The opening night of new forms 12 was minus the bass and beats, but it allowed viewers to experience the beeps, boops and more complex soundscapes that went with the installations at the festival. From a thesis creation machine to a dream machine, from a room of tipped tropics to one with a game of sonic twister to a room where a fantastical digital animal administrator has buried it’s records, the classrooms of this living lab offered up moods, methods and levels of pretension for every comer.  The installation series at Great Northern Way Campus was engaging on intellectual, aesthetic and even, gasp, social levels –  the pieces begged to be played with, creating individual reactions that screamed to be compared.

Ben Bogart’s Dreaming Machine [the yellow image]  was a marvel of how evocative incomplete images can be  and, though not intentionally, how corporate logos can dominate any landscape. Bogart said to the Arts Report that he wasn’t sure if he was an artist or an image maker but the process is artistic even if it’s also programmable.

Lief Hall (installation and performance artist, and one half of MYTHS)  [pink] draped a hallway with linen and faerie ghosts in Passages O//// [not pictured]. She found that while she makes the decisions for the A/V performance aspect of MYTHS, this solo work is more evocative of the space and her feeling, rather than complimenting a musical texture.

Nicolas Sassoon + Sara Ludy + Sylvain Sailly‘s WALLPAPERS [black and blue] was less emotive and alive on the walls then on the screen, but the increase in size and pixelation  (as it was Thursday night) in relation and the change in feeling proved the point of the piece, by leading one to investigate the background and proving you can provoke with pixels.

Take advantage of their free events and workshops this weekend, even if you don’t have enough coin to see mind over matter acts like Actress who headlines (though such industry terms may fit oddly at this interdisciplinary fest).

Listen to our new forms 12 episode with Malcolm Levy (director), Nicolas Sassoon (WALLPAPERS) and Evy Jane (music).

Want to write and visit festivals like new forms? Become a volunteer for the Arts Report! Email volunteer@citr.ca for more info.

Listen to the Arts Report Wednesdays at 5pm, and find out more about the Arts Report on the Arts Dept Page. Find extended interviews and special programming onour MixCloud.