Something old, something new

Merging Time displays Vancouver through a lens

By Julia Siedlanowska, Arts Reviewer

T=: students at Langara College’s Professional Photo-Imaging Class

of 2012 collaborated with The City of Vancouver Archives to give Van a great 125" birthday present. From September 21 to December 23, the exhibit features historic photos of Vancouver merged with images of today.

“The Professional Photo-Imaging Program has been working with the City of Vancouver Archives on a project in the first semester of the course for over a decade. In the summer of 2010, I came across a website that showcased combining a historical and a current image. They were a fascinating contrast of old in the centre of the image while being surrounded by the current view, however I saw the opportunity to take the idea further with masking techniques in post-production,” says Darren Bernaerdt, an instructor at the College. ;

Students were assigned the task of finding historical black and white photographs of Vancouver from the Archives. The photos date from around 1919 to 1948, and most were taken when the cityscape was still new. They then had to find the buildings and recapture them in their current state.

“On the technical side, the students were challenged with matching the direction of the lighting and reproducing the same angle of view compared to the historical image. As well, there were often changes in the scene, such as trees that obstructed important views and substantial changes to the streetscape. Once in Photoshop, decisions needed to be made about which elements should be shown and how to create a seamless transition.” Bernaerdt adds, “When the merged images were created by the Professional Photo- Imaging Program’s Class of 2012 students, they were roughly eight weeks into their first Photoshop course. Not only did their skills develop rapidly by working on a complex project such as this, but they also could explore their vision of how the two images would interrelate.”

The images have striking contrast. Black and white figures in suits and bowler

4

Kathleen Loski Professional Photo - lvmaging Langara College

and the streets we travel. The decisions made in the past affect our daily lives. By bringing the past alive again and showing the contrast and similarities to the present,

“The images have striking contrast. Black and white figures in suits and bowler hats walk beside blue busses; a straggling horse and buggy trotting along underneath a very recognizable Cambie Street. ”

hats walk beside blue busses; a straggling horse and buggy trotting along underneath

a very recognizable Cambie Street. The immediacy of seeing our very familiar landmarks merged with iconic images from distant times is jolting. The images blend seamlessly, and yet we notice that something is not right. We have to take a second glance. “There were several goals with this project. As citizens of a city, we are linked to the past through the buildings we frequent

we gain a better understanding of our urban landscape.” As we look into the pictures, we have to wonder if we might not step out into a different world.

Where: City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

When: Monday to Friday from9am.to5 , p.m. (September 21 - December 23)

Frozen with fear

A look back at The Coldest Winter Ever

By Livia Turnbull

am a suburban white female. I don’t

listen to a lot of rap music and I only

encounter “urban” slang when browsing Urban Dictionary on a bored whim. So what am I doing reviewing a book about the lives of people in the ghettos of New York? I asked myself that question over and over again in my head while reading Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever. After reading the final page though, I knew the answer: it was because this book is an eye- opener.

Told from the perspective of a spoiled Brooklyn ghetto girl named Winter, I find myself both sympathizing with and hating the protagonist at the same time. The characters are realistically written, and I can’t help but find myself drawn into their

world. I recommend reading this book; after you do, you’ll realize being “gangsta” is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Reecwure SOULJAH

The musical frontier

Pianist Rachel lwaasa stops by Douglas to perform intergalactic ode, Cosmophony

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

entirety of space into a facile, if not

pretentious, quip. The best I could describe the universe would be to quote the omnipotent Yakko Warner: “It’s big and black and inky/And we are small and dinky/ It’s a big universe and we’re not.” So how then do we go about presenting this vast Space (no pun intended) of unparalleled beauty and opportunity? The way Yakko did it, of course — through song!

Cosmophony (2008) is, quite simply, a combination of the Greek words “késmos” and “‘phoné” defining itself as the “sound of the cosmos.” This Canadian compilation of piano pieces was composed by twelve

[= difficult to try and sum up the

presentation,

the score

wraps up with

George Crumb’s

zodiac-inspired

Makrokosmos IT

(1973). Vancouver-

based Pianist

Rachel

Kiyo Iwaasa

performed

the Short

Programme

version of Cosmophony at the Laura

C. Muir Theatre last Thursday. Her

presentation was accompanied by a video

projection created by Erik Koelmeyer

“The pieces presented seamlessly blend together in demonstrating both the mystery and radiance of space; each aspect of the universe covered is handled in an intensely reverent manner.”

different artists, each taking on a different aspect of the universe. Cosmophony

begins with Denis Gougeon’s “solar- inspired” Piano-Soleil (1992), followed by nine individual pieces (each from 2008) representing the solar system. Replacing Pluto is a piece called Gilese 581c, inspired by the then-newly discovered planet of the same name that was, in Iwaasa’s words, “believed at the time [to] be able to support life.” She went on to say, “It was included in the set to represent both our optimistic hopes for interstellar travel, and also our fears of environmental collapse here at home.” The nine planet section is broken into two parts by another previously written piece, Jordan Nobles’ Fragments (2000- 2004); inspired by the Asteroid Belt, both lay fittingly between Mars and Jupiter. Although omitted from the Douglas College

for Cosmophony’s premiere at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. “The images you’re going to see... well, almost all of them, [are] actual images of the planets or the sun — with a few exceptions. One of course being Gilese 581c because it’s too far away from us to actually see in that way.” Said images included various planets and even the sun gradually fading into focus as the piece’s subject came closer into sight, before eventually disappearing into darkness upon each song’s completion.

The pieces presented seamlessly blend together in demonstrating both the mystery and radiance of space; each aspect of the universe covered is handled in an intensely reverent manner. Cosmophony is available in its Full Programme form for purchase through iTunes.