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| CONTACT
You
can contact Don Bergland at:
redjello@shaw.ca
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| After
leaving industry (Electronic Arts) and returning to the University
of Victoria, Don began working on a variety of public performance
pieces. In 1994, he was invited to conduct a performance event
in Victoria, BC with internationally renowned audio poet, Jaap
Blank. Don’s contribution to the event was a satirical
audio and visual exposure entitled, Borax Jamboree. Borax Jamboree
was a 30 minute presentation involving projected visual images,
musical soundtracks, and a vocal performance by Don. The images
were computer-generated and used 3D models that he had been
starting to explore. As Don describes the event, “The
groan of borax-cracked drybed provides the brainpan for this
outré festival of 24 experiential explorations into cultural
bad taste. Designed to satirize modern death-induced flights
into conditioned obsession, Borax Jamboree compels viewers to
confront the dark nature of their personal programming. Not
meant for those attached to their cultural viewpoints.”
The piece was extremely controversial and generated a variety
of newspaper reviews: “It is good to see our professors
out in the real world satirizing society and its de-evolution….Using
dual projectors, and electronic dissolve unit, and sound equipment,
Borax Jamboree forced viewers to confront the nature of their
own personal programming….it presented everyday situations
placed in unique juxtaposed contexts that demanded new systems
of mental connection….These juxtapositions ranged from
the subtle to the obvious, but all tended to connect oppositions
of significance and triviality…Why couldn’t our
classrooms be so practically instructive?” |
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Borax
Jamboree |
| The
Borax Jamboree performance used dual projectors, dissolve
unit, and soundtracks to portray a sense of cultural dislocation. |
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