Vice co-founder Shane Smith to speak at UCLA on media empire’s involvement with Coachella, new TV show
Vice co-founder Shane Smith will speak at Ackerman Grand Ballroom.
(Courtesy of Kaley Bolt)
Follow an online live-coverage of the event here.
By Dan Peel
April 10, 2011 11:53 p.m.
Shane Smith, co-founder of the Vice media empire, will talk to UCLA students about Vice’s involvement in Coachella, politics and Vice’s new show, “The Vice Guide to Everything,” at 8 p.m. today in Ackerman Grand Ballroom.
Vice, which has more than 2,500 writers in 34 countries, provides its audience with underground news stories told in a cynical style.
Their reporters have infiltrated North Korea, reported on recovering child soldiers in Sri Lanka and sought out illegal weapons markets in tribal regions of Pakistan. They recently expanded their subject matter to include extreme sports, fashion and music.
“The theory behind media is we’ll show you what’s happening,” Smith said. “You have to decide what to do.”
The Creators Project, a collaboration of Vice and Intel, will reinvent Coachella’s main stage. The frame will create depth and atmosphere through controllable lights attached to a cube that opens and closes.
According to Alex Detrick, Vice’s communications director, The Creators Project seeks out the world’s best artists and designers and provides them with the resources and funding needed to create large-scale works of art.
“A lot of big music festivals are pretty one-dimensional,” Detrick said. “Artwork is never really incorporated. This year we said, “˜Let’s go to Coachella and redesign the main stage into a really insane art sculpture.'”
