The Black Bag Media Collective is an artist-run, not for profit collective of artists working across disciplines in Media Arts, live performance, music and audio, Virtual Reality and emerging technologies. The BBMC produces quality works of art, recordings, and performances by collective members and their associates. The BBMC also supports the production, presentation, documentation and dissemination of the work of independent artists.
WHAT WE DO – Since founding in 2004 the collective has remained production and project focused, with a history of producing audio recordings, live performance art works, rock shows, video screenings, conferences, networked performances, VR based projects, symposia and workshops to develop, showcase and support the efforts of collective members and their collaborators. We promote artist development through programming of open stages, open studios, and workshops. We are also a record label boasting sixteen releases and we run a re-configurable, multi-use studio space in Toronto for audio recording, video editing, studio work, rehearsals and live presentations. More recently we have been working with Virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence, Social VR Platforms, Quantum Computing, and machine learning.
ODYSSEY SIMULATORS – In 2012 The BBMC took over the management of the Odyssey Simulators, a cluster of contemporary art and performance simulators on the Internet. Odyssey hosts an array of artists from around the world who use Virtual Reality spaces to create and present new work in audio, video, performance and digital media. We regularly present installations, exhibits, performances and networked festivals as online, gallery, and hybrid-reality events. We are currently running projects in VR Chat, NEOS VR, and Second Life, as well as developing new work using Augmented Reality.
The BBMC studio continues to be a pioneering force in the practice of networked performance.
photo of BBMC Founding members Marcel Levandier, Liz Solo, and Mike Kean by Rhonda Pelley