(“great supine proto-vertebrate jellies”)
A pigeon lands on a jarringly small branch
“It’s all chaotic, it’s all weird, everyone is getting scared”
Shifts the weight (gingerly, as they say)
The tail up, the eyes kind of quartered—
Like, with malleable convictions corking up the Iris.
There is a sense that the pigeon is
Oblivious, bumbling, perhaps even carefree
(Plump with efforts only designed to gain more
Attention and/or power)
—“A depth of conviction that might’ve
Been shallow.”
The leaves sprout sunspots on contact
The POWER VACUUM has created a kind of
Despite everything, not generating repulsion,
Not reducing repeat sales
It is building a base
It is shuffling along the twist
And it is in no way
Prepared for what is about to happen next
The Milieux Institute has teamed up with Printemps numérique Montréal and Bruxelles to curate a selection of contemporary video art from both cities. The result, VIDEO//PLAY, is in its second iteration (the first, in 2020, was part of the International Symposium on Electronic Art, which acted as the Creativity Pavilion for MTL Connect), and will present a total of 19 video works around the two metropoles on roving LED trucks.
Milieux’s own selection includes work by members and coordinators alike: Nien Tzu Weng, Gina Hara, Jacqueline Beaumont, Diyar Mayil, Anna Eyler (in collaboration with Nicolas Lapointe), and Stephanie E. Creaghan. Works were chosen that displayed the spirit and ethos of community, beyond gender, generations, species, life, and beyond the body itself. Consider genetics, consider Hell, consider the jellyfish; all roads lead to people being most useful to people, and the ways in which we cohabit the multi-dimensions.
In addition to the video curation, Milieux will be hosting two events featured during <MTL> Connect: Alison Powell’s Undoing Optimization, a book talk hosted by Machine Agencies, on October 14th in a hybrid format (online and in person at the Institute), as well as Jill Didur’s The Global Urban Wilds (GUW) App Launch at the Champs des Possibles on October 15th. All details of mentioned events are available on the <MTL> Connect Online Programme, which you can check out here (easiest to find by looking up by date!).
<MTL> Connect: Montreal Digital Week: Hybrid Edition is in its third global iteration, with the 2021 theme of Renaissance. This international event—running from October 12th to October 17th—aims to look across the board at the main questions related to digital development, focusing on its economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts in various sectors of activity. Montreal Digital Spring (Printemps numérique) launched the first edition of the event in 2019. The second edition was held from October 13 to 18, 2020 in a 100% online format, at the same time as hosting ISEA2020 (26th International Symposium on Electronic Art) as the Creativity Pavilion.
