The Intermedia society (1967-1972) and early Vancouver performance art
Date
1994
Authors
Tuttle, Gail Elizabeth
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Abstract
The Intermedia Society of Vancouver was established as a non-profit society in 1967, with the financial aid of the Canada Council. A group of artists, poets, dancers, musicians, engineers, architects, and technical experts organized themselves, appointed a board of directors and a management committee, bough equipment and leased a warehouse in downtown Vancouver. Between 1967 and 1972, the Intermedia studies were the locus of an incredible range of multimedia and interdisciplinary experiments in the arts which attract local, national and international attention from galleries, funding agencies and the arts press. The Vancouver Art Gallery entered a symbiotic relationship with Intermedia, hosting a series of three yearly festivals which pushed the boundaries of interdisciplinary art.
Intermedia attracted hundreds of artists interested in the creative and social possibilities of interaction between art and technology. Its early experiments were collaborative explorations of processes between disciplines: poetry with music and dance, light and sound spectacles with improvisational jazz and assemblage, electronic experiments with installation and dance. These collaborative interdisciplinary works were the basis of Intermedia's contribution to Canadian art. Vancouver performance art emerged as autonomous medium with its own identity at the Intermedia Warehouse on Beatty Street in May, 1968 and eventually matured in specialized works by Gathie Falk, Glenn Lewis, Gerry Gilbert, and Al Neil.
By 1972, the Intermedia Society was eclipsed by a number of smaller spin-off groups, such as Metro Media, Granville Grange and Intermedia Press, which developed under its umbrella. Several of these organizations, like Video In and Pacific Cinémathèque, still exist, while most continued to thrive through the early eighties. Intermedia paved the way for artist-run centres in Canada, and established a vibrant interdisciplinary arts scene in Vancouver.