that this connection will strengthen the residency and help us to create a wider audience for the materials being uploaded from the trailer. The connection may also increase the broadcast media profile of the project and act to promote these artists across the globe.

Our grassroots partners for this project are the residents of Huntsville and Burk’s Falls and other surrounding hamlets. The Media Lab has done workshops in these areas and also has several members who come from Huntsville. We have permission to set up our broadcast venue at a bed and breakfast across the road from Deerhurst.

Our Gallery partners include:
WKP Kennedy Gallery
White Water Gallery
Ed Video Guelph
Thames Gallery at the Chatham Cultural Centre


Equipment

Our web technician, B. Sabzicot has determined that, to be able to efficiently and dependably upload images and streaming video to the net from a trailer in the woods, we will need to purchase the Skydata system. These are the only equipment costs associated to this project. All other equipment will be purchased by the Media Lab for use by the invited artists. We have high definition and three chip production packages, lights, audio gear, tripods, projection equipment, audio recorders, laptop editors, and all the software the artist will need to create works on site.