The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents the inaugural performance of DSM5, an original multimedia installation created by internationally-recognized Digital Video Jockey (DVJ) Charles Kriel. On Saturday, September 29 at 8:00 pm DVJ Kriel will mix DSM5 live with a concert-quality sound system and dramatic images projected onto the Bloor Street façade of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
At 9:00 pm the recorded 45–minute performance will be replayed. At 10:00 pm, the ROM’s Bloor Street Plaza transforms into Toronto’s largest outdoor club as Kriel mixes an electrifying DVJ music and visual set for two hours. After midnight, all of Kriel’s images will be replayed continuously for the remainder of the night, without sound. The performances are part of the second annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, a free city-wide overnight event showcasing contemporary art.
“The ROM is pleased to participate again in Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, an event that celebrates creative expression in Toronto,” said William Thorsell, Director and CEO of the ROM. “The fusion of DVJ Kriel’s innovative performances and the bold architecture of the Lee-Chin Crystal will offer a truly unforgettable experience.”
DVJ Kriel’s first piece in this series, Ground Loop Alibi, explored differences – geographic, cultural, and personal. The new DSM5 installment involves combining and separating visual and sonic elements to delve into North American pharmacological culture, specifically psychopharmacology, the study of the psychological effects of drugs. The title, DSM5, refers to the upcoming fifth installment of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a handbook originally listing 100 categories of mental disorder. That number has now tripled. This new work was inspired by the panoply of drugs that are used today to treat these new “disorders”.
Kriel has designed DSM5 specifically for the ROM venue. Visuals will be projected onto the Lee-Chin Crystal using a palette of four panels. The images themselves are very diverse and range from archival to original, from representational to abstract. The music is equally varied. Kriel experiments with such instruments as synthesizers and samplers, to steel guitars and banjos, to more esoteric Asian instruments to create the desired effect. One of DSM5’s more notable moments was constructed by isolating several samples of a seminal Glenn Gould performance of Bach, and then reconstructing those fragments to create an entirely new jazzy sound. -- www.rom.on.ca
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