Video In Studios is Vancouver’s oldest media arts access centre. When you’ve been doing all the things they do for almost forty years, you end up becoming more than just a building, you become an ethos, a way and a brand.
VIVO builds an audience of makers, organizers and critics through education, entertainment. Offering up classes in everything from circuit bending and video editing, to using Ableton Live and and Flash, this is a place where many of Vancouver’s leading artists first cut their teeth. A instructor crew that includes sound artist Brady Marks and Emma Hendrix of local sinister ambienteers, Coin Gutter, mean that you’re not just getting handed off to someone who took a course. You’re getting on the ground education from those who have been in the trenches.
As an events space, Vivo has been host to everything from cultural salons, to dubstep shakers. As home to the legendary Signal and Noise festival, Vivo marked its place on the international map. I’ve been lucky to perform there as well as host to the likes of Kid Kameleon and T-Power inside its walls to great success.
Then there’s the Crista Dahl Media Library and Archive and Video Out distribution. The Library houses Western Canada’s foremost collection of artists’ videotapes, documenting the forty years of work that have spawned from inside the building. Video Out is simply the distribution wing, making sure that over 4000 tapes get into the hands of galleries and festivals worldwide, making sure the sound and vision of Vancouver gets where it needs to go.