Maker Space Resident: Party Like It's 1669

Frances Adair McKenzie and  Aleks Schürmer form the collective Party Like it's 1699. The collective's aim is to take classical music from the confines of the modern concert hall and to reclaim it as a popular medium in the form of a digital Baroque opera.

Aleks and Frances will be doing a two week research and development residency at CSV to develop their project Le Pop d’époque which is an immersive multidisciplinary work, combining classical music, dance, theatre and performance with digital scenography and four channel electronics. The collective is concerned with exploring how new forms can touch on the past while simultaneously pursuing innovation in terms of style and technique. http://partylikeits1699.com/



Frances Adair Mckenzie is a multi-media artist who combines genres and technologies as a means to invoke the construction of fantastical internal and external worlds. Her work in motion-design, animation and immersive installation evokes a din of concentrated effects that meld both high and low cultural references and technologies. With a simultaneous eye to the history of art and the culture of Pop she extends upon the precedents of feminism and digital culture only to foreground the spectacle as a D.I.Y. space of subversion and tool of empowerment.

Frances lives and works in Montréal. She attained a diploma in New Media from B.C.I.T. and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. The National Film Board of Canada has commissioned her animations and her work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal, and in the Satosphere of the Société des Arts Technologiques. Frances is based in Montreal but originates from 100 mile house, BC and thanks her origins for a strong dutch protestant work ethic. She strongly agrees with Nietzsche that, “we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” http://francesadair.com/

Aleks has performed 17th and 18th century music on period instruments with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, l'Ensemble Arion, Les Idées heureuses and his own ensemble les tabarnaks d'époque. He holds a Master of Music Degree from McGill University. He studied flute under Patrick Gallois.
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His compositions have been played on CBC radio, at the Société des Arts technologiques (SAT), M for Montreal, Montreal Baroque, Pop Montreal, HTMlles, Suoni per il popolo, Toronto Music Gallery, Montreal Fringe, Ottawa Chamber Music and University of Toronto New Music festivals. His works have been called “major discoveries” (Stephen Ritter, American Record Guide 2003). http://www.aleksschurmer.com/

 2015