0:00

okay well maybe just to keep on time

0:04

um we’ll just get things rolling so

0:09

yeah we are

0:10

uh this is our gift workshop for the

0:12

gift mosaic program uh that’s happening

0:14

in conjunction with howie choi’s

0:17

exhibition retainers of anarchy at the

0:18

art gallery of greater victoria

0:20

and i put in the chat there that we are

0:22

recording today just because it is you

0:24

know a number of folks who are

0:26

interested we weren’t able to make it

0:27

today so we want to share this on online

0:30

so people can get support for

0:32

making their gifts and adding to the

0:34

gift mosaic

0:36

in their own time if they can’t make it

0:37

today

0:38

um so i just wanted to begin by

0:40

acknowledging

0:41

that we’re all coming to this visit

0:43

today from different territories in that

0:45

the art gallery of greater victoria is

0:48

located on the traditional territories

0:50

of the lakwungan speaking peoples also

0:52

known as the escuela and songhis nations

0:55

and um

0:56

you know i think it’s been great

0:59

uh howie show has been on alongside the

1:02

show holding ground

1:03

at the gallery this summer which is an

1:05

indigenous led exhibition and

1:07

you know the work we’re doing we feel a

1:08

lot of responsibility to the territory

1:10

that we’re living and working on and so

1:12

i feel like these two exhibitions this

1:14

summer were really great examples of how

1:16

art

1:17

can show

1:18

and illustrate a kind of resistance to

1:21

oppressive powers and um i think that’s

1:24

something that it’s made for an

1:26

interesting summer of conversations at

1:27

the gallery and so we’ve been really

1:30

pleased to have

1:31

how we show um

1:33

and

1:34

maybe we can show a couple of images

1:36

marina uh just so people can see if you

1:38

haven’t been to see the exhibition

1:41

it is really something you need to kind

1:42

of experience in person and feel um the

1:46

scale of the works the sound

1:49

the movement is really uh quite a

1:51

interesting visceral experience so this

1:53

is a

1:56

animated

1:58

projection that spans the whole length

1:59

of the gallery there’s this and

2:02

interactive sculpture that as you get

2:05

closer to it it responds with different

2:07

sounds

2:08

you can see the on the back there and

2:11

then this is kind of what the the gif

2:12

mosaic workshop is inspired by is this

2:15

source material that uh how we compiled

2:18

the video of that

2:19

that references

2:21

that have inspired that animation so

2:24

howie maybe i’ll turn it over to you i

2:26

just thank you so much for for hosting

2:28

like for delivering this workshop today

2:30

and maybe i’ll turn it to you to kind of

2:32

give folks a bit more of an idea of the

2:34

show and this and the workshop

2:37

yeah okay thanks nicole um thanks for

2:39

having me and um

2:42

and also

2:43

i guess accepting this i pro public

2:46

programming proposal

2:48

to make this a gift workshop which i

2:50

thought was maybe an

2:52

more interactive and collaborative way

2:55

of um i guess responding to

2:58

the work at the gallery right now

3:01

um

3:02

and you know probably because of the

3:04

pandemic like trying to maybe deviate

3:07

from a straight-up

3:08

artist talk which probably everyone’s

3:11

maybe all like a little bit uh

3:13

a little bit tired of so i thought do

3:15

something a little bit more fun

3:16

um

3:17

so this gif mosaic project um

3:21

sort of started as you said from

3:24

that

3:25

reference video that’s showing at the

3:27

gallery right now and the reference

3:29

video is mostly a collage of different

3:32

scenes from

3:33

various like movies and tv shows that

3:36

informed uh this work because retainers

3:39

of anarchy is just

3:41

so maximal and dense and it is a in a

3:44

way a build buildup of um

3:46

imagery that i maybe grew up uh

3:49

with and um

3:52

was hoping to kind of reconfigure and

3:54

compile in this other um kind of

3:56

environment

3:58

so i thought

3:59

a a gif in a way is like a nice little

4:02

like micro

4:03

nugget

4:04

um

4:05

variant of it and

4:07

and the way that formally that work is

4:10

constructed is actually there’s all

4:11

these hand-drawn animations but they

4:13

function as

4:14

um the short little

4:16

uh like seven second 15 second little

4:19

animations and then they just loop so in

4:21

a way that they formally do share a lot

4:24

of um similarities to like jiff

4:27

um the gif form

4:29

and then i guess for me

4:32

personally i’ve been using

4:34

i guess just a lot for fun and just

4:36

communication with friends and family

4:38

because sometimes i i find it’s it’s

4:41

easier to have a joke that’s like a ref

4:43

some sort of cultural pop culture

4:45

reference

4:46

um

4:47

opposed to typing uh typing something

4:50

um

4:51

i also find there’s a certain kind of

4:53

democracy and universality with using

4:56

imagers instead of

4:58

language sometimes because language is

5:00

sometimes uh

5:01

somehow

5:03

um

5:04

delineates class or access to education

5:07

or something like that that’s why i

5:08

think it probably shows in my work that

5:11

i don’t really usually have text or try

5:12

to

5:13

get all poetic

5:15

instead i just kind of

5:16

focus on the power of the image

5:18

um

5:19

so with this project and how you

5:22

hopefully um there’ll be people

5:25

contributing to it it’s this idea of

5:28

everyone

5:30

uh contributing little

5:31

nuggets little snapshots maybe things

5:34

scenes from their childhood

5:37

of movies or tv shows that are

5:39

particularly like feels like they burnt

5:41

into the synapses or something like that

5:43

um

5:44

sometimes those are like

5:46

you know the end of a punch line or

5:48

sometimes it could be something

5:50

uh maybe very visceral

5:52

like i remembered

5:54

when i watched uh indiana jones in the

5:56

temple of doom i think i was a kid and i

5:58

was in a theater

6:00

just probably informs my work but like

6:02

my parents didn’t know but there’s like

6:04

the scene where like they’re doing a

6:06

ritual and they’re like removing

6:08

someone’s heart from it from their chest

6:10

and that that

6:11

image frightened me so much and i

6:13

couldn’t it’s something i don’t really i

6:16

haven’t forgotten

6:17

so those are the kind of like weird um

6:20

it’s kind of like searching through your

6:21

synapses and the wires and these little

6:24

fragments of images through pop culture

6:26

that have kind of kind of built up this

6:28

visual language i guess that i have

6:31

um so i think that’s what i’m hoping um

6:35

that participants will do think about

6:36

for them personally

6:38

um i am targeting i am talking about

6:41

these formative ages like when we are

6:44

you know between probably like 9 and 14.

6:47

it seems like quite a receptive period

6:49

where where

6:51

memories are kind of sticking images are

6:53

really sticking

6:54

um

6:56

so

6:56

i think that’s something to think about

6:58

so you know and yeah i i like the idea

7:00

of this project because it could show

7:03

all the different um hopefully the

7:05

demographic is like there’s a range of

7:07

demographic so um we can see where

7:10

people’s formative years are or not

7:13

um

7:14

so yeah so i guess i’ll start off with

7:16

um

7:17

like how i go about uh go about doing

7:20

this and it’s pretty

7:23

you know low tech the way i’ve been

7:24

doing is

7:26

um on mac which is where i normally do

7:28

it i just do like use their screenshot

7:31

function

7:32

so i’ll play a quick video of a video

7:35

capture i think i had to shoot it off my

7:37

phone in order to do a screen cap but

7:40

i’ll play that and i’ll do a little

7:41

share screen right now

7:43

and um i’ll try to

7:45

i am whispering i’m a little mumbly on

7:47

it i apologize and i can speak to it

7:50

again um after we show it if people need

7:53

more clarification

7:55

and also just want to know if people

7:57

want to ask questions you can put them

7:58

in the chat or just unmute yourself if

8:00

as we go if you have questions so yeah

8:02

just feel free to jump in if you want

8:04

clarification on anything

8:06

yes we’re introduced

8:08

this is where i want to do the loop

8:10

so i will

8:20

screenshot again reframed right

8:24

record selected portion

8:27

i’m going to hit

8:28

record

8:30

hit play expression because these two

8:36

have unusual sexual tastes

8:43

and what we have is

8:46

this

8:47

video here

8:50

snippet

8:56

then i will edit that down using this

8:59

edit button up here

9:04

make a quick look if

9:06

just so this eggy transfer this yolky

9:08

transfer

9:11

look here

9:19

there we go like that

9:22

and then that’s done

9:24

got it

9:29

everything’s on loop um

9:31

so

9:32

that is the first step which is using

9:35

the um

9:37

screenshot function on mac os

9:40

um

9:42

and then i actually edited the video

9:45

there using

9:47

macos’s preview option which is usually

9:51

when i you just hit the file and then

9:53

hit space bar and then the

9:54

preview opens up but it because of the

9:56

video it gave me like a trim option uh

9:59

if i can show it again yeah this is the

10:02

that

10:02

kind of preview window so i just

10:05

trimmed it in in this uh

10:07

or edited it in this in this

10:10

uh program

10:13

and then the next step after you kind of

10:16

screen capture the

10:19

kind of um

10:20

the video off your computer screen

10:23

the next step is to go to this website

10:25

called easy gif

10:26

um

10:28

and then you just have to upload

10:30

this uh video and then it converts it

10:32

from a video file into a gif file

10:36

so let me show you the video i have

10:39

um

10:40

for that process

10:44

so this is me selecting the file

10:47

it was a screen recording

10:49

and here’s the easy gift site

10:53

and you can see as the tab there’s this

10:55

video to gif

10:57

tab which is the one we use in the top

11:00

left so you upload it and there it is i

11:02

hit play here to just quickly

11:05

check it

11:06

and that that’s what it is

11:08

and then now you hit this convert to gif

11:11

button

11:12

and then it spits out this is the gif

11:15

version

11:16

and then i want to make this kind of uh

11:18

loopy inverse thing so i went to this

11:20

effects function that they have on also

11:23

on the site

11:24

and i chose

11:25

run to the end and reverse back to the

11:28

start and then apply selected

11:33

and then you get this kind of back and

11:34

forth

11:36

kind of passing

11:38

move

11:40

so that’s something you could play with

11:42

this easy gift site’s so cool because

11:44

it’s like

11:45

you know it’s free

11:47

it’s all in the

11:48

all in the service for people making

11:50

memes and gifs

11:52

and then there’s all these nice little

11:53

functions in there there’s like coloring

11:55

options black and white you could like

11:58

control what the loop cycling is like

12:01

um you can edit it in there as well but

12:03

it’s a little

12:04

trickier because you have to actually

12:06

put the the times like point one second

12:09

or something like that and all that

12:11

so

12:12

then you just save that gif to your

12:14

computer and then

12:16

you send it over email it over to marina

12:20

i guess maybe in the chat you could put

12:21

the

12:23

where that gets sent and then she’ll

12:24

upload it to the site great and then now

12:27

i guess if

12:28

i’ll just quickly get to the windows one

12:31

so i’m not

12:33

up

12:34

you know being a favorite

12:36

favoring any particular operating

12:38

systems

12:39

um so i think i figured out how to do on

12:41

windows as well so um let me share

12:44

that process with you as well

12:47

does the

12:48

does the gif website have the option to

12:50

add captions as well tony’s asking

12:52

it does but i’ve never i’ve never done

12:55

that before

12:57

but

12:58

i guess that’s how all these you know i

13:00

guess i didn’t another point i wanted to

13:02

add about this workshop is um

13:05

you know

13:06

i probably started me figuring out how

13:08

to make these gifs because i was using

13:10

like giphy or other like gif apps to

13:13

kind of communicate with

13:15

people

13:17

but

13:17

i realized a lot of the things i wanted

13:21

to share or communicate with they didn’t

13:23

exist

13:24

like a lot of the reference pop culture

13:26

references that are of like that people

13:29

have made

13:30

um

13:31

aren’t the ones that uh i guess i grew

13:34

up with or culturally

13:36

um has meaning for me so in a way

13:39

um i’m kind of making gifts to kind of

13:41

fill a void also that that’s kind of

13:44

lacking in the in the giftscape

13:46

so you know in a way kind of it’s

13:49

democratizing it and then creating um

13:53

you know content maybe for people from

13:55

my generation or

13:57

my background or the things i watch so

14:00

um there’s that kind of component to it

14:02

as well

14:03

let’s let’s watch a video and then i’ll

14:04

i’ll kind of

14:06

talk us through this windows thing

14:09

okay

14:11

so to do screen recordings on windows um

14:14

it does have to be full screen so i’ve

14:16

queued up a clip from youtube from

14:20

a michael hoy movie called front page

14:22

1990.

14:24

i’m gonna go full screen

14:26

this is the scene i want and then before

14:28

i record hit play

14:30

on the youtube video

14:32

i’m gonna start recording the screen and

14:34

the function to do that is windows

14:36

button alt button and record

14:39

you’ll see a little controller here it

14:41

means it’s already started to record now

14:43

i’m going to hit play on the video

14:46

record the clip that i want which is

14:49

this kind of funny scene

14:51

and i’m going to stop the video here hit

14:53

the stop button here so that stops

14:56

then i can also stop the youtube video

14:58

and then now if you want to find the

15:00

video

15:01

i hit

15:02

windows and g for the game bar and there

15:05

is located right here in the area of

15:07

recorded

15:09

content

15:11

so

15:12

you also find the file location of it

15:14

and then from here

15:16

you can

15:17

edit and trim it

15:19

before uploading it to the easy gif

15:24

transfer site

15:25

or you can

15:27

edit the video directly from the easy

15:29

gif um website

15:31

yeah i can i’ll add that just so you

15:34

know it could get addictive because i

15:36

think i was doing this for a separate

15:38

project uh last year as just like the

15:41

exercise

15:42

and then um

15:44

then i i i started thinking about other

15:47

scenes like so i went down some sort of

15:49

rabbit hole where i was like oh but that

15:50

movie oh what’s the scene i want from

15:53

like want to make a gift from that so

15:55

then i kept on going through this

15:56

process of like going over um

15:59

things and wanting to fill it out

16:02

um and not miss anything

16:04

and then another thing that occurred was

16:08

once the gifts get added to the mosaic

16:12

what i started saying were these like

16:13

relationships between certain gifts and

16:15

sometimes it’s like it could be formal

16:17

it’s like oh this is a thing that’s

16:18

going in a circle like actually like a

16:21

ring or

16:22

you know this palette and that you know

16:24

there’s some shared palette

16:26

sensibilities or so it could be formal

16:28

or it could be thematic it’s like oh

16:30

this is like a bunch of food related

16:32

things and this is like a weather

16:33

related thing so that’s the interesting

16:36

um the thing i’m interested in this

16:38

project also is like when it gets all

16:40

put together these like

16:42

um kind of connections like un

16:45

you know kind of impromptu connections

16:48

um that’ll occur between everyone’s uh

16:50

contributions and how how they connect

16:53

and in a way

16:55

you know it

16:57

kind of is an allegory for like the way

16:59

our memory works or synapses the way

17:01

they kind of can bounce around in your

17:02

head you make connections it’s kind of

17:04

webby

17:05

um

17:07

so yeah i’m hoping formally it conveys

17:10

that it’s kind of collective

17:13

collective memory

17:15

um

17:16

yeah

17:17

yeah no i love this idea i think it’s

17:19

it’ll be really interesting to see like

17:21

you said what’s in other people’s

17:22

nostalgia and their memories what you

17:25

know formed

17:26

um the things that kind of make them

17:29

who they are and that can kind of come

17:31

out through these pop culture clips that

17:33

we can loop and

17:35

have fun with so

17:36

yeah

17:37

yeah i could age myself and be like

17:40

it could be like care bears like some

17:43

things shooting out of their chest like

17:45

all those rays coming out of their

17:46

hearts

17:47

yeah it could be that kid mikey eating

17:50

mccain

17:51

fries he’s this silent type you know it

17:54

could be that’s like into commercial

17:55

territory which is a whole other

17:58

other genre another genre like old

18:00

commercials

18:04

yeah and i think

18:06

when i was making these uh like some of

18:08

these are made from last year

18:10

i was also interested in um

18:15

how

18:16

asian

18:18

people or actors were portrayed

18:21

um

18:22

in different movies and this is that

18:24

it’s i think it’s more like my lived

18:26

experience where it’s like i moved to

18:27

canada and then there’s like indiana

18:29

jones and then there’s like 16 candles

18:31

and then there’s these like kind of

18:32

steroid like these kind of roles like

18:35

the sidekick

18:36

um

18:38

kind of orientalized you know

18:39

problematic racial stereotype uh figures

18:43

but then on the other hand i’m watching

18:44

you know asian body like asian actors

18:48

from films and tv from

18:50

hong kong and they’re heroes and heroic

18:52

and and tough and all this stuff

18:55

where everything from the west is like

18:56

you know exotic and alien and goofy and

19:00

nerdy and that kind of stuff

19:02

so i kind of purposely juxtapose them

19:04

together to

19:06

maybe illustrate that like on a

19:07

subtextual level

19:14

yeah i think it’s yeah i mean like you

19:16

were saying

19:17

it’s great because the the

19:19

there are a lot of problematic gifts out

19:21

there and so filling that void or

19:23

filling you know the

19:25

inventory i guess out there of gifts

19:27

with ones that

19:29

are reflective of more perspectives or

19:31

you know

19:32

speak to different perspectives i think

19:34

is is an important piece of of this

19:36

project this program yeah

19:39

okay thanks so much for having me thank

19:41

you

19:42

yeah yeah i know this is a great way to

19:44

kind of expand on the ideas in your

19:46

exhibition and yeah i really encourage

19:48

folks to come down see the show if you

19:49

haven’t already but uh thank you howie

19:51

and we’ll also how we will be doing a

19:53

social media takeover

19:55

uh closer to the end of the run of the

19:57

exhibition so retainers of anarchy will

19:59

be up until october 24th so and yeah

20:01

check our social media for more and a

20:03

recording of the video yeah great thanks

20:06

howie thank you everyone for joining

20:09

bye

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