[-empyre-] introducing Valerie le Blanc

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@subtle.net>]

 Hello -empyre-
Our  vigorous discussions so far have raised and
investigated  many arenas of concern surrounding the complex
issues of  archiving online resources,  from the technical,
the political, the ethical, the contextual, and as Luciana
observed  -  the poetic.

In the second half of the month we are joined by three
additional guests who will add to the ongoing dialogue by
approaching online archiving from the artists perspective,
both individually and in terms of collections of online
artworks and writing. Unfortunately Graham Crawford, one of
the earliest creators/curators of  Australian online art can
not join us this month due to illness, and we will schedule
another month later in the year on disappeared early net art
and archives.

Today I woudl like to welcome the first of these guests  -
Valerie le Blanc, who has just produced Facts and Artifacts
(in the Collective Matrix), a work on archiving  based upon
seven interviews and deals with digital / online, with an
overall emphasis on education and culture, touching on many
aspects of  the meaning of archiving and collecting, as well
as the problematic of establishing reliable digital
repositories.
http://www.purplefireworks.com/archive-intro.html

Happy Collective Valentines Day to all!

_____________longer bio

Valerie LeBlanc is an interdisciplinary artist, often
working with projects in
series that are spread over time.  Reading changes in human
culture and reporting her individual take on the world are
the constants found in LeBlanc?s projects.  She recognizes
that marketing and media interventions influencing culture
are moving far more quickly than the human capacity to
assimilate its quantum leaps. She writes critically about
her art practice and new media.  Her video works have been
screened in more than forty festivals and exhibitions.

LeBlanc?s multi-level projects usually work between
disciplines.  Time Travel in This Moment, (2002-2004) based
upon her writing, is an example of her experimental voice.
 Her video Bye Bye Three-Quarter Inch (2004) will be part
of the Alberta Scene albertaine screening at the National
Archive Theatre through AMAAS and the Canadian Film
Institute in Ottawa. (May 2005) Bye Bye Three-Quarter Inch
will also be seen in the Prairie Tales Seven 2005 touring
program of film and video.  During 2004, Valerie completed
the research and writing of Facts and Artifacts (in the
Collective Matrix), an essay based upon her research
findings and interviews with seven persons involved with
digital archiving, digital artworks, and collecting facts
and images.

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Valerie LeBlanc has
travelled extensively, living and working in several major
Canadian cities.  Graduating from the Hot Glass Department
at the Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta (1984),
completing her MFA in the Time Arts Program at the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago (1993), she spent many
years in between freelancing in the fields of moving
pictures and sound.

LeBlanc is currently a Sessional Instructor in the Media
Arts and Digital Technologies Department at the Alberta
College of Art and Design in Calgary, teaching an
Intermediate / Senior Video class, and a Seminar in Media
Studies.   She is working on a documentary video about the
motivations of activism as well as on the essay ?Into the
Future? to be included in the 25th Anniversary publication
of EMMEDIA.

Valerie began to collaborate with the artist Daniel Dugas
in 1990.  They produced several bodies of time-based
projects under the name of Limit(E) Productions.  In 1996
they created the TRUNK© Gallery and received national
exposure in Canada for exhibitions featuring themselves and
other artists. Located in the trunk of their car, they
would travel with the gallery to various public locations,
exhibiting the installation of the month in an impromptu
manner.  LeBlanc is currently working to launch the
MediaPackBoard, an apparatus and and performance series
featuring public street interviews and Artist screenings.
 This new project draws from the TRUNK, freed from the
obligations of mechanical upgrades and fossil fuel
dependency.

For more information on the work of Valerie LeBlanc visit
the sites:
www.purplefireworks.com
www.timetravelinthismoment.com
www.wearegettingcloser.com