Vortex pulls through to return for a second year

The Vortex, a competition that lets new media producers pitch their concepts in a series of 15-minute sessions, lost one major funder as a partner but gained another larger benefactor for this year’s installment. "We’ve done once before, and we did that with OMDC’s backing," says Bill Marshall, founder and executive director of the McLuhan International Festival of the Future, under whose auspices The Vortex falls. "It was very last-minute and very hurried, but it was remarkably successful." Despite that success, OMDC pulled out after Vortex’s first year in 2004, leaving the future of the competition in doubt. On the advice of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, to which OMDC reports, Marshall approached the Telefilm Canada New Media Fund and asked it to fill the funding gap. Despite its usual modus operandi of funding specific projects, Telefilm consented. "They gave us money on the basis of it being a sectoral initiative," Marshall explains. Designed to be accessible to producers with just the germ of an idea, The Vortex requires entrants to submit a cursory online application form as well as a one-page synopsis of the idea they’ll be pitching. The festival’s namesake is derived by a reference made by great Canadian media critic and thinker Marshall McLuhan, who often referred to life in the media-saturated 1960s as a vortex where images and information swirl around us. McLuhan himself cribbed the reference from an inspirational work of literature, James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. Marshall says last year’s competition drew approximately 40 entries from nearly every arts background imaginable, including experimental music, game development, and video art. Half the entries were selected to go through to the project pitching round. The list was winnowed down to six for a final round of judging, after which two finalists each won $2,500. Despite the ease of entry for less-developed projects, Marshall says some entries last year were surprisingly mature and featured business plans, video presentations and more. "We’ve decided we’re not going to try and guess – we think it will be all over the map," he says of predictions for this year’s entries. In addition to Telefilm’s involvement, also new this year is Vortex OL, a web site dedicated to the competition that will feature a password-protected area for past and present entrants only. That area, Marshall hopes, will further the networking and contact-making experience of Vortex beyond its four-day run and lead to further collaboration. "The main value of isn’t actually just the competition, it’s what in McLuhanesque terms the vortex is all about, which is networking," explains Marshall. "We think this will be a really useful database that people will be able to use…all year round." Zapdramatic (CNM, Sept. 16/05) was an inaugural Vortex winner in 2004 for its online interactive negotiation drama, Move or Die. In an earlier interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, president Michael Gibson said he’s been surprised by the intensity and devotion that Move or Die has fostered in users as its grown. "They’ve obviously got an enormous amount out of it that I hadn’t intended them to get out of it, so there’s potential there." "Move or Die was an interesting concept," Marshall reminisces. "It’s not how fast you can shoot somebody or run them over in a car, but you have to make a moral or ethical decision." He adds that as gamers age they’re likely to remain gamers, but the subject and scope of the games they play will likely mature as they do. "I don’t think we’re ever going to stop teenage boys wanting to shoot everything in sight, but 35-year-old women I don’t think particularly want to spend an evening doing that, especially with their kids," he says. Marshall expects the number of entries this year to far exceed last year’s tally. Accordingly, he’s pushed the entry deadline back from December 15 to January 5, 2006 to allow more time to process the applications. Although the official Vortex event doesn’t take place until February 2006, it’s still being considered the 2005 edition. Interestingly, Marshall toyed with the date of the McLuhan International Festival of the Future because of another event he co-founded nearly 30 years ago: the Toronto International Film Festival. "That sucks up all the attention of the media and everything else," he says, explaining why the festival started at the beginning of October last year, but will run in November next year. The Blue Man Group, a touring theatre company seen in Intel commercials, is also holding an art competition titled Vortex, the same week as Marshall’s event – even at the same venue, Toronto’s Drake Hotel. "Then, just by sheer coincidence, our letterhead and our logo is the face of Marshall McLuhan in blue," Marshall says. "That’s weird, isn’t it?" Despite the adversity – the funding partner changes and the old media art competition sharing the same name – Marshall remains modest about the rewards he personally hopes to reap from The Vortex. "We don’t want any royalties, we just want the people with the thoughts to meet the people with the money. I guess it’s as crass as that. And, we also want the people with the thoughts to meet people with other thoughts that they could work with."

Vortex pulls through to return for a second year

News | 11/25/2005 5:00 am EST

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