We Pay, They Play. What’s So “Gift Economy” About Notional Space?

Notional Space, the name we give to our living room when it is transformed into a gathering place, is a gift economy project. Our aim is to provide a space where the people who are building community – artists, activists, nonprofits – can come together with those who are hungry for community and eager to support those working toward a more beautiful, meaningful, just world.

Frequently, this takes the form of “house concerts”, where you have a chance to see and hear outstanding performers representing a wide variety of musical genres. So I’ll discuss the gift economy dynamics in that context; but this analysis applies to any of the give as you wish events we host.

What’s the diff?
Many people wonder: what’s so “gift economy” about these events, when they are giving money to be in the audience? How is this any different than any other commercial performance, where one buys a ticket to hear the music? It is easy to overlook the distinctions and it’s easy to see this as just another exchange of money for service; but this is to miss an important dynamic in these evenings.

Ben Brown: Improvising His Way to Clarity

Photo by Harley Spade

Ben Brown is a Vancouver treasure.  He is the brilliant drummer of JUNO award winning Pugs and Crows.  He is an in-demand session player who has played with fabulous emerging artists as well as illustrious established musicians.  He is Composer-in-Residence at the Western Front.  He is the mastermind and instigator of Music and Movement Mondays, a boundary-crossing improvisational exploration of music and dance.  He’s also a lovely guy.

And one more thing: he’s the subject of my recent interview on VANDOCUMENT. Check it out.

Hey Kids, Let’s Put-on a Show!

Anjela Magpantay, Carmine Santavenere & Jamie Taylor in Sarah Faye Bernstein’s Apartment(PLAY) – Photo by Harley Spade

Director Sarah Faye Bernstein produced a one-week run of a terrific play (the title of which was all-but-undisclosed) in her apartment, with superb performances from Anjela Magpantay, Carmine Santavenere, and  Jamie Taylor, and excellent technical work by Daniel O’Shea, Annie Therrien-Boulos, Nancy Tam, and Clinton Ackerman. Bernstein’s energy, discipline, and willingness to work outside-the-lines seem to represent an important and promising trend in the city’s emerging art scene. With access to proper venues limited, more-and-more young artists are availing themselves of unconventional spaces and producing their own shows.

My review is up on VANDOCUMENT. Check it out.

Spatial Poetics XIII: WeMix

photo by Noriko Nasu-Tidball

The thirteenth annual edition of Spatial Poetics, a series of curated performances pairing artists from different disciplines in collaboration, was just presented at The Western Front. My review is up on VANDOCUMENT. Check it out.

Hot Choir in the City

 

My review of a recent, largely inaudible concert by Jenny Ritter’s two great rock & roll choral ensembles, Mount Pleasant Regional Institute of Sound (MPRIS) and The Kingsgate Chorus is up on VANDOCUMENT.  Check it out.

Exuberant Hues: Ben Skinner Colours Back Gallery Project

I have a new review up on VANDOCUMENT, covering a a show by Vancouver artist Ben Skinner at the Back Gallery Project on East Hastings in Strathcona.

Check it out.

Bozzini Lab 2014: Young Composers Shine in Exploration of New Music

I have a new review up on VANDOCUMENT, covering a performance by the fabulous Bozzini Quartet of experimental works by emerging Canadian composers. An astonishingly great concert!

Check it out.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Improvisational Dance

I have a new review up on VANDOCUMENT.  This one covers a program of largely improvisational dance performances, “inside the lines | the lines inside”, that was on offer at the Edam Dance Theatre in October.

Check it out.

An Autobiography Carved from Biography

Trailer for Moyra Davey’s film, Les Goddesses.

My latest review for VANDOCUMENT is online. This one takes-on Moyra Davey’s challenging 2011 film, Les Goddesses, in which she tells the story of a sad, distant time in her past via the biographies of other women: the 18th Century proto-feminist philosopher and literary figure Mary Wollstonecraft, Ms. Wollstonecraft’s daughters (including the writer Mary Shelley), and Ms. Davey’s own three sisters.

Check it out.

One thing about the review bears mentioning. I attempt to take Ms. Davey’s project seriously and therefore offer my best effort to dissect whatever-the-hell might be going-on in the film. Without in any way abandoning criticality, I am loathe to write derogatorily about any of the work I cover for VANDOCUMENT. My objective there (unlike the sometimes-harsh things I write on memestream) is to present a fair sense of a project or event contributing to the current local art scene while being supportive of the artists and institutions who are putting themselves on-the-line and bringing value to the community. So, if I have committed to a degree of non-negativity and intellectual engagement with Ms. Davey’s work in my review, please do not be misled into thinking that the film is any good. It is not.

Show-Up

Show-up, people. Just fucking-show-up.

Tonight, Yoo-Mi and I were privileged to attend a performance of Yvette Nolan’s smart, gripping new work, The Unplugging, at The Arts Club Theatre Company’s Revue Stage. The play, set in post-apocalyptic Canada, explores the emotional need for community, the compulsion to generosity, and the go-to sustainability of traditional ways of living.  It also illustrates the dangerous ways in which these virtues are challenged by the venality of a culture that has convinced itself that survival is a zero-sum game. The dialogue is tight, the production simple, direct, and effective, and the acting (by Jenn Griffin, Margo Kane, and Anton Lipovetsky) stunningly superb. By all rights, the 198-seat theater should have been packed.

Instead, there were twenty of us comprising the audience.