18 Sep 2009

I’m going to call this “the little festival that could”.  LOLA (London Ontario Live Arts) fest in London Ontario is happening now, having just launched last night.  Throughout the core of the city are art installations based on the theme of light/ darkness.  Today begins the music portion of the fest as well, with VIctoria Park hosting 2 stages, a mainstage and the trans/media stage.    VJ POMO and myself will be VJing on the mainstage all weekend … But what really struck me other than the usual amibitious work being done by fesitval organizers is how much tech they’ve included.  lolafest.com/live will be streaming content online for the next 48 hrs, not from just the videography on the stage, but from LOLA staff (and even artists) equiped with nokia cellphones capable of streaming live videofeeds (let’s call it live documentary) via a huge transciever unit called the C.O.W. which is set up in the park.   We’re going to be hooked up with one of these phones later today to add our experience to the LOLAness. Also (and this is the first time I’ve ever seen then used in Canada in person)  LOLA fest folk added QR coding to all the signage (each artists station has a sign like in the pic — the one above being for our VJ sets on the mainstage).  Linking the art to digital mobile content was a fantastic idea, allowing the viewer to investigate more about the art and the artists. I’ll be semi-live blogging on my tumblr page all weekend. As they’re also setting me up with a wireless account that I can access right from where I’m VJing.  THanks to the C.O.W.  I’ll find out what it stands for and edit this :). ** the COW is simply. the cell on wheels.  hmph was hoping for something more dramatic.

I’m going to call this “the little festival that could”.  LOLA (London Ontario Live Arts) fest in London Ontario is happening now, having just launched last night.  Throughout the core of the city are art installations based on the theme of light/ darkness.  Today begins the music portion of the fest as well, with VIctoria Park hosting 2 stages, a mainstage and the trans/media stage.    VJ POMO and myself will be VJing on the mainstage all weekend …

But what really struck me other than the usual amibitious work being done by fesitval organizers is how much tech they’ve included.  lolafest.com/live will be streaming content online for the next 48 hrs, not from just the videography on the stage, but from LOLA staff (and even artists) equiped with nokia cellphones capable of streaming live videofeeds (let’s call it live documentary) via a huge transciever unit called the C.O.W. which is set up in the park.   We’re going to be hooked up with one of these phones later today to add our experience to the LOLAness.

Also (and this is the first time I’ve ever seen then used in Canada in person)  LOLA fest folk added QR coding to all the signage (each artists station has a sign like in the pic — the one above being for our VJ sets on the mainstage).  Linking the art to digital mobile content was a fantastic idea, allowing the viewer to investigate more about the art and the artists.

I’ll be semi-live blogging on my tumblr page all weekend. As they’re also setting me up with a wireless account that I can access right from where I’m VJing.  THanks to the C.O.W.  I’ll find out what it stands for and edit this :).

** the COW is simply. the cell on wheels.  hmph was hoping for something more dramatic.

Report by mrghosty.
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