Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Jocelyn Robert is a 2022 winner of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Guillaume Vallée.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm's-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) "to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. People sometimes present me as a media artist, sometimes as a visual artist and sometimes as a musician. It doesn’t hold much meaning for me. I accept these titles, because they’re not untrue, but I don’t relate very much.
I consider myself to be more of a miner. I dig but I don’t know what I’m going to find. But I dig and my eyes are open and, eventually, something glimmers. So I take it out and go show it to people. Look at this, it glimmers. Sometimes people say, “Oh, wow, it glimmers!” And sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, we don’t see the same thing. And that’s OK. I found something that glimmered—but either way I’ll go back to digging. So I dig and find something else.
That’s my attitude towards research as an artist. There are things that end up being art and things that don’t. What is the second idea that will upset the first? That’s a Braque quote. In art, you need two ideas—one to upset the other. And that’s basically it. Which idea will create tension in this project?
I make a lot of records. I play concerts as well, but music is the material I use. I don’t make music; I work with music. Those are two very different things. An artist is someone who gets into trouble and then has to invent ways to get back out of it. You reinvent the project itself because the question you asked doesn’t have a straightforward answer. So you reinvent a part of the project. And then, of course, you eventually end up somewhere you had never even considered going.
The other thing I’m really interested in is changing my mind. It’s hard. There are different ways to do it. You dig, dig, dig, like a miner, until you find something. The other way is to collaborate with people. I’ve collaborated with a lot of people. And every time—well, not every time—some collaborations just don’t work out, let’s put it that way. But I’ve been lucky to collaborate with people who were ready to go places even they never thought they could go. The same goes for me. It’s fantastic. It’s what fuels me. I always have three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten different ideas, and you never know which one is going to connect to another one. You’re working on one, and you borrow something from another idea, and you get a project. It’s always like that. Always, always, always.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Jocelyn Robert is a 2022 winner of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Guillaume Vallée.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm's-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) "to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. People sometimes present me as a media artist, sometimes as a visual artist and sometimes as a musician. It doesn’t hold much meaning for me. I accept these titles, because they’re not untrue, but I don’t relate very much.
I consider myself to be more of a miner. I dig but I don’t know what I’m going to find. But I dig and my eyes are open and, eventually, something glimmers. So I take it out and go show it to people. Look at this, it glimmers. Sometimes people say, “Oh, wow, it glimmers!” And sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, we don’t see the same thing. And that’s OK. I found something that glimmered—but either way I’ll go back to digging. So I dig and find something else.
That’s my attitude towards research as an artist. There are things that end up being art and things that don’t. What is the second idea that will upset the first? That’s a Braque quote. In art, you need two ideas—one to upset the other. And that’s basically it. Which idea will create tension in this project?
I make a lot of records. I play concerts as well, but music is the material I use. I don’t make music; I work with music. Those are two very different things. An artist is someone who gets into trouble and then has to invent ways to get back out of it. You reinvent the project itself because the question you asked doesn’t have a straightforward answer. So you reinvent a part of the project. And then, of course, you eventually end up somewhere you had never even considered going.
The other thing I’m really interested in is changing my mind. It’s hard. There are different ways to do it. You dig, dig, dig, like a miner, until you find something. The other way is to collaborate with people. I’ve collaborated with a lot of people. And every time—well, not every time—some collaborations just don’t work out, let’s put it that way. But I’ve been lucky to collaborate with people who were ready to go places even they never thought they could go. The same goes for me. It’s fantastic. It’s what fuels me. I always have three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten different ideas, and you never know which one is going to connect to another one. You’re working on one, and you borrow something from another idea, and you get a project. It’s always like that. Always, always, always.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
