For many years, Vancouverites used to complain bitterly. Montreal has Mutek, Barcelona has Sonar, when do we get our bastion of digital arts and ultra? Rising from the shadows and in as grass roots a style as you get in Vancouver, the New Forms Festival has become exactly that.
I love the NFF. I’ve been attending since it was just a glint in the eyes of Malcolm Levy and Jarrett Martineau, and explosion of the cross sections of digital art and culture that was a good excuse to have a damn fine hoedown. Now ten years in, they continue to plow a path of experimentation, education and ass shaking.
This year’s festival culminated in the largest media arts exhibition of its kind in the history of Vancouver — all of it circulating around the W2 in downtown Vancouver. Live sets from the likes of Slugabed, Ilumsphere and Detroit’s mighty Omar S put the booty on the floor. The good people of the New Forms Festival continue to have excellent taste.
The other side of NFF was certainly the Levy-curated media arts exhibition, Traversing Electronic Narratives. The exhibit provided a visual stimulus lacking from the festival in previous years. All in all, a fine reminder of what Vancouver can both on the dance floor and in the gallery.