denver visual music festival
by cory casciato
The Metropolitan
What do you do when your hero, the man you hoped to study with, dies? When Dr. William Moritz, a world-renowned expert on experimental film, animation and visual music died in March, Mike Hance conceived an alternate plan to honor the man he considers his mentor.
"I felt like, rather than go to grad school, I would ... do kind of a tribute to him, and hopefully increase my own learning of what he was about," explained Hance.
That tribute has taken form in the Denver Visual Music Festival, the first of what Hance hopes to make an annual event.
The festival is a two-day event featuring live performances, music videos, software demonstrations, dancers and more. The festival will kick off at the Starz FilmCenter on Nov. 11 and continue the next day in the King Center Concert Hall. In addition to showcasing a number of video submissions from around the world, the first day is geared toward seminars and workshops for artists interested in working in the mixed medium of visual music.
"The 11th is sponsored by AVIT, the world's largest VJ (video jockey) organization. It's an educational event, specifically," Hance said. "If you invest enough time coming in there, you should have plenty of ideas of what's possible and how to make it happen."
The festival's second day will feature numerous performances from artists including Sons of Armageddon, a dub-influenced acid jazz outfit, and FlamencOrbit, a fusion of flamenco guitar and electronic backing combined with visual elements that tells a story. Numerous other performers, dancers and artists will be showcased throughout the day, ending with a large-scale interactive dance, video and live performance piece.
Admission for the first day is free; admission for Nov. 12 is free for UCD students, $5 for Metro and CCD students and $10 for the general public. Additional information can be found at www.dvmf.com |
