Apart from the unique views that the elevation provides, the installation is also user interactive, people interested being offered the opportunity to influence the design of the light show and dedicate it to anyone or anything they might wish. A variety of dedications have already lit the skies of Vancouver, including a plea for more snow in Whistler.

According to Janet Miller, Manager of Communications for the Cultural Olympiad,  there have been around 11,000 submissions on the website from 134 different countries.

For those interested in influencing the nightly trajectory of the light beams, the site can be accessed here. Once registered the code, an email will be sent indicating when the created sequence will be projected. 4 active webcams are broadcasting the movement of the light beams at all times.

Originally developed for the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico, “Vectorial Elevation” is part of CODE, the Cultural Olympiad’s Digital Edition showcasing digital work that encourages people from across the globe to take part in and interact with.

“The air pollution in Mexico added to the magnificence of the show. Sadly, Vancouver has clear skies but the reflection from the water makes up for it” said the artist, Lozano-Hemmer.

The installation has also been on display in Lyon and Dublin.  However, for the Winter Olympics  “Vectorial Elevation” has been substantially extended, being now considered one of the world’s largest interactive artworks.

Rachael McAlister is a Master’s student at the University of the West of Scotland and is contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during his stay in Vancouver.

Taking advantage of the influx of  Olympic visitors, the Whistler Arts Council promotes the endives of local artists throughout the Village as part of its Arts Walk, which links 43 host galleries together hosted by a variety of spaces from coffee shops to hotel lobbies. However, it’s not only these locations that promote artistic interest. The centre of the village offers as well plenty of opportunities to explore or observe artwork.

Among these displays, the projects that aim to get the public involved are the ones that stand out the most. One such example is Oliver Roy’s , a self-described Snowboarder – Artiste, activity that involves putting a canvas out into the village and encouraging children to come add some paint to it and work with some of the draft designs already in place.

Standing outside his workshop tent, Oliver said: “There are about 8 kids constantly painting with us right now so it’s been very popular. We’re entertaining and there’s a good spectator pool. The Olympics allow us a great opportunity to showcase our art.”

The final pieces are to hang as a permanent fixture of Main Street, Whistler Library, long after the Games left the village.

Geoff O’Donnell is a Master’s student at the University of the West of Scotland and is contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during his stay in Vancouver.

A popular destination with tourists, the arts and recreation centre has embraced the Games, hosting many of the Cultural Olympiad events such as that of Tanya Tagaq, an Inuit throat singing with orchestral and contemporary influences. It has also created a community ‘living room’ with big television screens allowing people to come together to enjoy the sports.

However Diana Vandeveen, Roundhouse programme co-ordinator, declares she was shocked when ten of her staff had to be laid off a week before the Olympics started due to money diverted to finance the Games.

“People are not seeing the essence of what the Roundhouse community centre is”, according to Diana. In non-Olympic times the Roundhouse provides arts and recreational activities focusing on families and wellbeing of senior citizens.

The programming of the Roundhouse has been substantially reduced and the community centre had to rent their space to Casa Italia, the Italian House, for the eight weeks of competitions. The Roundhouse is not the only arts establishment whose funds were reduced in the eve of the Winter Games. Last year in September, members and supporters of the arts community in Vancouver protested against the cuts at the grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

With Montreal finishing to pay its 1976 Games debt only last year, questions over the faith of Vancouver’s community projects remain open.

Rachael McAlister and Erin Linton are Broadcast Journalism Post Graduate students at the University of the West of Scotland and are contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during their time in Vancouver.

50% of the proceeds raised from the ’We Rock ‘ art exhibit will be given to the YWCA and are aimed to fund programmes designed to help educate children from deprived backgrounds.

Wesman, who is known for his seven official portraits created for the Calgary Games as well as for his later work, which was commissioned for the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, explained that he has a long history with the YWCA and the Olympics, and he believed that marrying the two together for the purpose of charity was a great idea.

“I’ve been associated with the YWCA for 45 years, helping with their programmes, teaching the kids. If we sell all these paintings the total would be quarter of a million, although I don’t think we’ll quite make that figure” he added.

The auction is located at the YWCA Hotel in Hornby Street where visitors can both view and leave bids on the paintings.  The auction closes on the February 28^th.

Mark Hodge is a Master’s students at the University of the West of Scotland and is contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during his stay in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Art Gallery, located in Robson Square, which includes the British Columbia Canada Pavilion at its 4^th floor,  is marking the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games with a dynamic exhibition of British Columbia’s renowned artists.

Visions of British Columbia: a Landscape Manual displays the work of 37 artists who take inspiration from the natural environment.Among them is Emily Carr, one of the province’s most famous artists. Her painting, ‘Old Time Coast Village’ is an impressionist’s view of the natural settings of British Columbia.

This piece in particular had a big influence on modern artist, Jin-me Yoon, who uses it as a backdrop to her photo installation: ‘A Group of Sixty-seven.’ Remembering Canada’s lifting the immigrations restrictions to several Asian countries including South Korea, Yoon’s native land, the artist places images of Korean-Canadian immigrants in front of a traditional setting as a means to highlight the country’s move towards a more diverse demographic.

Other works on display include Jeff Wall’s light boxes which bring to life mundane urban photographs (photo) and Brian Jungen’s impressive 40-foot whale skeleton, ‘Cetology’, suspended from the gallery’s ceiling made entirely from recycled plastic chairs. (photo)

There are also interactive displays inspired by the BC forest and the green technology being introduced into the area. A focal point is the 500-year-old Spirit Tree, part of the BC Canada Pavilion at the Beijing Summer Games.

However, due to space limitations, the Vancouver Art Gallery is showcasing only 2% of its collections. Nevertheless, with the $50 million donation the Gallery received from the province of BC, the hopes are that more of these collections will be made available to the public.

”The long term goal is to build a gallery twice the size of the existing building. It will be an architecturally significant building. There will be an intense selection process for a local designer but the first priority is to find a suitable site in Downtown Vancouver” says Andrew Riley, Public Relations Manager of the Gallery.

Mark Hodge and Rachael McAllister are Master’s students at the University of the West of Scotland and are contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during their stay in Vancouver.

The Aboriginal Pavilion, based in the heart of downtown Vancouver (West Georgia Street & Hamilton St), promotes the culture and heritage of Canada’s oldest people, as part of British Columbia’s showcase during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. A light and visual effects show, traditional food and artwork have attracted 14,000 spectators each day since the start of the Games.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are being held within the traditional shared territories of the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. Organisers of the Pavilion hope that the high media exposure the Olympics brought to the host city will give greater publicity to the diverse first nations of Canada. “The Pavilion is our showcase to the world,” said Tewanee Joseph, CEO of the Four Host First Nations Society.

The main attraction is a 720 degree special effects show, projected onto the dome roof of the main arena. (photo flicker, inside abo expo) It highlights the stories of the Aboriginal communities of Canada, focusing on the four host nations of British Columbia. Speaking in the lobby, General Manager, Karyn Holyk thinks “That this is the cultural heart beat of the Olympic experience.”

Denise Conner, a visitor of the pavilion who has travelled from Seattle to come see the cultural aspects and ambience of an Olympic City said: “I’m interested in how the Aboriginal people are represented. I’m not here for the sport but for the experience and atmosphere of the Games”.

Erin Linton and Geoff O’Donnell are Master’s students at the University of the West of Scotland and are contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during their stay in Vancouver.

Admission is by donation.

Feb 18 CONTRACT 7pm-9pm

(Updated to add full live stream from 18th of February, via W2 TV)

An Olympic Games raises a number of exciting and challenging questions for a city. It proposes new spheres of investment, the redistribution of funds, inclusion and areas of exclusion, new laws that affect civil life and a vast, global media profile. How do these structures affect the obligations of citizens and institutions who become bound by collaborative contracts? And how does the scrutinization of this work by traditional and new media affect local identity and global perceptions? What can be learned from Vancouver 2010? How can this inform London 2012? How is work by artists contributing to urban city and citizenship development?

Feb 20 COMPETE: Faster, Higher, Stronger 4:30pm-8:30pm

(Updated to add full live stream from 20th of February, via W2 TV)

The Olympic Games are measures of human excellence but what happens when those measures are disrupted by self-augmentation and body modification? Our biological apparatus is in flux, vulnerable, yet re-imagined by technology. What will ability and disability mean in an era of genetically modified athletes and surgically sculpted children? How are artists contributing to this research and debate? For example, genetically screening for ‘perfect pitch’ may produce ideal singers, but whose ideal? Alternatively, what will the integration of future technology within biology mean for how humans communicate with each other via performances (dance, music or sport)?

This does however beg the question of what the true extent and scope of the culture on offer?   What culture is being represented and which cultural organizations are joining in seems impossible at this point to figure out with the multiplicity of cultural programmes taking place, many of which seem to be additional to the official programme of the Cultural Olympiad (which also includes CODE (Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition) and that encompass cultural programmes from the four host nations and the many pavilions. The Cultural Olympiad publicity does not cover or contain all this cultural activity I have come across so far. Decentralised and self organizated cultural activity and programmes is certainly something to be encouraged but as a visitor to the city, unless it is presented as one for the games, it’s tough to make any sense of.

As I walked past the very long early morning queue of people going in to see the Da Vinci exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, I wondered how many of these people were Olympic sports tourists and if they were, why this event was not part of the Cultural Olympiad? Conversely, the excellent NeoGrafik project – a site specific graffiti and projection work – which is a part of the official Cultural Olympiad and a CODE event – did not have any visible brand association to the Cultural Olympiad at the site but neither did it have any audiences.

Granville street on the other hand, fully branded on both sides of the street with Cultural Olympiad banners had a host of street arts interventions and crowds of people playfully engaging with sculptures, installations, objects and street art acts and strollers that lined the streets as part of the life of the city around games time. So, this street was part of the cultural offer too and the sports tourists wandering the streets were taking part in it. Artworks out on the streets seems to benefit from the opportunities that games times brings for making a relationship between culture and sport and both its audiences. One event in particular caught my imagination and made the link between art and sport explicit in an instant. It was a simple art work – a solo street performer standing on a plinth with two tennis racquets in his hands, making small movements and freeze poses in a cycle of movement gestures.

Reflecting on this first day and the delivery structure for culture in the city, I found myself questioning what the role and function of an official Cultural Olympiad was and that maybe it could be enough for a ‘Cultural Olympiad’ to simply be an open platform and brand which invites all cultural organizations, artists and groups operating in the host city and wider to create and promote games time inspired programmes and events? Is there indeed a need for a central programming and curatorial structures and if there is, might it benefit from having a very tight, even singular artistic and legacy focus. Perhaps the Cultural Olympiad in future years could be as simple as an open invitation to all to create something special for the streets – because that is where the sports tourists are and the real audience development opportunity. It is also where many of the world’s journalists are wandering between sports events and one effective way of getting on to their agenda.

Debbi Lander, is the Northwest Creative Programmer for London 2012 and is contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during her time in the city.

Citizen journalism is nothing new to our world of available technology. It has become second nature for people to capture their experience, events or news in their environments on their phones, cameras or computers. We live in a world were journalism is an action and all of citizens have stepped forth into that call to action.

However, this is the first Olympic Games of its kind were the real stories that are happening are not necessarily the ones that are showcased by the sponsor holding media companies. The internet with its free social platforms of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Wordpress and Tumblr have cascaded into the landscape from which fans are acquiring their in-real-time coverage of culture, events and community of the Olympic Games.

Static Photography has been out in Vancouver covering the very broad spectrum of events that are occurring in the city upon the official arrival of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. From the opening ceremony, to press conferences, to torch relays and event demonstrations, Kris Krüg has been covering these events and capturing fans and media covering these same events for themselves.

Photographic Recap of Citizen Journalism that is present at the Olympic Games:

Citizen journalists John Biehler and Dave Olson hold up the media accreditation badge for the True North Media House. TNMH is an independent media house for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and provides media accreditation to citizen journalists of all types.

Another independent media house that has arisen during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games if the W2 Woodwards Media + Culture House. This independent media house, located in the DTES, is providing space for many Vancouver media outlets like the Tyee and CBC. It is also providing space to organizations, like the Legal Observers, that are providing community services during the month of February.

Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss604, is a podcaster, blogger and all around social media maven. She has been actively covering the Vancouver Winter Olympics for her ver popular Vancouver community site.

There is only one official media accreditation for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but since there are many more media organizations that are covering the games that just the official one, other forms of accreditation have formed. Robert Scales who runs the site VancouverAccess is holding up his British Columbia International Media Centre media accreditation badge.

Often times as citizen journalists, our main vantage point is through the lens or view finder of our camera. We see the world as it is captured in documentation. Here is an HDR shot of the a 2010 Cultural Olympiad media installation called ‘Fire with Fire’ by Isabelle Hoyeur. This installation is live at the w2 Woodwards Media + Culture House for the entire duration of the games.

There are many people who actively involved in citizen journalism and can recognize their actions as such. The real revolution is happening within the everyday community members, fans, and general public who are recording their lives in digital documentation and then sharing it on the internet for their friends, family or the world to see.

For the past year and half, Andrew Lavigne has been documenting the story of social media as it plays into the preparation of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the city of Vancouver as whole. Produced by Jon Ornoy and titled ‘With Glowing Hearts’, this documentary tells the digital evolution of many stories including W2 Woodward’s, True North Media House and Fearless City.

The gentlemen was a participant of an anti-olympic rally that convened at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. There were many cameras at the rally, with everyone wanting to document their direct experience with the massive gathering.

In the same light that a protestor might want to capture their experience in a retrospective format, the opposite side, the police department, utilizes the same tactic to work against the protestors. Whether it is for visual documentation for a later catalogue or a later examination, the police department are acting in part of citizen journalists and creating media for their own community.

Often times like a silent third party, the citizen journalist can be caught in the line of cross-fire in such events as demonstrations and protests. The symbiotic relationship of the police, protestors, and photographers can be a dance of fierce neutrality. Here Michael Tippet of NowPublic and our studio manager at Static Photography, Danielle Sipple, are seen in the middle of a large demonstration.

Our first response, during any kind of tragedy, is to immediately share this knowledge with the ones we know. Our instant accessibility to sharing via our cell phones is a valuable resource. Here the public is shown immediately sharing the news of the anti-Olympic demonstrations that caused property damage in downtown Vancouver.

The Olympic Resistance Network held a press conference a mere days before the beginning of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Geared towards making a massive statement to the press about their actions during the games, both traditional and citizen journalists were there to cover this monumental event.

The 3rd Annual Poverty Olympics took place in Vancouver, to bring light to the many social and economic travesties that are present in Vancouver, even as a present-day host city. Here is a community member filming the satirical event as a testament to the needed voice that this events provide.

The Legal Observers are a group of citizen witnesses to act as public eyes to the ongoings of the street-level events during the Olympic Games, mostly when police presence is involved. There are two groups of Legal Observers present at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games: Legal Observers from the Lawyers Guild and Legal Observers from the Vancouver community. The main priorities of these observers are to record data during events, badge numbers, arrests, violence and anything else that could need a witness testimony.

Chris Wheeler is a great example of a citizen journalist making the most fun out if an experience. Geared up as the ‘2010 Torch Reporter‘, Wheeler followed the Olympic Torch around its journey throughout Canada, documenting his whole  experience on video. Not only did he follow the Torch along its vast Canadian route, Wheeler also coupled the documentation with a travel-style viewpoint of the many facets of Canada and the adventures to be had.

Everyone has the ability to capture their own experience through film or photos, even when there is a strife tension between the two subjects. Here is a protestor making a visual testament to the police visibility that was seen during the Olympic demonstrations. Citizen journalism has a presence everywhere in Vancouver.

Citizen journalism is an action. By the simple means of documenting our world around, whether with our fancy cameras or our always handy cell phones, we are actively participating in sharing our experience with the world. It is not really how is happening but that it is happening all the time. We are journalists and the world is full of our news.

Kim Jasper, Director of Marketing of Canadian Museum for Human Rights

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights launched its Champion Human Rights! Campaign during the media opening of the CentrePlace Manitoba pavilion at LiveCity Vancouver Downtown.

The campaign, aiming to promote respect and human rights action, asks visitors of the CentrePlace Manitorba pavilion to complete the “Everyone has the right to…” protest sign and have a picture taken with their sign and then future museum in the background. Currently all photographs taken are displayed on a screen in the pavilion but some of them will be shown again when the museum will open in 2012 in Winnipeg.

Although there is no connection between the presentation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a museum of ideas and the first of its kind in Canada located outside a capital city, and the Olympic Games or the Olympic Truce, Kim Jasper, Director of Marketing of Canadian Museum for Human Rights, said that they wanted to use the visibility created by the Olympic Games to direct attention to their project and help thus raise funds as well.

According to Jasper the Museum’s mission is to “explore the subject of human rights, with special but not exclusive reference to Canada, in order to enhance the public’s understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue”. Once opened the museum will use a mixture of visual arts, music, dance, theatre, digital technologies, multimedia and the Internet in order to engage with its visitors, encourage engagement and facilitate dialogue abou both Canadian and international human rights issues, challenges and triumphs.

The museum is the idea of  Dr. Israel Asper, founder of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and President and Founder of The Asper Foundation – a Winnipeg-based private charitable foundation that undertakes and develops major initiatives in the areas of culture, education, community development and human rights locally, nationally and internationally. Itslocation in Winnipeg, Manitoba is not unexpected, Manitoba being known in Canada for its reach human rights history from the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, French language rights, Métis rights through Louis Riel, to women’s rights through suffragette Nellie McClung.

The museum is a member of the Canadian Heritage Portfolio and reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It was established in March 2008 though Parliament amendments to the Canadian Museum Act which came into force in August that same year.