Ontario Arts Council grant award

     I am pleased and excited to announce that I have just been informed that I am one of the 17 who received a new grant from the Canadian government for art projects.   This is the third one that I have been awarded with the first one being for Standby and the second for Imogen and the pigeons which you can see the machinima for below.



The funding for this grant will be to assemble and film The Singularity of Kumiko, to create a first life exhibit using the Occulus Rift and Stem system, and various other things such as marketing, voice acting, music, travel etc.

     I am very excited and pleased with Canada's / Ontario's continued support of what is not considered a mainstream artform.  I have spent a long time working in this area now and have witnessed the resistance of some curators to see outside their comfort zone.   Many curators have spent a life learning how to evaluate and understand painting, sculpture, film etc and to be honest, I think some of the resistance is from being intimidated by the prospect of having to learn something completely new and difficult for them.  "Virtual what? I have to make an avatar?? install .. I barely know how to turn on my computer!" etc.  I am kidding but only partially this time.  The truth is that to understand an immersive artwork then one must become immersed, so the simplicity of pictures and text don't apply to the Immersivist artwork and a curator just can't hope to evaluate our artform by looking at pictures or even watching machinima.  They have to experience it and it's not easy to do so.  When occasionally faced with this reaction it is even more rewarding to know I have a staunch supporter and believer with the Ontario Arts Council, a very progressive organization for the arts.
    So the Gathering will remain on Immersiva for another month or so and then I will begin to assemble the Singularity of Kumiko and film.  Yay!