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Club PuSh: at the heart of art

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By Sonya Reznitsky
Photo courtesy of PuSh Festival

Tim Carlson, co-curator of PuSh Festival’s creatively promiscuous little sister, speaks on its successes

A gala at the Waldorf marked the opening night for PuSh Festival, a three-week collection of dance, theatre, music, film, and multimedia performances set throughout the city. Club PuSh, its nighttime half, acts as a space for fans and artists looking for a place to hang out — Club PuSh, hosted by Performance Works on Granville Island.

“We wanted to offer PuSh attendees and artists a meeting place, provide an experimental platform, and also have a place foreign artists could feel at home,” explains Tim Carlson, who founded Theatre Conspiracy, a local theatre production company, and also co-producer and curator of Club PuSh.

“As the festival grew, it drew in more artists from out of town. We took the opportunity to also offer a space for experimentation for pieces that have less technical requirements.” Performance Works is an ideal venue for performances focused on storytelling, cabaret, improv, standup, and music.

Some shows are commissioned by the club — in 2009, it debuted a one-night show called Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata, a cycle of songs based on Craigslist ads. The show was so successful that they were invited back this year with an extended performance as part of the main festival.

Another act, Trunk, marries theatre performance with live rock ‘n’ roll music in the same space. “Those are the kinds of ideas we like — smart concepts artists can try out for a few days, and if they do well, they can use the performances as a platform for a tour,” Carlson noted.

Selecting the shows is a yearlong process. Armour spends much of his time travelling the world scouting for new acts, watching other festival shows, talking to artists and producers, seeing who’s travelling with other shows, and producing exciting work that gets people talking.

Attitudes towards the club have shifted over the years. In Club PuSh’s inaugural year, people were only attending to see performers they already knew — festivalgoers didn’t understand the concept, so the crowds were smaller. Now the profile has been built and people talk about the club as much as festival itself.

“Nowadays, people head downtown to watch their show, then to Granville Island for music — they make an evening of it.” Carlson explains. “And since we’ve made a name for ourselves as an experimental platform, artists recognize our club as a place to try out new ideas, so the number of pitches we get is constantly rising.”

Social media has played a key role in growing the fan base — the club’s shows have gained new followers from friends sharing with friends and creating a buzz online. With CBC Radio 3 onboard as this year’s media sponsor, the festival will be able to reach out to the indie music crowd as well.

So how does the club stay afloat during a period begrudgingly noted for its arts budget cuts? “We got started thanks to funding from the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad in 2009,” says Carlson. “That helped us get our club off the ground and start off the first year. Nowadays, we employ a variety of avenues: we work with the B.C. Arts Council, Canada Council Grants, and the Vancouver Foundation. Wine and beer sponsorships, as well as individual donations also help out. Combined with our box-office and liquor sales, we manage to balance it out.”

Ready to get your tickets? Carlson’s top picks are Taylor Mac’s Comparison is Violence, and Charlie Demers and Ryan Beil’s Making Art Noises.

 

SFU researcher looks for creativity in texts

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By David Dyck

Guilbault compares text messages to graffiti

Christian Guilbault, an SFU researcher in the French department, in collaboration with the University of Ottawa and the Université of Montréal, is collecting text messages in order to better understand how language is used to creatively communicate. Their goal is to collect 100,000 text messages for the corpus.

“We want to see if people who speak different languages use different languages in their text messages,” Guilbault told The Peak. He explained that code-mixing and code-switching is common with spoken communication, and since text messages are very close to spoken language, there may be code-switching occurring in text messages.

Code-switching occurs when a word or phrase from one language is used seamlessly with another language. “People can easily say, ‘Let’s go for dim sum.’ Last I heard, dim sum wasn’t an English word, so that’s an easy example of code-switching,” explained Guilbault. “We want to see if people are using that a lot in their text messages or if they’re just using it here and there.”

Although this type of corpus has been compiled before in Europe, they’ve mostly been done in a singular language: French. What makes this corpus more interesting for Guilbault is that the data will be in multiple languages. The project is called Text4ScienceHe is also hoping that the collection will act as a record of a significant sample of communication that would not otherwise be preserved. “It’s very unlikely,” he said, “but if people don’t laugh any more and just say ‘lol’, there you go. It’s unlikely, but you never know.”

Guilbault also believes that this collection can correct some misconceptions about text messages. One of those misconceptions is that text messages are incomprehensible to someone who is not part of the group. Guilbault believes that text message communication is much simpler than people think. Another assumption that Guilbault believes will be proven wrong is that text message lingo will become the norm in other areas of literature, such as term papers or newspaper articles, replacing traditional grammar. “It’s the same way you would talk to members of your hockey team, for instance. You may talk to them in a very specific, unique way, but as soon as you step out of the dressing room, you switch to a different register, a different type of language. We think it’s the same thing.”

He explained that the current generation is using the written word to communicate more than any other generation. “When I was young I used to write only when I had to write letters to my grandmother or when I was in school. Maybe I’d write a few pages a week at the most, whereas younger generations write constantly, they’re always writing text messages or emails or writing on a blog, or writing for school as well. Younger people are developing writing skills much more than we were at the same age,” he said.

What makes texting different from other text-based mediums such as Twitter or Facebook, is the personal nature of texts. Guilbault explained that people feel much more free to experiment with language in texts in a more intimate setting. He compared the idea to graffiti: “People play with graffiti, obviously, it’s made for fun. Text messages are a little bit the same way because a lot of people just have fun with it, and you would never do that with any other form of language.”

SFSS board shorts

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By David Dyck

• On January 11, the board passed a motion recommended by a working group regarding a new student union building, now referred to as a “student activity complex”. The motion dedicated $27,500 to be allocated from the space expansion fund to finance half of the “architectural fees and materials for initial drawings, models, and supplies” for the new complex. The university will match the other half. There will also be a student activity complex information room to be placed in MBC 2270B.

• Last week, results from the online survey regarding student space were released by the student space working group. The survey, which went out last December, sought to determine what kinds of spaces were important to students. Preliminary results from 686 respondents indicate that individual study space is valued highest.

University Briefs

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By Ariane Madden

Guelph accepts large donation

The University of Guelph has accepted a $1.5 million donation from a family who wishes to remain anonymous. The gift is intended to improve sports facilities and programs in conjunction with a recently approved student fee increase to help ensure stable funding for decades more at the university.

Large salaries to be revealed in Nova Scotia

The salaries of all Nova Scotia university officials making over $100,000 per year will be required to be publicly released beginning in September. Currently, the highest paid university president makes $393,000 at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University, which equates to approximately $26 per student.

Tighter enforcement of UBC parking to come

New enforcement guidelines for parking in the residential areas on the outskirts of UBC could leave some students at risk of getting towed next week. The new rules require parking decals for all vehicles parked in the residential neighborhoods around the campus, and are designed to encourage increased transit use and carpooling.

UVic students await fraud information from police

Students and staff at the University of Victoria are anxiously awaiting information from police and investigators about the theft of personal and banking information from the university’s administrative offices two weeks ago. The university has offered two years of credit monitoring to the affected individuals to compensate for the breach.

Students discover handgun on Ontario campus

Students at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario found a loaded handgun in a backpack. It was left behind by a classmate, 25-year-old Dominic Chong, who was charged with several weapons offences later that day.

 

Single Panel Comic Seeking Partner: Lego

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By Andrew Mclachlan

 

 

 

 

 

Campus Update: Jan 23rd

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<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/Gary-Lim”>Gary Lim</a></strong>

Christian clubs consolidate into super club

Spurred by a popular vote from their members, the nine individual clubs devoted to the appreciation and celebration of Christianity have decided to band into a single club.  The reasons for doing so range from promoting the concept of brotherhood to running out of ways to combine the words Christ and Campus to amassing numbers for the oncoming war. Though group leaders were vocal that the transition would not be an easy process with new club bylaws needing to be drawn up and the requisitioning of a larger weekly  meeting space, but they insisted that through the good book and their mutual hatred of SFU Skeptics they would persevere.

—Gary Lim

 

Man stubbornly insists he’s not cold

To the confusion of onlookers and passerbys, second-year communication student Suhkpreet Singh was seen relaxing by the AQ pond seemly unfazed by the arctic conditions.  Telling the groups of people who asked, “Yeah I suppose it’s a bit cold, but it doesn’t really bother me.” Despite bracing temperatures well below freezing and Singh being clad in only a t-shirt and SFU branded sweatpants, Singh repeated told the askers that the weather was “really not that big of a deal.” Singh then lounged for another 45 minutes, until someone noticed he had frozen to death.

—Zach Zachowski

 

Faculty of mad science receives record funding

A press release from the Faculty of Mad Science  showed the faculty has received the most funding of any faculty in the fiscal year.  Although the faculty has still failed to produce a graduand,  peer-reviewed paper, or even offer an accredited class, the dean has repeatedly assured the president and administration that their research is of the highest importance, while clutching a vial of purple liquid and laughing loudly. The Peak tried to find any evidence corroborating this, but was beset by carnivorous land-squid. At press time, most of the staff are nursing their beak wounds.

—Allie Albertson

Norovirus outbreak hits student conference

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By Benedict Reiners

Victoria conference interrupted by vomit and other unpleasant symptoms

Last weekend, a strain of norovirus interrupted the Canadian University Press (CUP) conference, which was being held in Victoria. The flu affected a total of seven members of The Peak, out of the 18 representatives in attendance. The last count by CUP suggested a total of approximately 60 infections between CUP staff and representatives from university newspapers across Canada, with sources indicating upwards of 130 based on more recent counts.
The norovirus, a highly contagious virus especially prominent in winter months, broght with it symptoms that Peak sports editor, Adam Ovenell-Carter, described as “Violent . . . It hurt more than anything.”
The virus first appeared late on Saturday. The initial soruce of the virus is not currently known, but authorities believe that it was brought in by someone already carrying the virus, likely not involved in the conference, who subsequently spread it from there.
“It doesn’t look like it originated in the hotel and it wasn’t likely food-related. [The Vancouver Island Health Authority] indicated it was most likely brought in by someone and then passed around pretty quickly from there,” said CUP national bureau chief Emma Godmere, making reference to the disproven initial suspicions of the illness being the result of food poisoning.
Although the initial source of the norovirus is not known, its effects quickly became evident, leading to the cancellation of the gala event being held Saturday night as part of the conference, in order to return those attending back to the hotel while the cause of the illness was investigated. By midnight, officials from CUP had contacted a doctor affiliated with B.C. Health who determined that the illness was norovirus.
As the students returned to the hotel, and the extent of the outbreak became evident, paramedics were brought to the hotel. Over the course of the night, multiple students were brought to hospital for treatment relating to dehydration, which proved to be the most severe effect of the virus.
In response to the number of the sick within the hotel, staff of both the CUP and the hotel brought Tylenol and Gatorade to those suffering from the virus, doing what they could to help them with their illness, and in maintaining hydration. In addition to that, hotel staff was charged with maintaining rooms. “I give them full credit, it doesn’t look good on them to have a norovirus outbreak in the hotel, and they did pretty well,” said Ovenell-Carter. However, this did lead to some of the hotel staff coming down with the virus as well, though at present this appears to be the closest the virus has come to spreading beyond the hotel walls. The hotel also allowed those who were ill to stay a day beyond their initial reservation in order to recover before leaving.
The efforts of CUP and the hotel proved effective in the situation, allowing for the norovirus to leave as quickly as it had come while limiting the damage it did. This was helped by the relatively brief timeframe that characterizes the virus itself, with the major symptoms lasting for only a day or two. This ensured that it didn’t manage to get more severe than the cases of dehydration, and as Ovenell-Carter characterized it: “It’s nothing really serious, it comes and goes in a couple days, it just sucks while you have it.”

Ghost town: SFU’s absent arts community

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By Daryn Wright
Photo by Jenny Waters

What can we blame this time for the student–campus disconnect?

I’m not the first to observe the state of SFU’s arts community — or put more broadly, culture community. There is a unique aspect to SFU: our main campus resides on a mountain. Sure, the view may be nice and the air may be fresh, but what does this cloudy isolation do for our sense of community? I ventured to several SFU campuses to get a feel for our arts community and how it functions within our body politic.

SFU Woodward’s was an obvious first choice, being the home for contemporary arts. I wandered in on a Tuesday afternoon, feeling varying degrees of intimidation as I went into the Audain Gallery to see the current exhibit, Mapping the Everyday: Neighborhood Claims for the Future. I found myself alone in the white room, black script covering the walls. Artifacts of various art forms made islands in the center of the room: old computer monitors, dried rainbow paintbrushes, rolls of canvas, and old VHS tapes were stacked haphazardly on several desks and bookshelves. I found the evidence of art, of things being created in and around SFU, but I couldn’t find a single soul to tell me about it. It was beautiful, but barren. An arts community does not exist solely in a gallery of course, but while there was art, there seemed to be no community.

Instead of making assumptions based on my outsider’s viewpoint, I decided to talk to a student who might have a bit more insight. Jessica Han recently graduated from SFU with a major in film and a minor in theatre production. She explains that the film program operates on a cohort system, meaning you go through four years with relatively the same people. Theatre is more mixed, but Han explains that what makes the community within the programs is the very nature of the program itself. “You have performance and production students working together on a school production. Theatre is a collaborative process in itself. When you’re collaborating, you develop relationships, and relationships make for a community. We go to each other’s project presentations to show our support,” she said.

This may be the case for the contemporary arts departments at SFU Woodward’s, but does this exist at the other campuses? “The community is fairly exclusive, especially now that we’ve moved downtown to SFU Woodward’s. But when we were on the Burnaby campus, other students didn’t even know [the FPA department] existed!” Han said.

The main vessel of the Burnaby campus, the AQ, holds the SFU Gallery, a tiny space nestled among science lecture halls.  The current exhibit by Lawrence Weiner, A Selection from the Vancouver Art Gallery Archive of Lawrence Weiner Posters, highlights the relationship between art and words.

Bill Jeffries is the art director of the gallery and has been working with SFU for several years. “Things didn’t used to be this way,” Jeffries said as he recalled SFU in the ‘80s when staff and students alike would go to the theatre, then spend hours in the campus pub. Now that the arts departments have been moved to the Woodward’s campus, there seems to be a lack of cultural capital up on Burnaby Mountain. He makes the valid point that the notion of community is flexible, and yet there doesn’t seem to be much happening ‘culturally’ at SFU.

“There’s no easy way to reach the students,” he said, concerning the amount of information provided for events like gallery openings and theatre performances. In the same vein, he also noted that the old theatre in the convocation mall is being turned into a lecture hall.

Andrew Zuliani, an English major at SFU, puts the state of the arts community more bluntly. “There isn’t one,” he said. “SFU is mainly a commuter school. There is constant relocation. By the time something gets started up and you get settled down, you graduate.”

Zuliani finds one of the biggest issues to be the lack of information provided for students looking to get involved, as well as the quick turnover rate.  For example, the English lounge is usually empty because not many students even know it exists.

“Wanting a community isn’t enough. Romanticizing the idea of a community isn’t enough.  It’s like adding rice grain by grain to a pile.” Zuliani adds that it is paramount that professors and grad students get involved if we are to have a vivacious arts and culture community.

There is art at SFU, but the problem of ‘community’ seems to lie in the fragmentation between campuses, lack of information provided, and passive commuter mindset.  There needs to be an equal amount of investment in the SFU arts community by both the staff and the students in order to mend the fracture.

Women’s basketball on a roll

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By Adam Ovenell-Carter

All things considered, it was a pretty good week for SFU’s women’s basketball team.  The Clan took down both Alaska Fairbanks University and Alaska Anchorage University, the latter of which is ranked eighth in the NCAA Division II, and had Kristina Collins named GNAC Athlete of the Week. The week was soured a bit by a narrow 76–72 loss to Northwest Nazarene University on Thursday, and though it’s never easy to give up ground to a team lower in the standings as the NNU Crusaders are, the week’s positives far outweigh the negatives.

The Clan are the only basketball team in the GNAC — men’s or women’s — to remain undefeated on home court this season, and they kept that distinction alive and well with the two wins against Alaskan teams. A 77–69 score is not often something worth writing home about, but when it’s against one of the top teams in the entire Divison II, it’s another story.

“It’s the biggest game we’ve played this year,” said guard Marie-Line Petit at the time. “It feels great because we know they’re ranked eighth in the nation, and we’ve been struggling a bit lately,” said SFU guard Marie-Line Petit. The star of the show, however, was Collins, who led the way with 18 points, helped by her five three-point baskets.

She recorded another 15 points against Alaska Fairbanks — this time all of them coming from beyond the arc — as the Clan steamrolled the Nanooks 91–66 last Saturday. Hitting 10 of 15 three-point shots en route to winning to straight games is not going to unnoticed, and Collins was justly named the GNAC’s athlete of the week for her efforts. Heading into Thursday’s contest against Northwest Nazarene, Collins found herself 16th in league scoring but, as much of a star as she was last week, she certainly had help. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe was her typically dominant self, recording a double-double — 11 points and 15 rebounds — against Alaska Anchorage, and followed it up with another, with a season-high 27 points alongside 11 boards. Three other players also recorded double-digit point totals against a stingy Alaska Anchorage team.

The wins gave the team confidence, and don’t expect that to dissipate after the four-point road loss to Northwest Nazarene. Head ocach Bruce Langford did say the team gave up too many first- and second-chances against the Crusaders, but when you lose to yourself, it’s always fixable. One loss is nothing worth panicking about, and you can bet Langford will fix what needs work.

Still, the team sits at 5–3 in conference play, 10–6 overall, and the team’s overall play of late has been as good as their record would indicate, and the team is going in the right direction — and has been all year long.

 

 

 

Track team starts strong

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By Adam Ovenell-Carter

Picking up where SFU’s cross country team left off at the end of the 2011 season, the Clan kicked off the new track and field season with quite a bang last week in Seattle. In the season’s opening event, six members of the Clan earned automatic berths into the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship.

Lindsey Butterworth was a shining star for the Clan, finishing first not only amongst her teammates, but all racers in both the 800-metre and one-mile events. Her accomplishments leave her as the number-one ranked athlete in both events, but barely. Her teammate Sarah Sawatzky finished second in the 800-metre race by less than two-tenths of a second. The two will lead the women’s side into the GNAC championships as both automatically qualified, along with 3,000-metre star Kim Doerkson. Michaela Kane and Leah Regan, who finished second and third, respectively, to Butterworth in the one-mile race; both earned provisional byes into the Championships. Off the track, Mercedes Rhode and Charlotte Crombeen, two long jump hopefuls, also qualified provisionally, while Jade Richardson did the same in shot put.

Not to be outdone, the men also had a dominant showing. Matching his personal best result from last season, Ryan Brockerville led SFU to a first-place finish in the 3,000-metre event. And, showing no signs of inexperience, freshman Stuart Ellenwood ran his way to the top spot in the 400-metre race. The two will be joined in the championships by fellow track star Keir Forster, who finished fifth in the 3,000-metre race. However They could also be accompanied by Anton Hemeniuk and Yubai Liu, who both earned provisional qualifications in the 3,000-metre and long jump, respectively.

It’s as good a start to the season as one could hope for, and it all comes off the heels of the news that SFU’s Helen Crofts was named University Canada’s athlete of the year.

It’s early yet, but it’s shaping up to be quite a season for the Clan.

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