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Activate the smell machine!

by on June 10, 2013 in Conferences, Events, General

mock disaster scene

Actors and special effects make the Disaster Forum’s mock helicopter crash seem real. Photo: Meghan Krauss

The crowd surged up the stairs toward the sound of an electronic siren and cries for help. In the parking lot, people were met by a shocking sight: bodies strewn, rescue crews on the move and plenty of blood and guts. Paramedics dragged shattered bodies amid engine sounds, helicopter parts and smoke. The air stank of burnt wire.

After a dramatic few moments, a clean-cut man in a golf shirt stepped into the middle of the chaos, raised his hands and called, “Cut!”

This spring, The Banff Centre hosted Disaster Forum 2013, an annual conference for people working in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. These are people from the public and private sectors who plan and train for every kind of disaster. Their tag line is “Plan to Communicate,” and that means knowing how to react when disaster strikes. One of their afternoon sessions was designed to elicit a real response by simulating, as realistically as possible, a helicopter crash.

The emergency workers were actors, the shattered bodies a mix of actors and dummies. Much of the crash scene was brought in from Calgary, and even the stench in the air came from a “smell machine”.

At the end of their performance, participants were treated to a sound you never hear at a real disaster scene: applause.

This three-minute audio clip from the crash site features the Calgary-based special effects team of Jennifer Bain and Stacy Wegner. They’ve been hired out for disaster simulations for several years, and Wegner has created special effects for a wide range of projects, including Calgary’s production of Evil Dead: The Musical. Jennifer even calls herself the Queen of Gore.

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Produced by Sarah Feldbloom and Jennifer Kingsley. Mixed and mastered with Pouya Hamidi.

 

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Around Banff: seasonal art and culture

by on April 26, 2013 in Arts, Banff, Community connection, Events, Festivals

When I found myself between snowboarding and hiking seasons this month, I took in a few of the events for springstART, a three-week festival of art, culture, and local history that takes over Banff in April. I’ve always been fascinated with observing home interiors, so the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies heritage home tours was at the top of my list. I did three intimate tours, through rustic homes filled with relics of world travels and Banff paraphernalia: the home of philanthropists, world travellers, and visual artists Peter and Catharine Whyte, collectors and community leaders Philip and Pearl Moore, and the former home of Norman and Georgina Luxton.

I also visited the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, where a tour guide explained the lives of the Stoney/Nakoda and other Treaty 7 First Nations people indigenous to the area. And fittingly, because ART is highlighted in the name of the festival, there were lots of galleries and art exhibitions to see, including at The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery, the Whyte Museum, Canada House Gallery, Willock & Sax Gallery, and others, along with a public art installation launch took place in the alley behind Town Hall.

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A little Socalled magic

by on March 25, 2013 in Arts, Events, General, Music, Theatre, Visiting Artists

New Image2Socalled is an intensely animated and zany performer. Earlier this year I caught him at The Club as he interspersed his hits with improvised songs, magic tricks, jokes, and whimsical repartee. We couldn’t get enough as he danced, rapped, and manoeuvred his accordion through the crowd, introducing us to one of his homemade puppets.

Listen to this short clip from our interview to get a sense of Socalled’s personality. He talks about his favourite records and love of puppet-making. You’ll be happy to hear I finally solved the mystery of the paper shredding captured in this clip. It was a magic trick he used during his performance.

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Banff National Park Snow Days go beyond classic winter activities

by on February 27, 2013 in Arts, Banff, Community connection, Events, Festivals, General, Podcasts

Banff National Park’s Snow Days is a month-long festival exploring traditional winter activities such as roasting chestnuts and learning to skate, snowshoe, curl, cross-country ski, downhill ski, or snowboard.  The Ice Magic Festival at Lake Louise offered world-class ice carving competitions, skating on the lake, sleigh rides, and tours of The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and area.  Avalanche safety demonstrations were held at Sunshine Village and The Lake Louise Ski area, while The Banff Centre presented our annual Avalanche Awareness Night, which aims to help make skiers and boarders more aware of the avalanche risks associated with backcountry and out-of-bounds travel.

Beyond the classic activities associated with a Canadian winter, there are always other activities to be enjoyed.  The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery presented Drawn to Nature in the Banff Park National Historic Site, there were old time movies to be watched at the Banff Visitor Centre, and those who were interested could take part in photography workshops, or don a heritage bathing suit at Banff’s Upper Hot Springs.  The Banff Mountain Film & Book Festival also screened selections of some of the best short winter films from past festivals in the comfort of the Elk & Oarsman Restaurant & Pub.Topping off the festival, the Take it to the Street Tournament allowed onlookers and participants to celebrate in the quintessentially Canadian game of street hockey.

Below take a listen to podcast producer, Chris Wood’s recording of ice carving at Lake Louise’s annual international ice carving competition.

 

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Dip into the new Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition with “A Treatise on Baths”

by on February 15, 2013 in Arts, Banff, Community connection, Events, General, Visiting Artists, Visual Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery

Parisian artists Chloé Maillet (right) and Louise Hervé talk about their work, A Treatise on Baths, in the Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition, An Ever Changing Meaning. Photo: Kim Williams, The Banff Centre

Parisian artists Chloé Maillet (right) and Louise Hervé talk about their work, A Treatise on Baths, in the Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition, An Ever Changing Meaning. Photo: Kim Williams, The Banff Centre

The work of contemporary visual artists often requires a familiarity with a dense body of theory or literature in order to make the artwork accessible. Parisian artists Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, whose work A Treatise on Baths is presented at Walter Phillips Gallery as part of the exhibition An Ever Changing Meaning, have used a novel approach to facing the challenge of accessibility without diminishing the rigour of their work.

During curator François Aubart’s tour at the February 1 exhibition opening and on the following day, two scholarly docents – none other than the artists themselves – emerged serendipitously from the wings to elaborate upon the work for visitors. The performance momentarily inserted the artists and their expositions into the exhibition context, offering the public more background on the work. The presence of these two scholars seemed all the more justified by the particular nature of the piece, a slideshow reconstructing aspects of the social history of natural springs from early Roman civilization to contemporary Banff. Continue Reading →

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banffcentre.ca/LIVE: click • stream • listen

by on January 22, 2013 in Arts, Audio, Banff, Classical, Events, Film & Media, General, Jazz, Music, Orchestra, Podcasts

Afiara String Quartet's June 2012 performance in the Rolston Recital Hall is featured on Banff Centre LIVE. Photo: Frank Wang

Afiara String Quartet’s June 2012 performance in the Rolston Recital Hall is featured on Banff Centre LIVE along with a growing list of other high quality recordings produced at the Centre. Photo: Frank Wang

What if you were able to instantly access the art and ideas created at The Banff Centre anytime, anywhere on your computer, phone, or mobile device? That’s the concept fuelling Banff Centre LIVE, a long term project aimed at broadening the reach of the content created at the Centre.

“The idea behind LIVE is a simple one,” says Banff Centre president Jeff Melanson. “We believe that great music deserves to be heard, great art deserves to be seen, and great ideas deserve to be listened to. Through LIVE, the art and ideas born at the Centre every day will be accessible by anyone, anywhere, on any device. It means artists will gain new audiences, and new solutions in leadership will be considered not just in Banff, but around the world.” Continue Reading →

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