Cinevolution Media Arts Society

Digital Carnival

Program Overview

Title: Digital Carnival
Year: 2015 - 2021
description:

Digital Carnival is Cinevolution’s flagship annual event. With a curated theme, the festival showcases the works of national and international artists working at the forefront of media art, ranging from dance, poetry, video, interactive media, live coding to web XR online. Digital Carnival has been making media art accessible by bringing cutting-edge projects by diverse artists into public spaces since 2015.

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Still of video projection illustration -- blue background
Cindy Mochizuki, Compass (2017); Photo Credit: Ash Tanasiychuk

This dynamic annual festival is committed to representing diverse creative voices of emerging media artists, promoting public appreciation of media arts and fostering creative dialogue in the media arts community. 

2021   Digital Carnival Z 

Curators: Yun-Jou Chang, Minah Lee

Still image from UNION exhibition.
Nancy Lee 李南屏 and Kiran Bhumber ਕਿਰਨਦੀਪ ਕੌਰ ਭੰਬਰ, UNION (2021)

In Spring 2021, Digital Carnival Z took place as a hybrid festival for the first time, with the Featured Artist Exhibition — UNION Nancy Lee 李南屏 and Kiran Bhumber ਕਿਰਨਦੀਪ ਕੌਰ ਭੰਬਰ — at the Richmond Art Gallery and the rest of the exhibits online. The festival explored alternative conceptions of the relationship between bodies, gestures, culture and society.

Check the website for the details of the event: https://digitalcarnival.ca/

2019   Digital Carnival: Fire

Guest Curator: Wynne Palmer

Featured Artist: The Dystopian Museum by Nicole Dextras

Melany Nugent-Noble and Trent Noble, Third Beach (2019), Photo Credit: Jack Wang.

Transforming shipping containers into pop-up galleries, Digital Carnival presents a variety of cutting-edge artworks including video projections, interactive installations, virtual reality projects. 

Left to right: Nicole Dextras (2019); Paige Smith, Static (2019); Yang Guo, Gather/Scatter (2019); Photo Credit: Jack Wang. John Desnoyers-Stewart, Transcending Perception (2019); Photo Credit: Jessica Li.

2018     Digital Carnival: Air

Guest Curator: Wynne Palmer

Featured Artists: Different Ways by Lisa Birke and Terrance Houle

Artist and audience standing around outdoors. A boat is on the ground.
Lisa Birke and Terrance Houle, Different Ways (2018); Photo Credit: Yoko Takei Do.

The 2018 installment explores the theme of AIR, a metaphor for spirituality, intellect and transformation. AIR offers an opportunity to inform our approaches to various cultural understandings and ultimately question our relationship with the natural world.

Left to right: Sean Wirz and Hannah Rocchi, Akasha (2017); Mirjana Prpa, Kivanç Tatar, and Philippe Pasquier, Respire (2018); Photo Credit: Sheng Ho. Isabelle Hayeur, Aftermaths (2013); Josephine Massarella, 165708 (2017); Photo Credit: Yoko Takei Do.

2017  Digital Carnival: Land

Guest Curator: Wynne Palmer

Featured Artist: Compass by Cindy Mochizuki

Still of video projection illustration -- blue background
Cindy Mochizuki, Compass (2017); Photo Credit: Ash Tanasiychuk

With LAND as its theme, this year’s program provoked the public to think about questions of personal and cultural identity, connection to the land and our ideas about community and home. The festival showcased 15 works by 23 artists, including Scant Intone + C130, Milton Lim, Laura Lee Coles and Rob Scharein, Marina Szijarto and Glen Andersen, Minah Lee and Marcelo da Silva, Sarah Gold, Sarah Shamash, Gabriela Sepulveda and Osvaldo Ramirez, Ella Cooper, Isabelle Hayeur, Katharine Yi, Sonny Assu, *Mind of a Snail Puppet Theatre, Alanna Ho and Nathan Marsh, and Patrick Blenkarn Digital. 

Left to right: Cindy Mochizuki, Compass (2017); Laura Lee Coles and Rob Scharein, Facium Terrae (2017); Glen Andersen and Marina Szijarto, The Voice of the River (2017); Patrick Blenkarn, Speaking Ocean: Basic Expressions (2017); Isabelle Hayeur, Mirages (2014) and Katharine Yi, I Know the Way to What You Are Looking For (2017). Photo Credit: Ash Tanasiychuk.

2016   Digital Carnival: Water

Guest Curator: Wynne Palmer 

Featured Artist: Sammy Chien

Event Banner for Digital Carnival 2016, design by Lynn Chen.

Contained under the ‘Big Top’ of 7 inter-connected event tents on the field in Minoru Park in central Richmond, this year’s program comprised 10 works by 12 Canadian artists including: performance art, video screenings, integrated media installations, generative art, audio/sound, interactive works and computer gaming, community art engagement projects. 

Left to right: Anchi Lin, Aquarium (2016), Photo Credit: Sammy Su. Glen Andersen and Marina Szijarto, Voice of the River (2016); George Ho, The Family Tree (2016). Photo Credit: Ying Wang.

2015   Digital Carnival 

Featured Artist: prOphesy sun

Participating Artists: Merlyn Chipman, Glen Andersen, Marina Szijarto, David Leith, K8L35, Victoria Gibson, Wynne Palmer, Zoran Dragelj, Rob Scharein, Laura Lee Coles, prOphesy sun

Left to right: Featured Artist Performance by prOphesy sun (2015); Laura Lee Coles and Rob Scharein, Kaleidoscope. Photo Credit: Ying Wang.

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