Neutral Ground in Partnership with the Mackenzie Art Gallery | hosted by Clara Chen
December 19, 2020
SOIL DIGITAL MEDIA SUITE ARCHIVES
Digging through SOIL
Link to walkthrough party Zoom Recording.
Digging through SOIL is a virtual party and celebration of Neutral Ground’s SOIL project, presented in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery. SOIL was an 18 year-long project facilitated by Neutral Ground Artist-Run Centre under the guidance of former director Brenda Cleniuk. Operating from 1997-2015, SOIL was formed in response to the impact of new tools and technologies on local communities and artists. SOIL’s Flash-based archive has been preserved through the work of digital archivist Clara Chen over the past year. Join Neutral Ground’s digital archivist Clara Chen, programming director Amber Phelps-Bondaroff, and several artists in the SOIL exhibitions archives in a journey through local digital art history.
This event is free to attend but requires preregistration. Please register here to attend the virtual party over Zoom.
Register in advance for this meeting:
Register for Digging Through SOIL
Gone in a Flash is a digital programs series from the MacKenzie Art Gallery and Neutral Ground Artist Run Centre, focusing on the upcoming dissolution of the Adobe Flash medium. Since 1996, Adobe Flash has introduced artists to interactive, animated, and web-based work. But at the end of this year, this powerful tool is being permanently removed from the Internet. This online programming series brings together artists, digital archivists, and game developers to discuss their experiences with the medium and what its disappearance means for future of digital art.
About the participants:
Clara Chen (陈嘉雯, she/they) b.1998, grew up in Regina Saskatchewan Treaty 4 Territory, with family from the Guangdong and Hong Kong regions of China. Clara’s work stems from interest and exploration of migration, separation, and the ways in which we are intertwined with cyberspace. A member of the CBC Creator Network, Clara is a practising expanded media artist and filmmaker. Find more of Clara’s work on her website: https://cyberspacevoid.xyz/
Over this year, Clara was an archive assistant at Neutral Ground Artist-Run Centre. She worked with the rich body of media created ever since Neutral Ground’s genesis in 1982, and archived the Neutral Ground Soil flash website.
About SOIL:
SOIL was an 18 year-long project facilitated by Neutral Ground Artist-Run Centre under the guidance of former director Brenda Cleniuk. Operating from 1997-2015, SOIL was formed in response to the impact of new tools and technologies on local communities and artists. SOIL’s Flash-based archive has been preserved through the work of digital archivist Clara Chen over the past year.
About the MacKenzie Art Gallery:
Gone in a Flash is a program series developed by the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s digital programs coordinators Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll. Previous online programming from the gallery can be viewed for free at:
https://mackenzie.art/gone-in-a-flash/
