EMMEDIA's Artist In Residence Program presents
OX: A  Crash Course on Loving Calgary
 
Schedule:
Noon - Website launch: Essense.ca/OX
7pm - Party starts
7:30pm - Screening
8pm - Listening & recording party
 
JOIN THE CALGARY LOVEFEST!
 
OX: A Crash Course on Loving Calgary is a positive, participatory action to claim what we love about Calgary! A place, a feeling, a song, a building, a street corner, a memory, a recovery –stories about loving Calgary.

OX is a project to motivate and mobilize people to go out and capture the love of our City using participatory media art. It is an interactive, community mapping, up-loadable audio tour that will showcase Calgary OX spots as seen through the eyes and ears of artists, activists and Calgarians. Marking the spot with a flag designed with the OX logo, citizens are recording in some way – audio/video/stills/Polaroid – their ideal spot of Calgary. 
 
For the past year, Stevens has been preparing the OX Calgary project in conjunction with EMMEDIA Gallery and Production Society to accentuate the positives of Calgary. She has recorded and filmed Calgarians from all facets of the City’s demographic talking about what they love about Calgary.  This includes an alderman, youth, shop owners, construction workers, writers, artists, homemakers and retirees, among others. 
 
Stevens will be inviting Mayor Bronconnier to pronounce his love of the city when the project is publicly unveiled Saturday, February 13. The OX Calgary website (www.essense.ca/ox) will launch at noon that day so you can download an OX tour of your choice and walk, ride, or drive to EMMEDIA to share your love at a listening and recording party. The evening will also feature a 10-minute screening of OX: A Crash Course on Loving Calgary.
 
Join Stevens and guests to hear about the love other Calgarians express for their city while recording your own story by taking a photo, linking it to Google maps and uploading your love offering to: post@ox.posterous.com
 
This event is also a fundraiser for the Spirit of Helen Award through the Alberta Media Arts Alliance (AMAAS). www.amaas.ca
 
Artist Bio:
 
Sharon Stevens is an activist, an award winning video artist, and a community collaborator. She has been an independent video producer since 1989 and is committed to production values that include collective process and a feminist analysis. Having made a dozen collaborative and solo videos in as many years, Sharon has received two Alberta Motion Picture Industry (AMPIA) nominations, winning one in 1996 for her documentary, Doodlebugs: the Video. Sharon’s work has been broadcast and screened at various festivals across Canada. Currently, she is on the board for the Calgary Folk Music Festival and Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS). Sharon has integrated art, activism, feminism, and social justice into her life, and still has fun. No, really.