EMMEDIA celebrates Canadian arts with PARTICLE + WAVE Media Arts Festival

By Fernando Moreno, January 31 2017 —

On Feb. 2, the PARTICLE + WAVE Media Arts Festival presented by EMMEDIA will begin throughout Calgary. Originally founded in 2012, the five-day festival is a tribute to media arts across Canada and will present lectures, talks and exhibitions.

EMMEDIA  programming director Vicki Chau says that the name of the festival is an important connection to the rest of the country.

“[The name is an] homage to the other media arts festivals that [were] going on in Canada. There is SIGNAL + NOISE in Vancouver and in Winnipeg [there is] SEND + RECEIVE, so we kind of wanted to go with that theme of naming our festival that way,” Chau says. “PARTICLE + WAVE just came about because in 2012 it was our programming year of lights and you know light comes in particles and waves.”

According to Chau, the festival works to express art through modern technology including video, electronics, animation or anything that uses electricity.

“It’s just a celebration of all the new media arts popping up,” she says. “The innovative ways these artists are taking open-source software that’s been made and [using them] for their art forms.”

Chau says that the festival has a particular appeal to students working in the media arts.

“We are accessing a lot of the young students from colleges and universities in the city, just because a lot of the graduates from media arts programs like the Alberta College of Art + Design end up being in the festival or being a part of media,” she says.

The festival will feature workshops including “Video Vulture Culture” with video artist Tasman Richardson. The closing reception will feature local musicians including Chris Dadge. Chau says the diversity of the festival ensures attendees will find something of interest to attend.

Tickets can be purchased at EMMEDIA ’s website or at the door. The festival will run Feb. 2–8 at various locations around the city.

For more information, visit emmedia.ca