The Media Arts Programme


Context and History

The methods of network art, electronic art, sound, noise, video, and new media have been a significant part of the Western Front's activities since its inception. Western Front Media Arts holds an important place as an alternative creative space for interdisciplinary art, and as a pioneer in connecting artists to technologies.

Visiting artists have included Kathy Acker, Bob Adrian, Laurie Anderson, Ant Farm, Roy Ascott, Robert Ashley, Gwek Bure-Soh, Diana Burgoyne, William Burroughs, Klaus von Bruch, Colin Campbell, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Shawn Chappelle, Elizabeth Chitty, Marie Chouinard, Randy Lee Cutler, Peter Courtemanche, Tom Dean, Sara Diamond, Stan Douglas, Margaret Dragu, Robert Filliou, Vera Frenkel, General Idea, Ken Gregory, Mona Hatoum, Tetsuo Kogawa, Ardele Lister, Tanya Mars, Rita McKeough, Jeff Mann, Antoni Muntadas, Randy and Bernicci, Clive Robertson, David Rokeby, Tom Sherman, Thecla Schiphorst, Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, Elizabeth Van der Zaag, Paul Wong and Cornelia Wyngaarden.

Recent visiting artists include Jude Norris, Judy Radul, Darsha Hewitt, David Clark and Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby.

Programming

The direction for the Media Arts Programme is expansive and elastic. Presentation of emergent, new, and diverse media art practices to several communities is a key component of past and future projects. The program serves a spectrum of individuals from local, national and international contexts. As such, the Media Arts Programme maintains several areas of activity and resources:

- Artist-in-Residence program provides space, time and technical guidance for media artists to workshop their ideas and develop new works in a supportive, creative environment, including outlets for public presentation

- Collaborative projects and co-productions allow opportunities for the pooling of resources, facilities and creative input

- Dissemination and international exchanges increase accessibility to our activities by distributing the works of Vancouver artists to the rest of Canada and internationally through publications and web-based programming. We also host Art's Birthday (http://artsbirthday.net), an annual exchange-art festival produced in collaboration with artists and artist organizations around the world

- The Media Archive features a collection of over 800 works of media art produced over the past 34 years at the Western Front

- Research is conducted in-house by guest curators, curators-in-residence, media arts professionals, community members, educators, and students.

Mentorships in Media Arts provide opportunities for professional growth through internships in curatorial practice, technical support, archiving and marketing.