Northern Sights: 360° Virtual Reality

This event took place on Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 11:00 amGlass room next to the Gallery at YAC

Carmen Braden: Changes (4 min)

Composer Carmen Braden performs an original piece on an acoustic piano that has been sunk and frozen into the Great Slave Lake. The performance captures whispered, spoken, and sung material to accompany the instrumental music and natural sounds of the cracking ice. It is recorded both above the ice and below using an underwater microphone and explores the physical and acoustic interactions between the mechanics of the piano and the acoustic qualities of ice and water.

The performance space was created by transporting an acoustic piano onto a frozen lake near Yellowknife, NWT. The piano was partially dug into the ice so the soundboard of the piano directly connects to the ice pan, transferring the sound through the ice into the water below. The piano was transformed by freezing water onto the strings, hammers, keys etc.

The performance is partially improvised using extended prepared piano performance techniques and partially pre-composed with core text material.  Carmen did this because ice and pianos have been an integral part of her compositional development and her desire to bring them together to physically interact. Carmen feels the combination of careful preparation and spontaneity of human and non-human elements make for compelling artistic results both visually and musically.

Casey Koyczan / NAHGA: Fish Eyes (4:30 min)

Interdisciplinary artist Casey Koyczan creates a sculptural installation on the shore of Russell Lake. Koyczan’s connection to the North is music inspired by the northern locations, aesthetic, and materials he will utilize for his fine art practice.

The installation is constructed not only to serve as a form of shelter in the future for local hunting, fishing, berry picking, and cookouts, but also serves as a stage, as Koyczan performs his brand of interdisciplinary music within the shelter as his artist persona ‘NAHGA”, Koyczan creates an experience influenced by the landscape. Koyczan plays music within this structure about the area; further emphasizing the connection to the land through art and music played through multiple speakers hung from the trees spanning throughout the area.

In the past, Koyczan has expressed this connection through fine art installations such as "Emotive Ascension", "Ek'et'a", and "Stitch", which are interpretations of nature reclaiming architectural space. Koyczan’s blood-line traces back to the Behchoko area as he is Tlicho from the Dogrib/Rae Band, and would like to honour that history with this performance.

 

Leela Gilday: Tu Dze (Water Heart) (6:22 min)

Juno-award-winning singer/songwriter Leela Gilday travels to her home community of Deline. Here, she writes and performs a song with Deline drummers in celebration of their sacred connection with the Sahtu.

In collaboration with members of the Deline drummers, the song is based on a traditional Dene drum story that celebrates their sacred connection with the Sahtu (Great Bear Lake), and with water everywhere. The video is shot at locations in and around Deline, and feature the faces of Deline elders and youth, as well as the beautiful land and water. Thematically, it explores the role of generations entrusted with the protection of the water, and safeguarding it for generations into the future.

Derrald Taylor: Dancing Polar Bear Carving (4:17 min)

Inuit sculptor and visual artist Derrald Taylor creates a snow sculpture of the North’s most iconic animals, a polar bear.

Filmed on the frozen Arctic Ocean, under the northern lights, this piece represents both the eternal permanence of the North, as well as the transience and fragility of our delicate environment.

While the creation of the sculpture was filmed in Virtual Reality, the natural destruction of the piece would be a view reserved only for those in the community of Tuktoyaktuk.

 

BAM!: Giant Mine  (7:49 min)

Lead by artist Terry Pamplin, BAM combines live painting with musical performances, but never before have they captured this experience in Virtual Reality.

Working in a circle around the camera, accompanied by Yellowknife musicians, Andrea Bettger, William Greenland, and Sami Blanco, BAM creates one of their memorable masterpieces about the past and future of the NWT, near the historic Giant Mine Site.